New Kroger policy prompts change in shopping habits

HOUSTON

This is a huge blow to those who coupon because Kroger's coupon policy has been in place since 1983. Now they are looking at other stores to stretch their dollar.

"People count on that. People use double and triple coupons to lower their grocery bills," extreme couponer Tiffany Ivanovsky said.

Ivanovsky is a working mother of seven kids, who range in age from eight months to 13 years old. To offset the cost of having a large family, she's been couponing for more than four years and says saves on average $1,000 a month.

"Everybody right now is just looking for somewhere else to shop. Now what do we do? We have to change our whole plan, our whole strategy for grocery shopping. Where are we going to shop now?" she said.

Ivanovsky was just featured on TLC's Extreme Couponing show. In one shopping trip, she and her husband paid $40 for $1,100 worth of groceries. Now that Kroger will no longer double and triple, she will be making stops at HEB, where an assortment of manufacturer coupons are offered.

"When you buy these bags of apples, you are going to get um Skippy peanut butter," she said.

HEB also offers meals deal where if you buy one or two items, you get several other items for free.

She will also be shopping at Randalls. The store will double and triple one like coupon. "And I can always go to Walmart, Walmart will price match any store out there I just take that grocery ad to Walmart and price match it there, so there's no reason to shop anywhere else," Ivanovsky said.

Ivanovsky admits though despite the coupon policy change, she will still shop at Kroger for sale items and combine that with coupons.

"On our shopping trip to TLC, I was only able to double and triple one of any coupon, so my total bonus coupon amount for those shopping trips was only about $4.90," she said. "So I will still have some great shopping trips without double and tripling at Kroger."