Deals of the Week for August 18, 2009

Grocery Deals

Kicking things off at Jewel, here’s a yummy, cheap snack you can take home for under a quarter! Packages of Fisher Trail Mix is on sale for $2.49, Buy One, Get One Free. If you’ve been in one of my classes or reading my blog for a while, you know that one of the best ways to save even more money during a B1G1F sale is to use TWO coupons… one for each item! So, use two $1 coupons from any of the following inserts… 3/15 SS, 3/29 SS, 5/10 SS, 6/21 SS, or 6/7 SS… and pay .49 for two! That’s less than a quarter apiece for each!

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For my readers who enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage… did you know that the tax on liquor in Illinois is going up almost 90% a bottle on Sept. 1? OUCH. Nobody wants to see a 90% increase in price on anything, do they? Many bottles of hard liquor will increase between $3 and $4 a bottle in TAX alone next month.

One of the best ways to beat jumps in price is to stock up before the increase takes place… and my blog readers have been busy posting good deals on alcohol to beat the tax rise!

750ml bottles of Smirnoff Vodka is on sale at Jewel for $9.99 (through 8/31.) Jewel’s running a “Buy 6, save 10%” promotion on liquor, so if you buy 6 at a time, you’ll be at $53.95. But of course, you guys know by now that we like to work as many discounts as possible into these deals. When you’re buying your bottles, look for the “Fund Your Summer Fun” mail-in rebate attached to many of the Smirnoff bottles. This is a mail-in rebate for $25 back when you buy 6 bottles! After the rebate, you’ll be at $28.95 for ALL the bottles… which works out to a mere $4.83 per bottle of Smirnoff! Considering that the TAX will be almost this much two weeks from now, this is an excellent deal!

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Did you see the GREAT Catalina/Rebate promo going on Kraft products at Jewel too? Many of you know I’m not a big rebater, but if they’re high-value (over $10) I’m in… and this one is.

This is a “Buy $25, get $20 + $5!” If you buy $25 worth of Kraft products (list here – MUST spend $25 ON PREFERRED PRICES, the prices we actually pay, to qualify for this rebate) you will get two Catalinas at the register – one for $5 off your next shopping trip, and one mail-in rebate for $20!

So, let’s do the math. With NO coupons at all, this is $25 worth of free food for the cost of a stamp! With coupons, we are enjoying quite a sweet moneymaker deal… and here are your matchups.

LOOK at the store on Nabisco displays for a “Save $55” coupon book too, which contains bunches of coupons good for this deal too!

$1.99 – CAPRI SUN Juice Drink (10 ct.)
[no current coupons]

$3 – CRYSTAL LIGHT Drink Mix (any variety)
[no current coupons]

$1.69 – KRAFT Natural Shredded or Chunk Cheese (8 oz)
$1 off 2 – 8/9 RP, $1 off 2 [note that coupon states Publix supermarkets, but is a manufacturer coupon]

$6.99 – MAXWELL HOUSE Coffee (33 – 34 oz)
[no current coupons]

$6.99 – STARBUCKS Coffee (12 oz)
[no current coupons]

$2.50 – KRAFT Singles (10.5 – 12 oz)
$1 off 2 – 8/19 RP

$2.50 – CHIPS AHOY! Cookies (12 – 15.25 oz)
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – RITZ Crackers (13 – 16 oz)
Buy Ritz, get Wheat Thins free – 5/17 SS
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$1 – KRAFT EASY MAC or VELVEETA Cups (2.05 – 2.39 oz)
B1G1F Velveeta Cups – 8/9 SS

$2.50 – JELL-O Gelatin Snacks (6 pk)
.50 off – 7/12 SS, 8/9 SS; .50 off 2 – 7/26 SS

$3 – KRAFT String Cheese (12 oz)
[no current coupons]

$2.50 – KRAFT MIRACLE WHIP Dressing (18 oz)
Buy Kraft mayo, get $1 free produce – recent tearpads in produce department

$3 – KRAFT Natural Cheese Slices (7 – 8 oz)
$1 off 2 – 8/19 RP

$2.66 – OSCAR MAYER DELI CREATIONS Complete Sandwich Kits (4.9-7.1 oz)

$1.25 – PLANTERS Trail Mix (4 – 6 oz)
$1.50 off 2 – 6/28 SS
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – OSCAR MAYER LUNCHABLES Fun Packs (4 – 4.5 oz)
[no current coupons]

$3 – OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Shaved and Wallet PackMeats (7 – 10 oz)
[no current coupons]

