Jason and I went away for my 40th birthday this weekend. We spent an enjoyable time dining, shopping and sleeping. We also spent a little time at Publix shopping for FREE wine. We usually hold summer wine tasting parties with our friends every year. I grew up going to wine tastings in CA my whole life and it is a wonderful hobby to share with people. We decided to challenge ourselves to see if we could get our wine for free on this trip. We laughed with glee as we drove from Publix to Publix while we were on our way to our hotel in Atlanta.
We were just blown away by the fact that you can get free wine with couponing (you can't buy wine in grocery stores in TN so we were excited to make a trip to the Publix in GA where you can buy wine in grocery stores).
So, we both did a shop before we left town (1st picture) and then we did 3 shops while on the road in Atlanta (2nd picture). The Atlanta shops took about 20 minutes each. This post represents 5 separate shops.
Here's the deal
34 Sundown Vitamins $2.99-$3.59 ($6/2 Publix Q & $1/1 Q = FREE+)
6 Mustard $.85 ea (.50/1 = FREE+)
6 Kraft BBQ $.70 ea ($1/1 = FREE+)
8 Johnson's Buddy Bars $1.09 ea ($3/2 Q = FREE+)
4 Glad Snack $1.59 ea ($1/1 Q & $1/1 Food Lion Q= FREE+)
2 Hefty Fresh Extend $1.79 ea ($1/1 Q & $1/1 Food Lion Q = FREE+)
5 Revlon nail clippers $1.49 ea ($2/1 Publix Q = FREE+)
7 Revlon nail file $1.69 ea ($2/1 Publix Q = FREE+)
12 Kool Aid $.20 ea ($2 off sugar WYB 10 Q and .50/1 Q = FREE+)
1 Publix sugar $.85 ea ($2 off sugar WYB 10 Kool Aid = FREE+)
3 AppleEve juice $1.39 ea ($.50/1 Greenwise Mag. & $1/1 Q = FREE+)
2 pork ribs $2.01 ea ($2 off ribs wyb charc. & KC & $6/1 Q = FREE+)
2 pork rib chops $2.47, $3.22 ($6/1 pork Q = FREE+)
1 Crystal Light $2.00 ea ($2/1 Q from All you Mag = FREE)
1 Crystal Light $2.00 ea (FREE Skin Ess. wyb Crystal Q = FREE)
5 Trail Mix Cereal $2.00 ea ($2/1 Q = FREE)
4 KC Masterpiece BBQ $1.57 ea (FREE KC Q = FREE)
1 Publix Horseradish cheese $1.10 ($1/1 Target Q = .10 ea)
7 Pepperidge Farm $1.99 ea ($1/1 Q & .75/1 Target Q = .25 ea)
1 Cheese Danish $3.39 ea ($3/10 Bakery/Deli Food Lion Q = .39 ea)
2 Beef patties $2.39 ea ($2 off beef wyb charc. & sargento = .39 ea)
4 Crystal Light $2.00 ea ($1/1 Q = $1.00 ea)
1 Hard Salami $2.27 (no coupons = $2.27)
2 Sargento $2.50 ea (no coupons = $2.50 ea)
1 Publix sliced Roast Beef 1lb. $4.84 ($1.50 Target Q = $3.34 ea)
4 Charcoal $7.99 ea ($3/1 Q = $4.99 ea)
1 Similac $22.49 ($5 check, $5 Publix Q, $3 FL Q, $2/1 Q = $7.49 ea)
2 Beaujolais Villages $9.99 ea (no coupons = $9.99)
1 Estancia Pinot Noir $16.99 ea (no coupons = $16.99)
1 Sterling Chardonnay $17.99 ea (no coupons = $17.99)
20 filler items various prices (no coupons)
5 $5/50 competitor coupons
TOTAL: $400.25
TOTAL AFTER COUPONS: $32.26
SAVINGS: 92%
NOTE: We had a raincheck for the charcoal for $7.99 a bag for the Matchlight. They only had 3 bags in stock. We asked customer service if we could buy one of the regular Kingsford at this price too since our raincheck was for 4 bags; she said yes! Our final OOP after we sell the charcoal will be $12.26.
NOTE: Jason bought the horseradish cheese but he didn't buy a pound. I just read the coupon and it says that you need to buy a pound of cheese. I don't think he realized this so we didn't use that coupon properly.
NOTE: I have a new filler item that I'm pretty excited about. I am now adding in packets of Kool Aid. They are .20 each and you can combine the $2 off sugar wyb 10 Kool Aid Q and the .50/10 printable and the $1 off Food Lion sugar wyb 5 Kool Aid Q that I found today at Food Lion. This is going to be an awesome combination. With the above coupons I will buy 10 packets of Kool Aid and get $5 off of 2 bags of sugar and 10 packets of Kool Aid (can you say MONEYMAKER)!! The coupons do not stipulate a particular kind of sugar so you can buy any kind of Publix sugar that you want.
