Keep sending in those questions – we love to answer them! If we didn’t get to your question this week…we will do our best to cover 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 you can find all the questions and answers from this feature!
Here are this week’s questions:
- What do you do when you’ve gotten home (or your are just in the car on the way home) and look at your reciept to find they missed a coupon (like a $5/50 competitor coupon)?
- What’s the best way to get good deals on meat, milk, veggies, & eggs?
- How do you end up with so many gift cards?
- I have a few favorite cashiers and managers that I would love to thank for their excellent service with a Christmas gift. Is this appropriate?
- Do you know what Publix will do regarding the Art Calendar this year, after last year’s unnecessary fiasco?
- Why doesn’t Publix have a national coupon policy like some stores do??
- You have a BIGI coupon. You buy two items. Can you use a $ off coupon on the item you are buying?
- when Publix has an item as BOGO, and I have a manufacturer coupon and a target coupon that is $/2 do I need to buy 2 BOGO deals??
- Can we use Target $/$$ (the ones that print out of Target Catalina machines) at Publix?
- If I use coupons for things that have overage will the overage lower the amount I pay in tax?
And here are the answers!
- Julie wants to know: What do you do when you’ve gotten home (or your are just in the car on the way home) and look at your receipt to find they missed a coupon (like a $5/50 competitor coupon)?
- Andrea wants to know: What’s the best way to get good deals on meat, milk, veggies, and eggs? I’ve had the most trouble getting those at the lowest price or even finding coupons for them.
- Alethea wants to know: How do you end up with so many giftcards? Are there certain websites that you go to to earn these giftcards or are they actually gifts from others?
- Cathy wants to know: I have a few favorite cashiers and managers that I would love to thank for their excellent service with a Christmas gift. Is this appropriate? A friend told me it could be considered ethically “wrong” to give them a gift. If it is acceptable, what would you suggest (or what value should I limit gifts to)? Also, is there something you can suggest as a thank you gift to a whole store’s employees? (I’m lucky, I love everyone that works at my Publix!!)
- Sam wants to know: Do you know what Publix will do regarding the Art Calendar this year, after last year’s unnecessary fiasco? I used my Calendar all year long (though there’s an ad in my flyer this week for $5/50 anyway!) and would love to get another one for the new year.
- Kristin wants to know: Why doesn’t Publix have a national coupon policy like some stores do – we all know how individual Publix stores and the states they are in differ in their policies, but why not a national policy? I try to follow the rules, and feel horrible when I am told I can’t use the coupons on a deal, so I wish there was some good policy to go to.
- Karen wants to know: You have a B1G1 coupon. You buy two items. Can you use a $ off coupon on the item you are buying? It is my understanding that you canNOT, as the B1G1 requires 2 items to fulfill the requirements and a second $ off coupon would be like having 2 coupons attach to the same item.
- Brigitte wants to know: When an item is BOGO at Publix, and I have a manufacturer coupon and a Target coupon that are both $X/2, do I need to buy 2 BOGO deals in order to use both coupons?
- Krystal wants to know: Can we use Target $/$$ (the ones that print out of Target Catalina machines) at Publix? I have read about people using the ones like that from Walgreens (the RR’s).
- Heather wants to know: I have been using coupons for a while and I am having trouble in one area. If I use coupons for things that have overage will the overage lower the amount I pay in tax? When I go over the scenarios it always looks like I have a lot of overage, but when I am at the register my out of pocket seems high.
Christy: I am very lucky in that my store is no more than 5 minutes away from my home – so if I have the time to spare, I’ll often go back to correct any major mistake (more than $4 or $5), or I’ll call to tell someone about the problem and have them fix it the next time I stop in. I’ll often let minor errors slide, since they’ve made mistakes before in my favor in the past and I think it all ends up balancing out that way.
Michelle: My store is over 20 minutes away so I usually just let it go if I make it home. I try to watch the coupons as they are scanned by the cashier to avoid any issues. I am a bit of a geek and organize my coupons before I hit the register. That way I can pull any that I have for items I did not end up getting and also arrange my coupons so the larger value coupons are on top. Like Christy said, I think in the end it balances out.
Christy: I’ve found that it’s easiest to save the most on milk and eggs when you’re not brand-loyal. I stock up on eggs and milk whenever there is a good coupon – I’ve not paid more than $1 per half-gallon of milk for over 7 or 8 months because I’ll happily switch from Lactaid to Silk to Smart Balance and back again depending on the sales. Meat and veggies are harder – mostly I just look for overage deals to offset the cost of these kinds of essentials. Any discount is a better deal than full price, after all!
Michelle: Christy and I are the same on this one. I have LOVED the Smart Balance deals here lately!! I currently have enough milk to get us through mid February (hopefully!) and I only paid $1 per gallon thanks to the deals/coupons. I work hard to maintain my stockpile so that I can use the majority of my budget on things like veggies and perishables! I also shop the sales. I plan my menu based on what is on sale and just buy those items. That helps tremendously! I am also very lucky in that we have no food allergies and no one in my house is very picky. There are coupons for the items you indicated…they are not as frequently available but they are out there! There is a $0.55/2 egg coupon on SmartSource right now under zip 30187 🙂
It is really a combination. I work hard to earn gift cards…here are a couple of examples of what I do.
