Deals of the Week for July 28, 2009

Pre-coupon, $10. Instant savings of $3 makes your total now $7…
Minus two $1 Playtex coupons = $5
Minus two $2 Hartz coupons = $1
Minus one $1 Scotties coupon = $0

You will pay tax for all of the above… and nothing else :)

Here’s another possible scenario:

Buy 4 Tony’s frozen pizzas
Pre-coupon, $10. Instant savings of $3 makes your total now $7.
Minus two $1-off-2 coupons makes your total $5. 4 pizzas for $5? That’s $1.25 a pizza!

Still at Jewel, have you been following the Kellogg’s/Dr. Pepper Spend $20, Get $10 promo that’s running in the store? Buy $20 worth of certain Kellogg’s and/or Dr. Pepper products and get a $10 Catalina coupon for your next shopping trip. If you are VERY NEW at couponing and not comfortable doing a high-level Catalina deal differently than what the ad specifies, skip this and move on to the Dominick’s deals for this week. But if you are comfortable with a higher-level deal…

My black belt couponers know that these deals typically work differently at Jewel than at any other store.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you have never done a high-level Catalina deal at Jewel before, please read this short overview of the way the price structure works. In a nutshell, if you base your $20 on the non-Preferred prices, you can save even more money and spend less out of pocket. It is entirely up to you if you would like to work the deal in this way, but understand that IF you do, and the Catalina does not print, you can NOT go to the service counter and ask/demand that they reimburse you. You are working this sale in a different way than the ad specifies, and you’re on your own if you choose to do this.

You can mix and match any items in the list to get to $20. It’s important to remember that the non-preferred prices vary at EVERY store, and in some cases there are three prices (shelf, sale, and Preferred) on each item. If there is a fourth price (“Big Relief,” this is the price you use.)

If this makes no sense or is the least bit confusing to you… do NOT do the deal in this way. These high-level Catalina deals can be very confusing, especially when you’re new at this. If you are new, use the PREFERRED price only, and you’ll get the Catalina every time.

But if you’re a “black belt” couponer and want to maximize your savings… here are some of the best deals. Again, if you use these scenarios and do not get your Catalina, do NOT go to Customer Service and ask them to make it right for you. You WILL NOT have purchased what the ad states that you must. Again, YOU are taking the risk on these deals.

Ready?

Easiest deal for 12-packs of Dr. Pepper:
At MOST stores (verify prices at yours!) 5 12-packs of Dr. Pepper cans will cost you $12.75 and also put you over the $20 mark on regular prices. Pay $12.50 and get $10 back. 5 12-packs for $2.75!

Note: DON’T try to do this deal with 4 cases. It will not work. There’s an instant $1 savings when you buy 4 that takes you just under the mark to get the Catalina. Go with 5.

If you’re also a black belt, you know that these deals typically have many more included items, and this one is no exception (list here.) Keebler cookies and Cheez-It crackers are also in the deal, and the price spread is large enough to make this fun…

At MOST stores, if the regular/sale price of cookies at your store is $4.15-$4.19, buy FIVE boxes of Keebler Fudge Shoppe cookies (any – mix and match among Fudge Shoppe) at $2.50 each. Then:

$1 off 2 Keebler Fudge Shoppe

With coupon, pay $11.50… and get a $10 Catalina back. That’s a lot of cookies for $1.50! Even with no coupons, buy 5 boxes at $12.50 and get $10 back. CHEAP cookies!

Or, do it with Cheez-Its. If you printed the .75 Cheez-It coupon from last week, you could buy 4 Cheez-Its ($3 each) and 1 Dr. Pepper 2-liter ($1.25.) Before coupons – $13.25. After coupon, pay $12.50 and get $10 back! Lots of crackers and a pop for $2.50!

Lastly, a fruit snacks deal for everyone who missed the last .99 fruit snack sale at Dominick’s. If your kids like fruit snacks, it may be time to stock up again before school starts. Jewel has Betty Crocker fruit snacks, roll-ups, fruit by the foot or fruit gushers at .99 a box when you buy 4 at a time (MUST buy in quantities of 4 to get this price.) Combine this with as many .50-off-2 coupons as you like: .50 off 2, another .50 off 2, 6/14 SS and 7/12 SS. With two coupons for every two boxes you buy, you’ll pay .74 a box.

