Publix in the News: Coupon Fraud

I have written about this before but it's very important that we are always mindful of it. Please read the article I linked to the first time I wrote about coupon fraud, as well as this report from Channel 6 News. Coupons are amazing wonderful sources of money but we are not trying to cheat the store. I'm nervous that Publix is commenting on this subject because it means a) they are being cheated by dishonest customers, b) they will crack down on everyone, including those of us who are being honest, and c) they may rewrite their coupon policy to be more restrictive. I have, in the past two visits to Publix, seen evidence of this already. The manager has a clipboard with a list of internet coupons NOT to accept and had to check to make sure the coupons I was using were not on the list. If you are in doubt, ask a manager before you checkout and please be gracious, kind, and accepting of the information you are given while shopping. For the sake of the long and hot days and hard work my husband puts in to bring home money so we can eat, educate yourself as much as possible so grocery prices can continue to be flexible. Thank you and happy shopping!!

I have an email into Publix corporate requesting a copy of the most current Publix coupon policy. As soon as they respond, I will post it here.
UPDATE: Read their response here.

How to Build your Stockpile

Friend Family Savings posted a great post about stockpiling. I love that she mentions that you don't need a pantry or lots of space to have a great stockpile. I live in a small apartment and using coupons has helped me become more organized and learn to maximize the space available. We have a cabinet under the sink in both bathrooms that are full of bath products (I use baskets, too), the shelves in the laundry room have all of the laundry products, large stuff (toilet paper, diapers, ect) goes on a shelf in the boys bedroom, I freeze anything I can, and use all the space in the cabinets I do have.

I need to warn you. Once you start using coupons to create a stockpile, it becomes a game and you might end up with 12 unopened deodorants under your sink!

Ask Before you Shop

I know I sound like a broken record, but it really is vital to your couponing success to know the coupon policy of the store that you shop. All it takes is one phone call before you start planning your grocery visit. I shop at Publix for most of my grocery needs and I know that if I go to the Publix 5 miles down the road, their coupon policy will be different. A friend just called me and said she was told that Publix no longer accepts competitor coupons and that Publix "isn't really supposed to take them at all." Since she went to the location 5 miles down the road, I wasn't able to say anything definitive about their policy. She was fine with it and they accepted her coupons "this time" but she knows now not to waste her time on competitor coupons if she is going to that store.

Just call and ask for the manager before you shop, especially if you are shopping somewhere different. Ask them if they accept competitor coupons, ask them who they consider a competitor, ask them if they have a limit on how many coupons you can use in one transaction, and get the manager's name. This will make your experience much happier and help you save the most money per hour you spend planning. Also, if you get a below OR above average cashier, manager, or bag boy, send an email to corporate. Let them know. Every time I have used that form, I have gotten an email back from corporate AND a call from the store manager. They really do read every email!!

Happy shopping!

Yes, you do have time to use coupons.

The number one complaint I hear from people on why they don't use coupons is that they just don't have time. I have wanted to do this math for a while to prove that it takes almost NO time to save money. Since my husband was off today, I was able to go to the grocery without kids but finding the coupons, looking at ads, and figuring out what I was going to buy was done while they were asleep.

1:30pm - 2:30pm: Quick check of what we have already, look at store ads online (Walgreens, Target, CVS, and Publix), go to Coupon Cravings, Fiddledeedee!, and Southern Savers to check coupon match ups for coupons I may already have or be able to get online. I don't make an actual list but I do jot down notes for each store of what I want to look at or things that are on sale that I might not have a coupon to match.

2:30pm - 4:00pm: CVS - spent $6.13, saved $14.78, got $2 Extra Care Bucks to use on my next trip. Target - spent $30.83, saved $35.60, got $15 in gift cards back to use on my next trip. Publix - spent $63.64, saved $42.59.

Total Spent: $100.60

Total Saved: $93.57

Total in "cash back:" $17.00

4:00pm - 4:30pm:  Put $200 worth of groceries away, play "Guess How Much I Paid" with husband (I hold up an item and say, "Guess how much I paid for this?") 

Bottom Line: From start to finish, I spent 3 hours to plan out my grocery trip for this week. (It usually lasts about a week and a half.) I saved almost $95 and made $17 to spend next week so I think of that in an hourly rate since this is basically my contribution to the family budget. In the sense that this is my job, I made about $37 per hour of work I put in.

As a stay at home mom, I absolutely can't justify NOT doing this for my family! It's so simple and I am guaranteed a great return. Garage sales, consignment stores, Ebay, and Craig's List can't do that! I see numbers like that EVERY WEEK if I put forth a little bit of effort. 

