Coupon stacking to lower your grocery bill

Coupon stacking is easy at Target and Walgreens

Coupon stacking is a wonderful way to stretch a dollar. When you make a purchase with more than one coupon for an item, you are stacking. By visiting websites that match coupons to sales such as Learning the Frugal Life, written by a local frugal shopper, coupon stacking can be easy to do.

Looking at the photo as an example, you'll see a recent receipt of mine. I have stacked coupons for items that are on sale and for items that are not. The big sale item for me this particular day was Kashi cereal. At the Target kiosk, I printed a coupon for a free box of Kashi cereal when you buy one box. I also had a clipped coupon for $1.50 off one box of Kashi. The cereal was already on sale -- $3.59 regularly, $2.56 on sale. Two boxes of Kashi at the regular price would be $3.59 x 2 = $7.18. With the sale price, the total for two boxes would be $2.56 x 2 = $5.12. Without coupons, this gives a savings of $2.06.

Let's look at coupon stacking now. Using my buy one, get one free Target coupon will get two boxes of cereal for $2.56. I used a manufacturer coupon for $1.50 off of one box of Kashi cereal. My purchase is now $1.06 for two boxes of cereal. Regular price for two boxes would have been $7.18. I spent $1.06; the difference is $6.12. When I divide my total of $1.06 between the two boxes, my total is $0.53 per box.

Coupon stacking can also be nice without the special sale prices. Hillshire Farms deli lunch meat did not have special sale pricing this day. A 9 oz. box cost $3.59. Using the calculator on my telephone, I figured that $3.59 / 9 oz gave me a unit price of 1 oz = $0.398 and 16 oz. (1 lb) = $6.38. At this point, I knew that the deli counter would be cheaper for honey ham, but not for pastrami (the two varieties I was considering).

However, I had two coupons -- one for $0.35 from the manufacturer and one for $1 from Target. Now I have $3.54 - $0.35 = $3.19 with the manufacturer coupon, then $3.19 - $1 = $2.19 with the Target coupon. This gives a unit price of $2.19 / 9 oz = $0.24 and $3.89 per lb. This price beat the deli counter hands down. When you look at unit prices and compare pounds to pounds rather than ounces to pounds, you can make a good decision to save money. I spent maybe one minute figuring this out, which is not much time at all.

Overall, I had a pretty good shopping trip. Before coupons, I spent $44.61. After coupons, I spent $33.12.

Keep in mind that stacked coupons must come from different sources -- in general, store coupons can be stacked only with manufacturer coupons. Combinations of manufacturer with manufacturer coupons or store with store coupons will not ring at the register and you will be asked to choose only one coupon to use.