Heading over to Dominick’s, they have a crazy amount of good store coupons in this week’s Thursday 7/23 flyer.

All of these require a total purchase of $20 or more to use, but I’m going to give you a good scenario to get over that mark and take advantage of these GOOD sales! And, keep in mind that at Dominick’s, 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. Here’s a scenario that will have you taking home lots of things for very little, using the best of this week’s store coupons in the flyer:

1 Safeway Select Artisan Filone bread (like French bread)
$1.19 regular price, but .69 with flyer coupon. Dominicks.com also has a $1 coupon that your store may let you stack with this. If they do, you will get your bread free with .31 overage. (The coupon will scan fine – doesn’t hurt to try! Some stores do indeed stack their own store coupons together too if the values are different — Walgreens does.)

1 Lucerne 18 count eggs
$1.49 regular price, .99 with flyer coupon

1 5-lb bag of russet potatoes
$2.49 regular price, .99 with flyer coupon

1 Mott’s apple juice
$2.49 regular price, .99 with flyer coupon

1 Thomas’ English muffins
$1.99 regular price, $1.49 with flyer coupon

4 Nature Valley granola bars
$2.50 each regular price, 4-for-$6 with flyer coupon. Load the .40 ecoupons from both Shortcuts and Cellfire, and you’ll save .80 more. Then stack this with some Nature Valley coupons:
.50 off 1 Nature Valley Dark Chocolate & Nut
.50 off 1 Nature Valley Dark Chocolate & Nut
.40 off any 1 Nature Valley
.70 off 2 – 7/12 SS

If you can print (and use) four .50 coupons, you’ll bring the cost of those bars down two dollars more, but clip the insert coupon too — some Doms are limiting the number of like printables, so have some insert coupons on hand as “backup!”

Now, we’re at $18.46 on regular prices, but we’re actually only paying $10.45, and that’s not including any manufacturer coupons for the Nature Valley. With 4 .50 printables, you’ll now pay $8.45 for all of this! And, if your Doms lets you use the $1 off Safeway Select printable too, you’ll save another dollar, bringing you to just $7.45 out of pocket.

But we’re not QUITE over $20 yet.

We need to add one more thing to get over the $20 regular-price mark… and my favorite filler item lately at Doms is Pedigree Dentastix. That’s right, even if you don’t have a dog, you’re buying more dog treats this week, because they will be FREE with overage… (donate or give them away!)

Pedigree Dentastix dog treats:
$3.99 (putting you at $22.45 to now qualify for all coupons) – use the $2.50 Shortcuts.com discount stacked with this $2.50 printable or the $2.50 coupon from 4/19 RP and get $5 savings on this $3.99 item. You will make $1.01 buying them!

Now, adding the Dentastix pushes you over the $20 regular-price minimum, but you’ll actually knock another $1.01 off your total, bringing you to $6.44 for ALL of these groceries. Now that’s Super-Couponing!

If you don’t like or want some of the suggestions above, feel free to mix and match whatever you like, of course — these items are also good deals at Doms this week:

Duracell 8-ct AAA or AA batteries
$6.99 regular price, $4.99 with flyer coupon. Stack with $1 ecoupon from PGEsaver.com and $1 Duracell coupon from P&G Year of Savings book and ultimately pay $2.99, but get $6.99 credit toward your $20.

Fiber One Muffin Mix
$2.50 regular price. Stack with .50 ecoupons from both Shortcuts and Cellfire, and save another dollar. THEN, use a .50 off Fiber One Muffin Mix and pay just a buck for the muffin mix… but get $2.50 credit toward your $20.

Ranchers Reserve London Broil
Even without coupons, these are a steal this week. They are $1.99/lb, which is a great price for any meat. These are HUGE steaks, typically packaged with 2 in a tray. Each tray will cost around $10-$15 depending on size.

I bought three this week, simply because I had a Catalina from Doms for $10 off any Ranchers Reserve beef when you spend $35 or more – that knocked my end price per pound under $1.50. And, we have lots of steak :)

Joint Juice flavored waters are $1 this week at Dominick’s too. Get them FREE with expired $1 coupons from 4/26 SS, 2/22 SS, 11/2/08 RP, 8/3/08 RP, or pair one expired $1 coupon with the B1G1F Joint Juice coupon from 6/7 SS and get TWO bottles for free! These also make great fillers if you’re counting up to $20 for the above coupon deals.