My bank has a rewards program where I earn points when I use my debit card as a credit card for purchases. So each November, I turn in my points for a nice little Visa Gift Card. I do the same with MyPoints. I click to read emails and do the occasional survey and each November I trade them in for a drugstore or Target gift card. I have told you guys many times before that I use Swagbucks to score Amazon gift cards…I purchased the majority of my Christmas gifts with those gems!! I spend a ton of time online so I figure I might as well get a little perk 🙂
As a blogger, I often get little perks like gift cards. For the Grateful Giveaways promotion, I was able to give away a $100 Visa card and got one for myself as part of the review. I do several survey sites (like Inbox Dollars ) where I get the occasional check here and there. I take those and any rebate check I get (like the cash back checks from Ebates & Shop At Home) and throw them in an envelope. Every few months I take those checks and rather than putting them in the bank–I use the money to get gift cards. It is amazing how that little bit of money can really add up quickly!!
I also get the occasional gift card as a gift or bonus. My husband just got a gift card from his work as part of his holiday gift. Basically any “extra money” I earn gets turned into gift cards…that way I can decide how I want to use it 🙂
Christy: I would suggest that you ask your customer service desk or store manager if it is ok to thank individual employees with small gifts. If it were me, I would limit gifts to no more than around $5 – and I think a Publix giftcard makes a great little gift that you know that they’ll all use at one point or another.
Michelle: I definitely think you need to ask management at your store. I am not sure what rules exist within that company. I know a great option that I know would be appreciated…take a few minutes and go on the Publix.com site and send in an email about specific employees that have gone above and beyond to provide excellent service. Often people are quick to send emails to complain but they are not as likely to send the compliments. I bet this small gesture would mean so much to the folks at your store!!
Christy: I’ve heard that there won’t be a calendar this year, but I don’t know for sure that this is the case. Michelle?
Michelle: I don’t think they are printing the calendars this year 🙁 I am keeping my fingers crossed that they come back soon. Maybe Publix will come up with another option??
Christy: When this question showed up in the comments, there were a ton of comments and a number of you had heard that Publix was going to be moving to a single coupon policy with the new year. If this is the case, there may be some changes in the number of coupons we are able to use, the types of competitors that are accepted, etc. We will just have to see what happens. I’ve always worried that the changes brought about by a corporate coupon policy might actually cause me to save less money – so I guess we’ll see!
Michelle: Yep, there is rumor of a new policy. I am not sure what this will mean for us. If/when it happens I will give you guys any info I get.
Christy: It’s always been my understanding that you can use a $X/1 coupon in conjunction with a B1G1 coupon – that the B1G1 attaches to the free item (because the coupon doesn’t specify that you must pay FULL PRICE for the item that you buy in order to get another item free) and the $X/1 attaches to the ‘buy’ item.
Michelle: This is one of those little areas open to interpretation. I believe that the B1G1 attaches to the primary item leaving the other item open. There is nothing on the coupon indicating that you have to pay full price for the item that you buy as a qualifier for the B1G1 coupon 🙂
Christy: As long as your store accepts Target as a competitor, you should be able to use both coupons on one set of BOGO items!
Christy: As long as your store accepts Target as a competitor, they should accept those coupons, but ask at your customer service desk to be sure.
Michelle: Just be sure and confirm that your store will accept these coupons and you should be good to go.
Christy: To the best of my knowledge, we pay tax on the full price of whatever taxable items we purchase. Your overage will reduce your overall out-of-pocket expense but doesn’t affect the amount of tax assessed.
Michelle: Only store coupons reduce your taxable amount. You will pay tax on the full price of any item you buy using manufacturer’s coupons. Taxes vary by type of item here in Georgia…I stopped trying to figure the exact amount a long time ago 🙂 I now just guestimate– tee hee!
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.
Just curious what was the fiasco about the art calendars? I don’t think they had them in FL or at least I wasn’t aware of them when they came out. I just started using this site a few months ago so it’s possible I missed the post if it was last year.
They had good Publix coupons in them, for each month. (And they did have them in FL).
So what was the fiasco then?
Some “American” holiday wasn’t listed and on that same date there was some other holiday and people chose to be offended.
Publix said they couldn’t list EVERY holidays so they just selected the types they wanted to include and it turned out to have a holiday listed on the same date as the one that didn’t make the cut. It was just random that the dates lined up that way this year but the media made a big stink about it and got every riled up. Was a bunch of people making assumptions that were not correct.
Too bad they made such a big deal out of it so now there’s no calendar next year. 🙁
Wow it sounds like some people have way to much time on their hands to scrutinize the calendar and then make a big stink about it. 🙁
I received an email from Publix saying they have stopped doing the art calenders even though they had done them for the last five years. I only got the art calender last year and enjoyed using the coupons that came with it.