Some of my Favorite Places to Coupon Shop

Alrighty kids, here is today's installment of Couponing 101. I will be listing a few of my favorite places that I love to coupon shop at.
This will mainly pertain to local Kansas folks but I will have a few hints and tips of national chains so please read on Non-Kansas fans! :)

1.HOMELAND Grocery Store in Haysville, KS:

I know you are thinking, WHAT, you drive all the way to Haysville to shop??? Yes, yes I do, once a week at least since I'm in Wichita anyway. In all honesty, HOMELAND is the best place to coupon shop. WHY do you ask??? They do SUPER DOUBLE COUPONS everyday, up to $1.00!! Soooo, if you have a coupon for $1 off...they double it to $2.00!!!! This is how I get a TON of free or really cheap items! They send me their ad in the snail mail every Saturday too...so I can plan my trips out for the sale that starts on Wednesday.
Here are a few pointers:

*You must have a Homeland Shoppers Card to get super doubles. It's free, just go to the customer service booth and sign up.

*If a coupon say DO NOT DOUBLE (DND), most of the time they wont double it, which is a bummer. Sometimes there are better sales at Dillons for the lower cents off DND's so I'd save them for Dillon, which will double coupons that say DND.

*Homeland will only double 5-like coupons per transaction.... I know this is very confusing to explain but it's really easy to make sense! You can have as many coupons you want in a transaction but they will only super double 5 each of your like ones... for example, say I wanted to buy 7 bbq sauces and had 7- $1.00 off coupons for them. They will double the 1st 5 coupons I have to $2 each, and then the last 2 for the bbq sauce they will redeem at face value. I always do 2 or more transactions if I have more than 5 coupons to use for a good deal.

*Sign up at www.homelandstores.com to receive their weekly flyer in the mail. They also update their sales flyer ads online at 12:00AM on Wednesday morning, if you are up that late!

*Scan the ads to make the most of your shopping trip! There are aweome people such as my friend Ashlea, who do coupon matchups weekly to help you get the most for your money! Visit her blog at http://dealdetectingdiva.blogspot.com and tell her I sent ya :) Ashlea, I appreciate your hard work every Monday for Wednesday Homeland Matchups!

*Sometimes, when you purchase the right combo of items, you may receive a CATALINA coupon which spits out at the register for use at your next trip..it's usually a few dollars off your order. Be sure to check out Ashlea's page, as sometimes she'll list Catalina deals as well. The Catalina machine occassionally will give you manufacture coupons as well, it's pretty random so you never know when you'll get one!

*If you have an entertainment 2010 book, there is 1 Homeland STORE coupon still valid for $5 off a $50 purchase. If your total is over $50 before coupons, give that coupon to them before your manufacturers coupons to reap that reward!

2. Dillons:

Yes, beleive it or not Dillons does have some pretty awesome deals and they have a good double coupon policy!
Here are a few pointers:
*You must have a Dillons Plus Card to receive double coupons. You can sign up for one at the Customer Service Booth at your local store. When you get home, register your card at www.dillons.com to load e-coupons onto your card!

*Dillons will double coupons up to $0.50. Coupons worth more than $0.50 are "doubled" up to a $1.00.... I know that's confusing but here are some examples. You have a 55 cent off coupon, they will give you an additional $0.45 off to make it $1.00. So in essence, think of it this way, if it's over $0.50, consider it a $1.00 off coupon!

*Dillons will pay you $0.05 for every reusable bag that you bring in to sack your groceries with. It may not sound like a lot, but it adds up over time and you are helping the environment at the same time.

*"Stack" your Dillons e-coupons (available at www.dillons.com , www.shortcuts.com , www.cellfire.com and www.pgesaver.com) with your paper coupons for more savings. Your e-coupons will not double but your paper ones will!

*Dillons updates their ad every Wednesday morning at 12:00am for you night owls! Be sure to scan their ad and make the most of your trip. A good place for weekly coupon matchups is http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/dillons

3. Target and Super Target:

Target is a wonderful place to shop at to "stack" manufacters coupons along with store coupons for the most BANG for your buck!
Here are a few pointers:
*Go to www.target.com and print out their coupons for items you use. Be sure to remember that you may stack both a target store coupon along with a manufacters coupon!

*Target Sales run from Sunday through Saturday

*Target often has "Receive a $5 gift card with the purchase of XXXXXXX". It's in their weekly ads and of course at www.totallytarget.com there are great saving scenarios and coupon match up ideas!

*Be sure to bring your reusable bags to Target as well, as they give you $0.05 for every bag you bring in.

*FYI, the target store coupons state one like coupon per transaction but lately, Ive been able to use several of the target store coupons of the same like item in one transaction with out problems. I just wanted you to know YMMV... aka Your Milage may Vary, at your store so dont freak out if you have to break your transactions down to make your savings count...lately I haven't had to!

4. Walgreens:

Walgreens usually have some really good sales weekly and you can even earn register rewards, which you can use on your next shopping trip for money off pretty much anything in the store!! :)

*Check out www.iheartwags.com for awesome scenarios and coupon matchups. They usually have several future weeks of ads with matchups done already and links to where you can print off coupons already listed...it makes shopping at Walgreens a BREEZE!!!

*Walgreens lets you stack store coupons WITH manufacturers coupons for more bang for your buck! They usually have a number of store coupons in their weekly ad that comes out on Sunday. Walgreens ads are good Sunday thru Saturday.

*Register Rewards are coupons that spit out of the register that you earn for buying a certain product. For example, Buy 2 Tide detergents at $5.00 each and receive $5.00 back in register rewards. I buy 2 Tides at $5.00 each... use 2 Tide coupons worth $2.00 off each box...That makes my total $6.00. Then the register spits out a $5.00 RR (Register Reward) back! I can use that register reward for whatever I choose on my next visit. But, FYI, if I want another $5.00 reward on more Tide, I wont use my $5.00 RR on that transaction because I wont receive another one back...the computer is smart like that!

*Register Rewards expire 2 weeks after you receive them so be sure to use em up!

5. Checkers and Leekers in Wichita and Valley Center, KS:

I am not a huge fan of these stores but occasionally you can find good deals. They are VERY anal about Internet Printable coupons and will NOT double them.
Here's how they work:

*Monthy, Checkers/Leekers has SUPER double coupons for 1 week. They will double coupons up to $1.00 so you can receive $2.00 off.

*On regular sale weeks, they double coupons up to $0.50...after that, it's at face value...blah!

*You can only have 3 like coupons that double per transaction, sorta like Homeland as stated above.

*Checkers/Leekers WILL NOT DOUBLE INTERNET PRINTABLES...well, pooh on them :)

*You must have a Checkers/Leekers card to receive doubles.

6.K-Mart:

I used to be a big K-Mart shopper when I lived in the city but I rarely go there anymore. They take manufacture coupons daily, but sometimes can be weary about internet printables. I would be sure to ask the customer service people when you enter the store.

*K-Mart occasionally has super double coupons. I noticed they have dramatically changed their policy about them! Sometimes they are double up to $2.00 (which is nice to have $4 off !!!) but lately it's been up to $1.00...and I noticed sometimes it's only for a specific department (like health and beauty coupons only, etc)

*K-Mart will only double up to 5 coupons daily...what a crock!

*You must have a Rewards Your Way card to receive doubles.


Well kids, that's it for now! At least you know of a few of my favorite stores that I like to go to coupon at. There are more, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with info!!! Stay tuned for my next installment of Couponing 101!!