Keep sending in those questions – we love to answer them! Just remember 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 of the questions and answers from this feature!
Here are this week’s questions:

  1. How many times per week do you shop?
  2. Are rain checks store specific?
  3. How do you determine what your annual grocery budget is?
  4. My Publix accepts Walgreens Register Rewards as manufacturer’s coupons. Do they get reimbursed for them or are they taking a loss when they accept them?
  5. How many emails do you get every day?
  6. Do you feel like the true coupon deals (75% off or more with coupons) are getting fewer over the last year?
  7. If I accidentaly print two coupons back to back (meaning I can only use one of them in the store), is it ethical to make a photo copy of one of them and then write Void on the original?
  8. Have you and Christy have ever met, or do you just know each other through your blogs?
  9. In order to get the most from Publix, what should we be subscribing to or signing up to so that we can get all the coupons and deals?
  10. How can I easily and effectively track my spending this next year for Publix, CVS and Wags?

And here are the answers!

  1. Jesse wants to know: How many times per week do you shop?

    2. Michelle: I usually only do one big shop every week…that is all I have time for! I used to shop more frequently but I found that if I am organized, I can knock everything out in one day and save gas by having to run from store to store.

  2. Danielle wants to know: Are rain checks store specific? Sometimes there is a stamp on the back of them which store they are from. I’m wondering if they have to be used at that store or if that is just a suggestion and they can be used at any Publix.

    3. Christy: I have a number of stores in my area (and a few that I shop regularly), and I’ve always been able to use my rain checks at any store. I’ve even used a rain check out of town without any problem! However, as always, I’d suggest that you double-check with your customer service desk before you shop with a rain check from a different store for the first time, just to be sure!
    Michelle:  Ask your store.  I think that they should be used at the store where the rain check was written…after all that was the store that did not have enough product in stock.

  3. Amy wants to know: How do you determine what your annual grocery budget is? With a new year just around the corner, and my new found love of deal-hunting, I’m not sure how to decide how much to allow for groceries in the upcoming year. Any magical formula??

    4. Christy: I’m sure Michelle will have a better answer for this – she is the budget queen, after all! 🙂 – but here’s what I did last year: I took my average weekly total, added $10, and multiplied by 52 (weeks in the year). I added that $10 so that I had some wiggle room when there were great deals or if I needed to deviate a little from my  list in a particular week. This year I’m only adding $5 instead of $10 per week because I’m really going to try to challenge myself to spend even less!
    Michelle:  I based my budget on about three months of expense tracking. My goal is to spend about $2,100 per year which is an average of $40 per week.  I allow myself to be under some weeks and a little over on other weeks.  I am not sure I will ever decrease my budget.  This is my second year and seems to work for my family’s needs.  I figure if I have money left over at the end of the year, I will happily splurge or improve my stockpile a bit 🙂

  4. Stacie wants to know: My Publix accepts Walgreens register rewards. They have said they are manufacturer coupons and most of the cashiers scan them in just like a manufacturer coupon but I was wondering if they will get reimbursed for those. I don’t want to be unfair to Publix as I get such great deals there. If I am already using a competitor $/$$ Q and then I have $15 in Walgreens register rewards, I don’t want Publix to lose money on that transaction, however I would love to be able to use my register rewards to pay at Publix if that is acceptable. Do you know if they are reimbursed for those?

    5. Christy: I think we may have answered a question like this before, but it never hurts to go over these types of things! To the best of my knowledge, Publix does not get reimbursed for Walgreens Register Rewards, but I’d love to know if I’m wrong about this. I’m going to ask at my customer service desk next time I shop. Commenters, please weigh in on this!
    Michelle:  Honestly, I have no idea.  I am sure the coupon will make it through redemption to the clearinghouse…but I can’t say whether the company who sponsored the Catalina will reimburse Publix.

  5. The fantabulous Happy wants to know: How many emails do you get in a day? I assume you are not able to respond to all of them. How do you manage it all?

    6. Since I have three sites…I have three email accounts. I also have two personal accounts to keep up. So I can get anywhere between 400 -1000 emails each day!  I try to respond or post as much as I possibly can.  Sometimes things get lost but I do the best I can 🙂

  6. Sara wants to know: Do you feel like the true coupon deals (75% off or more with coupons) are getting fewer over the last year? Do you also feel like the coupons are not as good as they use to? For example: there are rarely any $1/1 Nabisco crackers that used to come out once a month or so and now we are lucky if most regions get a $1/2.

