How to Coupon at Giant Food Store

You’ve decided that you’d like to get started couponing OR you just moved to the lovely Keystone state and are trying to learn how to coupon at Giant Food Store. Either way, you’ve come to the right place.

After learning that three separate friends of mine were pregnant and trying to explain to each of them separately how to get the best diaper deals at Giant, I decided I should just write it all down. It’s much easier this way.

Their gain is also your gain. Follow along for all the tips, tricks, and reasons why I love to coupon at Giant Food Store.

Which Giant is it?

If you’ve already read my complete guide to Giant Food Store skip right on over to the next part. If you haven’t, you probably should.

I’m kidding (or am I?).

If you haven’t read it, you may not know that there are three Giant grocery stores. They are all completely separate companies and therefore, do not follow all the same rules.

If the logo on your Giant doesn’t look like this:

…then this won’t be helpful for you.

If your logo does look like that, great! Keep on reading.

Couponing for Beginners

If you’re new to couponing, I need to go over a few basics before we begin. If you’re a seasoned couponer, leave me a comment and let me know if there’s anything I may have missed!

Number one: Couponing is more than just a numbers game. It is more than spreadsheets, coupon binders, Sunday papers, and scissors. Couponing is a mentality. Before you can start this journey, you’re going to have to adjust your thinking about saving money.

Lucky for you, I’ve done an entire post about six ways to adjust your mentality about saving. It’s a prerequisite to couponing. You have to read those tips and practice that mindset before you can move any further in learning how to coupon.

Number two: Learning to coupon takes time. It has taken me several years and a lot of practice to get where I am today. There are a lot of rules, and each store has different ones. There also a lot of math – yuck. Just kidding, I’m a scientist. I love math.

Like any other skill, you will not learn it overnight. Remember to give yourself grace and allow yourself to make mistakes. Keep moving forward and eventually you’ll start to wonder why you ever doubted yourself in the first place.

Number three: Learn your coupon verbiage. Learning the fine print verbiage on a coupon will keep you from being that person in the grocery line. The one people probably imagine in their head when they find out I’m a couponer.

Don’t be that person. Learn your verbiage so you can back your argument if you need to.

Giant’s Coupon Policy

Take some time to read the official Giant Food Store Coupon Policy. It will be helpful to lean back on if there is a discrepancy somewhere in your transaction.

Remember that you can always find the coupon policy in a jiffy on their website or in the app.

Coupons Accepted

Giant Food Store accepts several different types of coupons:

• Manufacturer Coupons – These are coupons provided by the manufacturer. They can come from the Sunday paper, Coupons.com, or even the inside the box of a product! They will say “Manufacturer coupon” somewhere on the coupon, it just might be really tiny.
• Digital Coupons – Giant Food Store will load several manufacturer and store provided coupons into their app. When you download the Giant app, make sure you add your loyalty card to it. Then you can send digital coupons directly to your loyalty card and they will come off instantly during check out.
• In ad Coupons – If you have the physical paper and ink Giant ad, they will provide ad coupons there. These often come with a spending minimum of $25 to redeem and a limit on how many of that item you can buy. Make sure you have the coupon present at check out.

You can combine in ad coupons with manufacturer OR digital coupons on the same product. You cannot combine digital and manufacturer coupons on the same product. That’s cheating, you have to pick one.

Coupon Doubling

One of Giant Food Store’s nicer qualities is that they have a coupon doubling policy. But as with all the finer things in life, there are limits:

• You must use your Giant Rewards card in order for coupons to double.

• Coupons will only double to a maximum of $1. For example, if you have a $0.50 off coupon, it will double to $1. However, if you have a $0.75 off coupon, it will still only “double” to $1.

• If you have multiples of the same exact coupon, only the first one will double. For example, if you manage to sweet talk your neighbor out of their Sunday coupons and try to use their coupon and yours, only one of them will double.

• Digital coupons from the Giant ap will not double, unfortunately.

• In ad coupons do not double either. Boo.

• No coupon will double to exceed the cost of the item.

Overall, I have found that Giant Food Store’s coupon policy is one of the most lenient and straightforward ones out there. There are a few nuances, just like everywhere else, but it is probably the easiest place to begin when trying to learn how to coupon.

Weekly Sales

There are several other ways to save at Giant Food Store without using coupons.

Almost every week, Giant will offer a “buy X items, save X dollars” or “spend X amount, save X amount.” These are easy and instant ways to save at Giant without having to remember physical coupons.

Let me give you some examples:

For this deal, all you have to do is buy three toothpastes and you’ll instantly save $3.

For this diaper deal, you would buy two products to instantly save $10.

Instant savings, boom!

Remember that these deals can be combined with any of the coupons listed above.

Meal Deals

More often than not, Giant Food Store will offer a “meal deal”. Basically, what this means is that you buy the main item of a meal and get all the fixins free.

