Quick couponing guide to publix, target, and Walmart. Xpost from /r/frugal

Good Morning /r/couponing

Please note that I am reposting thus post here from /r/frugal since the Mods deleted the post and maybe this is a more appropriate subreddit. Ii am posting from my phone so I hope the formatting is the same. If not I will edit when I get home.

I was at work and saw a post yesterday about couponing to save money, when I went to reply this morning I didn't see it, but I figured I would make a new post since a LOT of the commentators say they don't coupon or don't care because it takes a lot of time, when it doesn't have too.

A little bit of history for me, I use to be a great couponer when my husband was in the service, but never one of the extreme ones you see on TV, walking away with 4 carts of groceries for $15. Once we moved away, I got a job, I wasn't able to coupon as much anymore. Plus living in south Florida, the couponing rules are different and not very forgiving when it comes to saving money. Here is what I do, generally an hour a week just planning out my meals and such. The main stores I shop at are Target, Walmart, and Publix

Basic Ideas for couponing - Basically you want to buy things that are ON SALE and you have a coupon for. Check your stores policy as to what they accept and how they stack (competitor coupons, store coupons, manufacture coupons are the main ones.) Stacking sometimes is key - If you have an item on sale for $2.00, you have a Manufactuer (Hereby types as Man.) coupon for $0.50 off and a store coupon for $1.00 off - bam your item is now $0.50! You should also look into some smaller store, or your states. Some states/stores allow the doubling of coupons under $0.50 I believe. Unfortunately Publix in florida is not one of them. But that is the trick. Sometimes with these combos you can actually EARN money on what you are taking out of the store because the Man+Store coupon will be more than the sale price.

This process doesn't take more than an hour for me. I do try to match coupons based on the weekly ad - but I don't spend forever searching for coupons online. If you want to further read more on couponing here are some sites but it is NOT worth the time these people invest. Krazy Coupon Lady - http://ift.tt/QTKaP3 We Use Coupons - http://ift.tt/1m5Vrm1

