Publix tips-long but GOOD!!!

Hey everyone. OK... It's official, I have a new favorite store.. Publix. I had read on the southern savers website all about "stacking" coupons and that you could do that at most Publix locations, but had never tried it until the other day. So, I have been working on strategies to find the food for this years VBS snacks either really cheap or free. I saw a deal at Publix and decided to go try it at the one in Simpsonville and it WORKED!!! I got 2 boxes of Ritz crackers (for VBS) FREE! Here is what I did...

Food Lion and Target both offer store coupons on their website that are printable. They are "only" good at Food Lion or Target, however Publix takes them at their store too! Hot Coupon World Coupon Generator has the Target coupons listed by expiration date and you can print multiples on one page. You just put in how many coupons you want to print and hit the "get coupons" bar at the bottom. Then just print them out when they come up. What you need to do is match those "competitor" coupons up with coupons you have cut out of the paper or printed online (manufacturers coupons). At Publix, you can use both coupons on one item... for example...

Last week, Ritz crackers were B1G1 and they rang up 1.90 per box. I used a $1.00 Target coupon and a $1.00 manufacturers coupon and got them FREE! Well, actually, they paid me 0.10 for buying them.

Another hint is to look for the Advantage buy flyers. There are two of them this month. One is yellow and one is green. They are usually located wherever you find the sales circulars near the front entrance. I usually grab a couple of those-one to cut coupons out of and one to look at (it's hard to read once you start cutting the coupons out of it- GAPING holes). Anyway, those flyers have a ton of great coupons in them and they are also "stackable" meaning you can use one of those and 1 manufacturers coupon. They have a disclaimer on them that says you can not use them with any other coupon, however, the Publix corporate policy states that you are allowed to "stack" 3 coupons at a time (1 competitor coupon, 1 manufacturer coupon, and 1 Publix coupon). I will warn you though-it's up to the store's discretion whether or not they choose to actually let you do that, so I would start small and test the waters first. I only bought 2 boxes of crackers last week so that I could find out if they would let me do it. Now I know that they will at the SIMPSONVILLE location, so I'm ready to start stacking!!!!

If you stack coupons like this, you can get most anything in the flyers or with competitors coupons, either VERY cheap or FREE. Just wanted to let everyone know. I will probably test the waters at the Mauldin store this week, so I'll let you know what I find out.

Also, a friend of mine sent me a message on Facebook to tell me that she was in Bilo the other night and a lady in front of her had used a coupon that would cause her to get money back. She noticed that the register had adjusted the amount down so that she would get it for free but no money back. I asked my friend who used to work at the corporate office at Bilo and she said it's always been supposed to do that, but that the manager has the capability to go in and override that. Apparently some managers are letting you get money back and some are not. I personally have not had anything adjusted as of yet. I am still making money on some of my purchases, but that could change, so watch out. If you are like me though, Free is good. I don't need to "make Money" on it (but it's sure nice sometimes).