Joint Juice’s site also has a $1 printable – note that some Doms will not let you use a printable when the sale price is close to the coupon price. Yes, weird policy – just a heads-up.

Continuing from last week’s Dominick’s deals, many blog readers are excited about another bottled water deal (what is up with the super-cheap water at Doms lately? LOVE it!)

The deal is on Nestle Pure Life water, and it goes like this…

Buy 5 cases of Nestle Pure Life, and the price drops to $2.99 a case; you will also get a $5 Cat back for buying over 4 cases.

Use 5 (or as many as you have) coupons for the Pure Life. Many stores have $1 coupons in the Blinkie dispenser – or, find some here:

4/5 RP – .50 or $1
8/3/08 RP – $1
July All You – .50
$1 off 1 (will need to register to print – use a free/secondary email)
$1.50 off 1 – some people are reporting this one no longer printing.

With 5 $1 coupons, you will pay $9.95 for 5 cases of water and get $5 back! That works out to $4.95 for 5 cases, or under a dollar a case.

Not bad, but what’s got my readers really excited is that there’s also a second deal going on the water. Mail in those 5 UPCs from your water and get coupons back for 2 more free cases of water! Now, you’re ultimately getting 7 cases of water (24 bottles a case!) for $4.95, which works out to $0.70 a case! This incredible water deal runs through 8/9/09.

For my northwestern Illinois readers, Hilander/Kroger has some GOOD cheapies and freebies this week too!

Crest toothpaste is on sale for $1, and 6/7 PG’s got a .50 coupon. That coupon will double to $1, making this FREE! 7/5 PG’s got a .75 coupon too, if you want to pick up another tube for a quarter… and also take home a FREE Oral B toothbrush to go with it! They’re on sale for $1 too, and there’s a $1 coupon in the same insert, 7/5 PG.

Fiber One Yogurt is cheap again too! It’s $2.49 – use the $1 coupons from 7/12 SS or $1 printables here and here. Stack that with the $1 ecoupon at Cellfire and take it home for .49 a 4-pack… that’s less than a quarter a cup!

Speed Stick deodorant is on sale for .88 (already cheap!) Use the .75 off 2 coupon from 7/26 SS and take two home for $1.01, or about .50 each!

Heading over to Walgreens, let’s take home some FREE candy bars! Many forum readers jumped on this one right away, as who doesn’t like free chocolate? In the new Wags flyer, there’s a store coupon for .49 off Snickers, Milky Way, and other candy bars. Pair this with the $1-off-2 coupon from 7/26 RP and take two home for FREE! Note that you will get .02 in overage here, and if you don’t buy something to use it up (overage CANNOT be applied to tax!) it will lock and halt the register. Throw something else tiny onto the same order, like…

Scotch bubble mailers (padded mailing envelopes.) Use the coupon in the current Wags flyer to get them for .39. Stack that with the $1-off-2 coupon from 5/31 RP and… we’re in overage again. But we’re getting two free bubble mailers! To get out of overage and go home with our free candy bars too, buy THREE bubble mailers. They will cost you $1.17 with the Wags coupon, and the $1 Scotch coupon will take another $1 off. The extra .02 from your candy bars will apply here too, and you’ll pay .15 for 2 candy bars and 3 bubble mailing envelopes. Super cheap!

Note that some editions of RedPlum had a $2 off Scotch Tape instead of $1 off 2 packaging supplies on 5/31. If you’re one of them, don’t worry — the 7/26 RP also has a .50-off-1 Scotch packaging supplies. You can use this instead (buy 2 mailers, not 3) and if you get 2 newspapers, with two of these .50 coupons, you can do the deal the exact same way.

Still at Wags, here’s a deal for all you coffee lovers (and I know you’re out there… just this week at my Morton Grove class, someone asked me for a Starbucks deal!) To that gentleman, this one’s for you… and anyone else who likes cheap coffee…

Starbucks frappucinos are $1.25 each with the coupon in the current Wags flyer. Stack that with the $1 coupon in the 6/21 SS and guess what… you’re paying just a quarter for your Starbucks!