As a couponer, I look back to those beginning times and laugh. I had no idea I was making such horrible couponing mistakes. I got a little stacking crazy and trying to use store coupons at other stores and it was a hot mess. I don’t want that for you. So let’s start from the beginning, shall we?
Let’s find out if you are guilty of at least one of these couponing mistakes at BJ’s.
BJ’s Wholesale club is the only club that allows the use of manufacturer coupons. What that means is the BJ’s coupons you get sent to your home monthly and the ones you pick up every two weeks in store, are in addition to any coupons from your local Sunday newspaper and online.
Grab a $25 BJ’s membership for the entire year here.
This is one of the reasons I love shopping at BJ’s. It leads to great savings when you combine coupons. Sure it can take a bit of time but I have plenty of tips and tricks to maximize your membership without spending hours doing it.
If you are new to couponing at the club be sure you are not making these common couponing mistakes at BJ’s.
Only Using BJ’s Coupons
Like I said above so many people have no idea they can use manufacturer coupons with a BJ’s coupon. In our coupon stacking section, you will see items paired with coupons for a great price. Here is a scenario example.
Breakdown below
Here’s the breakdown:
Buy 1 Dove Men+Care Extra Fresh Body Wash, 3 pk./18 oz. $13.99
AND Use the $2/1 Dove Men+Care Body Wash Product, exp. 2/7/21 (RMN 01/24/21 #2) [Excludes trial/travel size]
Final Price: $8.99 or $2.99 each!
BJ’s coupon policy states that you can use one manufacturer coupon with a BJs coupon on an item. They no longer use multiple manufacturer coupons per barcode.
Buying More Than You Need
When you get started couponing and learning how to stack coupons you may be tempted to buy more than you really need.
For example, the mustard has a great coupon stack and you are saving 50% off but do you really need 4 HUGE bottles of mustard from BJ’s?
Remember that many items at BJ’s come in sizes that are larger than what is found at your local grocery store.
You don’t want to buy extra just to use the coupon and get a better deal. Of course, you can always donate items, but be sure you aren’t breaking your budget just to get the savings.
Not Having Your BJs Membership Shared
BJ’s has come a long way with promoting its online coupons. In the past few weeks, they have made an option for BJs members to share benefits.
From the Gas savings now that add up monthly, to the online coupons. If you aren’t familiar with this I have a post here explaining how to do this.
You Aren’t Stacking Online Coupons
Every time we get a new BJs coupon book it seems to overlap with other BJ’s coupons. Now with how digital coupons are at BJs, there is plenty of coupon stacking. If you skipped the details of the first explanation above, you can tap here and see all the awesome coupon stacks at BJs.
Not Using Your Stockpile
Many couponers think in the beginning they have to grab every deal that comes around. As a blogger I see many of the same deals come around every 4-8 weeks.
Sure that sounds like a long time but when you grab a few of the items while they are at a stock up the price they should last you until the next rock bottom price.
By using what we have and stocking up we follow the pantry cooking lifestyle. I share a lot more about this on my Tiktok page below.
This gives you time to let some of the other deals that you don’t need go. During our spending freeze. our pantry saved us.
We can get pasta for less than $0.80 a box frequently at BJ’s and many other retailers when it is on sale and paired with coupons. It’s tempting to grab some even though I just looked in my pantry and I have 10 boxes of assorted varieties of pasta.
Don’t waste your time and funds to keep stocking up when you are already stocked up. You can easily get caught into the trap of “HOT DEALS NOW”. But you can also go broke grabbing every deal. Remember that we have sale cycles meaning every 4-8 weeks the same items will be on sale again.
Not Bringing The BJ’s Coupon Policy With You to Shop
We have all been there. Ready to use our coupons one per barcode and the coupons beep. The cashier says we can’t do that and we have to fight for a policy we didn’t come up with. BJ’s Wholesale club did. We get discouraged and then come and vent to our fellow savers in our awesome FB group for BJ’s Couponers.
Print out the BJ’s coupon policy or show it on your phone. So many cashiers do not know the policy and many of the supervisors as well. It’s not fair that BJ’s prides itself against other warehouse stores by accepting multiple coupons. They need to follow their policy and we do too.
Be firm in your knowledge of the policy and knowing if each item has an individual barcode. In my pricebook the number of barcodes are listed next to the item for your convenience.
You’re Not Following a Deal Blog
“Not now Hunny. I’m still searching through this ad for the best deals.” Whoa whoa whoa. That my dear is a thing of the past. There is no more searching through the ad yourself than searching through your coupons, trying to match the items up. This is all done for you, by me, and many other wonderful bloggers.
You can get all the BJ’s Coupon stacks here.
Each week you can easily scan through the items to find the best deal and add it to a printable shopping list. Multitasking at its finest! If you are not familiar with these lists- please do yourself a huge favor and check them out! Plus they are time-consuming and I appreciate all the clicks to those matchups 🙂
And there you have the most common couponing mistakes at BJ’s Wholesale Club!
What struggles do you have when it comes to couponing at BJs?
Why is it when BJ’s runs the coupon deal for Pellegrino (regular size) bottles of water they are ALWAYS conveniently out of stock at any store in my county? I don’t think it’s possible there is an immediate rush of customers buying out the stock in each store, and BJ’s does not offer rain checks. What’s up with that?
Hey! No idea.
I purchased an item at BJs, and a couple days later I got the coupon book, and found a clipless coupon for the item which was $15 less than what I paid. Is there any way I can get that money refunded?
Yes they should give you the difference if you go to your local member service area. If you have receipt that will be faster. Otherwise they can look up by membership number.
I try and scan coupons that come in the mail but the BJS app on my phone says they cannot find product, what am I doing wrong
Hi Jeff, Those coupons are now instant savings in club. No need to bring in or clip coupons.
I have one manufacturer Dove coupon that would save me $4 if I purchase any 2. Can I use that one coupon to purchase a 2 pk or 3 pk of dove from BJ’s?
Yes that will still work.
I definitely make some of these mistakes but not ad often as I used to.
I really like that you can clip coupons online as I’m unable to print.
But how do I unclip a coupon that I want to remove?
Hi Luisa! They do not have that option yet.. 🙁
Wow, that was great roundup of mistakes. A simple stupid mistake I make when using the BJ’s coupon booklets is I forget through out the booklet are different expiration dates. I always pickup a product that the coupon has expired and my club never accepted an expired coupon.
Your tips are so helpful!! Thank u!
Glad you enjoyed it Michelle 🙂
Great post!
I too always end up missing my time frame to use good coupons for items because they expire.
This is the thing I don’t understand about coupon is, when they come in or when I see them here or advertised I want to grab them but the problem is they have dates most of the coupons give you a month or two to use them, Often I don’t buy like that so I end up missing out on so much.
@tisonlyme143
Regarding the printing of coupons…not only should you ALWAYS print in black and white, you should also print in DRAFT MODE to save even more ink. Nearly everything I print – not just coupons – is done in Draft Mode, and I’ve been doing my printing this way for years! The output quality is practically identical to Normal Mode!
Your site makes it easy to be aware of coupons available, but when I click the link to the coupon sites, they don’t seem to have a search feature, so I’m forced to look through a million coupons to find the few that I want. What am I missing?
Are you using the coupon database? There was a technical issue on the site where coupons were not pulling the direct one from the matchup lists. It should be fixed now. I highly recommend using the coupon database or the matchup lists. All the coupons will be directly pulled for you in the coupon sites than. 🙂 Heres the link–>https://www.mybjswholesale.com/coupon-database