Keep sending in those questions – we love to answer them! Just remember if we don’t get to your question this week…we will do our best to answer it another week!! As always a big thanks to my buddy Christy over at Haphazardly Hobbying who gives me so much help to get the questions answered.
Remember–there is a tab at the top of the site called “Q & A” where I organize the questions and answers from this feature so that it can serve as a quick reference!
Here are this week’s questions:
- Which magazines are best for finding coupons?
- Where do you find the coupon calendars you list in your matchups from time to time?
- Can I use more than one of the same Publix coupon in a single transaction?
- Do you have any tips or tricks to getting good pet food for decent prices?
- How strict is Publix about enforcing those store coupons that state “One Deal/Coupon Per Customer”?
- Do you adjust your “freezer habits” for the summer (hurricane season) months??
- How does your new coupon database work?
- Are items marked with a red and white shelf tag (that usually read “Save $1.00” or “Save $.99 on 2,” etc) part of a special sale, and if so, am I missing the source that lists them?
- How do coupon trains work, and how do I find them?
- When you have a few months’ supply of an item, what do you do if you see the same item at a great price/free?
And here are the answers!
- Stephanie from the comments wants to know: I’m fairly new to couponing, and I’ve noticed that coupons from magazines are sometimes mentioned in the matchups. Which magazines are best for finding coupons?
- Jennifer wants to know: Where do you find the coupon calendars you list in your matchups from time to time?
- Marla wants to know: Can I use more than one of the same Publix coupon in a single transaction? For example, if I have three Advantage flyers, can I cut the same coupon out of each one and use all three at once (if I’m buying three things) or do I have to do three separate transactions?
- Hannah wants to know: I have a small dog, and he is like my child so I really want to be able to buy him good dog food. But all the good dog foods (Pedigree, Purina, etc.) are really expensive! Do you have any tips or tricks to getting good pet food for decent prices?
- Kailin wants to know: How strict is Publix about enforcing those store coupons that state “One Deal/Coupon Per Customer”? I know some of the Green Advantage Buy coupons say something like that, as do a lot of the cookingwithkraft.com coupons.
- Angela wants to know: Do you adjust your “freezer habits” for the summer (hurricane season) months? I was without electricity for eight days straight in central Florida with Charley and the thought of a stockpile melting makes me fearful of freezing anything other than a two-day supply of ice cream between June and September!
- Sarah from the comments wants to know: How does your new coupon database work?
- Bridget wants to know: When walking around Publix I see a number of items that are on significant sale but don’t seem to be advertised. The savings are marked on small white tags with red borders underneath the product. Often the savings amount is substantial, especially if combined with coupon – e.g. ‘save $.50’ or ‘save $1.00’ -Most of these deals are not in the weekly ad nor the advantage buys/seasonal flyers. My question is – am I missing another source that lists all these specials? I would like to be able to plan before I hit the store.
- Sarah wants to know: I’ve heard you talk about coupon trading trains or sites. How do those work, and where can I find them?
- Laura wants to know: Being very new to couponing, I find myself feeling the need to go get every deal I read about/find. I LOVE seeing the savings! When you have a few months’ supply of an item, what do you do if you see the same item at a great price/free? Do you buy more, even though you already have a good supply? When do you know to stop? My coupon crazed self says, “BUY, BUY, BUY!!!”
Christy: Hands down, the best magazine for coupons is All You – although you should be aware that subscribers don’t get as many coupons as newstand buyers do. Other magazines that frequently have coupons are Good Housekeeping, Rachel Ray, Ladies Home Journal, and (in my area) Sunset.
Michelle: I am not sure I even know how many magazines I currently subscribe to…I get a TON of magazines delivered to my home! I always get them when they are super duper cheap!! I am always posting great magazine deals on I Heart Saving Money and I am going to do my best to remember to post them over here too. Here are some of my favorites that I found with a great deal:
Good Housekeeping (2-year)
Marie Claire (2-year)
Everyday with Rachael Ray at Best Deal Magazine –use the code PXSS711 through July 11, 2010 to get 15% off, making each subscription just $3.99
Shape at Best Deal Magazine –use the code PXSS711 through July 11, 2010 to get 15% off, making each subscription just $3.99
Woman’s Day at Best Deal Magazine –use the code PXSS711 through July 11, 2010 to get 15% off, making each subscription just $3.99
These are usually only available in South Florida as they correlate with an event specific to that area!! These are hot coupons and so they are often available via trade and online at sites like Ebay. I personally traded for my copies. Once they are spotted they will go quickly!
