My pet peeve with blog deals

One of my favorites snacks is the Planters Fruit and Nut trail mix.  I discovered it at a rest stop while on a road trip, when I was looking for something healthy to nosh on.  It's yummy and fairly healthy, though it does have added sugar and sulfites... but compared to a lot of snacks, it's pretty good for you.

So I was really excited to see a deal on a blog that described how to get two free trail mix packages at Walgreens.  The idea was to combine a sale at Walgreens, two coupons from Facebook along with a coupon from a savings book available at the store.

The problem is, the coupon in the savings book was a manufacturer's coupons, not a store coupon.  And you can't use two manufacturer's coupons on one item.  So this deal didn't work for me.

Now, I don't mean to pick on any particular blogger.  I appreciate the hard work they do to bring us amazing deals.  I couldn't save nearly as much money as I do without them.

But, it seems that many times deals are figured out in theory, but they don't work in reality.  Some of the problems I've encountered are:

Mismatch of product size.  For instance, the sale is only on the 12 oz size of the product, but the coupon specifically says 16 oz or larger.  It can't be used for the sale.

Mismatch of product variety.   As a made-up example, the sale is on the chocolate variety of Cheerios, but the coupon specifically says it's for the original Cheerios variety.

The product isn't available at that store.  Some stores only carry a limited selection of an item - they don't carry all the possible flavors and varieties.  They may have a sale on say, all varieties of Cheerios, but they don't happen to carry the chocolate kind, for instance. So you can't use a coupon for the chocolate variety of Cheerios at this sale, since you can't buy the product there.

The coupon expires before the end of the sale.  This is okay if the blogger specifically mentions that the coupon will expire on such-and-such a date; then I know I have to get that deal before the expiration date, and if not, it's my fault.  But sometimes expiration dates are forgotten, and the deal only works for the first day or two of the sale. 

A deal mistakes a manufacturer's coupon for a store coupon, and vice versa.  As I showed in my example above.

Part of the problem is that a single blogger's mistake (and we all make mistakes, of course!) is compounded by dozens of other bloggers copying the same deals.  So, as a blogger myself, I try not to post deals unless I've confirmed that they really work.  The downside is that I may not report on a deal early enough for readers to take advantage of the deal for themselves.

I guess the moral of the story is to check out all deals yourself before trying them at the store!  If you think there's a problem, there probably is.

And the trail mix?  Even though I didn't get it for free, I was still able to use the two coupons from Facebook and get them for 49¢ each.  Still a good deal!

Read more pet peeves at Friday Fails and Friday Frustrations.