Make a Game Plan....

Guess what! Tomorrow through Tuesday, Albertsons' is going to have double coupons. That means that with their store coupon, they will double 3 coupons up to $1 (for a $2) each. That's HUGE when you are talking about a great deal anyway. The products that are already free, they make a negative total. You have to plan ahead because you want to fill the negative equity with some other product that absorbs the cost or leaves your total closer to pennies rather than dollars.

For me, this is noteworthy because I'm willing to do smaller transactions to save tons of money--but I am still going for the Box Tops with every set of 10. I learned yesterday that you don't have to break your transactions into sets of 10 to still generate the print-out. I did 60 cans of beans and corn and got 6 Box Tops print-outs. So, if you have a mathematical brain, you can layer your transactions to offset what you could pay with a doubled coupon. For example: on the Bisquick Shake and Pour--they are 50cents in a set of ten. The coupons are for 50cents off...making them free. You are allowed to double 3 coupons per transaction. If I doubled the three 50s--I'm $1.50 ahead in the transaction. Here is a fab scenario:

6 Bisquick----------------------50 cents each=$3.00

4 cans of Green Giant vegetables =$1.56

Total------------------------------------------$4.56

Double 3 of the 50 centers ($1per coupon) = -$3.00

3regular coupons on the Bisquick (50x3) = -$1.50

Total----------------------------------------6 cents

Bonus--------a 50 point Box Top Coupon per transaction!!

I think I can afford a few more of each of these. You can work the math to any combination that you like and have coupons for--but the doublers (even if only 3 of them) make for a great deal. The sale goes through Tuesday, and even though rain checks are a great thing--they don't give you the Box Top print-out and the doubler expires on Tuesday as well. So take advantage of the deal early on.

I love Catalina!!

Catalinas are the best. They are bonus savings to whatever you are buying and can almost always be used on any kind of purchase except gift cards and gas. So what are they? Catalinas are coupons that are printed at the register at time of check-out. They are long pieces of paper-almost like a second receipt. They are sometimes coupons from the manufacturer or cash value on your next purchase. So for example, when a promotion is going on at Albertsons' that says "Buy $30 worth of Proctor and Gamble products and save $10 off your next purchase"--it means that a Catalina will print that states "Save $10 on your next purchase" courtesy of Proctor and Gamble for any grocery item. Buy steaks, candy, milk and eggs--whatever...it acts like cash up to the $10 amount! You can think of it in terms as you just 33% off your original purchase (prior to coupon application) or you can see it was 100% free for the items you buy with the Catalina! Either way--the glass is full, full, full!!

This is fabulous savings if you calculate your purchases. But sometimes the Catalinas are dollar amounts off a set number of purchases. For example, June was Dairy month at Albertsons', and for every 5 sets of dairy purchased--you saved $5 ($1 per item). So for things like yogurt, cheese, sour cream--the prices were pretty good to start, but by buying 5 of them, minusing the $5--the prices became stellar--and then add a coupon--and most things were free.

Well--this month has another great upcoming Catalina promo going on for Kraft cheese. Buy 5 participating Kraft items, and receive $5 off your next purchase. (In coupon lingo--that means a Catalina print-out will occur at time of check-out for $5 good towards any other items before using manufacturer's coupons). The promotion starts 7/19 and goes through 8/15. GREAT in terms of length of offer and the products are bound to go on sale in that time frame and the $5 off still applies even if the product is full price or sales price. So savvy shoppers would plan to buy their monthly supply of cheese when it goes on sale and take advantage of the $5 off by doing multiple transactions. Do I sound like a tour guide of your local grocery store yet? This Catalina promotional is going on at Albertsons'. Kroger stores (Fred Meyer--locally), and possibly Safeway (verify that before you spend your life savings' on cheese).

If your thinking that this is just about sandwich slices--wrong. Besides the Kraft singles (excellent for cheeseburgers, by the way), it also includes Philadelphi cream cheese, Velveeta cheese, string cheese, cracker cuts, deli cut cheeses, parmesan cheese, Cheez Whiz, Knudsens' sour cream and cottage cheeses, and packaged cheeses. Fan-tab-ulous deal if your family eats cheese...all kinds of cheese.

Ins and Outs...

I was in Winco a couple of days ago and saw a tremendous deal on Ragu spaghetti sauce. It was 98cents a bottle. That's pretty stellar since it goes "on sale" for anywhere between $1-2...with purchase requirements usually in increments of 4 to 10 items to get sales' price. But at Winco that's the sales' price with no limit on quantities or purchase amounts. It got my head rolling and last night I ordered Ragu coupons on e-bay. I was pretty conservative this go around and only ordered 2 sets of 20 coupons. But the coupons are for "Save $1/2"--bringing the cost of the spaghetti sauce down to 48 cents a jar. Not too shabby for stuff that goes "on sale" for $2. Just sayin'....


There is also a very nice sale going on at Albertsons' this week on ConAgra Foods. They are the makers of Hunts' products, amongst others. For a purchase of $25, you get a $10 OYNO Catalina print-out. Most of the products in the fab deal are on sale for $1 each....SWEET!! Included in this sale are: Hunts' Ketchup, Spaghetti sauce, pudding, Manwich, Chef-Boyardee, etc., etc, etc. Go to www.albertsons.com to look at the ad if you didn't get the weekly circular. But the true goodness of the plan here is that you only have to reach the $25 before you coupon the items. So you can shop the internet for the coupons or see what you have from the recent Sunday papers--and take advantage of a GREAT deal. The best coupon that I found is at www.childhungerendshere.com and it's a ConAgra-based website and they are offering a coupon for $1.50 off any four ConAgra products of your choice. That makes the mixing and matching so much easier without having to be specific to a coupon's requirements for purchase amounts. Printer-disclaimer: you are only allowed to print 2 per computer. But that's still a jump start on the deal because it covers 8 products in 2 coupons.


If you don't have coupons, this is still a great time to buy on the ConAgra deal because it's 40% off the listed items in the promotion without coupons. That makes the cans of spaghetti sauce only 60 cents each....Wal-Mart can't even touch that price. Make a plan. What will your family eat in the next 3-6 months on the products you use the most of. Can you get a coupon on it as well? Is it worth stocking the pantry till the next stellar deal comes along. It generally is--especially when you do the math and see how many products you can buy for what you would have spent on ONE can. With the spaghetti sauce example--you can buy 2-3 cans more on this sale than you could have at regular price. Regular price=buy only what you need at the time (like 1 can)....Sales' price=buy the dollar amount of what you would have spent for 1 can and get the difference in the number of cans on sale. Put those cans in your pantry and don't purchase at regular price until the product goes on sale again...Money in the bank.