20 comments:
That's exciting about the sugar! But, where do you get the .50/10 printable? And is the $1.00 off Food lion sugar wyb 5 kool aid at food lion, or is a FLIP?
Thank you for sharing the kool aid/sugar deal scenario. I have been waiting for a scenario to use the $2 off sugar q that we got in the paper a couple weeks ago.
Also, I have to ask, what are you going to do with all the vitamins? I have been running that deal this month too, but my stockpile of vitamins are not nearly as big as yours.
Thanks.
Melea, the $.50/10 coupon was a printable on coupons.com (you can check there but not sure if it is still available). I picked up a few of the Food Lion Q's for you and the other gals in the mom's group. They will still be a money maker even without the .50/10 Q.
Tara, 10 packs of Kool Aid cost $2.00. So with that coupon alone you can either get your Kool Aid free or your sugar free (the confectioner's sugar is only .85 cents). If you throw in another coupon it just sweetens the deal (so to speak). :) In answer to your vitamin question. I give my vitamins to the Siloam Family Health Center which is a free clinic here in Nashville.
Kelly- I am, as always, impressed with your ability to figure out the absolute bestest deals EVER. I am sad that I won't have the ability to do the sugar/koolaid deal before I go on vacation! Tyler and were just looking at your post, totally impressed. How fun.
Wow--your shopping trips are so thought out! Not sure if I'll ever make it to that level. But gosh, I like checking out what you get! Hope you had a great bday weekend.
SCG, I buy some of my coupons off of EBAY (especially for this charcoal deal). The other markets get different coupons than we get so sometimes the combination of our coupons with their coupons is deadly. :)
For example, I purchased 20 Target Bounty coupons on EBAY to go with the .25/1 coupon that I had because I love Bounty and that makes them .25 a roll after both coupons. The coupons only cost me $1.50 but they saved me almost $40.
You can do the same thing with just a little foresight. The iheartpublix.com website puts out the Publix ad a little early so that gives you time to go to ebay and buy your coupons before the sale is over.
Melissa, that Kool Aid/sugar deal totally rocks. I love FREE sugar and free filler items. When are you leaving for your vacation BTW?
Have a great day!
Kelly...All I can say is WOW! I swear I want to be you when I grow up! Hahahaha :)! Which stores in the Atlanta area did you go to in order to use the FL Q's? I'm trying to decide if it would be worth a trip into the city for those stores.
Where did you find the $3/2 Johnson & Johnson Q's? I have the $1.00 ones but it doesn't produce overage for me unless at WalMart.
Also, did you get a chance to go to Trader Joe's? I hope you loved visiting Hotlanta and had a great birthday!!!
One more question...where did you find the Pepperidge Farm Q for $1.00? I would love to snag some of those. :)
Bethany, Hey there girl. How you doing this week? So nice to see you hanging around here every week. :)
Answers to some of your questions:
1. I went to several stores on the outskirts of Atlanta in North Atlanta. Many of them were close to Perimeter. Every one of them took "any grocery store" competitor coupons (some of them even took the competitor coupons from my area when I asked at the customer service desk). I went to: Kennesaw Walk, Wade Green Village and Acworth Publix (that's what it says on the receipts). They were all pretty close to each other. I also tried to do a shop at the Publix on Ashwood-Dunwoody in Perimeter but they didn't want to give me overage so I walked away from the deal (it was only vitamins and cherries; hubby was hungry; we were trying to use up our Sundown Publix coupon before it expired).
2. I bought those $3/2 Johnson & Johnson Q's off of EBAY a few months ago.
3. I DEFINITELY went to Trader Joe's. That was our main purpose for choosing Hotlanta. We went to buy some of their wine as we don't have wine at our Trader Joe's. :(
4. The Pepperidge Farm coupon was right on the bread itself; it is a peelie. I only found them at one of the Atlanta stores on a special display stand with the bread (the bread on the aisle didn't have any for some reason).
Thanks for the birthday wishes. It was a wonderful time with my husband. I love Hotlanta!
You may know this, but there's a q for KC Masterpiece from last week (?I think?) $2 off wyb charcoal. (even better than free wyb charcoal! overage! lol!)
I have questions!!! Many of them! I am a Spring Hill shopper usually, but today I went to the Royal Oaks store. I didn't have a good experience. They wouldn't take my Target Q's. Or at least they said they wouldn't...then I asked for them back and they only gave two back. I think that she actually did use the others?? Either that she just kept them!!
And do you know if any of the stores around here will accept a Walgreen's Q as a competitor? Today my cashier said she didn't "think" so. Ummm, can you ASK? No. I'm serious.
