Saved about $135 shopping yesterday between Giant Eagle and Walgereen’s. I was stopped 3 times in the Giant Eagle with questions about coupons and couponing. That TV show is really making people take notice of how to save when shopping. A couple of things to remember when starting out – those people on the TV are “EXTREME” just like the show’s name says. Also, more often than not they live in areas or will go out of their way for stores that really maximize discounts.
There are stores that will triple coupons like on the show, but I don’t know of any of those in Ohio. There are stores that will double coupons over the value of them item (i.e. the “cash back” couponing) but not in Ohio. There are stores that will double coupons over $1.00 but the only time I’ve seen that around here is when it is a special event and advertised as such (K-Mart has this event about 2 times a year and even then will only honor 5 coupons per shopping trip – so you could be going through the check outs a couple of times to get all of your deal). So be sure to know your stores coupon rules before you head out expecting to achieve the results on TV.
Remembering to stack coupons when possible is key at the drug stores and department stores like Target and K-Mart. Remember, if they have a store coupon in the paper (these will usually state "store name" Coupon) and a manufacture coupon for the same item you can likely use 2 coupons on one item. Charmin on sale with the Walgreen’s coupon & coupon from the Sunday paper means more savings!
Showing posts with label giant eagle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label giant eagle. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
New Giant Eagle Receipts
All the better to track your savings with...
Stopped at Giant Eagle on the way home today and noticed a new feature on the receipt. They are now tracking, and breaking down, your shopping savings. They've been listing the fuel perks savings for some time now but now they are really itemizing how your savings break down.
Now I've only been doing the "couponing thing" for about 6-1/2 months to date. Before that I "looked for sales" and did a bit of coupon shopping but really my majority of targeted coupon/sale shopping has only been in calendar year 2010.
Today my Giant Eagle receipt informed me that in the past 12 months my savings in their stores and at their gas stations has totaled $1,124.71 - not too shabby!
Here is the breakdown:
Fuelperks savings: $121.50
Weekly Specials: $632.45
Coupons: $370.76
again - not too shabby!
I can't wait to see what the total will be in January 2011 when I've been doing this style of shopping for a full year.
And remember - that is only at one store. I've also been saving BIG at Walgreen's, CVS, and a few others.
Now tell me again - is this a waste of time?
Stopped at Giant Eagle on the way home today and noticed a new feature on the receipt. They are now tracking, and breaking down, your shopping savings. They've been listing the fuel perks savings for some time now but now they are really itemizing how your savings break down.
Now I've only been doing the "couponing thing" for about 6-1/2 months to date. Before that I "looked for sales" and did a bit of coupon shopping but really my majority of targeted coupon/sale shopping has only been in calendar year 2010.
Today my Giant Eagle receipt informed me that in the past 12 months my savings in their stores and at their gas stations has totaled $1,124.71 - not too shabby!
Here is the breakdown:
Fuelperks savings: $121.50
Weekly Specials: $632.45
Coupons: $370.76
again - not too shabby!
I can't wait to see what the total will be in January 2011 when I've been doing this style of shopping for a full year.
And remember - that is only at one store. I've also been saving BIG at Walgreen's, CVS, and a few others.
Now tell me again - is this a waste of time?
Excuses - Myth - "I don't have time"
Biggest complaint – It takes too much time to do the coupons… my answer… well, time is money, but in a good way with this.
I’ve been talking about this coupon saving and shopping way for about 6 months now and I’ve gotten a bit more organized than I was in January when I started this endeavor. “Back then” I would spend over an hour getting ready to shop at 3 different stores and then an hour at the grocery store and probably half an hour or more EACH at CVS and Walgreen’s.
Now, well I’ve probably carved off about 15 minutes of my prep time and I was going to spend the time in the grocery store any way so I’m not going to worry about time spent there. But I’m saving a lot of money with those coupons and spending that time prepping to shop.
My time is definitely worth the $50.00 an hour that I saved just this week at Giant Eagle. Other weeks its worth over $80.00 for that hour of prep time… even if its just “little shopping” and takes only half an hour to prep for a couple of things – my time is still worth the money I’m saving. I don’t know what you make “per hour” if you break it down but I found a job paying what I SAVE in that hour – I’d be bragging about my good paying new job.
Happy shopping – Last day for the cereal sale at Giant Eagle today – extra fuel perks too!
I’ve been talking about this coupon saving and shopping way for about 6 months now and I’ve gotten a bit more organized than I was in January when I started this endeavor. “Back then” I would spend over an hour getting ready to shop at 3 different stores and then an hour at the grocery store and probably half an hour or more EACH at CVS and Walgreen’s.
