Grocery Coupon Program

Understanding Local Grocery Coupons

A grocery coupon program is the individual savings and/or reward program offered by your local food or drug store chain. Some programs offer free store coupons good on any merchandise, while others offer gas money, cash rebates, or bigger savings. Some stores have in-store local grocery coupons.

Your local store knows that you have many options. You can purchase groceries from their chain, a competitor, a farmer's market, Wal*Mart, Target in many areas, and even online.

They want your business.

Lucky for us, they have come up with tempting methods of getting us to come into their stores and shop!

Here we'll examine all aspects of local grocery coupons and programs, and show you how to make the most of them.

---

Local Sales

Most stores these days have a weekly sales flier with several loss-leaders (that is, they take a loss on the item-or the manufacturer does- so that you will come into the store to buy more items) to encourage shoppers to come in and spend.

These sales fliers are always available in the front of the store, but may also be found in your local newspaper or mailed to you.

Typically, mass merchandise stores (Target, Wal*Mart, Kmart) and drug stores will come out in the Sunday paper, while grocery chains come out on Tuesday or Wednesday. Study these ads.

If possible, get your ad early, the sooner the better. Sometimes an employee will have one available in advance that can be given to you. Sometimes you can find a copy online. (The inexpensive service I use to see CVS and Walgreens ads early is Savings Angel; check it out!)

Here's where using coupons comes into play. When an item is heavily discounted, AND there is a coupon out for it, it often makes the item free. For example, if AquaFresh toothpaste, normally $3.29, is on sale at your local grocery store for $0.99 a tube, and you have a $1.00 coupon, now the toothpaste is free.

Remember the rules of couponing:

Match a store sale with a coupon

Get an item for free

Buy as many as you can

If you get your sales fliers in advance, you have the opportunity to order coupons from a clipping service to arrive before the sale begins. Important note: Some stores have limits to the amount of items a customer is allowed to purchase. Respect these limits. If you really need more of the item, go to another store. Abusing the system will only be bad for all of us couponers in the long run.

---

Local Grocery Coupons

Another grocery coupon program that many stores offer are free supermarket coupons. Meaning, they print their own coupons, good only at their store, and offer them to customers for free.

Sometimes these coupons are available in their ad, sometimes in the store, and sometimes online. Two stores that do this in my area are Target and HEB.

The thing to remember with local grocery coupons is that you can use a store coupon IN ADDITION to a manufacturer coupon, meaning you can use, in this case, two coupons on one item.

Store coupons are just another way of offering a sale. The store does not send them to the manufacturer for redemption. A manufacturer's coupon is a kind of sale offered by the maker of the product. After a store accepts the coupon, they send it to the manufacturer and the store gets reimbursed.

My favorite kind of local grocery coupons: Buy One Get One Free coupons. Because this one coupon is off two items, you are able to either use a manufacturer's Buy One Get One Free coupon and get both items for free, or you can use two manufacturer's coupons (for, say, $1 off each) to lower the price of the pair. (This also works for Buy One Get One Free sales.)

---

Grocery Coupon Program: Double Coupons

Many grocery coupon programs offer double coupon or even triple coupon sales.

What is this, exactly?

This is when a store will offer to double (or triple) the value of your manufacturer's coupon, again, to get you into the store and shopping.

So say the face value of your coupon is $1.

In a double coupon event, it's now worth $2 (or $3 for a triple). The manufacturer pays for the original coupon's value, and the store eats the additional one.

Sounds pretty good, right? Well, double grocery coupon program events have several caveats.

Usually, there is a limit to the amount doubled, between $0.50 and $2 (triples are usually $0.39-$0.75)

Sometimes, there is a limit to the number of items allowed to be doubled (Kmart allows 4 or 5 items per day during their events)

Some coupons say "Do Not Double" (to protect the stores, of course)

Double coupon stores are few and far between

Many areas will never see a double, let alone triple, grocery coupon program event. In my couponing career, I can count on one hand the number of double coupon events I've been to. But other areas have stores that double every day, with no limits. Check you local stores!

---

Grocery Coupon Program Offers

Each store's grocery coupon program is unique. And some stores have a different grocery coupon program for each region within the nation (Albertson's, for example). Some stores offer rewards or cash for spending money. These rewards get pretty creative!

Cash Rebates
One of the best rewards from grocery coupon program offers is cold, hard cash.

Many stores, such as RiteAid, have their own, in-house, once a month rebate offers.

You buy products from their rebate ad, submit them at the end of the month, and get a rebate check (or in some cases, a store giftcard).

If you use coupons on the rebate items, you can sometimes receive back more than you paid.


Catalinas
Catalinas (or Register Rewards, as they call them in Walgreens) are little coupon machines located next to the cash register.

Buying particular items, or a combination of items, will trigger the machine to print a coupon either good for store credit on your next purchase or good for a specific item, which your cashier will then hand to you with your receipt.


Store Rewards
Many grocery coupon programs offer their own version of the Catalina machine. CVS, for example, has what they call Extra Care Bucks (ECB). This is a little receipt type coupon good on your next CVS purchase.


Pharmacy Giftcards
Some stores that have their own pharmacy will participate in gift card offers. This grocery coupon program requires you to clip a coupon from their flier, and bring it in with a new, or transferred prescription (most, but not all, will not allow you to use it on a current prescription that you have filled at that pharmacy). They will then give you a store gift card worth $10-35.

Check out Save on Medical Expenses for more info


Other Rewards
Stores get creative. Stores that have gas stations will give a discount on gasoline for purchasing groceries. Some stores will offer free movie tickets or tickets to a local amusement park. Other will offer you free DVDs, or books, or other fun items for purchasing specific items at their store.

---

Name: Email: We respect your email privacy Money Making Money Saving Mama Sign up for our free email list, the Money Making Money Saving Mama, and get information delivered straight to your inbox. You'll recieve valuable information on: Saving Money Making Money Site Updates Special Offers Info on Training Products It's totally free, and you can unsubscribe at anytime. Plus, to get you started making money right away, you will get instant access to the downloadable ebook "Make Money with Cashcrate", a free online offer site. Read the guide to learn the easiest ways to quickly make some extra pocket change each month.

---

Related Pages

Grocery Coupon Online Classes

Shopping at Target

Shopping at CVS

Shopping at Walgreens

Shopping at HEB

Home==>Frugal Coupon Living==>Grocery Coupon Program