$.12 per bottle

Harris Teeter is offering triple coupons from 3/25 - 3/31.  They will triple up to 20 coupons per transaction with a face value of up to $.99.  The $.99 part seems more like a marketing gimmick than a valuable number because I have never seen a coupon with a value of $.99.  The highest coupons go is typically $.75.

So what does triple coupons mean from a savings perspective?  Here’s an example of common coupon values:

• $.55 coupon = $1.65 tripled
• $.75 coupon = $2.25 tripled

Coupons can be found in most Sunday newspapers.  They are sometimes found stuck to packages in the grocery store.  Keep in mind that some coupons will NOT double.  For the most part, if a coupon’s bar code starts with the number 5, then the coupon will double or triple.  If it starts with a 9, it you’re out of luck.

Lifetime Supply of Soy Sauce

Over the past week, I bought 24 - 10 oz bottles of Kikkoman Soy Sauce.  It was too cheap to pass up.

The soy sauce aisle at Harris Teeter is pretty small.  In fact, it’s not really a soy sauce aisle, it’s the international aisle.  After grazing through the aisle, I see a small sticker stuck to a bottle that reads, “Save $.55.”  I tear it off and verify that the bar code starts with a 5.  Sweet! It’s triple coupon week.  I then look at the price tag: $1.77.  A quick subtraction tells me that each bottle will cost me $.12.  So I grab all 24 of them.

Upon checkout, here’s what I spend:

• 24 bottles at $1.77 = $42.48
• 24 $.55 coupons, tripled = $39.60
• Total = $2.88

In other words, Kikkoman Soy Sauce, Buy 1, Get 15 Free.  Or, Kikkoman Soy Sauce, 93% Off Sale.