Extreme Couponing Strategy #6 – Using B1G1 Free Coupons
We covered B1G1 Free Sales and how Extreme Couponing fits into the sales cycles at different stores, and now I wanted to talk about B1G1 Free Coupons in a little more detail.
You can typically find Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coupons in your local newspaper inserts and occasionally they show up online on sites like Coupons.com or Redplum.
Most Stores do not accept Free Product Coupons that are printed online; but you will find most stores accept buy 1 get 1 free coupons since a purchase is required.
There are several different ways to use B1G1 FREE Coupons and different types of B1G1 Free Coupons so I thought I would just highlight a few of the most common for you:
RELATED POST: Learn How to Coupon
Stack B1G1 Free Coupons with a B1G1 Free Sale!
Some stores allow you to stack a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale with a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coupon to get 2 items FREE! This will depend on your local stores coupon policy but this is frequently the case and when you can find a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coupon and sale at the same time you get BIG Savings!!!
Basically the way this works is you are getting one item free from the sale and one item free for the coupon.
If you store doesn’t allow a B1G1 Free Coupon + a B1G1 Free Sale to get 2 Items Free you can always buy 4 items. You basically end up paying for 1 item and getting 3 FREE Which is still an awesome deal and a savings of 75%!
Stack B1G1 Free Coupons with Promotions!
There are some great examples going on this week at Target, you can get a $5 Target Gift Card when you buy 4 Simple Skincare Products. By combining Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coupons with this Gift Card Promotion you can get big savings!
Here’s an example:
Buy 2 – Simple Skincare Cleanser, $6.99
Buy 2 – Simple Skincare Wipes, $4.99
Use 2 – Buy 1 Cleanser Get a Free Wipes Coupons
Pay $13.98 and get a $5 Target Gift Card!
That’s a Savings of over $15 by stacking the Gift Card Sale and the B1G1 Free coupons at the same time.
Another Example with the same coupon would be at Walgreens, they have a deal running all month where you can get 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points when you buy 1 Simple Skincare Product. Use the B1G1 Free Coupon and get Double the Rewards (You’ll get 2,000 points for each item)
The Simple Skincare Products are also an additional 25% off this week!
Buy 1 – Simple Skincare Cleanser, $5.99
Buy 1 – Simple Skincare Wipes, $4.86
Use B1G1 Free Coupon to get the Wipes for Free
Pay just $5.99 and get 4,000 points ($4)
Like Paying $0.99 each item!
Since these items are as much as $7.99 before the sale and rewards, by stacking the coupon you’re getting HUGE Savings! If you were to walk into the store and use just the coupon without a sale and the rewards points you would only save 50%, by combining all three promotions you are saving over 87% on the cleanser!!!!
Free with Purchase Coupons
Some B1G1 Free Coupons are what I typically call Free with Purchase Coupons. Here’s an example of a Suave Free with Purchase Coupon: Buy 2 Suave Lotion and get 1 FREE Suave Body Lotion.
These can be used much the same way as B1G1 Free Coupons by combining them with sales and promotions to get maximum savings.
Here’s a quick example. Walgreens puts Suave Products on sale Buy $10 Get 3,000 rewards points. By stacking the B2G1 Free Coupon with the sale you can get an even better deal than using the coupon alone.
Buy 2 – Suave Professionals Hair Care, $3.99 each
Buy 1 – Suave Lotion, $3
Use the Buy 2 Professionals get a FREE Lotion Coupon
Pay $10.98 before the coupon and $7.98 after the coupon + get 3,000 points (=$3)
Like paying just $4.98 for all 3 items or around $1.66 each!
A Word of Caution:
In the past (I’m talking years ago before the extreme couponing show began to air) most companies coded coupons to allow for a $1 off coupon to be used on the item you were purchasing with the B1G1 Free coupon. Over the last few years most companies have changed the coding of their coupons so this is no longer allowed. Most Stores have also updated this policy where you can’t use a Coupon on the item you are buying so this isn’t considered fair use any more. I know this can be confusing and I get emails all the time about this so I wanted to quickly address the issue. I no longer post deals using a coupon and a b1g1 free coupon because I believe most stores and manufacturers no longer allow this but I know you may see this in other places and I think the confusion comes because the changes that have been happening in the coupon world. Keep in mind, you can still get Awesome Deals using B1G1 Free Coupons (As shown above) But it’s important to use coupons correctly in order to make sure we don’t have even tighter restrictions on everyone in the future.
Don’t Forget: You can Download the Stockpiling Price Sheet to see all of the estimated prices you could expect to pay for the basic items we buy each month. There is also a place to compare unit pricing. This is just a guide, but a great way to help you learn the prices of each item.
Tomorrow we will be talking about another strategy for getting the most out of your coupons!
Make sure you check out our Saving Money Blog and also our How to Coupon Page for more tips, tricks and videos on saving money and using coupons.
View all the posts in the Extreme Couponing Strategies series.
