Here are some things I learned and some things I will do differently for next time.
1. Go early when there are less people. I have heard Tuesdays are the least common days for people to grocery shop but now that our Walmart doubles coupons on that day, it might get busier. I went at 11:30 a.m. thinking I would have plenty of time to shop and check out, get home and unload, have lunch, take my daughter to my step-mom's house and get to work by 2:00 p.m. I was wrong! I was 20 minutes late to work and had to go through the drive through for lunch to cut down on time. I guess it could have been worse. (And I used a coupon for my food.)
2. Tell anybody who gets in line behind you that they will most likely want to choose another line. I had a lady behind me who was NOT happy, to say the least. I had no idea check out was going to take as long as it did (upwards of 30 minutes). The checker was new to double couponing so he was learning how to do it and it took a lot longer, but it is still quite a process.
3. Place all the items you have a coupon for with the coupon at checkout. Doubling the coupons is different from regular coupon scanning, where they would scan all your groceries first then do all the coupons together at the end. The way they do the double coupon is they check the price of the item first then subtract an amount, depending on the value of the coupon. For example: a 55 cent off coupon, they subtract 55 cents from $1.00 = 45 cents. They take 45 cents off the item as if they were price matching, then they scan the coupon, taking the other 55 cents off = $1.00 off. (I hope that made sense. If it was a coupon for 75 cents off, they'd subtract 25 cents from the item and scan the coupon.)
4. You don't have to do this part, but I will next time to speed up checkout. As you shop, write down the price of the item on your list, then do the above calculations before you check out. So if you are buying mustard for $1.37, write down the full price. If your coupon is for 30 cents off, subtract 30 cents from $1.37, write down the price-match price of $1.07, then instead of the checker having to scan the item and figure out the discount, (which takes up a lot of time), you can just tell them you have already done the math. Walmart is very trusting, so most likely they will take your word for it. They price match other stores and don't even require you to bring the ad with you. I take it, just in case they do ask, but today the checker did not even look at it.
Still being new to couponing, this process stressed me out today and I felt really bad about the lady behind me. She was not nice when I apologized...which made me feel less bad. I offered to help her take her things to another lane while the checker and his manager figured out the double couponing but she didn't take me up on that offer, so I can't feel too responsible for her feelings. I will do better in the future. I only saved $17 (totaling about 20% off my entire purchase), which doesn't seem like that much, but as I learn more of the art of couponing, I am hoping that the dollar amount and percentage saved will increase.
