I had another bad shopping experience at the Avondale Acme. First, my only “crime” is trying to save money. I don’t do anything fraudulent, illegal or unethical. I just clip coupons. Just once I would like to shop there without a hassle. If this happens too many more times, I will go back to shopping at Giant regularly, it’s just that lately the deals have been much better at Acme.

First–I wanted to use a internet printable coupon.
Cashier: Is this one from the internet?
Me: yes
Cashier: We don’t take coupons from the internet. (points to sign)
I read sign. It says that Acme will no longer take internet coupons for FREE items.
Me: But mine isn’t for a free item, it’s only for $1 off.
Cashier called service desk. Hangs up. Reluctantly scans coupon. I apologetically turned to customer behind me and said I was sorry for holding up the line, I’m just trying to save a buck. She rolled her eyes and said “she should have just taken the coupon.”

Then we get to my Freschetta pizza. It was advertised on special 3 for $10, if you had the store coupon, which was available in the freezer. I really like this pizza and like to have them on hand for the nights I’m too busy to cook. So I grabbed 2 coupons and 6 pizzas. Second coupon wouldn’t scan. Ok, admittedly my error for not reading the fine print. So then I asked her to please void off 3 pizzas and I would pay for them separately. After all, these pizzas are normally $5.99 a piece, so this is a significant savings. She was really peeved at that idea, but did it anyway.

But here’s the best part. We finish up my first order, then ring up my pizzas. It should have been 3 for $10, but my total came to $6.61. Even better! And I had a $1 oyno that spit out from my first order, for buying two Tropicana Orange Juices. So $5.61 for three pizzas that are normally $5.99 a piece!

Ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking. Stop complaining about the cashier and tell us what other deals you found. Here you go:

Post Cereal: There’s an endcap of Post cereals that are 3 for $5. Use the $1 off Post Just Bunches cereal that was in Sunday’s paper, as well as the $1 off any 2 Post cereals that also was in the paper. That will make them 3 boxes for $3, which isn’t a bad deal.

Freschetta Pizza deal, which I already described above.

Perdue Chicken: They have Perdue perfect portions chicken, back in the meat dept, for $7.98. They are due to expire tomorrow, so they have $3 peelies on them. In addition, you can go to smartsource and print off $2 coupons. It might be coupons.com, I’m not sure. I’ve printed my limit, so mine are no longer showing up. But after those coupons, it will be only $3 for 6 boneless, skinless, cleaned and individually packaged chicken breasts, or $0.50 each! I bought two packs and stuck them in the freezer. They’re vacuum packed and sealed, they should be fine.

Gold Peak tea: Look at this tea and you will see a container of blinkies in front of it. Grab 5, you’ll need them next month at CVS for a moneymaker. These coupons are for $1 off two. There are coupons for one bottle free, tearpad coupons, spotted at the Oxford Acme.

Herr’s chips: Varieties of Herr’s are 3 for $5, bigger bags too.

New sale starts Friday, so these deals will only work today & tomorrow. Good luck & happy shopping.

Yesterday I was telling someone about my fabulous diaper deals and she said “Is that even legal?” Certainly it feels like stealing sometimes, I’ll admit. But my take on it is this. Walgreen’s is a huge company. If they really wanted to, they could make it so that the coupon dates do not overlap. If they wanted to, they could program their registers to only take one coupon, not both. It is their marketing people who arranged it so that a register rewards deal, sale, and two monthly coupons all overlapped for the same two days. Nothing about it is illegal and certainly the argument could be made, if they did not honor all the deals simultaneously, that it is false advertising.

But speaking of fraud…
There are lots of fraudulent coupons out there. It is amazing the lengths people will go to to manipulate a company’s website or create fake coupons. And there are websites out there that perpetuate and even encourage this type of activity.

You will find none of that posted here. Everything I do is legal and legit. There are enough good deals to be had without being unethical or illegal. And that type of activity just ruins it for good couponers. I will not link you to sites or recommend you visit sites where members chat with each other on ways to get around the system.

CVS, when opening a new store, often times will advertise in that town’s local paper and offer a coupon. And often times you can go to that particular newspaper’s website, access the coupon, and print it. I do not think this is an illegal or unethical thing to do though some will disagree. I will concede that it is not the intended use of the coupon, but I have done nothing illegal in gaining access. CVS is the largest pharmacy retailer in the country-all they would have to do is print a “Valid only at XXXX Location” on the coupon, and it would not be able to be used anywhere. And I have in fact at times visited a newspaper’s site, looked at the coupon but the computer would not allow me to print it. It can be done if they want.

Internet Printables: Lots of retailers are cracking down on internet printables right now and it’s unfortunate that honest shoppers are bearing the brunt of this. I get many, many good deals using IPs and I only get my IPs from legitimate sources such as coupons.com, smartsource.com or manufacturers’ websites. And lately I’ve been hassled many times at the Avondale Acme over using IPs. It is their corporate policy to accept IPs and in fact, you can get some IPs from the Acme website, so don’t let them tell you different. But be a good honest customer and NEVER photocopy your IPs. Most websites limit you to printing only 2. So use your desktop, your laptop, your work computer, or go to the library if you really want more. But be prepared to explain why you have more than two–unfortunately most Loss Prevention people at the stores have told cashiers and managers to be leery of anyone who has more than 2 of an IP. And it is very easy to legitimately get more than 2.

Coupon fraud is a very serious offense and not to be taken lightly. Like I said, there are enough good deals to be had, if you know where/how to to look, without participating in fraud.