This is getting a little ridiculous (coupons)!!

[Sammy]

I am not a coupon queen by any means, but I do try to use them when I can. Today at Walgreens, I had two coupons for $1.00 off any Cottenelle item, so I was purchasing two packages and wanted to use one coupon for each one. The cashier was having difficulty getting the coupons to scan, so the manager had to come over (love that as a line forms behind you ). In reading the fine print on the coupon, he saw that it states "limit of ONE coupon can be used per transaction"!!! So you can't even use more than one of this same coupon at a time! How crazy is that?! Luckily, the manager just rang it through as two separate transactions, but c'mon....that's nuts.

Thanks to the "extreme" couponers for making it harder and harder for normal people to use even a few of them!!

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I see it almost every time I have shopped lately.

At Target, I had maybe 10 items, I had 2 coupons and the cashier looked at me and said "you have to have 1 item for each coupon" did she really not just see the 2 items, one for each coupon, unbelievable.

The cashier at the Comissary examined each one of my coupons thoroughly before she even ran my groceries thru. I only use about $20 to $25 worth of coupons on each trip, so no coupon queen here either.

It kinda makes you feel like a criminal.

 

[Free4Life11]

I don't really know why they print that wording because just like you said, you can do separate transactions.

 

[hereyago]

I won't blame it on the extreme coupon craze. all coupons have stipulations and that hasn't changed really. You really have to read the coupons before you go and also know the store policy.

I do watch Extreme Coupon show. i a beginner couponer, so no 9 carts of stuff for me. However, I have noticed more people with the binders and actually one of the cashiers at my grocery store said that more people have come in and think they can clear the shelves and have 5 billion coupons for same thing and our store doesn't do that.

 

[AmandaRG]

I use a binder to organize my coupons, but I absolutely do not clear shelves. I buy what I need for my family but I am not interested in filling a room of my home with extras. Once my pantry/fridge/freezer is full, I cook exclusively from there for a while, regardless of the sales.

Coupon fraud has been huge with the EC shows. Doing regular grocery shopping with store coupon policy limits and no coupon fraud, one cannot get $700 of groceries for $.12.

Hopefully sometime soon it will stop. I miss shopping for my family without someone looking at my binder like I am crazy, or a criminal! I like to be organized.

 

[hereyago]

I miss shopping for my family without someone looking at my binder like I am crazy, or a criminal! I like to be organized.

I would love to be organized like that, I have to buy some baseball card pages to put in a binder. I am now sporting a shoe box that I made dividers for to put the coupons in and then put the ones that I am going to use in an evelope when I have to shop.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I see it almost every time I have shopped lately.

At Target, I had maybe 10 items, I had 2 coupons and the cashier looked at me and said "you have to have 1 item for each coupon" did she really not just see the 2 items, one for each coupon, unbelievable.

The cashier at the Comissary examined each one of my coupons thoroughly before she even ran my groceries thru. I only use about $20 to $25 worth of coupons on each trip, so no coupon queen here either.

It kinda makes you feel like a criminal.

At the Commissary here - go to the teenage male cashiers. They don't treat you like criminals like the older women do. They check the coupons for expiration dates (as they should) and that is it. I NEVER hand over my coupons first. You don't have to. I count all of my coupons right in front of the cashier and hand them to the cashier and say "I have X number of coupons today". I can then look on the receipt and make sure they rang them all in correctly. On a big shopping week I have 50 to 70 coupons and save 40% to 50%. All coupons are valid and for the correct items. If I have a coupon for a free item or that needs a dollar amount written in then I put those items as the very last on the belt so that the cashier can look it up easier.

The crazy coupon shows are just that - crazy. I stock up on non-perishables when I can get a good deal (like the .21 a roll paper towels or free tissues) but I don't buy it in massive bulk like they do. Who the heck has room for that?

 

[si-am]

I don't know. Asking the cashier to do two separate transactions for you in order to save a buck seems kind of "extreme" to me.

 

[maggiew]

Watch the wording on the coupons:

One per purchase means you can use one for each item you purchase.

One per transaction means you can only use one for the whole order.


Make sure a cashier isn't confusing "one per purchase" with "one per transaction". There are very few "one per transaction" coupons. I think I have only ever seen one in the whole time I have been couponing. Most say "one per purchase".

Maggie

 

[scard192]

Was at Walmart with my sis. She had a coupon for Buy a particular Dove womans deodorant and get their new men's deodorant for free. The womans one was $2.99 and the mens was $3.99. Their register would only give her $2.99 credit and they said $3.99 was considered "overage" and they could not give the full credit. $2.99 off for deodorant is good, but that is not what the coupon said, "free" was what it was supposed to be.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

At the Commissary here - go to the teenage male cashiers. They don't treat you like criminals like the older women do. They check the coupons for expiration dates (as they should) and that is it. I NEVER hand over my coupons first. You don't have to. I count all of my coupons right in front of the cashier and hand them to the cashier and say "I have X number of coupons today". I can then look on the receipt and make sure they rang them all in correctly. On a big shopping week I have 50 to 70 coupons and save 40% to 50%. All coupons are valid and for the correct items. If I have a coupon for a free item or that needs a dollar amount written in then I put those items as the very last on the belt so that the cashier can look it up easier.