Now, well I’ve probably carved off about 15 minutes of my prep time and I was going to spend the time in the grocery store any way so I’m not going to worry about time spent there. But I’m saving a lot of money with those coupons and spending that time prepping to shop.
My time is definitely worth the $50.00 an hour that I saved just this week at Giant Eagle. Other weeks its worth over $80.00 for that hour of prep time… even if its just “little shopping” and takes only half an hour to prep for a couple of things – my time is still worth the money I’m saving. I don’t know what you make “per hour” if you break it down but I found a job paying what I SAVE in that hour – I’d be bragging about my good paying new job.
Happy shopping – Last day for the cereal sale at Giant Eagle today – extra fuel perks too!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Know thy BOGO
Know your BOGO !
I’m learning while watching the ads and the websites that its becoming very important to watch the BOGO (buy one get one) ads fine print closely – especially at Giant Eagle.
Giant Eagle has had a lot of items recently listed in their advertisement as BOGO – but the fine print here is very important. Fresh meat seems to truly be “Buy One Get One Free” meaning that you will be paying full price for one item and getting the lower priced item free – you must buy two items – discount comes off at the end of the receipt.
BUT I’ve noticed that on a lot of their BOGO ads, when I get to the store the item is actually two for the price of one – meaning that each item will ring up for half price – you can buy only one item and still get a good discount price. This is very important to know because with a true BOGO Free you can use only one coupon (for the item you are paying for). For BOGO-Half you can use two coupons and for two for the price of one you can also use two coupons.
I wish I would have had 2 kielbasa coupons when I went to GE thinking BOGO Free and only brought 1 coupon a few weeks back – when in fact it ended up being two for the price of one… live and learn.
Happy shopping!
I’m learning while watching the ads and the websites that its becoming very important to watch the BOGO (buy one get one) ads fine print closely – especially at Giant Eagle.
Giant Eagle has had a lot of items recently listed in their advertisement as BOGO – but the fine print here is very important. Fresh meat seems to truly be “Buy One Get One Free” meaning that you will be paying full price for one item and getting the lower priced item free – you must buy two items – discount comes off at the end of the receipt.
BUT I’ve noticed that on a lot of their BOGO ads, when I get to the store the item is actually two for the price of one – meaning that each item will ring up for half price – you can buy only one item and still get a good discount price. This is very important to know because with a true BOGO Free you can use only one coupon (for the item you are paying for). For BOGO-Half you can use two coupons and for two for the price of one you can also use two coupons.
I wish I would have had 2 kielbasa coupons when I went to GE thinking BOGO Free and only brought 1 coupon a few weeks back – when in fact it ended up being two for the price of one… live and learn.
Happy shopping!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Turned a Profit Shopping Today!
Keep this in mind for your Giant Eagle shopping today or tomorrow!
Pillsbury is offering register coupons good on your next order based on how many of their items you purchase through February 21, 2010:
Buy 4 items - $2.00 coupon
Buy 5 items - $3.00 coupon
Buy 6 items - $4.00 coupon
Here is how I made a profit:
Purchase of 6 packages of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (5 count) on sale for $1.00 each - cost of $6.00.
One .40 off on purchase of 2 items doubled - .80 cents off
One .40 off on purchase of 2 items doubled - .80 cents off
One 1.00 off on purchase of 2 items (not doubled)
Subtract $2.60 in coupon savings.
Paid $3.40 for my 6 packages.
Checkout prints coupon for $4.00 off on next shopping order (good until 2/9/10)
PROFIT of .60
(print your Pillsbury coupons at either coupons.com, redplum.com or smartsource.com)
Enjoy!
Pillsbury is offering register coupons good on your next order based on how many of their items you purchase through February 21, 2010:
Buy 4 items - $2.00 coupon
Buy 5 items - $3.00 coupon
Buy 6 items - $4.00 coupon
Here is how I made a profit:
Purchase of 6 packages of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (5 count) on sale for $1.00 each - cost of $6.00.
One .40 off on purchase of 2 items doubled - .80 cents off
One .40 off on purchase of 2 items doubled - .80 cents off
One 1.00 off on purchase of 2 items (not doubled)
Subtract $2.60 in coupon savings.
Paid $3.40 for my 6 packages.
Checkout prints coupon for $4.00 off on next shopping order (good until 2/9/10)
PROFIT of .60
(print your Pillsbury coupons at either coupons.com, redplum.com or smartsource.com)
Enjoy!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Snow time Shopping and Saving
I saved $80.59 at Giant Eagle yesterday!
My best “score” was the Dannon yogurt at.20 cents each final price.
