Crazy facts about e-coupons

So as you may have heard there are some great places you can get e-coupons directly added to your store loyalty cards.

Cellfire and Shortcuts both let you add coupons to your Safeway or Fred Meyer cards.

Through P&GeSaver you can also add Proctor & Gamble coupons to your Safeway card.

It takes only a minute to link your cards to these sites and add coupons and it is well worth it.

All of these e-coupons come off automatically when you make a matching purchase and enter your card info at the store. These coupons can be used in addition to any store and manufacturer coupons you may be using for your purchase. This means that if the coupons all lined up right you might purchase a $4 item and have a Safeway store $1 coupon, P&GeSaver $1 coupon, Shortcuts $1 coupon AND Cellfire $1 coupoon and get the item for free.

Here is a real example I did a Safeway a couple weeks ago so you can see how it works:

Purchased (3) Tuna Helper on sale for $1/ea
Used 1 paper coupon $.75/3
Loaded 1 Cellfire coupon for $.75/3
Loaded 1 Shortcuts coupon for $75/3
Total cost $3.00 - .75 coupon - .75 e-coupon - .75 e-coupon = $.75 OOP

Now I'm sure there were folks excited about Tuna Helper for $1/ea (the store special) or $.75/ea (price with only paper coupon), but I'd rather get it for $.25/ea, how about you?

As nice at that is, however, what I discovered yesterday is even more interesting.

It looks like both Shortcuts and Cellfire sometimes release new coupons that are valid while a past coupon for the same item is ALSO valid. So yesterday I ended up with all of the following, unexpired coupons loaded on my Safeway card:

Shortcuts - Wheaties Fuel cereal $1.00
Shortcuts - Wheaties Fuel cereal $.75
Shortcuts - Wheaties Fuel cereal $.75
Cellfire - Wheaties Fuel cereal $1.00
Cellfire - Wheaties Fuel cereal $1.00

I bought one single box of Wheaties Fuel cereal that was $3.99 and gave the cashier a $1 off 1 box of Wheaties Fuel paper coupon.

I swiped my Club Card and guess what happened? ALL the e-coupons above automatically came off. So I saved $5.50 on a box of cereal that cost $3.99. That means that I not only got the cereal for free, but saved $1.51 extra off my bill, making the ground beef I was also buying a lot cheaper. :)

Yay!