Publix: Why are cereal coupons so small?

I went to Publix on the last day of last week's sale to catch a few of the bargains.

My favorite deal for that sales week was the deal on Post Great Grains. There were $1.00 off printable coupons for that cereal available. How often does that happen?

It seems like there used to be a lot of $1.00 off cereal coupons, and then the cereal coupons became $1 off 2. Now, the typical cereal coupon is $1 off 3 boxes. When a box of brand-name cereal has a full price of $4.00 or $5.00 each (not that I would ever buy cereal at that price), saving 33¢ is pretty measly.

Even if you buy the cereal on a BOGO sale, saving 33¢ off a box of cereal costing $2 or $2.50 still isn't a bargain. You'd be better off buying a box of house-brand cereal at ALDI or Walmart.

I would guess that since couponing has become so much more popular, manufacturers are lowering the values because people will still use them. Why give away more money than they need to?

But I was glad to get the $1.00 off coupons on Post Great Grains. Combined with the BOGO sale, I was able to buy 4 boxes for $1.15 each, lower than my price limit of $1.50 per box of cereal.

Here's what I got:

6 Hunt's tomatoes @ $1.00 = $6.00
- 2 $0.45/3 Hunt's Canned Tomatoes, exp. 11/14/11 (SS 10/02/11 R)
- 3 50¢/2 Hunt's Canned Tomatoes Target printable
= $3.60 for six, or 60¢ each

8 Hefty One Zip bags @ BOGO $2.39 = $9.56
- 4 $1/2 Hefty One Zip Bags, exp. 11/30/11 (RP 08/14/11)
=  $5.56 for eight, or 70¢ each

4 Keebler Fudge Grasshopper cookies @ BOGO $3.49 = $6.98
- 2 $0.55/2 Keebler Cookies, exp. 11/13/11 (RP 09/18/11)
- 2 $1/2 Keebler Cookie Product Target printable
= $3.88 for four, or 97¢ each

4 Post Great Grains cereal @ BOGO $4.29 = $8.58
- 4 $1/1 Post Great Grains Cereal printable (or $1/1 Post Great Grains Cereal printable (Target mfr.))
= $4.58 for four, or $1.15 each

Total product: $17.62
Tax: $1.14
Total out of pocket: $18.76
Total saved: $41.56