Don’t Forget The Raincheck!

I am SO excited to announce a new feature here entitled Survival Tip Tuesday! Each Tuesday I will have a “Survival Tip” with different ways that we can survive the stores. Make sure to come back each Tuesday to check out the new survival tip!

Don’t Forget The Raincheck!

You have your coupons all sorted and ready to get the latest freebies at your local grocery or drug store. You head to the store the first day of the sale so that you can be one of the first to grab your free items. But OH NO! There are just too many couponers in your area and all of the really good freebies have already been snatched up! What do you do?

1. Find a store clerk and ask them if they have any more of the particular item in the back or somewhere else in the store. Many times the item in question is on an end cap around the corner from where it’s supposed to be. Or several items that are part of a larger sale are all grouped together.

2. If the store is really out of the item, then make sure to ask for a raincheck! What is a raincheck? A raincheck is a small piece of paper that the store manager (typically) fills out and gives to you so that you can come back at a later date and get the item for the same price that it was on sale for. These rainchecks usually don’t have an expiration date (check with your store, some stores make you use them within thirty days), so you can use them at any time!

3. File the raincheck in your coupon binder (or whatever filing system you use) under that specific store. That way, the next time you are in that store you can easily check for the items that you have a raincheck for.

What are some ways to maximize your raincheck usage?

1. I LOVE getting rainchecks at CVS! Why? Because I typically get $5 off of a $25 purchase coupons from the price scanner machine! Then, if a particular week doesn’t have enough freebie deals after ECBs (read Surviving CVS if you don’t know what an ECB is), I can use the items that I have rainchecks for to get up to the $25 that I need to get the $5 off. When you first get the raincheck from CVS they will write on it how many ECBs you should get back for the product. Then they will manually print out the ECBs when you “cash in” on your raincheck.

2. If you feel confident that a coupon will come out soon for an item that is currently on sale, then you can call the store to see what day they get their shipments in. Go to the store the day before they get their shipment (it will be more likely that the item will be out of stock) to get a raincheck. Then you can use that raincheck whenever a coupon comes out for the item!

3. Make sure to ask the manager how many items you can get a raincheck for. Sometimes they will start to make the raincheck out for one item. Ask them how many items you can get, and many times they will reply with, “How many do you want?” I also recommend using the tips from “Surviving The Store Clerks and Cashiers” in this instance as well.

Do you have any other raincheck tips? I’d love to hear them!!

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