How does overage work?

[Learning2bfrugal]

First off I have to say how much I love HCW. Since March I've bought several months worth to a year worth of body soap, shampoo, peanut butter, Rice a Roni, razors, dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, and cat food for free to nearly free. I'm loving it. :BigHand:

I'm still not understanding how to use a q if the item I'm buying is less than the q I'm using.

Here's some examples from yesterday and today:

Publix
I bought 6 boxes of Electrasol tabs. On sale for 3.99 BOGO. I used 5 q's for 2.50/1. If I'm using the terminology, I had a .53 overage. That overage was then applied to my sales tax and I had a grand total of .31.

Target
I bought 6 Banana Boat trial size sunscreens for .99 ea. I had 6 1/1 q's. The .06 overage was applied to the rest of the bill.

Walmart
I was trying to buy the trial size Axe body soap. They were .97 ea and I had 1/1 q's. The cashier and manager wouldn't take them. Is this a situation of ymmv (did I get the acronym correct?). I looked up the acronym before but I don't understand what that means. If so, do I just try it at another store?

Now that I've written all of this I have another question. For those of you who price everything down to the penny after tax. What are the steps you take to do this? I don't know what gets taxed or doesn't get taxed. Can someone provide a list?

:thanks7:for your help.

[Andra]

You're doing great!

Overage is different at every store. Some stores won't allow it, some will adjust your coupon down to the price of the item or not take the q.

YMMV means Your Market May Vary or Your Millage May Vary. This means getting the deal depends on your store having the items in stock or having the items for that price or it depends on how your cashier decides to ring you up. Managers (at most stores) have a right to either set limits or decide not to accept a coupon. If you know the deal is legit you can either press for final word from someone higher up or you can politely ask them to remove the items from your order and try again on another day or at another store. I take the second approach most of the time--unless they are extremely rude and yelling insults or accusations at you, there's no reason to waste time and energy getting mad when refused. Walmart has the worst training when it comes to coupons, IMO, so you may run into the most problems there.

Sales tax varies by state, county and city. You will have to find out the amounts for your specific area.

[tmsmalley]

Some stores don't allow overage. That means they won't allow you to use a coupon that is worth more than the price of the item. Some stores will adjust the price of the item to match or adjust the value of the coupon down to make it come out even, some will just say no. Some stores will allow overage if your other purchases suck it up and it doesn't work out to them having to hand you any money. Some stores will hand you the 53 cents.

Sometimes there is a policy for the chain, sometimes it is up to the individual store manager or district. Sometimes the policy is one thing but the individual cashier does what they want (usually whatever is easiest for them). So, there are probably a hundred variations on the overage issue hence the phrase Your Mileage May Vary. And to further explain that phrase, you see it on car commercials all the time. The perfect labratory mileage is SUPPOSED to be 32 miles per gallon, but your ACTUAL mileage may vary because of how you drive, where you drive, what gas you used, how well you maintain the car, etc. Same here. The policy is X, or the way it is supposed to work is Y, but it may not happen.

As to tax, there are some variations on that from state to state too, but in most states with sales tax, food items are not taxed and things you can't eat are. Sometimes hot food and deli sandwich type foods are taxed at a grocery store when the frozen version or on the shelf version are not. Take a look at your receipts. There might be a "T" or an "*" or something next to items that were taxed. And there should be a note at the bottom about what percentage the sales tax is like 6%, 9.25%, etc.

Tess

[cpnmaniac44]

First off I have to say how much I love HCW. Since March I've bought several months worth to a year worth of body soap, shampoo, peanut butter, Rice a Roni, razors, dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, and cat food for free to nearly free. I'm loving it. :BigHand:

I'm still not understanding how to use a q if the item I'm buying is less than the q I'm using.

Here's some examples from yesterday and today:

Publix
I bought 6 boxes of Electrasol tabs. On sale for 3.99 BOGO. I used 5 q's for 2.50/1. If I'm using the terminology, I had a .53 overage. That overage was then applied to my sales tax and I had a grand total of .31.

Target
I bought 6 Banana Boat trial size sunscreens for .99 ea. I had 6 1/1 q's. The .06 overage was applied to the rest of the bill.

Walmart
I was trying to buy the trial size Axe body soap. They were .97 ea and I had 1/1 q's. The cashier and manager wouldn't take them. Is this a situation of ymmv (did I get the acronym correct?). I looked up the acronym before but I don't understand what that means. If so, do I just try it at another store?

Now that I've written all of this I have another question. For those of you who price everything down to the penny after tax. What are the steps you take to do this? I don't know what gets taxed or doesn't get taxed. Can someone provide a list?

:thanks7:for your help.

If your stores do give overage and you have not planned for it, your balance at the reigster could be (-) negative. Clerks often think this means THEY have made a mistake and quick to call a manager. If your store does give overage and some DO, it is not the clerk's fault, it is their lack of experience. If the negative is a small amount, -.48 just reach back and grab a candy bar, anything. If it is a large amount you will need to buy more items.
Try to know which stores you have that give overage and be prepared. Try to calculate the overage using the sale price and the coupon, doubled or tripled. Buy some extra items at the regular price to cover the overage. You never want a negative balance at the register.
I've had clerks try to give me change back. I know this is not correct, so I just buy something else. Once recently the manager was called. He told me just buy some other items so my balance would be over 0.00.

I don't shop at any of your stores, so I do not know their policies.
Normally, the coupon amount you get off your total can be no greater than the price of the item = free item and no overage.
If my coupon is $1/1 and the item is on sale for 75 cents, it only takes off 75 cents. If the coupon is .50/1 and they double this it still only gives me 75 cents off, .50/1 for the coupon and another 25 cents for the portion of the double that gets up to the price of the item.