Couponing Tips: Review Your Receipts Before You Walk Out the Store.

Couponing Tips: Review Your Receipts Before You Walk Out the Store. 

I was reading a few articles and this made me think of what I do before walking out of the store. ALWAYS REVIEW YOUR RECEIPT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE STORE! If you don't already then it is helpful to have a notebook and a pen with you while shopping so you may write down prices and any coupons you will be using. If you already have a list made out with all of that information already then you are just AWESOME!

Check/Review your receipt

Many couponers know their rough checkout total (I know my exact total down to the penny!) and can sense when the bill is too high. If this isn’t from impulse buys, it’s likely items have rung up incorrectly (For example my Pledge was marked at $3.49 in store but rang up at $4.49). After you pay for your items and get your receipt, step away from the register and look over all the prices you were charged and go over your
checklist. Pull out your notebook (yes your notebook! I always have my list with prices listed and coupons subtracted. This helps a ton!) If you wait until you get home, you will never get to it! Trust me! For 1. It's a waste of gas going back and 2. you will have forgotten about it.

• Did the items scan at the correct price?
• Was an item scanned twice?
• Did all of my mobile coupons scan?
• Did my eCoupons come off?
• Did all of manufacturer and store coupons scan?
• Were my reusable bags taken off?

Ask them to correct the error

If you spot an error, walk on over to the customer service desk and point out the mistake. They will check out the item, and if there is an error, they'll refund you the difference. Even better, some stores offer a price guarantee that if an item doesn’t ring up correctly, it’s free! If a coupon was missed then they will be able to correct that as well and take the coupon off! It’s also good to mention if you were undercharged for an item. The great majority of the time the employee just let it go, but it pays to be honest. Always remember that if you were undercharged, that makes them short on their till and it will get taken out of their paycheck which is unfair. So be honest because they have families they need to feed too. :-)

Scan your surroundings

While you're checking your receipt before leaving, you'll also want to do a quick scan of your surroundings. A lot of the times when you hand over the coupons to the cashier, one might fall out of the bunch. So check around:

• The end of the conveyor belt
• The bagging area
• The floor
• The bottom of your cart 
• In your child’s hand (which my son used to do a lot when he was younger)
• Around your Coupon Binder
• Around the area you paid at to make sure you've got your wallet, purse, credit card/debit card, keys
• Any Catalinas or other rewards you may have left there while finishing up the purchase that may have printed out.

Do you review your store receipt whenever you shop? What discrepancies have you discovered and how have you fixed them?