Christy: You can usually use multiple Publix coupons in a single transaction as long as you only have one Publix coupon per item you’re purchasing, UNLESS the coupon specifically states “one per customer.” (In which case, see our answer to question #5.)
This one is all Christy since we don’t yet have the joy of a pet 🙂
Christy: I know EXACTLY what you mean about the high cost of pet food, because my menagerie (2 medium-sized dogs, 3 cats) tries to eat me out of house & home most months! I try to feed my animals the best foods possible, too, and though I can’t get as cheaply as I want it (I’d really like it if it was free 🙂 ), I figure any savings is better than none. For the best deals, there are a few things you can do – and actually, this doesn’t JUST apply to pet items, I’d give the same advice for trying to save on any high-priced item!
Watch carefully for coupons on the brands you like. Purina and Pedigree go on sale relatively frequently, but ideally you don’t want to have to buy food until it’s on sale AND you can stack a MQ and a Publix/competitor’s coupon with it. I usually try to search Ebay at least once every couple weeks for my brands, and if I find coupons that don’t expire for a few months, I’ll usually buy them even if the item isn’t on sale yet. If Publix or a competitor (that your store accepts, of course) comes out with a coupon for your brand, even better – stacking coupons always makes for a MUCH better deal.
Keep a log of sale prices on your brands, and keep careful track of how long it takes your dog to finish a bag of food; that way when you stock up you can buy only as much as you can reasonably store/your dog can eat before the food’s expiration date.
Finally, if your brand doesn’t go on sale before your coupons expire, figure out if it’s worth it to use your coupons without the sale – often you can still make a pretty good deal for yourself. Just last week I had a bunch of Publix $2.50/1 Tidy Cat coupons that were expiring and I was running low on litter, so I stacked my Publix Qs with some $2/1 MQs and ended up saving 50%. It’s not the BEST price I could have gotten, but I’d much rather get it at 50% off than run out and have to buy it at full price!
Christy: Like most things to do with accepting coupons, this one is going to depend on your store. I’ve had no problem using multiple coupons that state “One Per Customer” at my store, but you probably want to ask at your Customer Service Desk to be sure. If your store will only accept one, then you’ll have to decide if the deal in question is worth multiple shopping trips – and with the price of gas in the south, I doubt it is!
Michelle: Definitely ask your store. This wording can actually be your friend as this limits one person from wiping out an entire quantity in one trip!! We all know that the super hot deals will go FAST!!
Christy: I live in North Central Florida, and I haven’t had to deal with a long-term power outage since I moved down here in 2006 (knock wood!), so I don’t really change my buying habits in the summer. You bring up a good point, though – I really don’t know what I’d do if I lost power to my deep freeze for more than about 6 hours, and frankly, I need a plan (and maybe a small generator)! I think I might start keeping an eye on Craigslist to see if I can find a good used generator for just that purpose. Until I find one, though, I’ve got to think about it like this – at least the contents of my deep freeze cost me 50-75% less than they did a year ago!
Michelle: Living in Metro Atlanta this is not an issue I have had to think about. I have to agree with Christy–if I had that as a possibility I would be working to save money to invest in a generator! We were affected by the flood last year and luckily out power was restored in time to prevent any loss. I remember thinking that a generator would have been a great thing to have on hand. I imagine if you could score one at a great deal having one at a time of need would more than cover the expense!!
I’d love for you guys to chime in on what you all do during hurricane season…I know I have a bunch of readers where this would apply!!
I HEART the new database!!! If you haven’t played with it yet, it’s HERE. You can access it at any time by clicking the Coupon Database tab at the top of the site. This is how it works:
Type the brand name of an item (i.e. Kraft) into the Description box and hit Search. The database will pull up all the valid coupons for Kraft items. If you want to find only the coupons for, say, Kraft Singles, then enter that into the Description box and hit Search again to narrow your results.
If you don’t get any results at all after you hit Search, there are either no coupons to match what you’re looking for or you’ve spelled something wrong, so double check!