Anyway, I do have lots of questions being a newbie...and I don't want to hijack your blog with them ,LOL, how can I safely give you my email address?
-Jenny
Brandy, I stopped buying the Sunday paper so I don't have that $2 off wyb charcoal coupon yet. I'll eventually get some from the recycle bin. :) Thanks for the tip; I didn't think about the overage part. Merci!
fromthablok (Jenny), Royal Oaks does accept Target Q's (although they have told me that they don't in the past). If that happens again then just check out and go to customer service and tell them that you had a problem with the cashier not taking your Target Q's. Talk to the manager if necessary. That store is always telling me something different; the last time I was there the customer service manager told me that he would take them but he said that some of the other management staff only want to take Supertarget coupons because they are a grocery store. I told him it shouldn't matter as the regular target Q's are for items that you could buy at the supertarget grocery store. The target Q's are always for grocery items (hence the reason that we are using them as competitor coupons at a grocery store).
I have never been to a Publix in TN that accepts drugstore Q's. They do not see drugstores as their competition.
You are welcome to post your questions here. We will try to help you if we can. I do not usually give out my email address for questions as I don't have time to teach anymore (new baby in the house). My suggestion would be to take a class from Faithful Provisions. She is located in Franklin, TN I think. You'll find her blog at: http://www.faithfulprovisions.com/
Have a great day!
also, I have some Target bounty q's if you want them- I won't be using them. lmk :)
Hi Kelly,
One more question about the kool aid: looks like both the $2 off sugar wyb 10 kool aid, and the $1 off sugar wyb 5 kool aid are both manuf. Q's, so can you still use them both?
Melea, the $2 off sugar is the Man. Q and the $1 off sugar has to be wrung up as a competitor Q (because it says that it is for FOOD LION sugar). I don't think that Publix will be reimbursed for it if they just scan it because it was a Food Lion exclusive coupon. So, technically it is a competitor coupon (but you must tell the cashier to enter it as a competitor).
i would love to hear from you sometimes about how you maintain a good working relationship with your publix's. I am in Florida (Orlando) and it seems like I just am always getting the stink eye of suspicion. I don't do nearly as good of deals as yours, (usually run in the $35 dollar range) and they just don't like me!!!!! I am so cautious to be upright in the use of the coupons but yesterday they decided they didn't like me using the Food Lion coupons and told me no...I had to have them go through my bags and get out all the hefty baggies....Its something every time....How do you do such good deals without the fear and trembling from the stink eye?????
Heather, many of the folks from the TN region have emailed Publix's corporate website and we have received calls back from the District Manager for our area. We have worked with him to ensure that our experience is a good one when we shop at Publix. We have given him honest feedback re: our experience and what we like/don't like about shopping at Publix. The District Manager for our area is amazing. He is a very intelligent man and he understands that if we have a good experience at Publix we will pull other folks away from Kroger and teach them to shop at Publix.
I began teaching coupon classes about 6 months ago and I talked to the District Mgr. and told him that I was moving people away from Kroger and taking them to Publix. He was excited about this and he could see the potential profit from it. I also told him about the difficulties that we have with our cashiers (especially the women who are over 50; this age group in general is a problem for all of the couponers in this area). I choose my cashiers very carefully because I want to have a good experience. If I don't have a good experience then I call or speak directly to the store manager and tell them that we don't want to be treated as criminals since we are ethical.
Here are some of the other things that I do to maintain a good relationship with my cashiers:
1. I always smile and say hello and ask them how their day is going. They are people too and sometimes they have had a rough day and I can empathize. :)
2. I usually give them something out of my groceries that I got for FREE (I do this because I like to encourage them but also so that they don't think that we are a stingy group of couponers. The cashiers don't understand that we give alot of our stockpile away to people who are in need).
3. I also try to give something to the baggers so that they will be friendly when I return also. I love the baggers in our stores.
Lastly, I don't ALWAYS have a good experience at Publix but I usually do. This means that Publix is doing something right (at least in my area). If you are not satisfied with the kind of service that you receive then make sure you are voicing your concerns in a gentle way to corporate or to your store managers. Publix is concerned about customer service.
Hope that helps!
Heather,
PS - Keep in mind that we are a new market for Publix so they are very concerned about their reputation in this area. I hope that they are concerned in Florida too but it may just be a different mentality.
This is the South and friendliness is always expected here. :)
Thanks for that....I will keep on keeping on. I hope its not a different mentality. Publix is notoriously known here for being really expensive and everyone I know that has any bargainabilty is going to Walmart. I have taught several people how to coupon, so I am doing my little part. I will make an extra effort with my cashiers. I choose them wisely also! Thanks so much for the advice...it was oober helpful!
I'm diggin' the word uber in the above post.
PS - We shopped in Orlando this Spring when we went to WDW. The folks seemed really nice but they weren't prepared for us I think. LOL.
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