Jill Cataldo

If you watched the recent Nightline segment on coupon shopping, you might be wondering, "Is it worth becoming a coupon shopper?"

The real question is... why wouldn't you coupon shop?

In life, we continually insist on the best prices for major purchases. We seek out the lowest price when buying a new car, booking the cheapest airfare, or finding the best deal on a new television. And yet, where groceries are concerned, most people don't even give a second thought to what they're paying for them. They go to the store and accept $150-$200 weekly grocery bills as part of life.

But groceries comprise one of the largest parts of our entire household budgets! If you knew you could easily cut that grocery bill by half or better, still buying the groceries and products you want and need, why wouldn't you? With my system, coupon shoppers are happily spending a small amount of time each week, about a half-hour to an hour, to reduce their grocery bills by 30%, 50%, 75% or more.

I'm Jill Cataldo. Welcome to Super-Couponing®. With the tools you'll find here, you're about to completely change the way you shop.

Last week, I announced a contest to win a Bisquick Pancake Nation Prize Pack, containing everything you need to make a great pancake breakfast:

• Bisquick
• Cast-iron pancake skillet
• Spatula
• Large mixing bowl

To be eligible to win, I asked my readers to share a story about how coupons have changed the way you shop or a funny or memorable story about coupon shopping.

What followed were over 150 incredible, moving, humorous, touching and heartwarming stories of how coupons -- little pieces of paper -- have literally changed lives.

I was truly unprepared for the magnitude of some of the stories that were shared -- this very quickly became much more than simply a pancake gear giveaway. It was very, very difficult to choose any single entry as the "best" -- and for the past two days I've mulled over which entry was the most memorable to me.

Without further ado, congratulations are in order to NicoleElaina, the winner of this Bisquick Pancake Nation Prize Pack:

Super couponing was my fortune, and its one I try to share daily

Submitted by nicoleelaina on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 11:59.

After walking out of credit counseling in Woodstock and being told that the only solution left was to allow our house to be foreclosed on, I was ready to give up. I had no hope, no options left, no resources. I had even joined groups about being frugal and saving money to no avail. Then later that same week I got an email from one of the groups recommending going to Jill’s super couponing class. I had my doubts. It was a free class. Nothing is free in life – everything has a cost. Was it like one of those timeshare classes where you get bullied into signing over your life at the end? I signed up anyways, only to be told that the class was full, but they would put me on a waiting list. Days passed and my depression worsened – I still had no solution to my mortgage going up several hundred dollars a month each month and being behind on it. I didn’t want to lose my house; I have 5 kids, and I felt like a complete failure to them.

Then on a Saturday morning, I got a call that there was an opening for that couponing class I signed up for, and could I come to it even though it started in an hour. I thought about it, pushed my doubts aside and said yes I would. I got there early, went in, sat up front and waited for the catch as Jill started to do her presentation. An hour went by with me feverishly writing notes about all the different things and ways she saved money, the resources she used and the math behind the deals. And I was amazed. I walked out with my head spinning and I was dizzy. But most remarkably of all I was hopeful. I had been given an answer on how to help my family and make ends meet. I was almost afraid to believe it; it seemed too good to be true. So, I went home and educated myself for the next week, and when I went shopping the next time that I had money, I saved. I saved and I saved and I saved some more. I bought cheese and cereal and peanut butter and bread and soup and I still had money left after stock piling for my family of 7. I couldn’t believe it the first time I did it – I stood in the middle of Jewel at 11 PM fighting back tears when I realized what I had done. I proved that I didn’t have to lose my house to survive or starve my family to keep it.

The Super-Couponing Swap is your local coupon club – a place to drop in, trade coupons, spend time with other coupon lovers, and share stories of great deals!

The following Illinois locations are currently participating:

NEW Round Lake Swap!
Round Lake Area Public Library
906 Hart Rd. Round Lake, IL 60073
Saturdays 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. beginning April 3

Joy Community Presbyterian Church

NEW OFFERS ACTIVE 3/24! Log back in to add them to your card!

