My last grocery trip, which was my first trip in this town, my original total was $266, I paid $120. My first ever trip with the grocery game, I remember, I saved 45%. That was during the $1 trial, not only did that ONE trip save the subscription price, it saved the subscription price for the year. In one week.
Even now, when I have to pay $2 per paper plus the GG subscription, it isn’t even a contest. Just so you know, I save my receipts with the savings amount at the bottom. Those numbers were not outlyers, that is weekly. Some weeks I may have only saved 40%, others, 80%, I usually shoot for 50% and hit that about 90% of the time.
Psst! In the forums on their website, there is a whole section for people posting their weekly savings, and many folks have their totals in their signatures.
I didn’t expect to get so many responses to this thread. Based on the sales this week, I’m going to use ten or so coupons, which is a good amount to start out with. If my store is like the one in Guin’s area and wants the coupon and product scanned at the same time, it won’t take too long to sort and match them.
Spent some time in Retail Hell.
Whether you give your coupons to the cashier before or after depends on the cashier. I’d have them in my hand, and if he/she wants them first they’ll ask for them. Separate the non monetary ones (buy one get one free) and tell the cashier “i have some buy one get ones” beforehand, as they have to manually enter the price of the item when the coupon is scanned.
Don’t take out all your coupons and put them on the items they’re for. Don’t crumple the coupons up in your hand or pocket so they have to be smoothed out and take 5 mins to scan. Don’t put your coupons on the belt, hand them to the cashier.
And for chrissake, HAND your money to the cashier. I remember customers who would throw a bunch of crumpled dollar bills and/or change on the belt despite my open hand being about an inch away. I’ve always been tempted to just hurl their change back at them as hard as I could. If you must dump out your little change thingy to count out your coins, scoop them back up and hand them to the cashier. It’s a little thing, but used to piss me off to no end.
Or the POS system. If they are having the POS perform coupon validation, the coupons have to come after the item or there is nothing to validate. The simplest way is to take all the coupons at the end, albeit you could take the coupon at any point after the item to which it pertains.
Again, this depends on the POS. Some will work out the price automatically based on the item already scanned.
I don’t use coupons very often, but when I do, I always mention to the cashier, just before she starts ringing me up that, I have coupons. This way I don’t have to remember which store uses which order/procedure/whatever because when I say “I have coupons” they invariably tell me when and how they wish to receive them.
Of course, if you use coupons all the time at the same store(s) I imagine you’ll learn the routine for each place you shop pretty quickly.
I have the opposite problem. I provided my own bags for a grocery run, and when they asked, “Paper or plastic for the rest?” I answered, but was confused - I was sure I had as many bags as I needed. When I got home, I discovered one bag with a single frozen pizza in it, one bag with one carton of eggs in it, and a bag with two jars of peanut butter and bag of chips. Seriously? These are not wimpy little bags; they’ll hold a lot. I think the bag boy was either protesting against reusable bags or completely clueless.
Having worked at a MegaHell, I have learned if you have a buttload of stuff in your cart and a handful of expired coupons, GO TO THE MANAGER IN CHARGE (don’t waste time with the cashier, unless she’s been there 20 years. Most of them have no clue.) and ask if you can use the coupons.
I’ve been known to make stupid/clueless baggers repack poorly packed bags. One pulled the “one item in a bag” stunt on me once and when I demanded correction started up with “Oh, I didn’t want a little lady like you to hurt yourself lifting heavy bags” with a sneer.
He wasn’t laughing so hard when I called over the manager. Seriously, I’m convinced some of these guys do it just because they hate their jobs and want to take it out on someone.
Frankly, one of the things I like about Aldi is that I get to pack my own bags. Then I know it’s done right and organized the way I like it.
I was approaching a checkout aisle with a teenage boy at the register and another teenage boy at the end to bag. Meanwhile a manager is strolling around saying if you have time to lean, you have time to clean, or collect returns, or whatever. The bagger says to the cashier that he wouldn’t mind if the manager shoved the returns up her ass. What am I, deaf, as I unload groceries eight feet from you? I still regret not reporting him. As it is, I insisted on bagging, even though he was polite enough to my face.
I work at a dry cleaners but coupons are meant to get you in the door and buying the product, we even let people take them home and use them again if they feel like it.
Ah, yes, when the new Meijer opened close to home, I insisted on one of the store specials paired with a coupon. After a bit of trouble, the cashier quipped, “I’m just glad I’m not in line behind you.” Before I could say it myself, the customer in line behind me indicated, “That’s okay, I don’t blame him [me] for your lack of training.”
Last week, the guy behind me had just a few items, he came up after I was already being rung up. He commented as I was finishing up that I had quite a bit of coupons. I said to the cashier “How much was my original total?” She told him. I then asked her to tell him how much money I actually had to pay, he was floored.
Not for nothing, but he was an older gentleman and I like to think that I build a little intergenerational karma there. If he thought for one single second that my generation might not be total idiots, then it was well worth it.
I cannot stress how important this is. I worked at a Kroger for over a year. Like someone said before, most POS systems don’t handle expiration dates. I never looked at them, unless the customer was extra rude. Then I start checking all the dates and all the fine prints to exclude them. Cashiers are petty people, and they remember annoying customers.
You have/had a bagger that wasn’t mentally retarded? I don’t think I’ve seen a Fully Functioning Bagger in 15 years. The thing about the mentally handicapped, they make great baggers.
Inspired by some of the comments in this thread, this morning I went through the Sunday paper and clipped coupons for the first time ever. I decided I would only clip coupons for items that I already buy - I am not going to buy other things just because there is a coupon.
I am now looking forward to saving a massive 55 cents on my weekly shopping bill of $200 - $250. There was only one useful coupon. Not quite true - I can save an additional $1 if I buy three General Mills cereals, which seems like more trouble than it is worth. So given the time I spent, the savings I get pays me approximately minimum wage for my time.
There were really not many manufacturer coupons in the paper. There were plenty of store-specific coupons and offers, but I am not going to hop from store to store chasing coupon offers.
LOL, oh amarone, you poor kitten! You are doing what they want you to do. Use that coupon the week it comes out, then forget about it forever. On a given weeks list, lets say there are 100 items, 80 of them have coupons, I’d say about 8 of them come from this weeks paper.
Let me give you a primer, start getting Sunday papers, one per person in your house, make it an even number, (we have 3 people, I get 4) This will allow you to maximize the Buy One, Get One sales.
Sales run in 12 week cycles. The best time to use those coupons you just clipped, might be in 10 weeks.
Stores know when coupons are coming out. Manufacturers know when coupons are coming out. You are the weak link.
Please take some time to go through the forums at thegrocerygame, New gamers talk to the old pros is a good place to start. There is a wealth of information there for free.
Thanks for the info, but I clipped every coupon for things that we buy - and there was only one. I did not pay any attention to whether we actually needed the items now.
Hey, even if you don’t clip anything it’s still fun to make fun of the weird-ass clothes they sell in the coupon section? I mean, wtf?
Sometimes you get more, sometimes less. This week I didn’t clip anything at all from the Red Plum and six from the Smart Source, not all of which I’ll probably use. Frankly, I get a lot more mileage out of the store sales as plotted out for me by the Grocery Game people.
Yes. Some weeks I don’t clip any at all, and some weeks it’s like a bonanza! This last week wasn’t a very good week for me. I’m sure next week will be better.