Now for the journey to savings and what I learned on that trip.
I had checked out the Giant Eagle ad when it arrived in the mail on Tuesday and saw that there were a number of Buy One Get One (BOGO) Free items as well as other items that I’d like to have on hand going on sale – usually there are things going on sale that I’d like to have but I usually only buy what I need. But I want to start to stock up on things so I wanted to strategically shop for what I want at low prices. This week there are a lot of meat items BOGO – so I knew I’d still be spending a decent amount of money – because 6 pork chops still costs about $7 and a shoulder roast is going to cost me $14 or thereabouts even if I am getting the second ones free.
I went to couponmom.com and check marked the items that were on sale and that I thought were at a low enough price to consider buying – especially if I knew I had a coupon for the item. A flaw I see at couponmom is that I knew I had coupons for some items that were not showing as having a current unexpired coupon associated with them. The ones I had were either from the online sites or from the manufacturer (example – Dole Fruit Jars – sale of $2.00 / no coupon available but I had a .75 cent coupon from a 4 pack of fruit bowls – and since GE doubles coupons under $1.00 I was going to pay only .50 for that jar of peaches the kids love so much. So even though coupon mom has a lot of good information on the sales and coupons it is still very important to rely on your own knowledge of what coupons you have available to you – and still check the online coupon sites for more.
So I made my list and printed it out – I then hit my coupon stash, I marked the list with the number of each item I wanted to buy based on the coupons I had and marked the list with the coupons that I had available on the items - I also added items to the list that were not on sale but that we needed – especially if I had a coupon. The coupon stash will need to become better organized but as its still pretty small it was reasonably easy to go through and cut out the ones that I needed. I used a cheap envelope (left over from a bill that I pay online) and put all of my coupons into it and got ready to go – in the snow!
Another lesson learned shortly after walking into the store. I need to re-write my list and organize my coupons based on the layout of the store that I am going to. The list printed from couponmom is sorted by coupon date not by any other sort of easy to follow system. I spent more time reminding myself what I had and where the items were than I would have liked to. Next time I will re-write the list according to my knowledge of where items are in the store – and I will sort the coupons in that order too.
The shopping itself went well – there were some items I decided not to buy at the store but I really don’t think I had any “impulse purchases” as I was on a mission to get my list shopped for and save the money.
I bought lots of stuff – as a matter of a fact I bought 84 items according to my receipt. I had a full cart which I almost never do because I’m “usually watching how much I spend”. As I was setting out to buy a number of meat items as well as “stock up” items I “allotted” myself about $120 to spend at the store (after coupons). Like I said earlier – BOGO meat still means buying one of each at full price.
Before store sales, BOGO items, coupons, discounts and doubled coupons (when available) my grocery bill was $193.12 (still lower than the woman in front of me – who bought a bunch of BOGO stuff but had no coupons) – after all of those discounts my out of pocket cost was $112.53 – saving $80.59 (42%). I was hoping to save 50% but I did not – but I’m still very happy with my shopping experience and savings. I think I told everyone at work that I managed to save $80 at the grocery store last night.
So what all did I buy? Pork Chops, Beef, Bacon, hot dogs, apples, frozen vegetables, frozen side dishes, betty crocker items, milk, engligh muffins, sea food, pop tarts, cereal, grilled meats, yogurt, and lots lots more J
AND I could have done better if I had had more coupons – if my stash went back further and if I had more copies of various ads.
So for next time:
Organize better before going to the store – could have saved at least half an hour in the store if I had been more organized
There is no such thing as too many copies of a coupon insert. Take ‘em from the trash at the coffee shop on Sundays if you need to.
Stay tuned and see how I do at Target and Wal Mart next...
My best “score” was the Dannon yogurt at.20 cents each final price.
Now for the journey to savings and what I learned on that trip.
I had checked out the Giant Eagle ad when it arrived in the mail on Tuesday and saw that there were a number of Buy One Get One (BOGO) Free items as well as other items that I’d like to have on hand going on sale – usually there are things going on sale that I’d like to have but I usually only buy what I need. But I want to start to stock up on things so I wanted to strategically shop for what I want at low prices. This week there are a lot of meat items BOGO – so I knew I’d still be spending a decent amount of money – because 6 pork chops still costs about $7 and a shoulder roast is going to cost me $14 or thereabouts even if I am getting the second ones free.