You’ll see that to the far right there’s a link that says Suggest a Coupon. If you find or have a coupon for an item that’s not showing up on the database, you can actually help to add it by clicking on that link and entering the coupon details on the form that pops up! These suggestions go to the company that hosts the database – they review the information to make sure it’s correct, and then add the coupon to their lists.
Similarly, if you click on a coupon link in the database and the coupon is no longer active, you can help to take it down by clicking on the link to the far right of the coupon details that says “Report.” When you do this, the company that hosts the database will check to make sure that the coupon is inactive and then remove it from their lists.
As I’ve mentioned before the database saves me a TON of time behind the scenes but I hope it helps you to plan your shopping, too!
Christy: I’ve noticed these shelf tags in my store as well, and though I don’t know for sure, I got the impression that they were just a way for the store to tell shoppers that the permanent price for the item in question has been permanently reduced – similar to what Walmart calls “rollbacks,” etc. If my assumption is correct, then there is nothing available to Publix shoppers that lists their price changes. However, I may be wrong about the tags – if you know more, leave a comment & let us know!!
Michelle: I think you are referring to the “Shop Here, Save Here” tags. I was told that these are basically unadvertised advantage buy deals. I too would love the inside scoop from anyone in the know!! I wish there was a way to get a big list of these deals–you guys are always so great about emailing deals you find to share with your fellow shoppers–I bet we do a pretty good job identifying the really hot deals 🙂
Christy: Coupon trains are a way to trade coupons with people in various areas around the country, and they are usually organized on some sort of coupon-centric message board. Personally, I use THIS ONE, but a quick google search of “coupon train” will yield plenty of results – for example, the boards at Mommy Savers or Hot Coupon World look pretty active. Generally, a “train” will be made up of four or five “passengers” and one “conductor.” The conductor puts together an envelope of coupons and mails it off to the first passenger. That person receives the envelope, takes what they want/will use, replaces what they’ve taken or things that are getting close to their expiration dates with their own unwanted coupons, and sends it along to the second passenger. This continues on down the line until the last passenger sends the envelope back to the conductor. Trains are often organized around the type of coupon people are looking for [baby items, pet items, general grocery, household, high value (over $1), under $1 (for doubling), etc], so they are a great way to find coupons you might not otherwise get without spending more than the cost of a stamp.
Michelle: Be aware that to ride a train you need to have some pretty good coupons to trade. I used to do a fair amount of trains until I had a couple of bad rides. I got tired of people sending insert coupons and junk while I was sending out tearpads, hard to find coupons and making an effort to match wishlists!! I find that trading for specific coupons is my best bet! I get what I want as does the person I am trading with–there is no guesswork! Please understand I am not trying to sway you to not participating in a train–they can be lots of fun!! It is often a matter of luck 🙂
Christy: We’ve all felt what you’re feeling at one point or another – and in fact, my husband would tell you that I give in to that feeling frequently, at least when it comes to cereal 🙂 (How can I NOT buy it when it’s $.25 a box, I ask you???). I keep telling myself I’m going to start seriously tracking how frequently we use our basic, core items like canned goods, pasta, even toothpaste and shampoo, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. (Commenters, if you have a good system, please share!) Instead, I always take a quick (mental) inventory before I make my list/go shopping – it’s a lot easier to ignore the super-cheap chicken broth on my list when I know we already have 10 boxes of it in the stockpile! If I feel like we have enough of an item to last us 2-3 months, that’s usually my threshold.
I do have an exception to my basic “we have enough” rule. If something is literally free or a moneymaker, I will put it on my list no matter how much we have. I’ll ask my bagger to put those items in a separate bag, and I drop them at my local food bank or (depending on the item) or at the hospice donation center on my way home from the store. If Publix is making money from my coupons AND I can help out a local charity, I figure it’s a win/win and worth the extra few minutes on the way home.
Michelle: Oh yes–I think we all have had times where we buy things just to get that deal exhilaration!! I know when I first started couponing I honestly got just about every deal I read about. I think I still have some toothbrushes and shaving cream from my “buy everything” days 🙂 I now only buy things that I plan on using or plan on donating. There are the occasional odd items that I purchase in an effort to get another item free or to make a little money. I try to keep a mental inventory of things I have on hand. Since I am constantly visiting my stockpile pantry I usually know what I have and what I can/need to add. Every once in a while I end up running out of an item–but it is rare!