Know the Coupon Policy

    I was blessed with the opportunity to go grocery shopping by myself this afternoon. I went to Publix and Target armed with my coupons. Now, I have been using coupons at Publix for about a year and I always go to the same store so I KNOW their policy as well as many of their cashiers and managers. I want to make sure I am doing everything by the book so I ask alot of questions if I am unsure about something. 
   So, this afternoon I was able to take my time and shop for things I wouldn't normally buy if I had two bored kids with me. I had two coupons for Cover Girl makeup. One was "buy any cover girl face product, get one free" and the other was "$2 off any Cover Girl product." I KNEW I could them both as long as I bought two items. I needed more face powder so I got two, which were $5.99 each. Well, the cashier, who I have never seen before, started off my transaction irritated about my coupons. After asking most of the cashiers at that location, I know that the consensus is that they want me to give them coupons in three piles: free items (including BOGO), store coupons, and manufacturer coupons. So, I arranged my coupons in that order as she was scanning and handed her the piles on at a time. When she got to the $2 off manufacturer coupon for my Cover Girl stuff, she said I couldn't use it because I already used the BOGO coupon. I said I was allowed to because I was buying one of the items. She said she didn't care what I thought, she would not scan it and gave it back. I may not have been as nice to her as I could after she said that but I told her I'd just take it to customer service and get my $2 from them. She said, "Go ahead and try." So, I said I would.
   At customer service, the clerk said he was pretty sure I was right but wanted to double check. He came back and said, yes, they owed me $2. I told him the cashier was rude and didn't even bother to ask anyone to see if she could accept both. He said he'd let the manager know and she'd inform the cashier that what I was doing was perfectly fine. In the end, I got two Cover Girl products (which would have been $12) for $4. I think the extra few minutes was worth the savings.

   The bottom line is know the policy because cashiers are not always right. I knew without a doubt I was right and I had the confidence to make sure I saved as much as I possibly could.

   Please review Coupon Etiquette, too. I guess I still need more practice being nice when cashiers aren't nice to me.

Coupon Etiquette

Everyone loves to save money and using coupons is an easy way to make that happen. (Read my first post in the Couponing 101 series here.) Some people, however, do not appreciate our desire to get the most for our money.

• Be polite. Obviously, you do not want to make enemies or cause a scene but you do need to inform anyone who comes in line behind you that you have coupons which will make your transaction a little longer than normal. Give them the option to choose a new checkout line. Also, if they only have a few items, offer to let them go ahead of you.
• Organize your coupons for the cashier. I asked a few cashiers at Publix what I could to help them and across the board, they appreciate if we sort the coupons before handing them the pile.
• Any items you will be getting for free (coupons that specify a buy one, get one item or a free product coupon) should be put on the conveyor last and those coupons handed over first so the cashier can find the price quickly on their screen. 
• Store coupons and competitor coupons should be separate even if you are stacking them (using a store coupon with a competitor coupon on the same item.)
•  If your coupon is denied, stay calm and be nice. You will catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. If you know you are following the store's coupon policy, politely ask for a manager. 9 times out of 10, the cashier is uninformed and the manger will let you use the coupon. If the manager says no, ask for a copy of the coupon policy and tell them you do not want that item at this time. Make sure you get your coupon back, too. When you get home, email corporate and ask them to clarify the coupon policy. Explain why you think your coupon should have be accepted. Most of the time, they will call you or the store and fix the issue promptly. 

Have you ever had a particularity great or poor experience using coupons?

My coupon organizer

   If you read any number of coupon blogs, you will see many different ways people organize their coupons. If you are going to use coupons every week and aim to save more than you spend, you will need some kind of system that works for you.

   Here is what I was using:

It worked for a while until I started getting doubles of each's weeks coupons and made couponing more of a lifestyle change than an occassional habit. I got frustrated because there was no way to organize the coupons within each section. Once I got frustrated, it was over. If I don't enjoy what I'm doing and it becomes a chore, then I need to step back because a frustrated mommy makes everyone's lives miserable.

I knew I needed something so I could see what I had. I liked the idea of a binder and was thinking I wanted to use something like what baseball card collectors use. So, I took a trip to Office Depot to see what I could find.

Here's what I created: (And, no, it's not new, many people use this and you can even buy them premade online but it was easy to just do it myself.)

 
I started with a 1 inch 3-ring binder since I had an empty one laying around. I ended up going back to Office Depot to get a 1.5 inch binder because it's roomier. I bought pages for business cards and 3.5x5 photos. each slot is for one item but not neccesarily the same coupon. For example, right now, I have 8 coupon for Glade candles. Some are BOGO, some are save $2 when you buy 2, ect but they are all for Glade candles. They are all in one slot. It makes stacking and stocking up so easy!

   Another reason you need to make something that works for you is so you can seperate the coupons into groups you will use. The small organizer only had 13 sections which, I learned, wasn't enough for me.