$2.50 – WHEAT THINS or TRISCUIT Crackers (7 – 10 oz)
Buy Ritz, get Wheat Thins free – 5/17 SS
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – NABISCO Toasted Chips (6 – 8.1 oz)
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – CRACKERFULS Crackers (6 oz)
$1 off – 7/12 SS
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – TEDDY GRAHAMS Graham Crackers (8 – 10 oz)
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Crackers (6 oz)
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN & DIGIORNO For One & Flat Bread Melts (5.3 – 6.2 oz)

$6 – CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN & DIGIORNO Pizza (12 in)
$1 off – 5/17 SS; $1 off 1; Another $1 off CPK

$0.49 – KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Dinner (7.25 oz)
[no current coupons]

$1.69 – PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese (8 oz)
$1 off 2 – 8/9 RP

$3 – NILLA Wafers (10 – 12 oz)
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

YUBAN Coffee (33 oz)
[no current coupons]

NABISCO 12 packs
$1 off – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$2.50 – RITZ BITS Crackers (7.5 oz)
$1 off 2 – $55 Nabisco coupon book from display

$3.99 – TOMBSTONE ORIGINALS Pizza (17.5 – 29 oz) (Note: MUST be Originals in those sizes. No Brick Oven, Garlic Bread Crust, etc… or no Cats.)
[no current insert coupons – Solheim Cup golf coupon book from Jewel displays a couple months back does contain a $1 off 2 Tombstone coupon]
FREEZER DEAL people have a coupon for a free Tombstone that would be EXCELLENT to work into this deal as a moneymaker!

Mix and match however you want to and get up to $25 — and even if you don’t have coupons for the things you want, remember — they’ll be FREE after the rebate. Any coupons you use are pure profit to you!

Now, if you like Tombstone Pizza keep reading, as a second deal on these overlaps the Kraft rebate. There is a Tombstone Catalina running at Jewel too…

Buy 12″ Tombstone ORIGINAL pizzas and receive:

Buy 4 pizzas, get $3.00 Catalina
Buy 5 pizzas, get $4.00
Buy 6 or more pizzas, get $5.00.

SO… Buy 7 pizzas. At $3.99 each, you’ll pay $27.93. You’ve qualified for the Kraft rebate above, and after paying $27.93, you’ll get a $5 Catalina and a $20 mail-in rebate form. So, that works out to 7 pizzas for $2.93 – .42 each! SUPER CHEAP.

But remember, we’re getting that Catalina back! With 6 or more pizzas, we’re getting another $5 back. Whenever deals overlap, we call it a “double dip,” and this double dip will now pay YOU $2.07 to take those 7 pizzas home!

Now, we’re not done yet. Tombstone has yet another promo going on the pizzas. With “Tombstone Pays Your Utility Bill,” you can send in the UPCs for those 7 pizzas (no receipt needed) and get a $5 credit on the utility bill of your choice. Again, I’m not typically a big rebater… but your free pizzas are now going to save you yet another $5? Go for it!

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Heading to Dominick’s, There are again some Dominick’s Super Coupons in both the Wednesday and Sunday ads. You can stack manufacturer coupons with all of these (use www.coupontom.com or www.hotcouponworld.com [expired database]) for matchups, but I’m going to give you the best possible scenarios for two of these…

A GREAT fruit snack and granola bar deal especially since we’re headed into back-to-school time!

To do this deal, you’ll need two of the store coupons from either Doms ad – the “4 for $6” Nature Valley Granola Bars and the “4 for $4” Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks coupons. (But don’t worry… while we’re going to buy 4 bars and 4 fruit snacks we’re going to pay MUCH less than $10…)

First, head over to CellFire and ShortCuts and load the following to your Dominick’s Fresh Values card:

Cellfire: .40 off Nature Valley Granola bars, .50 off 2 Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, .40 off Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Shapes

ShortCuts: .40 off Nature Valley Granola bars, .50 off 2 Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, .40 off Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Shapes

Now, if we buy 4 boxes of Nature Valley and 4 boxes of Betty Crocker fruit snacks, with these discounts, we’ll pay $7.40. But of course, we can stack manufacturer coupons in here as well… and with store coupons stacked with electronics stacked with manufacturer, this is a TRIPLESTACK!

Nature Valley coupons:
.40 off 1
.40 off 1 (different link)
.70 off 2 – 8/9 GM, 7/12 SS
.75 off 2 – 5/31 SS
.50 off 1 – 3/8 SS, 1/4 GM

Betty Crocker fruit snack coupons:
.50 off 2
.40 off 1
.50 off 2 (different link)
.40 off 1 (different link)
.50 off 2 – 8/9 GM, 7/12 SS, 6/14 SS, 3/8 SS, 2/8 GM, 1/4 GM and MANY additional expireds
.40 off 1 – 8/9 GM

Use whatever coupons you’ve got here making sure you have a coupon to cover each box of bars and snacks. Remember that “.50 off 2” coupons function as TWO quarter coupons for two items, so you would be able to use two of those with your four boxes.

