I have a question that might seem silly but I’ve wondered about it a few time. Do you ever go to a store and only get items for free and not pay anything at the register? For example, I might want to go to CVS to get crackers that are on sale for $1 and I have a $1 off coupon. But I feel really awkward not paying anything so usually grab something else that is small to buy when I check out. Do stores even let you just get the free items and walk away? -Liz
There are no silly questions, Liz! I’m pretty sure that plenty of others have wondered this, as well.
And the answer is that I have no problem at all only buying free items. In fact, I think it’s really rather exciting to go up to the register and have ten items end up ringing up for less than $1 after coupons! Usually, the cashier is a little speechless and says “How did you do that?”
Since they are reimbursed for the value of the coupons plus $0.08, stores are rarely losing money by people using coupons. In the case of a loss leader sale or a store coupon, it is possible that they are losing money, but it’s their prerogative to determine what sales they offer and coupons they release.
Where we live, there is sales tax, so it’s near impossible to have a $0 total, but there have been occasions when Dillon’s has had an instant discount sale running and, after my coupons, my total was actually negative. In those cases, I just add something onto my order to get it up past $0 and then checkout.
So as long as you are using coupons ethically (not copying coupons, not using coupons for items they weren’t intended to be used, not following a store’s coupon policy or using more than one manufacturer’s coupon per item), you can be completely confident in your couponing and check out without an ounce of guilt — even if your total ends up just being pennies or even $0!
What about the rest of you? Do you ever just get completely free items in a shopping transaction? If so, does it make you feel awkward or triumphant?
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After getting so many items for free or just tax these past few months, I decided to share my stockpiles with my neighbor who gives me her coupons she does not use and with the friendly cashiers at CVS. I hope I get more of these oppotunities in the future like getting something just because it is free but don’t want or need and giving it away.
You should not feel bad. We do not feel bad when we get $100.00 worth of items and only pay $6.00.
I actually have had to educate the cashier’s at Weis markets. I will go in there with a ton of coupons & use my EBT card to pay the rest. If they run the card as they would normally they end up giving me change back for the total amount of my coupons. I have told them that this is not ethical, and that they need to manually put in the amount still owed after coupons. The first time I did this I only had a few coupons so I was just confused & not sure why they were handing me money, but the next time I went in I had forty something in coupons and they were going to hand it to me. I quickly “got it” and explained it to the cashier.
This is a little bit off topic, but when I went to CVS this week, they had a bunch of stuff 75 % off including big bottles of different detergents. I had to ask the cashier what the prices were (didn’t know you could use the coupon reader to see) and when he told me they were $2.00-$3.00, I said, “I’ll be right back” and went to get my coupons out of the car. I bought three bottles of detergent with $1.00 off coupons so that in the end, I got about $30 worth of detergent for about $3.00. Woo-Hoo! The (teenage boy) cashier was amazed!!
@Patti, ooh that is something I would love to find on clearance lol I have enough freakin shampoo give me some detergent on clearance! lol
I feel great when I get it down to zero. Here even if it is a taxable item, most stores do the tax after coupons so I have walked out with $0 balance tons of times. I do get a small filler if the balance is going to be below zero so that cashiers don’t start panicking but if the balance is going to be zero… no way. And I agree on using coupon ethically. I hate when people use the “well the cashier (and/or register) took it without beeping” as an excuse to misuse coupons that they know are not supposed to be used (like wrong product/size, multiple man. coupons, etc). So if I get to $0, it was following the rules which is why I have no reason to feel awkward
I have no problem doing a deal in anystore that would yield something free. I check my favorite “deal” website faithfully weekly if not more and will do deals anywhere if it is not out of my way. I am usaully going by a CVS, Walgreens, Target, etc weekly anyway. Love those freebees.
I love going in and getting just free items at a store. It’s great fun! If I bought something else to go with my items, out of guilt, I don’t feel I am getting the value of the coupon. It, to me, would be a wasted trip.
I am so grateful for free items, because it’s the only way I can afford to shop. Target does charge me for the tax pre-coupons, but at the grocery store I can get food items for free. I can’t do it real often, as our area doesn’t double coupons, but I am very grateful for the occasions when I can do it.
There is a blog dedicated to finding free and close to free items just for the purpose of donating them to their local food bank. It’s not in my area (I’m in Nevada), but if you live in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida or Mississippi, they list deals to help fill their local food banks. It’s called Clipping for a Cause http://clippingforacause.blogspot.com/ and I really admire what they are doing.
I love trying to get the smallest OOP price as possible. I have several times walked out without paying a penny. Here tax is figured after coupons so I rarely pay tax.
I have never actually gotten money back because I rarely have time to run to several stores just to get something on sale, but I wanted to say something on the other end. I work for a manufacturer, and I can tell you not to feel bad for the stores. Not all manufacturers run things the way that we do, but the ads/price reductions they run do not typically cost the store. And they always get their coupon amount, postage (sometimes more than .08) and sometimes they collect random fees as well. Feel bad for the manufacturer who may not actually be making any money on that item. They usually aren’t loosing money- but I am just saying.