Just a note do NOT use coupons.com - this has had several keyloggers and malicious programs installed as a result. Most of the online store coupon programs (publix/target) offer these coupon on their site.

~~~Specific Stores ~~~

Target - This is a great place to coupon. They offer Mobile Coupons, Store Coupons, CartWheel App, and the RedCard Debit Card. Coupon policy here - http://ift.tt/1mRJGQB

• Mobile Coupons - You can sign up for these on your phone. Target will send you a text ever so often that sends pre-determined coupons. Click on the link which will show you what 10 items that have on sale, and a barcode for you to scan. No worries about matching them up, just check and see what is on sale and have the cashier scan the code at checkout

• Store Coupons - These are printed from their website (http://ift.tt/NWMPqf). They mostly have their brands on sale, but sometimes that have Man. coupons on there as well for all items - not just food.

• CartWheel App - This is by fast the best and easiest method to save money (http://ift.tt/11Wx4YF) . Download it on your android or apple phone and AS YOU ARE SHOPPING you can scan the barcode of items you want to buy and see if there is a coupon, then just select "add coupon" and it will be added to your growing list. Better yet- it present related items that you can get - maybe another brand name or the store brand- that has its own coupon. This is amazing and I use it every time I go to the store, from clothing to food to electronics. Everything is on here. (A commentor on /r/frugal posted that u don't even need to have the coupons selected, just have the barcode scanned and anything you purchased on sale will be discounted. I have no tried this though)

• RedCard Debit card - First, there is a difference between the credit card and the redcard.the debit card links to your checking account to the debit card and every time you purchase something at target you get 5% off! The credit card also has the same perks if you wanted to sign up for that.

You can use all of these. I believe the order is Store/Man. (Printed) coupons, followed by Mobile Coupon (barcode on phone) -- Cartwheel (Barcode on app)--- RedCArd (5% off automatically). This way you get the most amount for your money.

Publix - I live in South Florida so the rules are a bit different. Here is their coupon policy (http://ift.tt/1thJVRN). In general, Publix prices are higher, that is why I only purchase items there when they are BOGO or 2 for$$ (something like that). Check your state rules though some states do NOT let you purchase one item of the BOGO for half price (Meaning if bread was Buy one for $4.00 get another one free - each item is NOT $2.00, you need to buy 2 loaves to get the deal. Stupid.) Some publixes (like mine) do not let you double coupons under $0.50 like other states. Bummer.

• Man. / Store Coupons - Publix has bi-weekly circulars that are sent out with store coupons every two weeks. They have a general store items one and a "personal care" one which includes medicine - Just grab these and look through. to see if there is anything you buy.

• Competitor coupons - Publix will allow competitor coupons - they should have a big sigh by customer service which lists the competitors (Target, Whole Foods, Winn Dixie, Walmart.... etc) and you can use their coupons if you have. These count as a "store" coupon so you can't stack a publix coupon + target + Man. coupon. That would be too sweet.

• Digital coupons - publix just introduced digital coupons (http://ift.tt/16oeKxh) which you create an account, and you virtually clip the coupons online, then at checkout you enter your phone number and if you have anything that matches, it will take off the price. IT's awesome. Takes about 30 seconds to clip everything and most coupons last for months. So honestly I forget what I have and am always happy when I see the "DC" code being deduced.

Walmart - Ah the king of low prices. They have a Price match guarantee which is annoying as hell to deal with. You need to have two seperate orders, one for price matched items, and one for NON price matched items. It takes forever, you need to have the adds with you and overall just a hassle since most of the time the cashiers have no idea what to do. Coupon policy here - http://ift.tt/UMu91t Walmart Savings Catcher - luckily the app now has savings catcher which you just scan the code at the bottom of your receipt and the little internet minions will scour the internet to see if there was a better deal and give you the different. Currently, if you have a Bluebird by Amex* debit card, you will get 2x that difference (I believe the promotion is until febrary - check the site for more details (http://ift.tt/1AEu4lG)

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Another question I see a lot is "Well most of the coupons are for processed food, you can't eat healthy that way" - Yes this is true. A lot is high in sugar, processed, no good for you food. But there is a movement to get more produce on the couponing train. Target often will have a $5 of $25 in produce coupon online (as mentioned above) or in their weekly ads. There are apps that also working on this. The Publix near me started accepting Whole Foods and Fresh Market coupons, which is a good start.

*Checkout 51 (http://ift.tt/1fL4m8Q) - This app lets you take a picture of your receipt, select which coupons are on here, and then you get the money in an account that you can redeem every $20. The best thing about this coupon WAS that you could usually select 4/5 produce items (Apples, salad mixes, carrots, pumpkin, whatever) and get usually $0.25 back. But for something that takes maybe a minute to take a picture of the receipt and check which items - it's too easy. Now they seem to have changed their tone where you can only get one produce item coupon, so that stinks.

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I hope this helps everyone. Every penny counts and most of these methods take less than an hour a week to pick up thing you would normally by The Savings Catcher, CartWheel, and Digital Coupons are all easy methods that take less than 5 minutes! I never go purchase something just because there is a coupon. Please post comments and questions. I am by no means an expert but I really wanted to share this so people could save some extra money!

The original post I wanted to address was here (http://ift.tt/17oiUsl) But I wanted to share with the community.

There are some great commentors that have pointed out a few things:

• You don't need to have the Weekly Ad at walmart per their Price Match policy. Thank you /u/gump47371

• You don't need to select coupons on the Target CartWheel App, you can just have the cashier scan your phone. "It will give you the deals and coupons regardless of if you added them(assuming there are matching coupons available)." Thank you /u/girlvinyl

• There is a Target Credit Card out there as well with the 5% off too. I just posted the debit since sometimes people don't want to open store credit cards, but I should have mentioned that. Thanks /u/nitpickyCorrections

• Finally, Some other apps have been mentioned in the comments: Ibotta, Shopmium, and Snap for the phone (thanks /u/elizabethraine) and Swagbucks for browing coupons (Thanks /u/airyn1)