I'm not much of a Big K shopper, but I'm easily converted to a good deal--especially if the "free" word is a possibility. So here's the skinny on the Kmart deal. They are having a Super Double manufacturer's coupon event. That means that they will double five manufacturer's coupons up to $2 in value per day per customer. That's awesome. Unlike Albertsons', where you have to have the store insert with the bar code to scan that doubles up to three coupons per transaction over a 3-day event--Kmart will double 5 per day--per customer--all week long. So loading up the belt, for transaction after transaction, probably won't fly with this store--but if you skim through the ad and can match up some coupons with the products that are already on sale with a transaction total of at least $25 before coupons and doubling--that makes for a stellar deal.


Like Albertsons' and many of the major store chains, in order to get in on the deal, you have to first have the cashier scan your "rewards card." You just fill out an application at the service desk and it's free. They link it to your telephone number and have a little widget that can go on your keyring. Like Fred Meyer or Albertsons, points accrue for freebies and coupons printed at the register. And in case you didn't know--Kmart is owned by Sears--and the register card works at both stores.



The only other stipulation that I want everyone to take note of here--is that the transaction total must be at least $25 of grocery and/or drugstore items. The general rule in advertising verbage--is that is the total before coupons are handed over and the five doubles taken. Like most stores, it's OK to get your goods for "free" and nearly free--but they will not "pay you" to take them...ie. go into the negative on the register amounts at the end of the transaction. So if you are heading to town with a handful of coupons this week, it might be worth stopping at Kmart to see if there's a steal of a deal waiting for you!


**Check out the coupons in the Sunday paper to get some that match the Procter and Gamble items that are on sale at Kmart this week. You can get an extra savings of $10 on a $35 purchase (prior to those coupons) if you buy things that qualify in this area--like Olay, Covergirl, Always, Gillette, Crest, Febreze, Dawn, Iams, and Duracell.

I fell asleep last night dreaming about all the possibilities for double coupons. Today is the last day for the double coupon deals at Albertsons. And it's absolutely thrilling that there are 4 instead of 3 this week.

What was my dream about? A tall, frosty glass of sweet nectar on the rocks with a straw...ie. coca-cola. It's on sale till the end of the day--buy two 12-packs ($5.99 each) and get two 12-packs for free. The coca-cola deal includes Barq's Root Beer, Fanta, Crush, Ginger Ale, Sprite, and others. On the Fanta cases at the store yesterday--there were $2 off peelie stickers for 1 case of pop each. It was good for 5-6 different kinds of soda pop. So if you bought 4 cases of pop--$12.98 with tax--you can use one four of those $2 coupons. The Albertsons' I frequent let me use the four double coupons from the ad for $1 off each as well. That's $3 off per case. [See where the dream is going yet?] That means you can get 4 cases of sweet nectar for sales' tax--about a $1!! That's newsworthy today.

The possibilities of double coupons on sales' prices and combined with another great coupon is endless. When I teach coupon classes, I tell people to keep a "grocery journal" to watch the cycles of the sales' on their favorite products. If you do this--you'd start to see a trend on when the doublers come out. It looks like every other week so far in the pattern and holding. That's great because you can plan your double coupon experiences ahead of time when you are shopping for coupons. It's an amazing way to think and plan with savings in mind. Just think of how your home food storage would increase gradually and consistently if you were to have a plan of how to buy some necessary food items at a tremendous savings. And like I always tell people- food is my savings account. If I didn't have to buy groceries for my small herd every week--do you know what kind of money I would be saving!? Food/grocery money is discretionary spending--you can spend as little or as much as you want. Be smart, build a supply, and save a lot of cash roll with a little work. What does it all mean? Peace of mind, money in my pocket and a sense of stewardship over the income we have.

Coupon Doublers....

I went on a little binge shopping spree last night at the local Albertsons'. I bought into the Proctor and Gamble deal where you buy $30 of the selected items and get $10 towards your next purchase. I ordered my coupons early and they were in the mail on Friday. By Saturday they were burning a hole in my pocket. I just knew that if I went shopping on Saturday, there would be doublers in the Sunday ad. Guess what? I'm kicking myself today!! I should have waited till Monday, like I always do...but I put the cart before the horse and it cost me some $aving$! Oh well. I'm here to share so that you can save your cash and stockpile your pantry--so even this experience was a reminder that we are playing a game of wits and mystery. Patience is sometimes our friend.


