Triple Coupons at Family Fare this week!

I was so thrilled this morning when I woke up to find that Family Fare is running a triple coupon promotion this week! I have never had the opportunity to try my luck with tripling coupons before, but I think I did pretty well! I only wish that they had better sales this week, or that I would have known about it in advance. I think I could have done even better. My total before coupons was $110.87. My coupons took it down to $43.56!

The promotion is this:
All week long (March 15 - 21) Triple manufacturers' coupons up to $0.99 face value. Limit 1 triple coupon per 1 item transaction (meaning that you can't combine store and manufacturers' coupons on this deal). Limit 3 identical items (meaning, if you have 10 coupons for Chi Chi's salsa, you can only buy 3 bottles of Chi Chi's salsa per purchase). Value cannot exceed the price of item. (They will not issue an overage). This promotion is for the Zeeland/Holland stores ONLY! Aren't we lucky? Imagine that!

I was a little annoyed that they stopped the tripling at $0.99 instead of going up to a dollar. There would have been so many more coupons I could have used, and so much more savings. I guess I shouldn't complain though. Stores in our area RARELY even double coupons, much less TRIPLE!

So here's what I did...I usually file my coupon inserts by week, still in-tact. I only cut the coupons when Savings Angel tells me to. Well, that system doesn't work for a triple coupon event. I went through ALL my coupons and pulled out whatever I could find that had a face value of under $1.00. Then I sorted them by department (grocery isle) and stuck them in separate envelopes that I labeled with the appropriate department. That way, when I was in the baking isle, I was only looking at baking coupons...etc. Then, I just went through the store and decided which deals were the best when paired with my triple coupon. I highly recommend taking the time to organize in this way BEFORE you hit the store. You will get way too frustrated if you try to shuffle through all your coupons at once. You'll miss things and have to go back, and it will cause you to have a bad experience. I also recommend taking an empty envelope with you, and label it as "COUPONS TO USE". As you put items into your cart, place the corresponding coupon into the "coupons to use" envelope. This way, you will have all your coupons ready when you get to the checkout.

This next piece of advice is important, so listen up! The most important thing to remember while you are going up to the checkout with tons of coupons in hand is to be patient and courteous with your cashier and other customers. The cashiers will be much nicer to you if you are nice to them. If the store employees and management have a good experience, they are much more likely to offer us this promotion again. Also, if there is someone behind you with only a few things...let them go ahead! Would you want to be in line behind someone with a stack of coupons? Probably not! :)

I just have to add that the Family Fare employees were handling the triple coupon frenzy like professionals! The lines were moving quickly, and the cashiers were still surprisingly cheerful! :)