I posted this article several months ago, but with so many new readers, I thought I would post it again. What can rainchecks do for you? They can save you more money than just using coupons, and give you the freedom on when to buy. Check with your local store for their policy on rainchecks, Harris Teeter rainchecks don’t expire.

As a side note, I just went shopping at Harris Teeter and picked up 7 new rainchecks. I have coupons for all the items, and they are items I use on a regular basis. Assuming the items are back in stock before the coupon expires, they will all be FREE when I buy them. In the meantime, I have a chance to get more coupons on the items, and will use the older coupons during the sale, saving the newer coupons for the raincheck. That way, I can double the number of FREE items I can get. The key is to ask for the raincheck! Here is the earlier post:

Your store has run out of a sale item (or someone cleared the shelf, I hate that!). You weren’t going to buy it now anyway, but maybe next time. What do you do? What I do is to get a raincheck. Most grocery stores offer rainchecks on sale items, and most rainchecks don’t expire.

Recently at Harris Teeter, Lysol Wipes were on sale BOGO. Great deal, but I didn’t have a coupon (BOGO isn’t enough for me, I want both for FREE). The shelves were empty, so I got a raincheck good for 4 items. Last week, I printed 2 coupons, and went back with my raincheck. The cashier scanned the first 2, took my raincheck and the next 2 scanned FREE. He then scanned my coupons, making all 4 FREE!

As you can see, I have a lot of rainchecks that I keep in my coupon binder. Because they don’t expire, I wait for a coupon not a sale. In fact, I would never use a raincheck on a sale item (unless the sale price is higher than the raincheck).

If you raincheck, leave a comment to share your best practices.