Tuesday, May 10, 2011

BOGOs Can Get Confusing

Here's just a short jaunt on how BOGOs work in Florida.

When the store has By One Get One free sales, it can definitely be to your advantage. Keep in mind, when they do BOGOs, they generally use the highest price they can so that they don't loose too much money.

One of the best scenarios you'll find is the store will have the item BOGO and you'll have a manufacturer coupon that's also BOGO. (Make sure the products match, sometimes the free thing isn't the same.) If everything matches up, you'll get 2 products for 1 coupon and no money out of pocket (except possibly tax).

Here's some scenarios:

The store has Buy One Get One free....

You have a manufacturer coupon for BOGO = You get 2 for free and buy none. 
This is because the manufacturer buys one and the store buys one.

You have a manufacturer coupon for BOGO and a manufacturer coupon for $x.xx off 1. = You get 2 free and depending on the store policy, you get $x.xx back.
The $x.xx coupon is for the item "you" have to buy, which the store "buys" instead. The manufacturer buys 1 product and you come out ahead.

You have a manufacturer coupon for B2GO. = You get 3 free and buy 1.
In this scenario, you buy the first one, the store buys the 2nd one, the manufacturer buys the free 3rd one, and the store buys the 4th one that matches the manufacturer's purchase.

These scenerios can go on for ages. It helps if you write it out. Just remember, every other one will be a "store" purchase/provided item.
You, Store, Manufacturer, Store, etc.

Here's an example for Stove Top Stuffing I had over Easter week.
The store had a BOGO sale. I had a B4GO coupon from the manufacturer. I also had 2 $1 off 1 coupons and 3 $0.50 off 1 coupons from the manufacturer. They were $2 each box.

This is how it matches up...
1. $1 off my box.
2. $1 off the store's box
3. $0.50 off my box
4. $0.50 off the store's box
5. This was free from the manufacturer
6. Even thought the coupon was for a total of 5 boxes, it was BOGO, so there's 1 more from the store, and I got $0.50 off that one.

Here's the cost breakdown:
1. $2-$1=$1
2. free-$1=-$1
3. $2-$0.50=$1.50
4. free-$0.50=-$0.50
5. manufacturer free (you can't use a manufacturer's coupon on a manufacturer's coupon.)
6. free-$0.50=-$0.50
Total $0.50 for 6 boxes of Stove Top Stuffing

If I had had 2 coupons, the 6th box that the store purchased would have counted toward the 1st box of the 2nd coupon and I would have purchased 1 more box and gotten 3 more free.
2nd coupon matches...
1. 6th product free from 1st coupon matches
2. me
3. store
4. store (to match manufacturer's 5th free one)
5. manufacturer's free box

With no other coupons, the total with 2 B4GO coupons would have been $2.50 for 11 boxes.

The way people on Extreme Couponing and other shows make the money is they would have a $1 coupon for every product other than the manufacturer's free product. That means for the first coupon, they would have paid for 2 boxes and gotten 4 free with $1 off 5 of the boxes. $2 x the two you purchase -$1 off each of those + $1 off each of the 3 free products = -$1 for 6 boxes. Then if you add another B4GO coupon and $1 off each of the boxes except the free one from the manufacturer,  you  get $2 for your purchase - $1 + -$1 for the other 2 boxes the store buys for free, you end up getting paid $2 to buy 11 boxes of Stove Top. Of course, those people don't stop with 11 boxes and will continue to buy as many as they have coupons for.

This sounds super confusing, but if you write it out and think about it one product at a time, it's clearer.

Here's another scenario for Pedigree canned dog food at Publix this week...
Publix has the cans on sale for 5/$3 or 5 cans for $3 so each can costs $0.60.
Publix also has a store coupon for B2G1 (buy 2 get 1 free).
The manufacturer has a coupon for B3G1.
So, it goes like this...
1. You buy
2. You buy
3. Publix buys
4. manufacturer buys

You end up paying $1.20 for 4 cans. If you had additional manufacturer coupons for the same product, you could use them on the first 3 items. If you had additional store coupons, you could use them on the first two products and the last product. That's how you start to really make money at couponing. That's also when it starts to get really confusing and you just need to write it out and think it through slowly.

Keep your ethics in mind. Although, you can take tons of coupons to the store and make money on your purchases, ask yourself if you're being fair to other customers who might want the product you're clearing from the shelf, to the customers in the check out line behind you, to the stock person who has to restock the shelf, and do you really need to buy a full year's supply or more of dog food or whatever in a single trip to the grocery store?

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