If you shop at Jewel, here's a new Catalina promotion you'll want to know about! It's called YourBucks, and it's kind of a combination of electronic coupon offers and on-your-next-order (cash) Catalinas. Head over to tv.catalinamarketing.com and register your Jewel Preferred Card number for a series of single-product Catalinas that will be loaded to your card. This program began 2/10/10, and runs through 5/4/10.

New offers are scheduled throughout the program! The following offers are now active. When I buy any of these products, they will generate a Catalina in the dollar amount shown:

Offers good through 5/4/10:

Any 1 (One) or more all® laundry detergent 32 load of larger $1.25
Any 1 (One) or more Bags of Tyson® Frozen Breaded Chicken $2.00
Any 2 (Two) or more Mountain Dew 2lt $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more Bertolli Sauce 24oz or larger $1.50
Any 2 (Two) or more of French's Mustard $1.00
Any 1 (One) or more FINISH® QUANTUM® Automatic Dishwasher Detergent $1.50
Any 2 (Two) or more Chips Ahoy 10 oz or larger $2.00
Any 2 (Two) or more HEALTHY ONES™ Lunch Meat $1.00
Any 1 (One) or more Welch's® 100% Grape Juice 64oz $1.00
Any 1 (One) or more FINISH® JET-DRY® Rinse Agent 8.45 oz or larger $1.25
Any 1 (One) or more Jewel Premium Bacon 16 oz. $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more ECKRICH® Smoked Sausage $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more New Pieces candies 10oz bag or larger $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more Palmolive® Dish Liquid 20 fl oz or larger $0.75
Any 1 (One) or more Maxwell House Coffee - 8 oz or larger $1.50
Any 2 (Two) or more Jewel Sugar 4 lb. $1.00

If you're shopping at Dominick's (Safeway) in the near future, keep your eyes open for these THREE coupon books that you may find in the store:

Live WholeHeartedly Now - $10 worth of manufacturer coupons:

-$1 off 2 12-packs Diet Coke or Caffeine Free Diet Coke
- $1 off 2 Diet Coke or Caffeine Free Diet Coke bottle multipacks
- $1 off 2 Swanson Premium Chunk Chicken Breast (canned)
- $1 off any Nestea .5 liter 12 pack
- $2 off 2 Pepperidge Farm Baked Naturals snack crackers or Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain breads
- $1 off 2 Dasani 12-pack bottles
- $1 off 3 Prego Heart Smart pasta sauces
- $1 off 2 Nestea Fridgepack cans
- $1 off 3 Campbell's Select Harvest, Healthy Request, or Chunky Healthy Request soups

(All above coupons expire 4/30/10)

Heart Your Heart - $18 worth of Dominick's STORE coupons (great for stacking!):

- $1 off Cooking Light Magazine
- .55 off Any Sara Lee Delightful bread, buns, or bagels
- .50 off V8 100% Vegetable or V8 Fusion
- .50 off Welch's 100% Juice
- $1 off 2 Starkist Pouch items
- $1 off 2 Barilla Plus pasta
- $1 off Metamucil
- $1 off Listerine 500ml or larger

I'm often asked what, if anything, I'll pay full price for. Each time this year, I do a huge stock-up on one thing that's not only worth it, but has become something of an annual tradition for me -- Kosher Coca-Cola! I try to buy one bottle for each week of the year - and if I time it right, I'll be almost ready to run out around this time next year in 2011 :)

Those that know me well know of my love for classic Coke. Coke connoisseurs know that the original formula of Coca-Cola was made with cane sugar, and the flavor is unmatched with the HFCS-laden Coke of today. Most of the year, the only ways to get original-formula Coke is either to buy Mexican bottled Cokes at a grocer that carries them, or buy Canadian-bottled Coca-Cola when you're traveling north of the border.