I went to couponmom.com and check marked the items that were on sale and that I thought were at a low enough price to consider buying – especially if I knew I had a coupon for the item. A flaw I see at couponmom is that I knew I had coupons for some items that were not showing as having a current unexpired coupon associated with them. The ones I had were either from the online sites or from the manufacturer (example – Dole Fruit Jars – sale of $2.00 / no coupon available but I had a .75 cent coupon from a 4 pack of fruit bowls – and since GE doubles coupons under $1.00 I was going to pay only .50 for that jar of peaches the kids love so much. So even though coupon mom has a lot of good information on the sales and coupons it is still very important to rely on your own knowledge of what coupons you have available to you – and still check the online coupon sites for more.
So I made my list and printed it out – I then hit my coupon stash, I marked the list with the number of each item I wanted to buy based on the coupons I had and marked the list with the coupons that I had available on the items - I also added items to the list that were not on sale but that we needed – especially if I had a coupon. The coupon stash will need to become better organized but as its still pretty small it was reasonably easy to go through and cut out the ones that I needed. I used a cheap envelope (left over from a bill that I pay online) and put all of my coupons into it and got ready to go – in the snow!
Another lesson learned shortly after walking into the store. I need to re-write my list and organize my coupons based on the layout of the store that I am going to. The list printed from couponmom is sorted by coupon date not by any other sort of easy to follow system. I spent more time reminding myself what I had and where the items were than I would have liked to. Next time I will re-write the list according to my knowledge of where items are in the store – and I will sort the coupons in that order too.
The shopping itself went well – there were some items I decided not to buy at the store but I really don’t think I had any “impulse purchases” as I was on a mission to get my list shopped for and save the money.
I bought lots of stuff – as a matter of a fact I bought 84 items according to my receipt. I had a full cart which I almost never do because I’m “usually watching how much I spend”. As I was setting out to buy a number of meat items as well as “stock up” items I “allotted” myself about $120 to spend at the store (after coupons). Like I said earlier – BOGO meat still means buying one of each at full price.
Before store sales, BOGO items, coupons, discounts and doubled coupons (when available) my grocery bill was $193.12 (still lower than the woman in front of me – who bought a bunch of BOGO stuff but had no coupons) – after all of those discounts my out of pocket cost was $112.53 – saving $80.59 (42%). I was hoping to save 50% but I did not – but I’m still very happy with my shopping experience and savings. I think I told everyone at work that I managed to save $80 at the grocery store last night.
So what all did I buy? Pork Chops, Beef, Bacon, hot dogs, apples, frozen vegetables, frozen side dishes, betty crocker items, milk, engligh muffins, sea food, pop tarts, cereal, grilled meats, yogurt, and lots lots more J
AND I could have done better if I had had more coupons – if my stash went back further and if I had more copies of various ads.
So for next time:
Organize better before going to the store – could have saved at least half an hour in the store if I had been more organized
There is no such thing as too many copies of a coupon insert. Take ‘em from the trash at the coffee shop on Sundays if you need to.
Stay tuned and see how I do at Target and Wal Mart next...
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Coupons and Policies - Important Stuff
When we lived in Hawaii I thought I was completely cut off from “deals”. Sure the Safeway had some good sales and I sought them out and the Wal Mart and Longs (which is now CVS – which is awesome for coupons and deals) had sales too, but I was still paying $10 for 2 gallons of milk and over a buck for a small container of yogurt – and those were sale prices so I never really felt like I was saving anything.
I am learning (and hopefully sharing) things that “if I had known when I lived in Hawaii…” I would have been a much better shopper – and I hope my friends still living in Hawaii (and paying the “paradise tax”) and elsewhere can learn and save too.
The Plain Dealer is usually flush with coupons and ads – there were three in this past Sunday’s paper. The direct mail Red Plum ads during the week here have multiple deals in them. The Sunday Advertiser rarely had coupons at all and our weekly mailings had very limited coupons – sometimes only for a couple of items. I used to have my Mom send me inserts from the papers in Cleveland because, generally speaking, a manufacturer coupon is good nationwide – unless it specifically excludes your state.
I wish I had been a lot more savvy in the Internet Coupon world back then…but knowing when, where, and how to use internet coupons seems to be very important.
Knowing the stores coupon policy is becoming key in my efforts to save money. I am currently amassing the written coupon policies of the stores where I currently shop and intend to coupon. Many seem to be available online and I’m finding a lot of stores have their policy posted at their customer service desk.
Some of what I am learning: NO ONE seems to take internet coupons that say FREE – most out there are apparently not legit so they are not taking them. Some stores will only take coupons up to a certain value of the item such as K-Mart who will not take coupons that exceed 75% of the item cost, or Giant Eagle who will not take internet coupons over $3 in value. On the positive side some stores have paperless electronic coupons that you just "load" the value of onto your store rewards coupon and the register will automatically take the coupon value off your purchase (gotta love that). These are all good things to know ahead of time.