My tabs are labeled as follows

• Baby
• Baking/Cooking
• Beauty (This is for lotion, makeup, ect, not bath stuff)
• Bread
• Breakfast
• Cleaning
• Dairy
• Dessert
• Drinks
• Fruit
• Meat
• Medicine - Adult
• Medicine - Child
• Paper Products
• Pasta/Rice
• Pizza
• Snacks
• Soup/Sauce
• Toiletries
• Veggies
• Non-grocery/Misc

Within each section, I can organize further since everything has a page. Within toiletries, I can keep toothbrushes, toothpaste, ect on one page. Deodarant on another and so on and so forth. I work better with over the top organization so if that doesn't work for you, find something that does. My brain works logically and methodically so I needed something that required little thought.

Good luck on a new year of saving money!!!

Couponing 101

I wanted to give everyone a few tips on how to make coupons work for you. They may seem like common sense, but it's taken me a while to actually do these things every week.

• Save every coupon you think you MIGHT use. Save coupons for products you wouldn't normally buy because they aren't your normal brand, are normally too expensive, or things you don't love but would use if it were free or super cheap. My rule of thumb is if I would ever use it, keep the coupon. Yes, some of these expire without ever making it to the store but Murphy's Law is when you start throwing coupons away, those things end up on sale and you kick yourself because if you had the coupons, it would have been almost free. On the other hand, if I will NEVER use it, even if it is free, I don't save the coupon. I will never use dog food or Depends so I don't save those. 

• Look at all the ads, even if you don't want to go to four different stores. Sometimes the extra 30 minutes of trip time can save you an extra $50. I typically allow 2 hours on grocery day but with average weekly savings of $100, I'm ok with that. If you think of it like a part-time job, that's $50 an hour which is definitely worth it.

• Memorize and know the average generic price and name brand price of things. I never made price lists but I am always aware of the cost of everything I pick up. Eventually, those numbers will become second nature and you will be able to remember if you can get it cheaper somewhere else without straining yourself. This is great to know because typically, drug stores are more expensive but sometimes they have sales, bucks back, or coupons that make those products worth the trip. For instance, I know I can always find name brand tuna for about $1.20 somewhere and I know there are rarely coupons for canned tuna available (coupons for the pouches are easy to find, though.) So, I know that when I see that Walgreens has name brand tuna for 69¢ and it's limit 4, I should buy 4 cans. This also saves time at the store because you can shop with confidence knowing you are getting the best deal instead of standing in front of the coffee trying to do math in your head.
  

• Know the benefits of price matching and using competitor coupons. I have no problem using competitor coupons at Publix but sometimes, it's better to just go to the competitor. This is usually true for CVS and Walgreens. If you shop using CVS Extra Care Bucks and Walgreens Register Rewards, I would not recommend using their coupons at Publix. If you have store dollars to spend, use them! But if only want one or two things at the competitor, just get it at your normal store and price match or use the coupon.

• Learn how your store interprets the coupon policy before you shop. Publix has a very lenient store policy but each particular location make accept different coupons. The location I go to does not consider drugstores a competitor but if I drive 4 miles west, that location will take coupons from ANY stores located in our city. Call the store manager before you go to save yourself any frustration. They are usually very polite and love that you will be shopping there. The more you know you are doing things right, the happier your trip will be. 

• Buy when it's on sale, not when you need it. Obviously, I'm not talking about milk, bread, and eggs. Those rarely go on sale and you can't stock up even if they do. Everything else, you can stock up on when it's on sale, even fruits and veggies if you have freezer space. 

• Know the difference between stocking up and going overboard. It's fine to have four extra toothbrushes but is it really ok to "stock up" on toothpaste when you know you have ten extra tubes at home? It's only a good deal if you'll use it within a year. Look at expiration dates of what you have at home already and keep in mind how much your family really uses. Right now, I will only bring more lotion, toothpaste, and razors into this home if it's absolutely free and I can find the coupons needed very quickly. The only exception to this is if you plan on donating the things you have at home that are close to expiring. 

• Find an organization system that works for you. I have a 13 pocket coupon folder and right now, it's not working for me because my "bath/body" and "cleaning supplies" sections are overflowing. In reality, I need 20 pockets to make organizing my coupons very quick and easy. If you spend more time finding the coupons than cutting them, you might want to revamp. Also, think about how you want to make your shopping trip as quick as possible. For me, it works to pull out coupons I will use at home and take an envelope full to the store instead of digging through my folder in the frozen foods section. If you follow any coupon matching blogs, they make this easy and worth your while because most of the time, you can print out extra coupons to stack with what you have from the newspaper. When I am at the store, I only go down aisles where I need something. 

• Sales are on a 6-8 week rotation. Anything that will go on sale, will do so at least once every 6-8 weeks. If you are addicted to Goldfish crackers, make sure you stock up a 6-8 week supply when they are on sale to last you until the next sale. This is also why it is a good idea to keep all coupons you might use because when it does go on sale, you will be able to buy as many items as you have coupons for to create your stockpile.