Depending on what you’ve got (go with the highest values, of course) it could look like this:

Total after store coupons and e-coupons: $7.40

After two .50-off-2 granola bar coupons and two .50-off-2 fruit snack coupons, another $2 comes off, and we’re down to $5.40 for 8 boxes.

NOW, get this… BOTH the granola bars AND the fruit snacks are involved in Catalina deals at Dominick’s too, which are going to give us even MORE of our money back! After paying, you’ll get a Catalina for the following:

Buy 3 get $1.50
Buy 4 get $2.50

for EACH deal – the bars and the snacks — so that’s TWO Catalinas we’re getting back! Now, here’s where we’re at…

After all coupons, we pay $5.40 for our eight boxes, and we get back TWO $2.50 Catalinas… resulting in us paying .40 for EIGHT boxes of snacks… that’s .05 a BOX!

If you have higher-value coupons to mix in, you’ll have a MONEYMAKER. With four .50 off one granola bar coupons and four .40 off 1 fruit snack coupons… pay $3.80 and get $5 back. Free snacks, with overage! And as you know, anytime the store pays me to shop… it’s my favorite kind of deal.

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This week, Dominick’s is also running a “Buy 5, save $5” promotion on juices and juice drinks. Remember, you MUST BUY 5 bottles, mix and match, to receive these prices, as they’re based on quantities. You can, of course, buy 5, 10, or 15 at a time… but they must be purchased in quantities of 5.

.99 – Ocean Spray juice cocktails
$1.49 – Hawaiian Punch, Langers juice drinks, Mott’s juices, and CapriSun boxes
$1.99 – V8, Langers juices, Ocean Spray Cranergy

And, of course, we’re going to use coupons with these too! With Dominick’s accepting expireds up to one year back, we have bunches to play with here…

Ocean Spray cranberry drinks
.55 off – 12/7/08 RP
$1 off – 3/29/09 RP

Mott’s
$1 off 2 – 8/10/08 SS
$1 off 1 Mott’s for Tots – 12/7/08 SS

Capri-Sun
$1 off CapriSun Sunrise – 4/19 SS

V8
$1 off – 1/4 SS

Enjoy those cheap juices!

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Dominick’s also has Rancher’s Reserve boneless beef round steak for just $1.29/lb! ANYTIME meat is under $1.99 a pound, it’s cycling low in price … and this is a steal!

Here’s a way to get some American cheese for FREE at Dominick’s deli counter! Dominicks.com has a coupon for $1 off American cheese at the deli counter.

It doesn’t say how MUCH cheese. (Think like a couponer!)

American cheese is $3.99/lb. at my store. I asked for 1/4lb. of cheese ($1.) It’s not easy to slice exactly a quarter-pound of cheese (mine came out to $1.04) but with the coupon… it was four cents. You can only use one of these coupons per transaction, and they do require a $10 minimum purchase too, but you’ll be well over that if you do the snacks deal!

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A note on Dominick’s Super Coupons: All of the Super Coupons require a total purchase of $20 or more to use. But, the “Minimum $20 purchase” applies to the REGULAR, non-sale price of those items. Really! It’s even spelled out very well on Safeway’s corporate 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 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.

So, knowing this, getting over that $20 mark isn’t as hard as it seems – if you do the fruit snack and granola deal above, you’re already at $18 on NON-sale prices! Mix and match what you like, and remember too that if you work any other items into your trip from this week’s deals, they too will count toward your $20.

Lastly for Doms… if you have the 2009 Entertainment Book, remember that there’s a $5 off $50 coupon in there too that you can work into one of your Dominick’s trips before the book expires at the end of this year. If you use this, always give the cashier that coupon FIRST, before the rest of your coupons, as your total will probably (hopefully!) dip under $50 after the rest of your coupons. And, if you’re interested in the 2010 Entertainment Book, it’s got FOUR $5-off-$50 coupons for Dominick’s in it, valid this fall and throughout the next year. Nice!

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While at Meijer, look for yet another coupon book on a Kraft display called “Back to School Lunch Ideas – $8 Worth of Coupons.” These coupons are STORE coupons that can be stacked with manufacturer coupons for even bigger savings… grab and hold for the next good deal :)

Note that Meijers in other states are on different schedules. The Illinois Meijers are about a week behind on the sales vs. Indiana/Michigan. If you’re in Illinois, these Meijer deals run through Wednesday. If you’re reading from another state, they ENDED Saturday at your store… Confusing? Yes. This is why I don’t blog too many Meijer deals…

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Reach dental floss is on sale for $1. With the .50 coupon from 3/15 SS doubled to $1, you’re taking this home for FREE…

Right Guard deodorant is also $1. With the $1 off 2 coupons from 7/12 SS and 8/16 SS, you’re taking home 2 for $1, or .50 each!

