This is kind of a general question: I keep seeing all of these people on TV who will buy, say, 50 bags of chips with 100 coupons for .50 off, so they get like $1.00 off each bag. Okay, no store that I go to will take more than one coupon for an item. I don't get how people do this and get things for mere pennies. Could someone explain it? Thanks!
Many stores are cutting down on coupon limits because of the exuberant number of people who caught on to the loop hole. It does essentially make your items pennies or even free of cost to you but almost all stores have made a limit to how many coupons they take per item so this is becoming rarer to see. It's basic math. Your example is perfect : "50 bags of chips" at $1.00 each "and you have 100 coupons for .50 cents off, so they get like $1.00 off each bag." It's called coupon stacking and it works but not in most stores anymore. If you were to use this same special when the chips are on sale at 50% off the store would owe you money essentially and you would walk out with 50 bags of chips, a $25 credit and some coupons left over.
It really does just depend on the store, the coupons, and the sales. I've gotten stuff for free plenty of times because I'd combine a good coupon with a good sale. I couldn't go in with 50 of the same coupon and do that, though, because the stores have limits now. If you pay attention, you can still do it here or there, but not to the extent you see on those extreme couponing TV shows.
I wouldn't save any money with coupons. I never buy brand names anyway. Aldi is the best place for groceries.
Yeah, you cannot really go into a store and buy that much (at least in one transaction). I do sometimes get free items with coupons, but only usually only one of an item. I have been known to spread it out and get the free item on two different days, though, as most coupons can be printed two times per computer and I also sometimes end up with extra newspaper inserts. The one thing I never pay more than the tax for is toothpaste, which is a good thing because my brother tends to waste a lot no matter how hard he tries to not make a mess. I also often can get lip balm free.
I love Aldi stores! I buy the vast majority of my groceries there because the prices are so great in comparison. Even so, I still use coupons at other places every so often. When the sales are good and the coupons line up, you can get some even cheaper, though!
Are Aldi stores physical shops or online stores? I've read a few posts on here about these stores but I dont know much about them.
I never understood any of this because as long as I've been shopping myself in the UK, coupons and vouchers have always been limited to a few used per transaction. They've never been the way so that you can stack them up and used many at once.
The store I used to shop at used to allow me to do this. Now it is considered coupon fraud and they are really cracking down on it. A cashier told me it is silly they are doing this now, but it is all because of the shows coming out with people doing this and it is making it impossible to have the savings many of us were used to having!
I share your confusion on couponing and I hate DontPayFull.com because their coupons never seem to work for me and, using my printer to print their coupons uses so much of my ink. have you ever looked into free sample websites such as hunt4samples or freebieforms. There are a ton of other sites out there like that. The fact is with them, however, is only about half the things you sign up for come. I skip couponing completely. Just give meLog In!
I'm a little late, but thanks for all of the responses. Of all the stores I shop at, I don't think any of them will accept multiples, and it has always been that way. I guess that's why I've never understood how these people on TV do their crazy coupon thing.
That must be a regional thing, because at the Walmart in Miami where I go, I've handed over 20 of the same coupon and been able to use them all. But then again, they don't really have a limit on how many Rollback items you can buy. It's not like Publix or CVS where there's a limit of 8 on certain items that are on sale that week.
In the good ole days, you could redeem an unlimited amount of coupons and also reap the benefits of stacking and combining with already reduced pricing. However, once couponing went mainstream, like tv shows dedicated to extreme couponing, stores began to revamp their rules. Some don't even double coupons anymore. Let's face it, they are in business to earn a profit and owing customers money doesnt help that cause. You will need to check the store policies of your local supermarkets before you start gathering up 50 coupons for chips. Honestly, you'd probably be hard pressed to find ten. Some of the coupon sites even limit the number of times you can print their coupons. Savings can absolutely be realized, but you can't believe everything you see on tv and some of those episodes are old.
Now that couponing has gone mainstream, coupons expire in a month or two. I remember when coupons were good for several months. Also, coupons nowadays require you to buy more of an item. Also there's a whole industry of couponing books, supplies and seminars that someone is getting rich off of. There are even coupon crimes now, like the woman who got arrested for stealing $300 worth of newspapers for the coupons that were inside. I wonder if the couponing bandwagon is going to blow over, or whether it'll get bigger until stores outlaw coupons.
Ok, first things first... Those coupon shows are FAKE! The stores that they shop at in the shows, drop all their coupon rules for that shopper just to get free publicity. I do coupon. For me, I enjoy seeing what I can get at the lowest price possible. I do not buy an entire store shelf worth of an item ever. I do not have a stockpile. I get a few things free and other things deeply discounted. CVS is the best for me. I have not paid more than $1.00 for razors since I started couponing. What I do is every Sunday, I buy 2 copies of our local newspaper. I clip every single coupon whether it is something my family uses or not. Once all my coupons are clipped, I file them in my coupon binder. After that, my husband and I make a shopping list. From there, I pull up the weekly ads for our local grocery stores online. I go line by line in our shopping list to see who has the items the cheapest. Once we have determined exactly what items we are going to buy, I look through my coupon binder to determine if I have a coupon for the items as well. If I do, that is great. If I don't, well that sucks, but we still need the item and we buy it at the store that has it cheapest. For items that are not an immediate need, I will watch the weekly ads and when I see a really great price and I have a coupon to make the price incredible, then I will buy the items. I do this with items like razors, toothpaste, hair dye, shampoo, etc. I rarely pay more than a dollar per name brand items like Gilette razors or Pantene shampoo. Toothpaste I always get free. The way I do this is by shopping at Dollar Tree. They accept manufacturers coupons and like name says, everything is $1. So I use a $1 off coupon for toothpaste which makes it FREE. Unlike the shoppers on the shows, I will pay full price for an item if we need it. My family will not suffer because I don't have a coupon.
The extreme coupon show gave my family unfair expectations and made everyone made at me. I just do my best to save, I try to get some freebies but i don't expect everything to be free.
It's silly that they would be mad at you. You didn't make the show and you're not on the show. Clipping coupons doesn't make someone an extreme couponer and the results they achieve on the show are unrealistic.