• Ask questions. Once you commit to making this a lifestyle, people who know the "rules" will help you. I have actually asked strangers at the store what they are buying or if they thought the store would take a certain coupon. Make friends with people who are saving hundreds a week. Ask managers and be ok if they say no. But also know when to call corporate or ask for the store manager. No one ever has the right be rude or mean because you want to use a coupon. I have been treated badly one too many times at Walmart and I do not agree with their coupon policy (or lack thereof) so I will not waste my time there. On the other hand, start calling corporate or asking for a store manager to report GOOD customer service, as well.

Happy shopping!

The Reason

I have a blog!

       I have wanted to do this for a while but never made the time. Now the time is here because I really want to show other moms (and non-moms) that it is possible to live within your means if you think of it as a part time job and do a small amount of work. On a good week, with 10 hours of research, I can make and/or save $300. Some of that is savings at the grocery with sales and coupons, some of that is free samples or products, and some is items I win in contests and sweepstakes.

       Being able to stay home with my kids and “work” while they play, take naps, or watch a movie is the best job I’ve ever had. Some days, I do think it would be easier to go to work and not have to cut coupons but I know my family would be miserable. I did work. Since my older son was born, I have been an insurance agent, a teacher, and an office manager. I made decent to great money at all three jobs but I wasn’t happy. I could afford to spend $200 at the grocery but I missed my husband and I missed my son.  I even took my son to work with me when I was an office manager but I either didn’t get any work done or I passed him off so I could work. I cried often because I didn’t think I could live that way for the rest of my life.
During the 07/08 school year, I was a teacher. I taught 7th grade Language Arts and 6th grade Intensive Reading. I did love (most of the) kids but I hated the job. I hated the amount of work I had to take home and do outside of school since I didn’t have a degree in education. I was tired and we were still broke. My son spent half of the school year with my mom during the day which worked great. In February, we moved and daycare became a better option. In five months, he went to two daycares. The first daycare  worked on a kind of demerit system and he was “written up” for bad behavior twice in a month. He was 2. They also sent him home five times that month because he was “sick.” Each time, I left work and took him straight to the doctor who said he was fine. The fevers, pink eye, and vomiting were always cured on the car ride to the doctor’s office. So, we moved to a different daycare which we loved. He was potty trained within two weeks of attending and was never sent home. Meanwhile, the school year ended and job assignments were arranged within the district. I was not rehired but I was not discouraged. There were still open jobs and there were lots of changes happening so I kept applying for anything I was qualified to teach. In July, after weeks of paying the daycare partial payments, they told me my son could not come back until I got a job or was able to pay them in full each week. I thought that was one of the worst days of my life because, in my mind, since I was college educated and willing to do anything, I should have had a job. I see now that was actually one of the best days of my life because it was the day when I acknowledged that every door had been slammed in my face. I knew it was time to live with the income my husband brought home. We had been married for almost three years and had never lived that way. We lived on the hope and expectation that money, jobs, and life would come to us. We never prepared for or dreamed that I wouldn’t be a teacher forever or that my husband would ever lose his job (which he did in October 08.)

       I wish I could say that I am just a naturally frugal woman and I have always lived as a good steward of what God has given me. Obviously, I can’t. My credit score is appalling and I wouldn’t be approved to buy a pencil on credit at this point. Between my husband and I, we have lost a house, two cars, and have tousands of dollars in credit card and medical debt. The good news, however, is that I get it now. I understand why I couldn’t find a job and why my husband lost his job (and insurance) two weeks before the birth of our second son (a child we planned on having when I was teaching.) I understand now what it means that “from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48) We were given much and probably could have accomplished more by throwing it all out a car window. We have absolutely nothing to show for the good years we had. We fought all the time about money, too. Now, after everything was taken away and we were forced to start from scratch, we see it for the blessing it is. We know where each meal comes from and we know that the only way we will be blessed is to give thanks each day. We, a family of 4, are living on less than my husband made when he was 20 years old. The funny thing is, though, that we are happier and more in love than we have ever been. We own more than we have ever owned and we eat better than we ever have before. I absolutely cannot explain to you how we have such abundance without pointing to the presence of God. Once we fell flat on our faces and told Him we were out of ideas, He said, “Finally, now I can work!” And work, He did! He is still working and we are along for the ride.

       This blog will be my way of sharing the proof I see that God is real, He is smarter than us, and He loves His children without fail. As a parent, I relate to God as a Father. When my kids are well behaved, take care of their toys, and are nice to each other, I reward them. I will take them to Chik-Fil-a for lunch. I will buy them a new Hot Wheels car. I will rent a movie just for them. But when they are mean, throw tantrums, break things, and hit each other, I do not want to take them anywhere or buy them anything. That is God the Father. And I get it now.