The crazy coupon shows are just that - crazy. I stock up on non-perishables when I can get a good deal (like the .21 a roll paper towels or free tissues) but I don't buy it in massive bulk like they do. Who the heck has room for that?

I usually do go to the young lady and young man that usually rings us up, but the last time we went, the manager was directing us where to go. I don't usually hand my coupons over first thing either, but this nasty woman was insistant. I had may 10 coupons that night, but she examined them with a fine tooth comb. DH was tired and he had a few words for her, she settled down after that...lol. I watch them like a hawk and make sure they take every coupon off, 2 got stuck together one evening, I made sure she took both of them off.

The ones I have had that needed the price written on them, the price will come up automatically, but I don't know what button it is they push for it to do that. I did have one like that for Power Aid, the buy 10 get 5 free and it only took off one, she had to go in and manually subtract each one, but that is the only one I have ever had an issue with.

I haven't actually seen any of the extreme coupon shows, but have read about them and I really don't think it is possible to do what they do without stealing/cheating. I don't stock up on much, except toilet paper and paper towels and I had some crazy good paper towel coupons earlier this month, so I bought (4) 8 roll packs.

 

[AmandaRG]

I would love to be organized like that, I have to buy some baseball card pages to put in a binder. I am now sporting a shoe box that I made dividers for to put the coupons in and then put the ones that I am going to use in an evelope when I have to shop.

When I casually couponed, I would have some coupons at home that I would go through and then take a few to the store with my list. When I became a mom and went from two incomes to one, but had doubled our family size (with buying formula for two years and diapers for over three) I needed to make some adjustments. I found that I could buy national brand items on sale with a coupon for much less than store brands which rarely have them. So many sales are "unadvertised" that it worked out better for me to take them all with me. Thus the binder. It works for me, and I have them all with me when I shop, so I can utilize the sales to my family's advantage.

Was at Walmart with my sis. She had a coupon for Buy a particular Dove womans deodorant and get their new men's deodorant for free. The womans one was $2.99 and the mens was $3.99. Their register would only give her $2.99 credit and they said $3.99 was considered "overage" and they could not give the full credit. $2.99 off for deodorant is good, but that is not what the coupon said, "free" was what it was supposed to be.

"Overage" is when the value of a coupon exceeds the price of the item. That would not have been the case here. Most coupons do have a limit of the cost for the free item, but WM is usually under that in my past experiences. I'm sorry that they appear to have shorted her.

 

[kinntj]

I have a coupon binder, but I'm not extreme at all. I may have 3 or 4 coupons for certain items, but that's it and rare when I do. I mostly bring in the binder just in case there's a sale or marked down item I didn't catch in the ad and there is a coupon for it to bring the price down further. I've done that once. The Disney gummy vitamins were buy 1 get 1 free and I had 2 $1.00 off coupons; which brought the price to $1.75 each. Not in the ad at all, but the sign was there with the correct date and the register rang it up at the sale price.

I stopped shopping at Kroger since they stopped doubling. I go to Meijer who still doubles coupons up to .50.

I don't have baseball card holders, but did get the money holders which hold the larger coupons without folding.

 

[stitchlovestink]

At the Commissary here - go to the teenage male cashiers. They don't treat you like criminals like the older women do. They check the coupons for expiration dates (as they should) and that is it. I NEVER hand over my coupons first. You don't have to. I count all of my coupons right in front of the cashier and hand them to the cashier and say "I have X number of coupons today". I can then look on the receipt and make sure they rang them all in correctly. On a big shopping week I have 50 to 70 coupons and save 40% to 50%. All coupons are valid and for the correct items. If I have a coupon for a free item or that needs a dollar amount written in then I put those items as the very last on the belt so that the cashier can look it up easier.

The crazy coupon shows are just that - crazy. I stock up on non-perishables when I can get a good deal (like the .21 a roll paper towels or free tissues) but I don't buy it in massive bulk like they do. Who the heck has room for that?

I do! In DH's garage..he loves all the extra paper towels and overflow items out there!!

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I do! In DH's garage..he loves all the extra paper towels and overflow items out there!!

If we ever move back up there then I will bring my stockpile over to his garage then.

Even with a basement we didn't have the room that some of the people on those shows have. We had to turn our hallway closet into a pantry because of lack of storage for basic groceries!

 

[Sammy]

(double post)

 

[Sammy]

I don't know. Asking the cashier to do two separate transactions for you in order to save a buck seems kind of "extreme" to me.

I never asked him to ring it separately. He looked at the coupon and basically said, "Hmmm...says one coupon per transaction. No problem...I'll just ring them separately." He didn't even blink an eye.