    7. Christy: We get questions like this pretty often, and since I’ve only been couponing for about 16 months, I can’t say for sure if the deals and coupons are going downhill. There are certainly still a number of great deals that we can score every week at Publix, and I can’t say for sure if the overall number of deals is getting smaller.
    Here’s my take on the reducing/disappearing coupon issue: It seems to me that a lot of high value coupons that are released are incentives to buy a new or improved product. As that product stays on the market longer and longer and people start purchasing it more regularly, the coupons for it are fewer and certainly less valuable. For example, think about a product like Tide Stain Release – we got those great $3/1 coupons in the 8/29 and 9/26 P&G Inserts as it first came out, and once it’s gotten established as a Tide product, the 10/31 P&G coupon was a $2/1. I wouldn’t be surprised if we only start to see $1/1s as the new year starts. I don’t know if this is the only reason why coupons amounts get smaller sometimes, but it does help me to predict what kind of coupon we’ll see for an item and when!
    Michelle: I have noticed that the values have seemed to decrease a bit.  I think Christy’s response is correct.  It may also be because there are many more people using coupons or possibly because companies are not selling as many products in these tough economic times?!  No matter, we can always still grab some pretty awesome deals…sometimes we just have to look a little harder 🙂

  7. Jackie wants to know: I have an ethical question : I’m sure I’m not alone in that sometimes I make a mistake and print a coupon on the back side of a sheet of paper and it prints right on the back of another coupon I’ve printed. OOPS !! Now I can’t use them both !! My question is, would it be ethical to make a photo copy of one of them and then write Void on the original? I would then only be using the bar coded coupon 1 time. What do you think?

    8. Christy: This is one of those calls that you’re just going to have to make for yourself. If it were me, I certainly wouldn’t have a problem photocopying that one coupon (and VOIDing the original) because I would know 100% that I was not doing anything fraudulent!
    Michelle:  I have done that too! Just make sure you destroy the misprinted ones!

  8. Rachel wants to know: Have you and Christy have ever met, or do you just know each other through your blogs?

    9. Christy: Michelle and I originally met through our blogs, but we have spent time together in person as well. I consider her a great friend (and yes, I’ve shopped with her and she actually is more of a coupon genius than you even imagine! :p ).
    Michelle:  Christy actually came to visit me a few weeks ago and it was so much fun!  She got to experience the chaos at my house…I am sure she doesn’t miss being around my wild boys.  We got a chance to exchange some coupons and shop–it was a blast.

  9. Venetia wants to know: In order to get the most from Publix, what should we be subscribing to or signing up to so that we can get all the coupons and deals?

    10. Family Style (published 4 times per year)
    GreenWise Market Magazine -they send out coupons you will not find in the store version
    Grape magazine
    UPROMISE -sign up to earn money for college just by shopping
    Publix Baby Club
    Publix Preschool Pals (kids 2-4)
    Publix Pet Program –this one is brand new!
    Keep an eye on Coupons.com, RedPlum & SmartSource–these are often better coupons than you find in the inserts BUT they tend to go fast.  Be sure and print any you think you might use!

  10. Lisa wants to know: I started couponing in March. I’ve got a great stockpile and really understand the couponing process and the drugstore games. I’ve cut my grocery and essentials budget from $850-1,000 a month to $200 a month or less. My question is…how can I easily and effectively track my spending this next year for Publix, CVS and Wags? I really want to keep up with all of my expenses and my savings but don’t want it to be complicated and time consuming.

    11. Lisa you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want it to be in an excel spreadsheet.  If you are not using Quicken or Mint you might want to make using one as part of your new year’s resolution!  Mint is totally FREE and totally rocks!!  The budgeting tools here are just fabulous.
    Another option is a program like Quicken.  This is a program that you purchase (simple download or purchase software).  I would suggest you do a little research and see what you prefer.  Both are very easy to set up and once you have everything ready, it is basic maintenance.  I love being able to get a visual of how I am doing in all my areas of spending and saving!!

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.
Our question stockpile is just about empty, and we need you to help us fill it up again! If you have a question, please send it in. We happily welcome questions from new couponers or old hands alike – and if there’s a question you know the answer to but we haven’t talked about here, send that in too! We want to try to cover just about any question that a couponer could have about anything related to Publix or couponing, and we just know there’s a lot more out there to discuss! Email your questions to contactiheartpublix @ gmail.com.