BOGO Sales 101

Many stores will offer BOGO (Buy 1 get 1 free) sales to push certain merchandise.
Don't think for a minute that they're really giving anything away for free though.

Manufacturer's will arrange to provide stock at an extremely discounted price, or possibly even reimburse a store for products sold during these sales. Have you ever noticed that one week CVS will offer something BOGO and the next week Walgreen's will do the same thing? Not a coincidence!

Here in Florida a BOGO sale is a true BOGO. What I mean by that is one item will ring up at full price, the second item will ring up at $0, that way you have to buy both items to get the deal (in some other states each item will ring up with a 50% discount).

I love BOGO sales, especially when I can combine them with coupons. Even though you're only paying for one item, you are still allowed to use coupons on each item that is scanned (or 1 MQ and 1 store Q if that store allows stacking).

What's even better is when you can combine a BOGO sale with a BOGO coupon, like I did last night at CVS.

This week CVS is selling Gatorade and Sobe Lifewater BOGO for $1.59 each. I went in to buy 4 bottles total. I printed 2 BOGO Sobe MQs from here to pair with this sale.

Here's how it rang up:

4 Sobe Lifewaters on sale BOGO at $1.59 each
$1.59 + $0 + $1.59 + $0 = $3.18 (2 rang up full price, 2 rang up at $0)
Then the cashier scanned by first BOGO MQ, which subtracted the price of one bottle:
$3.18 - $1.59 = $1.59
Then the cashier scanned by second BOGO MQ, which subtracted the price of another bottle:
$1.59 - $1.59 = $0!

The BOGO MQ will subtract the price of one of two items purchased, and since I'm already paying for only of of the two items purchased I really get them both for FREE!

All I had to pay was tax, which came to a whopping $.20, so I only ended up paying $.05 per bottle OOP (out-of-pocket)!