As I have said before, living in Southwest Michigan, I haven't found a store that doubles coupons like you may have seen on tv or with other couponers' videos.I'm not saying there aren't any out there, and please let me know if there are, but none of thwe stores that I am in range of do.
That being said, of course when you start off each week, I suggest gathering the weekly sale ads from each store you go to, and circling any deals you like a lot, or think you need. Afterwards, I go to my coupons and compare them to the sales. If there's somethign that I like, then I will consider going to ebay and looking up more coupons of that type. NOTE: If you are going to do this, make sure it's as soon as you get the papers. Sunday or Monday. You want the coupons to get to you before the sale ends.
As for nearby store policies, a few things people may not realize is that Meijers has online coupons on a program called mperks (which you can sign up for here) which are loadable in their database on your computer and you acess them at the registers by entering your cell number. They also have featured coupons at meijermealbox.com that you can print out. Both of these coupon types are for the Meijers store only and they stack with one manufacturer's coupon on each item. An example: this week Magnum icecream bars are 2 for $6, so one box is $3. I have a manufacturer's coupon from this sunday's insert for $1 off and I also have a printed $1 off coupon from the Meijers mealbox. They stack when I give the cashier both coupons, so each box is only $1 now.
Target also has Target only coupons and they stack with manufacturer's coupons. I don't have much experience with Target, however. I have just not really gone there for groceries, and I have now had people saying that Target is giving couponer's a hard time, even when they are presenting correct coupons and following the store's coupon policies. That has kept me at bay for now, but make sure you check the target ads anyway. There are several reasons to do that. the first one being that on select items, Target advertises special items each week and if you buy so many, they also give you a $5 target gift card. I personally haven't found any items I would take advantage of for that since I started couponing, but I haven't been doing it long enough yet. Im confident I will get in on it at some point!
The second reason to check the Target sales, even if you don't plan to shop there: People don't always know this, but Walmart price comps competitor prices. They don't do buy one, get one free sales unless a price is listed. But your average sale price, they will match price for price. If this does nothing else, it saves you gas money going to all the other stores!
Walmart also does something else cool. They will add overages to the rest of your grocery bill. What that means is this: Let's say you have an item on sale for $1. You have a coupon for $2 off that product. If you only buy that item, thats what you get, a free item. However, if you are buying other items, Walmart will take that extra $1 and take it off your remaining items total. It's like free money toward your other purchases!
I hope these have helped a little. I'll be posting the prices that I think are good sales as I go for the stores around me anyway, in Southwest Michigan. I'll also be talking about other tips and maybe I will be adding videos too. Happy Couponing :)
