Publix BOGO day is my favorite day

One of the best things about living in the south is the abundance of Publix Super Markets. Inevitably, visitors who have never seen a Publix get a kick out of the name and the tagline, "Where shopping is a pleasure", but to me, Publix is serious business.

In my first months at work, my coworkers used to say I'd find "my Publix", the store closest to my house that I would get to know like the back of my hand, learn the names of all the cashiers and become great friends with the manager. And I'm all, but Publix is so much more expensive than Super Walmart and besides, that's totally lame. Who loves a supermarket that much?

The problem in the first few months was that the closest Super Walmart was 40 minutes away. I will shamefully admit that there were times we would spend almost an hour and a half on the road to drive to Super Walmart and back JUST to save a few bucks. Super Walmart is VERY CHEAP, so of course Publix seemed expensive to us, especially comparing brand name to brand name. Actually, Publix brand stuff was more than Great Value stuff, too. So we thought that was a sound financial decision.

And then I discovered BOGOS and it changed my life. And now I love a supermarket that much.

Every week, Publix has certain items that are buy one, get one free. And it's good stuff, too. Name brand cereals and cookies and frozen bagged meals. Yogurt and butter and Lays potato chips and my fav fav favorite, RANCH FLAVORED GOLDFISH CRACKERS. I could literally eat a bag of those in one sitting. Meaning I have really done that.

So we started clipping coupons and using them on BOGOS, which you can totally do AND a lot of times coupons are "buy 2 and get $1 off", and the BOGO counts as two. Every Thursday I log on to Publix.com, eagerly click on the BOGO link and wait in anticipation as the deals load on my screen. It's like Christmas morning. That's why I walk into work on Thursdays with a little skip in my step.

I started realizing that Publix was great for other things, too. Their deli is amazing, the meat and produce is always fresh and actually not that much more expensive. And the best part -- it's ridiculously convenient. I mean, I could actually walk to my Publix. I think the coolest thing about Publix is that the people are so nice there. Customer service is a huge priority for them, so there are employees crawling all over that store just dying to help you.

Once I was buying a BOGO and it rang up wrong. i noticed the mistake and told my cashier, and she said, oh, sorry about that, I'll fix it. Then I handed her a coupon for the BOGO item that she fixed and she said, "I don't think I can use this for a free item." I told her I'd used coupons before on BOGOs, and she said, "but it's the Publix promise." Noticing the confused look on my face, she explained further: if an item rings up incorrectly, Publix GIVES YOU THE ITEM FOR FREE. I'm not even joking. So you basically pay nothing for two products. I don't know about y'all, but that makes me want to shop there even more.

My friend Miranda recently posted about how she's reading a lot about how to save money, create a budget, etc. So in a round about way, this whole post is about saving money. I spend less than $250 on groceries each month. Hubby and I only eat out once a week, so that's breakfast, lunch and dinner every day on that price. It's all about shopping smart -- reading the circulars, clipping coupons and stocking up.

I hope to start posting ideas for saving money that I have regularly here, and also get ideas from  you guys! Thanks Miranda for starting this topic!