I find these meal deals really helpful for two reasons:

• Meal idea – The hardest part of being an adult is trying to decide what you’re going to eat every. single. night. Giant does the hard work for you and shows you a meal to make! How kind of them.
• Components for other meals – Let’s say you don’t like chili dogs, but you do like meatball subs, roasting hot dogs on the fire with your kids, and hot chili on a cold night. Just because you buy the items listed in the meal deal doesn’t mean you have to use them exactly for that meal. You can buy them and then split up the items to make something else. If you were planning to buy the meat anyway, you might as well grab all the fixin’s as well because you can use them somewhere else.

It’s very rare that the stars align for this, but you can use coupons on the meal deals as well.

Giant Choice Rewards

To be completely transparent, Giant Food Store choice rewards are my bread and butter for couponing. They are the thing I rely on the most.

What are Giant Choice Rewards?

The Giant Choice Rewards program is a points accumulation program. On the most basic level, $1 spent is 1 point earned. You can then use these points to your benefit in a few ways:

• Grocery dollars – 100 choice points is equal to $1 off your grocery bill. You can redeem these on the Giant website or in the app.
• Freebies – You can cash in points to earn various freebies. The most common one these days is cashing in 5 points to earn a free small item, such as a yogurt or a drink. This can also be redeemed on the website or in the app.
• Free Turkey – Around Thanksgiving, you can cash in 400 points to earn a free turkey or other specified item. A cashier or customer service member will have to print you a coupon that you can then use for purchase.
• Gas points – 100 choice points is equal to $0.10 off per gallon of gas at any Giant Gas station. You can get a maximum of 25 gallons of discounted gas. Unlike some stores I could mention, Giant Food Store does not limit your discount on gas. This means that you could get enough points to get an entire tank of gas for free.

How to Use Choice Rewards

As a couponer, I am very strategic about how I gain and use my points. I currently drive a Chevrolet Silverado with a 25-gallon tank, so I will always use my points for discounted gas. This isn’t just because I drive a complete gas guzzler, but also because it just makes the most sense. Allow me to show my work.

Let’s take this sale for example. You can earn 500 choice points if you purchase 4 items listed here.

500 points = $0.50 per gallon of gas. You can get a max of 25 gallons of gas. $0.50 per gallon x 25 gallons = $12.50.

So, let’s say you want to buy the sodas from this deal. They’re $5 a case. $5 x 4 cases = $20. But you’ll earn 500 points, which is $0.50 off per gallon of gas, which is $12.50 saved if you get the full 25 gallons of gas.

So, really the equation becomes $20 – $12.50 = $7.50.

So, it’s like getting 4 cases of soda for $7.50 after gas points.

I said I’d bring you to my side on always using the choice rewards for gas, but how? Let’s say you use those same 500 points towards grocery dollars instead. 100 = $1 off your grocery order. That means that 500 choice points is only equal to $5 off your grocery bill.

$12.50 >>> $5.

Welcome to the dark side!

Questions/Comments/Confessions

I’m sure you have a lot of questions or comments about this. Let me see if I can answer some of them.

What if I don’t have a 25 gallon tank!?

Excellent question! If you don’t have a 25-gallon tank on your vehicle, buy some gas cans. They will pay for themselves within the first two fill ups. Be aware that you CANNOT fill up two cars at the station. However, you can fill up one car and as many gas cans as you want/need. Then you can take those gas cans home to fill up a second vehicle.

But you’re still spending money, so how is this couponing?

You’re right, you are still spending money at the grocery store, but Choice Rewards are like rebates. You spend the money in one place, then get it back in another. I bet if you ask anyone, they’re two main household expenses are groceries and gas. Why not use one to discount the other?

Can I use manufacturer or digital coupons with the Choice Rewards deals?

You sure can! The same basic couponing rules apply but you absolutely can combine coupons with almost any Choice Points deal.

Where do you redeem Choice Rewards for gas?

You have to go to a Giant To Go gas station in order to use the points. They do not partner with any other gas stations, unfortunately.

Can I get free gas?

You sure can! You can accumulate enough points to cover an entire 25 gallons for free. There are other grocery stores that limit how many points you can use at once, but Giant isn’t lame like that.

Do Choice Rewards expire?

They sure do. Choice Rewards expire the last day of the following month from which they were earned. For example, if you earn the points anytime in October, they expire on November 30th.

The last thing to remember is that you can maximize your savings even more by using rebate apps like Ibotta or Fetch.

If you ask me, Giant Food Stores is not only a great place for beginner couponers, but it is loyal to seasoned couponers as well. They have very lenient and straightforward deals and policies.

Like anything else in life, you won’t be the couponing queen (or king) right away. It will take time, work, and a lot of algebra in the deodorant aisle. Just like any other skill or hobby, couponing is only “easy” to those of us that have been doing it for a long time.

Just remember to keep practicing and keep at it. You’ll get there.

Happy saving everyone!