Jill Cataldo's Super-Couponing

Here are your Schnucks deals for the current week... View weekly ad | Load "Schnupons" ecoupons | Load SavingStar ecoupons

Top deals:
Super Double coupons are back up to .75, FREE Chex Mix, .50 Kraft barbecue sauce, .50 Ronzoni pasta, .50 Vlasic pickles, .75 Totino's Pizza Rolls, $1.17 Kool-Aid Jammers, $1.50 NorthStar pops, $1.55 Pop-Tarts, $1.99 Dial body wash and soap, $1.84 Finish dishwasher detergent, $2 Blue Bunny ice cream

Here are your Jewel-Osco deals for the new ad:
View weekly ad | Load SavingStar ecoupons | Load Jewel-Osco ecoupons

Top deals:
.25 Dr. Pepper Ten 2-liters, .35 El Milagro tortillas, .50 Yopa Greek yogurt, .75 Totino's Pizza Rolls, .94 Satin Care shave gel, $1 Pasta Prima refrigerated pasta, $1.49 Capri-Sun, $1.50 Cabot cheese, $1.50 Oberweis punch, lemonade and tea; $1.88 New York Texas Toast, $1.99 Kraft Mayo or Miracle Whip, $2.45 Dean's novelties, $3 Margaritaville shrimp, $3.49 Wonderful Pistachios, $8.99 Tide, $16.98 Huggies big pack diapers

Here are your Walmart deals for the current week...
Load Ibotta offers

Top deals:
FREE Easy Shelf shelf liner, .47 Ivory soap 3-packs, .70 Heinz Applewood Bacon Bourbon beans, .75 Pringles, $1.08 Easy Access bandages, $1.50 Country Time and Kool-Aid sugar sweetened canister drink mixes, $1.96 Ore-Ida Grillers, $1.97 Playtex Fresh & Sexy

Here are your CVS/pharmacy deals...
View weekly ad | Load SavingStar ecoupons | Load Ibotta offers

Top deals:
FREE Almay cosmetics, .25 Renuzit, $1.24 Suave Moroccan shampoo, $1.50 Aussie hair care, $2 Cottonelle wipes, $2.50 Head and Shoulders, $3.49 Tampax Radiant or Pearl, $3.90 Purina Cat Chow, $8.99 Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream (deal!)

The Sunday Chicago Tribune has a new story about saving at the supermarket with tips from savings experts! I contributed some tips to the article, and here are some of my favorites:

Grocery-shopping savings advice has become ubiquitous in recent years, but all tips aren't created equal.

Some strategies and tactics can save you a lot of money, while others add more hassle to your life than money to your pocket.

To separate superior supermarket savings advice from the bad and mundane, we sought tips from a few rock stars of couponing who, besides being experts at coupon use, know all the best strategies for saving money at the grocery store...

Sales cycles. If the word "stockpiling" conjures images of those made-for-TV grocery trips where people buy juice boxes by the pallet, think of it as "inventory." Items typically go on sale in 12-week cycles, so you don't need to buy that many to get you through to the next sale. "Contrary to what you've seen on TV, my house isn't filled to the brim with food," Cataldo said. "For us, a three-month supply of ketchup is three bottles."

Half price. What's a good price? "My goal as a coupon shopper is to cut the non-sale price of an item in half or better," Cataldo said. "That's an easy benchmark to remember." You could keep a price list and scour the weekly sales ad for deals. But websites such as SavingsAngel.com, CouponMom.com and TheGroceryGame.com track sales cycles and find the best deals so you don't have to. The sites also note how you can match coupons to sales for maximum savings.

Loyalty cards. Applying for supermarket loyalty cards is often the only way to cash in on store sales. Cataldo put the physical cards on their own keychain, alphabetized.

Shake your bunch. If you're buying fresh produce from refrigerated cases that mist produce with water, shake off the produce before bagging it. "You'd be surprised how much water can be retained in a broccoli or celery bunch," Cataldo said. "If you don't shake it off, you're paying for it."

Front-row nutrients. For green, leafy vegetables, such as bagged salads and spinach, choose bags at the front of the case, which have higher levels of nutrients because the plants' photosynthesis continues in-store under the lights, said Cataldo, citing a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Get social. On Facebook and Twitter, follow and "like" your favorite brands and retailers. "I find particularly high-value printable coupon offers on Facebook," Cataldo said.

Read the entire article at ChicagoTribune.com, or in Sunday's Tribune in the "Money & Real Estate" section on page 4.

