Separate Transactions

Our grocery store is running a promotion where you can earn free grocery gift cards by collecting "premiums" when you spend $50 or more in a single transaction. I used to take advantage of this promotion, but since they now have double coupon day every week, it doesn't make sense to participate anymore. Let me explain.

You have to collect 6 premiums to earn a $10 gift card. That means you have to spend $50 six times in an 8 week period to get a $10 gift card. If you spend $50 a week in groceries already, you may be thinking this is a great thing because you'll save an extra $10.

However, if you are willing to take a little extra time shopping with a calculator, you can triple your savings by splitting your $50 worth of groceries into 2 transactions and shopping on double coupon day because they will double 5 coupons per $25 transaction.

Let me give you an example. Most of the coupons I double are $1 printable coupons, so let's say I have ten $1 coupons per week. If I pay for all my groceries together and spend $50, I can only double five $1 coupons, saving $10 plus $5 in non-doubled coupons, or $15. If I split those same groceries into two $25 transactions, I can double 5 coupons per transaction (therefore all ten $1 coupons), saving $20 over the two transactions. I bought the same amount of groceries, but I saved $5 more by doubling ALL my coupons. If I do this every week for the 6 weeks, I'll save $30 on my own instead of earning a $10 gift card! In addition, you get this savings right away and you don't have any premiums to keep track of.

It takes a little more practice to shop this way, and unless you're really good at math, you'll need a calculator. Enter the price of an item as soon as it goes into your cart. When you hit $25, start a new transaction on your calculator, keeping your groceries and coupons separate. Putting 2 grocery baskets into your cart can help you keep things straight, and I paper clip each order's coupons together and put them with that batch of groceries.

Imagine if you started doing this every week all year. $5 a week adds up, doesn't it? It adds up to $260, in fact! That's a whole month's worth of groceries I essentially got for free by doubling coupons and doing separate transactions! Now I don't know if I explained it well, so if you need clarification, I'm happy to help. Just leave a comment or email me. I want to help you earn free groceries, too!