There are things that I will buy if I can get them for super cheap or free –no matter what I have on hand!! Paper goods and cleaners are things I will ALWAYS happily add to my stockpile!! I may already have 25 boxes of ziploc bags…but if I can get them for 20¢ I will buy them!! If I have a year supply of fabric softener and I don’t have to go out of my way or spend very much money I will add more bottles to my stash!!
I hope our answers to these questions were helpful! Make sure you ‘tune in’ next week for even more Q&A with I Heart Publix. If you have a question you’d like to see answered, email me at contactiheartpublix@gmail.com.
#6 Can you use multiple $/$? got skipped 🙂
Hurricanes….I’ve been through a few. Check with your insurance company about making a claim on your refrigerator/freezer items. My company allows a claim even under my deductible amount. The couple hundred dollars makes a difference! (We lost all our refrigerator and freezer items in Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, and fortunately that was all that was lost/damaged!)
Hurricanes…My parents, brother, sister and I all live in the same area. During long power outages, we share a generater. We rotate the generater about every 4 hours between the four houses. We’ve gone a couple of days doing that and NO ONE in the family lost anything from their deep freeze or fridge. We also make sure and NOT open the deep freeze during outages.
When we bought our freezer about a year ago, a generator was included in the budget we set aside. We don’t lose power here too often, but it was something we considered BEFORE buying the freezer. I don’t have the details handy (size, wattage, etc.) but the one we have will power the freezer, refridgerator, and a couple small appliances (think light, coffee pot, crockpot, cell phone chargers or my notebook computer!) We haven’t had to use it yet, knock on wood, but it’s comforting to know that it’s there should an emergency arise.
I live in Mobile Alabama and we have long power outages sometimes too. We have a small generator that we switch back and forth from the freezer to the fridge. Here is the great news, once you have the generator go to your smaller grocery stores (not Wal-Mart) and stock up on meat the day before the storm is to hit. Our Food-World usually puts all their meat %75 because they don’t have a generator and would rather make something than have a ton of rotten meat. We bought our generator during Katrina and were actually reimbursed the whole price. It is definatly worth it!( Don’t forget to fill up a gas can or two before hand to keep your generator running because once the powers out you might have a hard time finding any.)
I also live in Central Florida, and although we didn’t lose power during the ’04 season (say what you will about living near a power plant but it does have advantages, haha) my parents have a chest freezer that lasted a couple days with no problems. Keep it full and never open the door. The chest freezers will last longer than the uprights due to design.
Thanks for answering my question (but it’s Marla with an L 😉 ). I’ll try it next time!
Sorry about that Marla
Got it fixed!!
A couple of great ways to keep tabs on how much you use of an item:
One is to put a sticky note or card with the items. Every time you get a new one out, write it down on the note/card and date it. I do that with toilet paper. The sticky note gets transferred to the next package. It is a quick easy way to see at a glance how quickly we use the product.
Another way is to post a sheet on your refrigerator door. Every time you open something new, write it down. Keep the sheet posted for atleast a month. This will help you keep track of what you are using and how often. Keep the monthly sheets for awhile to keep track of the not used as often items.
Hurricanes. I live in Southwest Florida currently, but in my life I have lived on the Space Coast, the First Coast, and in the State Capitol. I have gone through some kind of tropical activity in all of them. My best advice is to make sure your freezer is full, every inch. Fill it with bottles of water. Then do not open the door! It will last quite some time this way.
We are looking to buy a generator as well, but even if we lost everything I wouldn’t be too worried. Our insurance does cover the loss of food, so check your policy. Other than that there isn’t much else.
In regards to the unadvertised advantage buys that we happen along in the stores, my husband is a retired store manager for Publix, who has recently returned as a GTL (Grocery Team Leader), at a local store. I asked him what he knew about them, and he said he does not know of any complete list of all the advantage buys that Publix offers at a given time. The advantage buy flyers are just the products Publix chooses to advertise that are marked down. However, there are many other products marked down, that don’t make it into the flyer. Those prices usually last the length of time the flyer is out, and change back to the previous price with the next flyer release. I found the Fischer bags for $1.00 this last week, which would be free with the coupon you offered online, except they were sold out of the flavors we like. I am still hunting that coupon to print more.:)
I wouldn’t worry about my freezer melting during a power outage from a hurricane because home owners insurance and/or fema will cover it so you would get more than it cost you to begin with. Last time, we started eating it as it thawed, and packed ice into it to keep as much as we could frozen. If you want to, cook it up and pack it in ice in a cooler and it will last a bit longer. to keep your freezer from thawing as quickly, keep gallon jugs of water frozen in it. do this anyways to keep empty spots full. it will reduce your energy cost. Don’t open it any more than you have to when power is out as it will make it thaw faster. Also, an upright will thaw faster than a chest freezer because when you open it, COLD AIR FALLS.