I have no problem collecting free things, just ask my wife! To put a manly spin on this, Harbor Freight is always running coupons for free items. I have now collected 6 free flashlights which will be stocking stuffers.
I always save my goodies that I get for free & don’t need for a donate box & when we fill it up we take it to a homeless shelter nearby.
I feel successful when I walk out of a store paying next to nothing for an item(s). I worked hard to get my cost that low!
the only place i spend ‘guilt money’ is at the gas station when we need to potty. i will never use a stores bathroom w/o getting something.
No problems at all!! Like Crystal mentioned, the stores get reimbursed for the coupons. I’m sure the CEO’s of those companies don’t have any problems with getting paid a crazy amount of money thanks to all the shopping that WE do!
Crystal, we like to eat meatless meals once or twice a week. I was wondering if you and your readers could suggest meatless main dishes. We tend to get stuck in the same old: cheese pizza, meatless spaghetti, or breakfast for dinner. I need some help! Thanks.
All the time. Even if I don’t need the item someone somewhere will need it so I just drop them at my church. I feel that it is my way to give even though we use every penny in our budget to make things go in our house.
I love getting free stuff, and I love seeing the cashiers’ reactions. I’ve had a few huffy cashiers. I did the SOBE BOGO deal this summer at a few of my local stores. One tried to convince me that I couldn’t, but her manager made her put it through and later that week I had the same cashier who said that they were looking into whether or not they could honor this, but again, her manager made her put it through for me. At another location I had gotten a raincheck and used it a few weeks later and the cashier muttered under her breath as I was leaving that it was really cheating to use a raincheck like that. But at another CVS I had a manager who was helping me out with a BOGO pretzel M&M’s coupon – they were out of stock (which I hear happened a lot this summer) and he offered to not only honor the coupon for any flavor of M&M’s, but for a larger size even. I did decline that since I didn’t want him to get in trouble, but I did use it to get free coconut m&m’s.
I hope you pick up something small that is a good deal and that your family can use. Besides, it’s rather exhilarating to know you’re checking out with several items and will have a $0 or less than 10 cent total! It’s a great feeling to know that you’ve used your brain to figure out the deals and be able to give your family great products to use and eat without needing to spend a lot of money, and do it legally! I see it as living like the Jones’ without spending like the Jones’. It’s also really exhilarating when your Jones’ see you shopping and see your total, then want to know how. Then you’re helping not just your family, but another as well.
I love getting free stuff. I figure even if my family may not need it I will buy it to donate to the local food shelf that I volunteer too. Its worth it, I may pay sales tax for some items but its for a good cause!
We do not eat at McDonalds unless we get free food coupons. I will then go thru the drive thru and just get the free item. If I am with my husband, he goes thru the drive thru with his free coupon, and I go inside and get my item, and we are on our way. They never say “one per family” or we would not do that! I love getting free stuff!
#26A friend of mien works for a big consulting company that was consulting for one of the drug stores on their rewards program (he couldn’t tell me which because of confidentiality). He said that people like us (who seriously game the deals) are either (a) so small a fraction of people that they are written off, or (b) factored into the sales and all the store runs. The store isn’t losing anything on you, in essence, because they have already accounted for the few great bargain shoppers when they figure out how much they will make off of promotions and sales they run.
^^so true! we are already accounted in for, that they really arent losing any money from us at all! i also agree with the woman who said that she wouldnt even shop at CVS or WAGS if it wasnt for the free stuff…i agree.
my husband hates it when i coupon in the store, but when he comes home and looks at the recipet and sees hows much i saved, he quiets down..every time. lol. and i get things that are free that i wont even need (like the free candy corn..we dont eat it, but I will be giving it to my adult ESL class so they can pass it out to their kids, and even one is happy)..see how much happiness is given from free things? also, i donate things I dont use/ need, and i usually only get one or two free things every time i go (just since i go so often, not because im ashamed to do it). if they didnt want us to use coupons, dont offer them!! but we are blessed to have them, and if we dont use them, its our own fault. i can afford to pay full price (praise the Lord) but why would you want to!? like i said, we are blessed to have coupons, and we should embrace them and use them to our advantage. once you go couponing, you dont go back!!
I went to Shoppers today to buy free toothpaste! I was thrilled! (and slightly disappointed when they charged .06 cents tax). Oh well, 6 cents for toothpaste isn’t so bad. Right afterwards, I went to Food Lion and bought three bags of candy and three cans of soup for .83 cents. Whoohoo!
I LOVE free shopping trips! I might have to pay tax but that’s it!
YES….I only get stuff if it is for free. I do not buy items from Target or Walgreens or Walmart unless it is a free item.
Walgreens I can tell you from personal experience does not like it when customers receive free items. The cashier actually had a fit when she couldn’t ring up the coupons right and left the register, with a line of customers waiting. A manager then had to come and ring up the transaction which was no issue and we were checked out with no problem. Ever since then we try to shop when that older woman is not around.
I can tell you Walgreens and Walmart are not customer friendly when it comes to coupon deals.
Joy, thanks for the info on clearinghouses and how they deal with coupons. I will be more aware of coupons and their codes in the future.
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