More on BOGO deals...

For every rule there is an exception, especially in the coupon world. For the beginning couponers out there, I apologize ahead of time, because this is going to get advanced. When I went to the store tonight I checked out the BOGO Wheat Thins deal that I had talked to Christine about. I had one BOGO coupon for Artisan wheat thins and a $1/1 triscuit coupon. The ad says Buy One Get One Free. That seems straight forward enough and it stands to reason, that you should be able to get two boxes free with the use of a manufacturers coupon. If I have already lost you, here is my last post. Anyway, when I got there I noticed an immediate problem. The boxes were marked 2/$3.49, not buy one get one free. They are regularly $3.49 a piece, so yes, you are getting one for free. However, all was not as it appeared when applying coupons. When they code the boxes that way, instead of paying $3.49 for one and nothing for the other, you actually pay $1.74 for each box, so if you apply a BOGO coupon to this deal, you pay $1.74 for two boxes. It's not free, but $0.87 per box is nothing to sneeze at. This kind of coding, actually makes it easier to use two coupons on two products. It would be much easier to use 2 $1.00 off coupons on each box in this case. Because theTriscuits were marked 2/$3.49 and I had a $1.00 off coupon, I bought one box at the $1.74 and used the coupon and it was $0.74. So, when looking at ads, they do notnecessarily tell the whole story. It is how the product is labeled that will tell you exactly how much you will be paying in the end. Have questions about this tricky concept? Leave me a comment or email me and I will do my best to answer it.