Hurricanes and freezer habits-Living in NW Florida and on the coast, we have been DAYS without power. Luckily we have a generator that we use to run our chest freezer and fridge on an alternating basis. We do try to pack the freezer close to full prior to the storm (freeze water in containers) and only open when necessary. We have also stored some items for neighbors in the past 🙂
Just an FYI-our generator cost was covered by FEMA after a hurricane, can’t remember which one. I happened to be reading a FEMA flyer one day waiting for an appointment and read something about it. We submitted a claim (not really expecting anything) and a few days later we got a call from a FEMA employee. He came over, looked at the generator, looked in our freezer and made a few notes. A few weeks later we got a check for more than we paid for our generator. (ours came from a pawn shop in Alabama, courtesy of my Dad)
How long should we expect to wait before our question is answered?
Re hurricanes – we just bought a new generator this weekend. We lost a full-size freezer full of food during Wilma and I’d rather not go through THAT again. I did get some reimbursement from my insurance company, which helped, but throwing out that much food just hurt. If it happens again, I’ll have my husband fire up the propane grill once the hurricane is over and cook all the meat and chicken in the freezer and invite the neighbors over for a party or something – better than wasting it all!
FYI, we got our generator online from Home Depot. My husband had all sorts of questions and I got tired of searching the site and made him use the live chat. The store rep offered him a 10% discount on the generator if he bought it that day! Given the generator was over $1,000, this was a major savings – it paid for an extended warranty (which given our history with generators, we totally need!)
Also, about the one coupon per customer rule. At my Publix, if I’ve got two of that type of coupon, then I do two separate transactions, one after the other. Although I usually mention it to the cashier first and ask her if we need to do the two separate transactions or can she just take both in the same one. Nine times out of ten, the cashiers at my store will just let me use both in the same transaction. I’ve NEVER had to make separate trips to the store to use them – frankly, the gas and time would probably negate any savings in that situation!
Hurricanes … SE Florida here … with 2 side by sides and an over the top freezer … that’s a lot of freezer space huh?
Anyways, keep them packed full, fill in the empty spots with water bottles. You will need them anyways, might as well freeze them. Katrina, we were without power for 6 days. I panicked. We ate well those 6 days as the food was put in a ziploc and tossed in the cooler to defrost (and help keep that stuff cold) to eat. I think the only thing I tossed was the fish bait and that was within hours of losing power. No way was that going to stick around so it got fed to the fish off the dock!
With Wilma, I was much more prepared (not that much longer after Katrina!) and made a QUICK inventory of the freezers … moved stuff around to keep related items together. Froze as much water bottles AND put in all my stainless steel bowls in the freezer too (odd, I know). This made the panic stuff not set in so bad (did not want to file a claim for lost food, sorry) … those stainless steel bowls were put in the refrigerators when the power went out, with whatever I pulled out to eat first (usually the smaller items first) … we went almost 3 weeks without power.
We ate like royalty. Thank god for grills and my mom for sending me the little campfire coffee maker after Katrina!
We fed the entire neighborhood. Breakfast, lunch and dinner (one night was a large pasta dinner with homemade sauce from the freezer)
We hosted a Halloween party, played music (sattelite radio as we were TIRED of the hurricane news!) AND the spreader lights from the boat that we had in the driveway. There was a 10pm curfew but since everyone was within walking distance it was no biggie. The police did stop, just to say it was good to see us having a good time (we gave them some snacks and water).
Those who came, some dressed up, others not, all brought something to eat, be it crackers, snacks, whatever. The only problem I had was limiting the number of ice cubes in the drinks! 🙂 We were golden as we made sure to get ice on our daily run!
Needless to say, we now have a generator, the largest you can have on wheels because hubby said never again for 3 weeks without a/c 🙂 I still do NOT modify my freezer plans, other than I am still trying to empty them out just for the sake of doing so 🙂