How to Use Coupons at Publix [A Shopping Guide]

Publix is a big mover in the grocery world and has expanded rapidly out of Florida and into other states in the Southeast.

They are what I would call a premium grocery store because they offer higher end products like large numbers of organic foods and better meat sections that include fresh sea food.

What most people do not know is that Publix can be a couponer’s dream. They are super friendly to couponing and have policies that make getting great deals much easier than other grocery stores.

Publix is the store “Where Shopping is a Pleasure” and that is even more the case when you know how to shop their deals and how to kill it with coupons.

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Shopping the Weekly Publix Deals

Publix is in love with the Buy One Get One Free deal. But that is great because isn’t everybody? As with most grocery stores these deals are not really BOGO, but 50% off a single item.

So when you see a BOGO deal on a box of cereal that is normally $4, even if you only buy one you are only paying $2.

There are always other deals at Publix but your BOGO offering are going to be your best bet most of the time. The only exception might be their special sale flyers that last about a month each time.

These are always available at the front of the store or you can check the where to get a list section of this page.

Publix Coupon Policy

Publix has a lot of ways to save and accepts a lot of different deals so to keep track of all of that I put this all you need list of couponing rules for Publix:

You do not need a shopping card, but you will want one. Having the Publix shopping card will allow you to take advantage of e-coupons and especially uPromise.
Coupons that are 50¢ or less will be doubled, unless you live in Florida. There is no doubling in Florida or coastal Georgia (see all exceptions for these areas below).
Publix has A TON of store coupons. These can be stacked with manufacturer’s coupons.
You can use competitor’s coupons. These will stack with manufacturer’s coupons but not with store coupons. Also what constitutes a competitor is up to each store manager.
There is not policy on how many coupons you can use but the registers are set to require a manager approval if your coupons come up to a total of more than $50.

Florida and Coastal Georgia Coupon Policy

There are three differences between the policy above and that of stores in Florida and Coastal Georgia. They are:

No Doubling… Ever
BOGO items are actually BOGO. So you have to buy two to get the sale price
Some stores will not allow you to use coupons on both items in a BOGO deal. This is against corporate policy and you should complain to corporate if this happens to you.

Where to get Your Coupons for Publix

Publix tends to throw coupons around like candy. Yummy, money saving, candy.

Sunday Circular – For now this is still one of the best place to get coupons. I don’t recommend subscribing just to get coupons unless your paper lets you subscribe to just the coupons.
Printable Coupons – Your stead bets are coupons.com and Smartsource. There are others but you will have to check the weekly list to pick up the odds and ends.
E-Coupons – There are three places to get cash back from Publix purchases: SavingStar, iBotta, and UPromise.
Store Coupons – Publix has an online portal to print some store coupons but you will get the bulk of them through going to the front desk and asking for coupon booklets. There are new ones every month and they come out at different times so I ask every time I shop there. You also want to sign up for whatever Publix clubs are relevant to you. Right now I am subscribed to their Baby Club, for example.
Competitor’s Coupons – this really depends on which store’s your Publix thinks is a competitor. If your store will accept the coupons from Target.com then you can really roll up some big savings.

How a Deal Looks at Publix

If you are used to the couponing sites the Publix deals will look pretty standard. You will have a price before coupons followed by a list of what coupons are available. So a BOGO deal might look like this:

Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies $3.99 ($1.99) <—-this is the price after BOGO
-$0.50 Chips Ahoy Cookies 05/29/15 SS

So after coupon that pack of $4 cookies is now $1 ($1.99 after BOGO – $0.50 coupon – $0.50 publix double = $0.99)

This gets even better if Publix has a store coupon or there is a competitor coupon for another 50-75¢ off. As you can see these BOGO deals can get pretty rowdy once you start throwing coupons on top of them. If some the information above looks like Greek to you then go to our page on How to Coupon. You can learn all the levels of couponing (you don’t have to go extreme) and how to do the basics there.

Where to get the List

There are a bunch of sites that cover Publix. The top two are CouponMom.com and SouthernSavers.com. Both sites are free and do a good job of getting their list out at the beginning of when the circular is released.

Now that you are equipped with the information you need to rake in some really good deals, get started on your first Publix run. If you run into a speed bump and have some questions feel free to contact me or leave them in the comments.

Shopping at Publix really is a pleasure when you know how to get the most out of their coupon policies.