Reader Nancy sent over an interesting article from today's Chicago Tribune: Jewel-Osco's 'experiment' in phasing out Preferred Customer Card seems well timed. From the story:

Sunday evening, in a checkout lane at my Northwest Side Jewel-Osco, I slid my ring of keys down the belt toward the cashier in advance of my groceries. On the ring is a small version of my Preferred Customer Card, a personalized passport to often significant savings over the price supposedly charged to non-cardholders... So I was more startled than pleased when the cashier slid my ring of keys right back to me. "We don't need that anymore," she said. "We're discontinuing the program."

This seemed noteworthy to me, so I emailed the spokeswoman for New Albertsons Inc., Jewel's parent company out in Boise, Idaho, for confirmation and an explanation. No, she replied, "the Preferred Customer Card is still an active program."

Was my cashier misinformed? Confused by the pending discontinuation of a related gasoline-discount program? If so, she wasn't the only one. On June 6, those responsible for the Jewel-Osco Facebook page had responded to a customer query about the apparent discontinuation of the card program with an answer that began, "We are still accepting Preferred Cards until June 25."

The following day, on a different thread: "Just the Fuel Rewards will be ending. You'll still be able to save with your Preferred Card."

I too have been trying to get an answer from Jewel for you guys on what exactly is going on with the Preferred/Rewards cards. My local stores have been saying for over a month now that the card is going away when the fuel rewards program is phased out on June 25th. But another question I've been hearing lately is "What will happen to Jewel's ecoupons if there is no card?"

A valid question, indeed. Jewel currently has two sets of ecoupons that can be loaded to the Preferred/Rewards card - manufacturer ecoupons at Jewel-Osco.com, and SavingStar ecoupons. If the card is truly being phased out, will we lose access to these ecoupon offers too?

I'm still trying to find out an answer to this question for you. Even my local store staff asked me this week what's going to happen to Jewel's ecoupons with the card phaseouts. One of my store's employees laughed and said "They won't tell us anything, so we're asking you!" I told her I wished I had the answer... but I'm trying to find out!

UPDATE 2:15pm: I reached out to SavingStar to see if they had any information to share about continuing their relationship with Jewel. SavingStar responded that "Jewel will continue to participate in SavingStar," and that they could not share any additional information at this time.

Super-Couponers, this week I've got another great giveaway for you! Here's your chance to win a General Mills "Breakfast At Home" gift pack!

Do you eat breakfast at home, or do you eat on the run? While it's easy to fall into the trap of grabbing breakfast on the way to work in the morning, it also costs more money than eating at home. One study notes that the average household spends more than $2600 each year eating away from home! Ouch.

Obviously, it's a lot cheaper to eat at home, and that's what we do each morning. I really enjoy having breakfast with my family every day, especially now that summer's here and no one has to rush off to school! Everyone has their favorite cereals at our house, of course, and some days we'll have one box of cereal on the table. Other days, we have five different boxes. (Such is the life of a couponer!)

Want some free breakfasts at home? One lucky reader will win this Breakfast At Home Makes Cents gift pack, which includes:

• One box of Lucky Charms®
• One box of Honey Nut Cheerios®
• Big G breakfast bowl
• Big G lip balm
• $25 gift card to use for additional breakfast fixings (milk, juice, fruit, your choice!)

For a chance to win this General Mills Breakfast At Home Makes Cents gift pack, simply post a reply in the comments under this article! Why not include an idea for your favorite breakfast at home? This General Mills giveaway begins today, June 13, 2013, and runs for one week. The giveaway will end on June 19th, 2013 at 11:59pm CST, and on June 20th, one winner will be chosen via a random number generator!

Here are your Meijer deals for the current week in the following Illinois stores: Algonquin, Aurora, Bloomingdale, Bolingbrook, Elgin, McHenry, Oswego, Plainfield, Rolling Meadows, St. Charles; and the Indianapolis area...
View weekly ad | Load Meijer Mperks ecoupons | Load Ibotta offers

Updated 9:30am 6/13/13 with a bunch of new Kraft printables that made MANY of the 8/$8 deals MUCH better!
Updated 11:00am 6/16/13 with new deals from Sunday's Meijer ad. New deals are noted with an asterisk (*).

Top deals:
.19 Oscar Mayer bologna, .29 Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh, .29 El Milagro tortillas, .49 Crystal Light, .49 Kraft salad dressing, .50 Smart Balance butter, .50 Pillsbury Grands biscuits, .66 Hunts Snack Packs, .66 Wolf Chili, .74 Philadelphia Cream Cheese, .75 Hamburger Helper, .84 Heluva Good dip, .99 Maxwell House coffee, .99 Yuban coffee, .99 Febreze Air Effects, .99 A1, $1 Chex Mix, $1.49 Kraft Mayo and Miracle Whip, $1.50 Krunchers chips, $1.74 Eckrich sausage, $2.12 Kraft String Cheese, $2.17 Jack's pizzas