Also, here's an updated review of Ingles coupon policies with special regard to triples, AND a link to Gabrielle at Couponing in Critical Times who posted some tips for shopping Ingles this week and in general. In reviewing the blogs I learned a few new things, too (but then I didn't much bother with Ingles for coupons either). It ain't Kroger b/c of that 3 for every $10 spent rule, but it's workable.
- Ingles will only TRIPLE coupons that are $0.50 or less (maximum savings of $1.50). This is the same cap as for doubling. Anything $0.51 or over will not triple OR double; during Triples week, doubling is essentially replaced by tripling. I also read on Saving Your Cents that some Ingles will not triple $0.50/2 coupons... This may be a case of how YMMV b/c I'm pretty sure I've never had problems with those coupons doubling in the past...
- As with their regular doubling during the rest of the year, Ingles will only TRIPLE 3 coupons for every $10 spent (that's $10 BEFORE tax and BEFORE coupons are applied... So if you have 4 items that are $2.50 each before ANY coupons or tax, you could apply 3 "triple-able" $0.50 coupons toward that batch of items). When you have $20 in total items, you can triple 6 coupons, $30 lets you triple 9, and so on.
- UNLIKE with Kroger, Ingles' published policy on triples is that you will only receive up TO the value of the item (i.e. Item "A" costs $1.25 and you have a $0.50 coupon... the coupon will triple & you'll get that item FREE, but the extra $0.25 generated by the triple just disappears into a black hole; it is not applied to the rest of your total purchase like at Kroger). Which means no "overage" savings. Now, Gabrielle over at Couponing in Critical Times reported that she DID get the overages on her triples this week... but I'm not going to bank on it. I'll just be pleasantly surprised that way. :-)
- You CAN use coupons for your other items, so long as they don't qualify for tripling. There is no limit that I'm aware of on non-triple coupons, so this is a good time to get out those $0.75 and $1.00 coupons!
- In order to "work" around the 3 coupons/$10 rule you will need to put forth some effort and keep track of how much you're tallying up BEFORE coupons. Supposedly not all Ingles are strict about the 3/$10 rule... but better to err on the side of them holding to that rule. To keep myself from overspending at the store, I personally go through the ad and matchups before shopping and make a list in MS Excel. I highlight all the items that I'd like to buy that should be free or close to it with a triple coupon. I make a column for the pre-coupon price and I get it to "sum" up as I add items. Once I have my list, I try not to deviate unless I'm adding items that don't use a triple coupon.
- Another trick to ensure you don't get caught by the 3/$10 rule is to plan to make some other non-coupon purchases like meats, fish, or produce. I like Ingles' seasoned fish section, and they also tend to have Pepsi fridge packs on a decent sale (which I never get coupons for despite being in the Xtras club... grr). I'll buy 4-5 of those at a time and that's $12 right there, allowing me another 3 tripled coupons.
- When at the store... DO NOT use the self-check out lane! I never would just because the purpose of those lanes is for people to get in/out quickly, and I'd hate to tie up one cashier who's overseeing 4 "lanes" with my stack of coupons. But I didn't realize that Ingles has to manually triple coupons for this event; so if you don't go through a regular line, you don't get triple value.
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