I know...I got a great deal even without the doublers and I'm still beating myself up. I bought 4 cases of paper towels (regularly $9.99 each), 9 bottles of Herbal Essence hair gels ($3.69-$4.29 each), 1 Cover Girl Mascara ($5.19) for the new teen in our family, 12 packages of the superior Glide dental floss ($3.99 each), and 20 bottles of Pringles (regularly $1.99 each) for $54. But if I had extended a little self-control or had a magical crystal ball--I could have save more than half of what I spent; taking the savings from a 65% savings to 75-80% savings. So here's the plan. I still have more coupons...much to my delight. The Pringles will be free. The Herbal Essence goods will be free. And I am going to go through my stack of coupons and make a buying strategy that will make most people weep. Heehee. It's that time of the year...Hunting Season--and I love a good hunt...if you know what I mean.


Doublers are free money. They take the face value of a coupon, up to $1 each, and double it. You are allowed the three in the ad flyer per transaction. These babies are worth bucks and bring out the dumpster diver in me. When you combine them with a pretty stellar deal already on ad in the store, like the Proctor and Gamble save $10--the savings can constitute a pretty hefty chunk of change. The trick is to use the coupons on the cheapest items, making them as close to free and then letting the $10 coupon cover the more expensive items and using the coupons on them that are not doubled, as well. Just remember, you can use ONE coupon PER item, but only 3 of the coupons can be doubled PER transaction. If you buy into the P&G deal, make sure that you are not going over the $30 transaction requirements. Keep the totals to the requirements and just do multiple transactions instead. You save TONS more money in the long-run.


So here are three words to inspire your grocery savings: PLAN, PLAN, PLAN.

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.

Something to Brag about....

Occasionally, I've been known to toot my own horn. Here is another occasion--"toot, toot!" I just got back from Albertsons'. It's Tuesday night. Didn't have any plans or purchases in mind for the eleventh hour of the sales' week. But my neighbor across the street has taken some of my tips and put them to good use. Well...today she gave me her extra doublers from the Sunday paper. Not wanting to waste a precious coupon doubler, I went to the computer at 8:30pm to refresh myself with the sales' ad and figured that it might be worth a trip down the hill to my favorite grocery haunt. I decided a mere 4 transactions would suffice--but I brought the 100 toothbrush coupons I recently ordered off of ebay...for a "just in case" back-up item to use any extra doublers. And as would have it, the toothbrushes were on sale for $1.19 (doubling the $1 off coupon allowed me to subtract 81cents x3 coupled/doubled for a total of $2.43 in overage per transaction). So doing transactions with three toothbrushes and smaller amounts of groceries, I had final amounts ranging from 17-89 cents per transaction. Doing 10-12 transactions really paid off...to the tune of $165.84 in savings. And for all of the viewers who stand in judgment of the value of couponing--please note the items that were "purchased" in "coupon cash" rather than liquid cash--like produce and milk; which are items that generally don't have a coupon specifically for them available. If I had freezer space and forethought--we would have been having steak for dinner tomorrow instead of cereal! Oh well. Better plans next time :)

So--here's what I got for $11.88!!
3 gallons of milk
8 boxes of General Mills Cereals
12 bags of Malt-o-Meal cereals
6 avocados
6 large apples
2 bunches of green onions
1lb of carrots
3lbs of bananas
22 Gum Toothbrushes
2 bottles Kikkoman's Teriyaki sauce
2 bottles Kikkoman's Teriyaki glaze
8 jars of Prego spaghetti sauce
21 cans of Starkist Tuna

Now, if I had paid regular price for all of these items, before any coupons, etc...this total would have been $177.72. But I paid $11.88 and came home with a $1.oo OYNO Catalina coupon, 35 cents off of gasoline for up to 20 gallons, and 4 free movies from Redbox--woo hoo!! So the little jaunt to my favorite haunt was well-worth the time. I shutter to think what I could have done if I had come prepared with a grundle of coupons and a method to my madness. Tonight was just a great reminder of what kind of good you can do without a lot of money or time.

How to Double the Savings...

Coupons are an interesting thing. It's the only time that you are able to pay for something without having to "earn" the money to do so. Make sense? It's like Monopoly money that the stores will actually accept and deduct REAL money from your total!! How people don't realize this, I'll never know. But in the coupon world, you generally are never able to use 2 coupons on one item. There is a couple of exceptions to this universal rule. One is where the store is offering to double the value of the coupon. For example, Albertsons' does this quite a bit where they will double up to 3 coupons up to $1 each. So if you have a $1 off product couple and a "store" coupon that doubles your coupon--you get $2 off the product. It's an exciting proposition to get that kind of savings, especially when the product you are buying is $2 or under, because that means the product is FREE.

