I’m back from Jewel, and I finally had success double-dipping the Unilever Buy $15, Save $5 and Unilever Buy 2 Get 1 FREE sales. These sales ONLY overlap for one more day, TODAY, 1/3/16.
I suggest cutting ALL Unilever brand coupons from the 1/1 RP2 in prep for this — you may want them all on hand to put your own scenarios together in-store.
Here’s what you need to keep in mind: The register chooses which of your item(s) to make Buy-2-Get-1-FREE, and it’s also pro-rating the discounts’ value (you’ll see what I mean in a moment.) A lot of experimentation went on with this — I believed that the free item discount may count against your $15 total, so I aimed to stay OVER $15 after all of the B2G1F items are scanned, thinking I’d lose the Buy $15, Save $5 instant savings too. That wasn’t the case though.
Additionally, while Jewel’s coupon policy does allow a free or dollars-off coupon to be applied to a free item, the register will not scan these coupons automatically. They will beep and sound like they scanned, but they won’t come off the register automatically. Watch the register very carefully. Go to the store with patience, and finding a coupon-friendly cashier is always a big help too.
If you’re putting your own scenarios together, keep in mind that the Unilever insert coupons are LIMIT 2 per transaction, so do not exceed this.
Nine items for .34 total
Buy two $4.50 Tresemme treatments ($9)
Buy one $4.50 Tresemme 11oz. hair spray (now $13.50)
Buy two $4.49 Dove Men + Care shampoos (now $22.48)
Buy two $2.50 Degree deodorants, one men’s, one women’s (now $27.48)
Buy two $2 Suave body washes (now $31.48)
The register took off -$1.71 for one free item discount
The register took off -$1.36 for another free item discount
The register took off another -$3.07 for another free item discount (now $25.34)
I was expecting the Unilever $5 savings to come next, but the register took off $10 – I wanted to see if this sale stacked up if you hit $30, and it does.
(Now $15.34)
I used two $1 Tresemme treatment coupons (-$2, now $13.34)
I used the Tresemme free hairspray coupon (-$4.50, now $8.84)
I used two $2 Dove Men shampoo coupons (-$4, now $4.84)
I used the $3 Degree coupon (-$3, now $1.84)
I used two .75 Suave body wash coupons (- $1.50, now .34!)
I expected to pay .34 plus tax, but I’d forgotten that I had loaded some MyMixx coupons..! MyMixx.75 took $1 off one Dove shampoo, .75 off one Suave body wash, and .50 off one Tresemme treatment. I was now at -$1.91!
Again, I was not expecting to go into the negative, and I told my cashier she could take my manufacturer coupons off. She opted not to, so I added a box of $1.99 Triscuits (they were close to the register!) to bring me to .08. With tax, I paid $1.18 for all items.
With NO MyMixx coupons loaded, you will pay .34 for all nine items.
Any transaction involving Tresemme also prints a $2.50-off-3 Catalina coupon for more Tresseme.
Nine items for .94 total
Buy two $2.50 Degree deodorants, one men’s, one women’s (now $5)
Buy two $2 Suave body washes ($4, now $9)
Buy two $4.49 Dove Men + Care shampoos ($8.98, now $17.98)
Buy two $4.50 Dove Men + Care body washes ($9, now $26.98)
Buy one $3.50 Suave Professionals shampoo (now $30.48)
The register took off -$1.68 for one free item discount
The register took off -$1.34 for another free item discount
The register took off -$3.02 for another free item discount
The register took off -$10 for the Unilever $15/$5 discount (twice, as I was over $30 – now $14.44)
I used a $3-off-2 Degree coupon (now $11.44)
I used two .75 Suave body wash coupons (now $9.94)
I used two $2 Dove men’s shampoo coupons (now $5.94)
I used two $2 Dove men’s body wash coupons (now $1.94)
I used one $1 Suave Professionals coupon (now .94)
With NO MyMixx coupons loaded, you will pay .94 for all nine items.
I was expecting to pay .94, but I had a .50 MyMixx coupon loaded for the Suave, so I paid .54 for all nine items. (Again, my cashier let it go — it wasn’t intentional. I also did my weekly grocery shopping during this trip, so I’m not showing the entire receipt here.)
Six Tresemme for $2.14 total
Buy two Tresemme $4 shampoo (now $8)
Buy two Tresemme $4.50 treatments (now $17)
Buy two Tresemme $4.50 hairsprays (now $26)
The register took off -$3.23 for one free item discount
The register took off -$3.63 for another free item discount
The register took off -$5 for the $15/$5 Unilever discount (now $14.14)
I used two $1 Tresemme $1 treatment coupons (now $12.14)
I used two $4.50 Tresemme hairspray coupons (now $3.14)
MyMixx took off $1 for one shampoo (now $2.14)
I paid $2.14 for all six items. (Now knowing that I would have gotten another $5 off for going over $30 pre-coupon, I would have added more, but this was the first transaction I ran today. I experimented so you don’t have to!)
You can adjust accordingly if you want to go for more. Adding two $2 Suave body wash or two $2.50 Degree deodorants to this scenario would work well here to get over $30 and get $10 in Unilever savings — and if you’re buying two items, you may as well buy a third to trigger the B2G1F again too. and make the deal that much better. I was able to buy more items for less out-of-pocket in the other two scenarios above.
Good luck and have fun! I’m providing these scenarios in printable form below:
Carrie says
Just got back, it works great! Just like the old days! I did both your #1 and #2s two times. This was awesome!
Linda says
I did one of each of the three scenarios, and needed a little adjustment at the service desk but they all worked great! Thanks so much for outlining these, Jill!
Coupon Maven says
You’re welcome – glad they worked out for you!
theresa says
Thanks for posting this. I only get one paper and did not work too hard to get the perfect deal. I got 15 items for 5.83 pre tax. Needed more deodorant and the shampoo will last us a long while. My daughter will love the hairspray.
Coupon Maven says
You’re welcome! Glad you were able to stock up on on so many things — I think you did well! :)
feelgood says
Thanks, Jill…worked great! I did a deal similar to the one I commented on in your other Unilever post. Got one Axe body spray ($5.49), one Axe dry spray ($5.99), and one Dove Men & Care body wash ($4.50). Total $15.98. $5.00 instant came off, $3.09 off B2G1F, $6.00 off in coupons. Paid $1.89 + tax, and Ibotta has $5.50 back.
assassin says
lol @ the final prices. masterful!
“Here’s what you need to keep in mind: The register choose which of your item(s) to make Buy-2-Get-1-FREE, and it’s also pro-rating the discounts’ value”
ah, seems it’s sorting the items in descending order of price, then giving every third one free.
as for pro-rating, gotcha; it seems to be multiplying an item’s price by ((items_total – 5_dollar_savings_total) / items_total) . so your “extra” $11 in purchases from your trial run raised the discount ratio.
Coupon Maven says
I think you’re right about the prices, – they seem to be taking the lowest third item -after- the $15/$5 price reduction and using that price. It was kind of a pain to figure that out in the store aisles – I had a notebook covered with notes and subtractions trying to figure out what the next best scenario would be, but I’m pretty happy with what I got. :) Hopefully everyone else enjoyed this one too.
I’m just glad it finally worked for me — the B2G1F wasn’t coming off at all over the weekend, and then I didn’t have enough free time on Monday to go over and experiment again. Finally, it worked :)
Penny J Pincher says
.34 scenario worked flawlessly in McHenry .
Coupon Maven says
Great! :)