Thursday, September 1, 2011

Ad matching - Round 159 - Tips

Well, here it is, now there is a new policy at Walmart which has its advantages and disadvantages. They actually state in the new policy that it must be each for each and pound for pound matching on produce, etc.

Now, that being taken into consideration, Walmart is accepting competitor coupons that have a price included. For Arizonans, this means that the Fresh and Easy coupons can be used at Walmart. At least, this is what the clerk in Gilbert told me! I am very excited about that one.

Tip:

When you have a BOGO or Buy two get one - and the clerk needs to enter the cost, if that cost is around 4 dollars, the clerk will need to manually enter this as a vendor coupon.

Today, I went to Walmart to ad match Frys (Kroger) for Gillette and Secret products as that someone had already raided my Frys by 9am this morning. The coupons expired today so I could not play the "raincheck game".

Just as an FYI, there is some confusion about the "clarification" of the raincheck policy on Fry's Facebook page. According to the employee, only items in the ad can get a raincheck and if there is a coupon for the item, you cannot get a raincheck. That seems a bit odd. Then, the person stated you can use coupons with a raincheck. It's all so not worth the trouble when you ad match at Walmart or Target.

So, I purchased the Secret deoderant and had coupons for:

$1/2 secret
Buy 2 secret - get free secret spray

$2 off Gillette.

Well, the Gillette was ad matched for 1.99 and the $2 off coupons scanned fine (4 of them).
The System did not like the Free secret spray coupon because the value was too high. So, the clerk entered these as Vendor coupon. Since this was entered as a vendor coupon, the $1/2 Secret coupons scanned without any issue.

4 Gillette Body Wash
4 Secret Deoderant
2 Secret spray

$3 and change.

Now, at the Frys earlier today, I purchased

4 Old Spice Body Wash
8 Old Spice deoderants

for $8

Frys also took the $1 off 2 and the Buy one Old spice body wash, get one deoderant free.

In the past, I have always had issues combining coupons. However, today was an odd day for combinations!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Snackwells! Yum.

These were 3.29 at Frys.

Order 1:
Purchase 2 boxes of Snackwells Cereal bars.
Use $1/1 coupon. 2.29 ea.
Total = 4.58 OOP
Get $3 OYNO wyb 2.

Order 2:
Oscar Mayer hot dogs found on sale at certain Frys for $1.99.
Buy 5 packs of hot dogs for $9.95
If you have the Target Buy 3 get one free, even better!
Use $3 OYNO snackwells.

Pay $4.96 (approx)OOP

Get $4 OYNO.

Purchase 2 boxes of Snackwells Cereal bars.
Use $1/1 coupon. 2.29 ea.
Use $4 OYNO
Total = .58

Get $3 OYNO wyb 2.


You still have $3 OYNO to use also.
So for about $10 OOP (but you still have the $3 off you can use so $7) you can get 5 packages of hot dogs and 4 boxes of cereal bars.

This is not a great deal when you consider that in the past, cereal bars were either free or less than 10 cents before the recession.

However, this deal may work for you, if you like snackwells.

Remember, at some stores you can use these OYNO at Starbucks if they have one inside!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Ad matching - Target:NO, Walmart:OK

About a month ago, I started taking the Pros ranch market and Food City flyers to Walmart and Target and ad matching.

After all 7lbs of Navel oranges for $1, 10 cucumbers for $1 and 4lbs of Fuji apples for $.96 was a great deal. The fresh produce at Food City and Pros leave a little to be desired. They are, in my opinion, bottom of the barrel.

Also, I was able to get heads of lettuce 3/$1 at walmart.

So, here is the breakdown.

I go to Target and Ad match apples with no problems.
So, another day, I go to Target to ad match some chicken.
Well, according to the customer service, I cannot ad match chicken because Target's chicken is Market Pantry brand and the ad was generic. It was just Chicken Breasts.
So, I left the store. I said to the rep, "Well, I can just go to Walmart or to the store directly. Tell me, what is my incentive then, to shop here?"

So, I called the store later to find out if this is really the policy. I was informed that a Target Watermelon is different from an Albertsons Watermelon and they would not ad match that. What????

Yes. They will ad match name brand items but if you can get them to match fruit, vegetables or meat... consider yourself fortunate.

Well, I called Corporate and they confirmed this.

Walmart does ad match apples for apples but if you try to ad match oranges for oranges, they might try to say no.

Remember, they have a new policy for ad matching that came out in April.

"If you can find a lower price anywhere, we will be sure to match it."

Anywhere? Well, that seems a little like misrepresentation. I found an item in Mesa, and Chandler Walmart tried to deny me. I was like, "I have your ad on my phone, would you like to see it?" Then, I was told that since oranges are sold per item and not by the pound, that could not be matched. This changed quickly as I recited the ad matching policy and told a lower level manager that I had spoken to a manager in Gilbert who informed me that, "Yes, they are supposed to match it."

The fact is that they can and have ad matched this in some stores with no problems. I think the cashiers are either misinformed or simply do not know how to manage the register to get the price in lbs rather than per item.

Overall, it is a little bit of a pain in these situations but getting 1.79 Romaine lettuce for .50 or getting $13 dollars in oranges for $3 does save my family a substantial amount of money and the kids can have fresh fruit and veggies that are decent quality.

A Year almost? Really

Wow.

In the past year, I have not needed to buy any cleaning supplies, except for Swiffer wipes, sponges and the occassional dish soap that was a bargain for like 4 cents.

The Kmart doubles deal on Scrubbing bubbles, soap, shampoo, hair products, Windex, and other cleaners has lasted me for over a year. That's crazy, right!

So, when you find those great deals and people may treat you like you are one of those extreme couponers, who cares! Stocking up can really save a load of cash.

Don't buy what you don't need. The trick is to get enough to last and that you can afford.