A variety of yogurt 4-packs are cheap too! Dannon Activia and Dannon Danimals are $1.88 a 4-pack. With the $1 coupons from 7/26 SS and 8/9 SS, you’re taking these home for .88 each 4-pack!

NEW ELECTRONIC COUPONS too! SoftCoin.com recently added support for Kroger stores (including Hilander) for their new electronic coupons for Unilever products! Click here to check them out… they load to your card the same way that Cellfire/PGE/ShortCuts do, meaning we now have FOUR sets of electronics we can stack with at Kroger stores. WOW!

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Drugstore Deals

This week at Walgreens, as is pretty typical for walgreens, we have some free stuff and some cheap stuff!

Scotch padded mailing envelopes are free again! They’re .49, and with the .50 coupon from 7/26 RP, you’ll get one for free…

Mars brand candy bars are FREE with coupons too! Stack the .49 Walgreens coupon from the flyer with the $1 off 2 coupon from 7/26 RP and take two home for FREE!

SoftSoap Nutriserum body wash is $3.99 with a $3.99 Register Reward. Pay, get your money right back, and they’re FREE! Or, use a coupon to make it a moneymaker. (Limit 1 per transaction…)

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150ct. CVS filler paper is .99, and you get .99 back in Extra Care Bucks (limit 2)

Paper-Mate 10ct. pens are also .99, and you get .99 back in Extra Care Bucks (limit 2)

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Wrapping things up at Kmart, their Super Doubles coupon promotion is BACK! Kmart will double coupons up to $2 in value, making many, many things free or cheap!

The rules this time around… limit 10 coupons per day per person (some stores do not enforce) – limit 4 like coupons per transaction, and you must reach a $25 purchase, pre-coupon. Remember, no coupon overage is given – you’re doubling TO the price of the item, not over.

The blog It’s Hip 2 Save has done an -excellent- matchup list of the Kmart doubles, and be sure to check out all the printable coupons for Kmart itself before you go, including:

• $5 off $50 Kmart purchase
• Free rubbing alcohol with $15 purchase
• Free bottle of hydrogen peroxide with $20 purchase
• Free cotton swabs with $20 purchase

And, if you’re having trouble getting up to that $25 mark, remember that ANY “FREE” coupons you have will help bump you up, because the item’s pre-coupon value counts toward your $25. While these coupons won’t double, you can use them as fillers – and the non-doubling coupons also won’t count in your limit of ten doubles.

Kmart Cereal Catalina too! If you buy 4 boxes of Kellogg’s cereal this week ($2.25 each) you’ll receive a Catalina good for a $5 Kmart gift card. Make this better with doubling coupons- 8/2 RP has $1 off 2 coupons you can work into this quite well. 4 cereals with two doubled $1 coupons would cost you $5… and you’ll get a $5 gift card back! FREE cereal!

If you’re a Vocalpoint member, you may have received some nice $1 coupons for Rice Krispies recently. With four $1 coupons doubled to $2 each, your 4 boxes of Rice Krispies would cost you .25 each, or $1… and you’ll get a $5 gift card. Cereal moneymaker!

BONUS CLOTHING DEAL — if you’re near a JC Penney this week, they’ve got some great clothing sales running. 70% off clearance, plus this week’s flyers (and recent mailers) have coupons for $10 off $50 and $15 off $75 clothing purchases. We found lots of bargains at our local JCP this weekend – worth a look!

FREE stuff:

FREE Yoplait Whips yogurt coupon

FREE Glade Plug-In

FREE single M&M/Mars chocolate (every Friday through September 2009.)

FREE insert coupons that are still current:

7/26 SS – FREE can of Mighty Dog dog food (exp. 9/14/09)

8/9 SS – FREE Glade Fragrance Collections candle (exp. 10/3/09)

8/2 SS – FREE jar Beech-Nut Stage 3 Fruit baby food (exp. 12/31/09)

(note too, if you don’t have a dog or baby, any of our local food pantries will be very happy to take these things. Donate them! :)

August All You, p. 95 – FREE Jack Links Buffalo Chicken Nuggets (expires 9/30/09)

Do you like these deals? Want to learn how to get deals like this on almost EVERYTHING that you buy? Attend one of my Super-Couponing™ classes and learn all the tricks of the trade — or OWN the 72-minute class on DVD and learn in the comfort of your home, at your pace! You’ll be slashing your bills in no time!