But this time of the year, each year, is anxiously awaited by myself and Coke-iphiles all over the country, because once a year, Coca-Cola bottles Kosher Coke for Passover season... and it's made with natural sugar, not HFCS, as corn products are not kosher.

So, if you love Coke the way I do, and you want the original, delicious, BETTER Coke, look for the yellow-capped bottles designating them as Kosher that are in stores now. The labels also state "Original Formula" on them.

If you live in Chicagoland and would like FREE coupon inserts delivered to your door, read on...

The Chicago Tribune has a new program available called "Deals Delivered" in which they'll deliver coupon inserts FREE of charge. It's only available in certain areas, and here's how to get it.

Call 800-311-8500 and ask to subscribe to Deals Delivered (actually, when you call, you may even hear an ad for Deals Delivered in the phone menus.) Again, this is only available in CERTAIN areas and zip codes.

Just as we're swinging into Frozen Food Month and enjoying great stock-up prices on frozen... has freezer envy set in? Wish you bought one at Jewel last month but didn't? Or did you buy one, fill it, and decide you could really use another?

Both Ultra Foods and Strack and Van Til surprised us all today when they announced their OWN freezer deals! These are very similar to Jewel's deal, and here's the scoop:

Beginning March 4, 2010: Purchase a Haier freezer for $149.99 and we will fill it with free coupons valued at $150, and an additional $30 in money-saving coupons. Limit 1 total per customer. 5.3 cu ft capacity holds approximately 185.5 lbs of frozen food. Vinyl coated wire basket. Easy access defrost drain. While supplies last. No rainchecks. (More freezer specs here.)

This is the first time Ultra and Strack have jumped into the freezer-deal game, but it sounds like an excellent buy! No word yet on whether these are manufacturer coupons, but the products in the ads are similar to those offered during Jewel's deal:

• Edy's Dibs
• Kraft Bagelfuls
• Gorton's Grilled Fillets
• Home Run Inn pizza
• Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches
• Jose Ole Chimichanga
• Old Orchard frozen juice concentrate
• Super Pretzel

You guys aren't going to like this one... but it does change how we all shop at Dominick's, so it needs to be noted.

Dominick's has changed their policy on minimum purchases for "Super Coupons." You'll remember that the old policy stated that the $10 or $20 minimums were based on the regular, non-sale, non-Fresh Values prices of the products:

What does "minimum $10 (or $20) purchase required" mean? To use store coupons that include a minimum purchase requirement, you must spend a minimum dollar amount on that shopping trip. You will reach the minimum purchase amount based upon total purchases before your Club Card discount is applied. This total will include the coupon item's regular price, not the discounted price. For example,the regular retail price of a box of Cheerios (before coupon and before Club Card discounts) will count toward the minimum purchase required in order to use the Cheerios coupon.

Got that? Now look at the new policy on Dominick's site:

What does "minimum $10 (or $20) purchase required" mean? To use store coupons that include a minimum purchase requirement, you must spend a minimum dollar amount on that shopping trip. You will reach the minimum purchase amount based upon total purchases after your Club Card discount is applied. For example, the regular retail price of a box of Cheerios (after Club Card discounts) will count toward the minimum purchase required in order to use the Cheerios coupon.

Dominick's... this is no way to improve on your already-tenuous relationship with your shoppers.

The annual Jewel freezer deal is this weekend, 2/7 and 2/8! For those of you who've been looking to add a second freezer to your home (the best way to stockpile and save on meats and frozen foods) you won't want to miss this!

For $149.99, you get a 5.2 cubic foot Igloo chest freezer AND $150 worth of free frozen food coupons! It's like buying the food and getting the freezer free, or vice versa. This really is the best, most inexpensive way to get a chest freezer! Now, if you've taken my Super-Couponing class, you know the best way to use these coupons... Do NOT be in a hurry to redeem them right away.