Here’s some help:
CVS does not have their coupons policy printed on their website but they will provide one to you on request. Longs is now CVS – this is good new s on the coupon front! Lots of good store coupons at their site though - and you can stack store coupons and manufacturer coupons at CVS!
Walgreens does not have a particular coupon policy that I can find other than to accept manufacturers coupons as stated on the coupon / and they will take “stacked” coupons.
Rite Aid’s policy is not on their website either but again you can get a copy at the store or write to their corporate offices for one.
K Mart seems to not have a well defined coupon policy and what I’ve learned from thekrazycouponlady.com on the subject tells me I’m better off at Wal Mart of Target unless I really need to go to K-Mart (which of course is the only store in walking distance of my house).
Kroger does not have their coupon policy at their website but they do offer ‘digital coupons’ there that you can ‘load’ onto your Kroger card that will be automatically deducted when you buy that item at the store. Nifty! http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Kroger_ECoupons/Page/HomePage/Retailer/Kroger
Giant Eagle: http://www.gianteagle.com/saving/coupon-redemption-policy
Target: http://www.target.com/b/ref=br_bx_4/180-0311849-4571964?ie=UTF8&node=2223357011
WalMart: http://walmartstores.com/7655.aspx
Marc’s: http://www.marcs.com/coupon.cfm
Safeway: http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/Coupons-Policy
Acme Fresh Market: http://www.acmestores.com/internet-coupon-policy.html
More on “stacking” coupons to come – I’m going to do that today or tomorrow on a shopping trip!
If the snow lets up…
I am learning (and hopefully sharing) things that “if I had known when I lived in Hawaii…” I would have been a much better shopper – and I hope my friends still living in Hawaii (and paying the “paradise tax”) and elsewhere can learn and save too.
The Plain Dealer is usually flush with coupons and ads – there were three in this past Sunday’s paper. The direct mail Red Plum ads during the week here have multiple deals in them. The Sunday Advertiser rarely had coupons at all and our weekly mailings had very limited coupons – sometimes only for a couple of items. I used to have my Mom send me inserts from the papers in Cleveland because, generally speaking, a manufacturer coupon is good nationwide – unless it specifically excludes your state.
I wish I had been a lot more savvy in the Internet Coupon world back then…but knowing when, where, and how to use internet coupons seems to be very important.
Knowing the stores coupon policy is becoming key in my efforts to save money. I am currently amassing the written coupon policies of the stores where I currently shop and intend to coupon. Many seem to be available online and I’m finding a lot of stores have their policy posted at their customer service desk.
Some of what I am learning: NO ONE seems to take internet coupons that say FREE – most out there are apparently not legit so they are not taking them. Some stores will only take coupons up to a certain value of the item such as K-Mart who will not take coupons that exceed 75% of the item cost, or Giant Eagle who will not take internet coupons over $3 in value. On the positive side some stores have paperless electronic coupons that you just "load" the value of onto your store rewards coupon and the register will automatically take the coupon value off your purchase (gotta love that). These are all good things to know ahead of time.
Here’s some help:
CVS does not have their coupons policy printed on their website but they will provide one to you on request. Longs is now CVS – this is good new s on the coupon front! Lots of good store coupons at their site though - and you can stack store coupons and manufacturer coupons at CVS!
Walgreens does not have a particular coupon policy that I can find other than to accept manufacturers coupons as stated on the coupon / and they will take “stacked” coupons.
Rite Aid’s policy is not on their website either but again you can get a copy at the store or write to their corporate offices for one.
K Mart seems to not have a well defined coupon policy and what I’ve learned from thekrazycouponlady.com on the subject tells me I’m better off at Wal Mart of Target unless I really need to go to K-Mart (which of course is the only store in walking distance of my house).
Kroger does not have their coupon policy at their website but they do offer ‘digital coupons’ there that you can ‘load’ onto your Kroger card that will be automatically deducted when you buy that item at the store. Nifty! http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Kroger_ECoupons/Page/HomePage/Retailer/Kroger
Giant Eagle: http://www.gianteagle.com/saving/coupon-redemption-policy
Target: http://www.target.com/b/ref=br_bx_4/180-0311849-4571964?ie=UTF8&node=2223357011
WalMart: http://walmartstores.com/7655.aspx
Marc’s: http://www.marcs.com/coupon.cfm
Safeway: http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/Coupons-Policy
Acme Fresh Market: http://www.acmestores.com/internet-coupon-policy.html
More on “stacking” coupons to come – I’m going to do that today or tomorrow on a shopping trip!
If the snow lets up…
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