Food Lion Milk Tickets goes digital - new dates: July 22 through October 13

Heads up, Food Lion shoppers. Food Lion will once again run its popular buy 6 gallons of milk, get your 7th one free program. The new dates for the milk program are July 22 through October 13, 2009. This time, however, shoppers won't receive milk tickets to redeem for their free gallon of milk. Instead, milk credits will be kept electronically. Here's what you need to know:

1. You have to use your MVP card to get credit. This is especially important for two reasons. Reason 1: Sometimes the cashier is too quick to scan the store card to net you your savings. Unfortunately, with milk credits being kept electronically, this would mean you won't get credit. Make sure they scan your card and not theirs. They may be trying to be helpful, but in the end it will cost you. Reason two: If you split your grocery shopping, you will likely end up with milk credits on two cards. This can be problematic toward the end of the program. My hubby has his own MVP card. If you can, try to shop on the same card to avoid having credits split between two cards. At least with the milk tickets, this problem was avoided.

2. If you have a clueless male in your house, make sure they know about this program. According to the store flyer, a message will appear on the bottom of your receipt when you have reached the required 6 milk purchases that will alert you that you are entitled to a free gallon of Food Lion milk. To get your free gallon of milk, you have to present your qualifying register receipt! If your hubby doesn't know what to look for, or doesn't keep the receipt, you may not be able to get your free gallon of milk.

3. You have until October 20 to redeem your milk credits. So be sure to keep an eye on them toward the end of the program.

This way of doing the milk program has its pros and cons. While it was hard to keep track of milk tickets printed via the catalina, at least I knew that if hubby bought milk, he'd bring me home a milk ticket. In a way, the electronic record keeping is nice because then you aren't looking around for tickets. But it also makes it hard to give your stray tickets to a friend who only needs one more to redeem for free milk. I guess I'll see soon how this program works out for me. If hubby starts accruing credits on his card, I'll start making him shop more often!