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Grocery store hacks
By Mr. Stupid | March 22, 2008
There are classic grocery store hacks that have been discussed elsewhere. Some folks spend alot of time finding differences among advertised prices and shelf prices and item prices — and then exploit store policies to get those items for free. Other folks hunt down items with expired “Sell by” dates and try to get the item free. And other folks might find ding and dent sales.
But that’s not what I’m here to tell you about. My grocery store hacks are much Stupider than those.
Free cash advances on your credit cards
Once in a while, you might need a few dollars. Like if you want a pack of cigarrettes, a burrito, a coffee, or some double goucester (my local cheese shop doesn’t accept Visa or Mastercard — it’s cash, check, or AmEx only).
If you don’t have cash available, but have a credit card, then this little tip can help.
Go to the grocery store and charge something on your credit card that costs about as much as you want in cash. For example, if you need $10, go over to the coffee aisle and grab a pound of premium coffee. If you need $20, get a bag of frozen jumbo shrimp and some cocktail sauce. Don’t get anything that has to be custom made, like a lamb shank. You’re going to return it shortly.
After you ring up your items, walk over to the customer service desk and return them. The service rep will give you cash rather than void out a credit card transaction. I’ve done this half a dozen times and have always received the cash back. I don’t ask for credit card refunds, I just take the cash and walk away.
Yes, you have to pay the credit card bill when it comes, but you don’t have to pay the cash advance fees or the interest.
I suppose if you needed, say, $100, you could probably do this at 5 stores with $20 items. But I wouldn’t try it with a single item that costs $100.
This technique also helps you avoid the restrictions of coupons that require you buy two or more of the products to save any money. For example, I just used a coupon to save $2 on two packages of string cheese. Well, I only wanted one package, so as soon as I left the checkout lane, I walked over to the customer service desk and returned the second package of string cheese. The customer service personnell don’t bother to figure out what the coupon applies to on the receipt.
Score one for Stupidity!
Photocopy coupons
I drink alot of coffe creamer. Specifically, I love non-fat French Vanilla flavored CoffeeMate. Me and Mrs. Stupid go through about a bottle and a half per week.
But you rarely see coupons for this tasty additive. So when I got an email offer for a $1 coupon, I immediately clicked the link. I jumped through the hoops of filling out a survey and even installed special “coupon printing” software. Whatever, I printed my $1 off coupon. I tried to print it again but they said you could only print one per person.
Well, ok. So I photocopied it a dozen times. The copies look no different than the originals, because the originals are printed on my printer. They scan the same and noone ever asks me what is up with my home-printed coupons. But just to be sure, I usually go through the “self checkout” lanes when I have home-printed coupons. I’d rather not deal with any scrutiny. The coupon probably says you can’t reproduce it or something like that, but I don’t both to read the fine print. That keeps me out of trouble.
If I use one per week, then we saved $78 this year.
Stupidity has its rewards.
How did I get that “special” offer from Nestle? I went to their website and registered my alternate “spam” email address to receive special offers. I only log in and check that email when I’m bored and in the mood to do some deletions.
If your email address is mrstupid@yahoo.com, then create another account called mrstupid-spam@yahoo.com. Any time you sign up for some service or other where your likely to receive promo offers, use that email address.
Topics: hacks |
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