The other situation of "doubling" a coupon savings onto one product is through the combined use of "store" coupons with manufacturer coupons. Many stores offer their sale prices through the use of a coupon. Target and Fred Meyer immediately come to mind. Those coupons they advertise with are not redeemable by the manufacturer, but are for "in-store" use and savings. Just because the product has a store coupon associated with it, does NOT preclude the usability our a manufacturer's coupon. So often a great savings on the product is possible when you use both together. An example would be when Fred Meyer puts "Aquafresh Toothpaste 99cents-limit 2" on an in-store coupon. As a savvy shopper, you are aware of that there are manufacturer's coupons available for 75 cents off one product. The store coupon sets the limits and terms of the purchase. So in this case, the store is limiting the purchase amount to 2 per transaction. So, your purchase total would look like this: 2 tubes=$1.98 (with in-store coupon). When the cashier is done ringing you up, you hand over the manufacturer's coupons. 2 coupons at 75 cents=$1.50. The register will automatically deduct the $1.50 from the $1.98 total, leaving you with 48 cents +whatever taxes your state implies. So with both coupons used on the toothpaste, you are able to realize an actual cost of 24 cents a tube. (Side note: the stores only limit the number of transactions that you are doing to the number of available coupons at the door or the times you are able to print from your home computer. There is no rule that says you are not able to repeat this transaction. Just keep it reasonable and as simple as possible and things will be fine).

This type of great deal is also available at many of the local non-food stores, like Target, Rite Aid and Walgreens. Target has coupons that are available on-line at http://www.target.com/. If you scroll down and click on "coupons" it will take you to their in-store coupons that you are able to print from your home computer. You are generally able to print 2 coupons for each item from each computer. If you have more than one computer in your home, you have scored double deals already, by being able to do more than one transaction if you choose.

Disclaimer: You must understand this very basic rule when printing your own coupons. You CANNOT, EVER, photocopy them and try and use this multiple times. That constitutes fraud and jeopardizes the use of these kind of coupons at all. The computer will generate a specific bar code and identification number for each print. The registers are basically computers with a key pad. They will detect a coupon that has already been used and alert the cashier. If it does not-- the store auditors will catch the misuse and log it. To error in your favor as a consumer is NEVER a good thing because the ramifications will effect all users. So please know that if you are only able to print 2 coupons per computer...that will limit the quantities you are able to purchase with a store coupon and manufacturer coupon combined. There are generally NO limits on the amount of manufacturer coupons you are able to use. So it always pays to know your store programs and policies before you put yourself in an awkward situation.

At the top of this page, I put a picture of 2 coupons that I printed from my computer. They are for the same products, but one is a store coupon and the other a manufacturer's coupon. Both coupons require the purchase of 2 John Frieda hair products. Both take $3 off the total. This store coupon came from Target, thus only usable at Target. They have the products for $4.49 a piece. Two of those would cost $8.98. So hypothetically speaking, you give the cashier both coupons and your remaining balance is $2.98. That's a tremendous savings because ONE product would have cost $4.49. In my search for the manufacturer's coupon for the in-store coupon double option, I found a manufacturer's coupon for $2.50 off ONE John Frieda product. I would only be allowed to print 2 from my computer, and I would be able to use two of those coupons in conjunction with the in-store $3 off coupon. The quantities outlined on the coupon cannot exceed the purchase quantities. So on this transaction, the total is $8.98 minus the $3 in-store coupon and two $2.50 off one manufacturer's coupons for an exceptional buy at 98 cents!! That's the better way to go. Your quantities are limited and you'll only be able to buy a few at a time, but if you did this weekly, bi-monthly...you'd be surprised at how fast your reserves will build up and how it will become very difficult for you to buy anything at full price again.

Doubler Coupons for Albertsons

In the Sunday paper today there is a "short ad" for Albertsons'. It starts today and lasts till just Tuesday. There are 3 in-store coupons availbable where Albertsons' will take a manufacturer's coupon, up to $1 and double it. It's a tremendous deal if you "layer" it strategically. You may consider trying to get a hold of a couple of doublers... Here's a scenario for the cereal deal:

General Mills Cereal $2.99
Cheerios, Golden Grahams, Kix, Cocoa Puffs, Reese’s PB Puffs
Buy 4, Get FREE Milk ONYO
Double the:
$1.00/2 – General Mills Cereal – (coupons.com)
$1.00/2 – General Mills Cereal – (bettycrocker.com)
$1.00/1 – Cheerios, Original – (cheerios.com)
$0.75/1 – Kix Cereal – (bettycrocker.com)
Final Price: As low as $0.49 each, plus FREE milk