30 things I’d buy at Woodman’s (and a few I wouldn’t…)

If you’re not familiar with Woodman’s, it’s a 14-store supermarket chain in Wisconsin and Illinois. Woodman’s is a “superstore” of sorts — the stores are enormous, with almost a warehouse-club type feel, although Woodman’s isn’t a club and doesn’t utilize a loyalty card.

Woodman’s website states “While large nationwide super stores carry clothing, housewares, and food products, Woodman’s is solely focused on providing the widest variety of grocery items.” And they do – they carry a vast variety of products under an everyday-low-price pricing structure. They don’t often have sales, and they don’t often offer a print ad. This makes Woodman’s an interesting place to shop from a couponer’s perspective.

I’ve long been a fan of playing the high-low pricing game, in which we can save the most by combining coupons with the lowest sale prices. It’s tougher to do that at Woodman’s as their prices don’t change much – and admittedly, I don’t shop at Woodman’s nearly as often as other stores. But this week, I took a trip to the Carpentersville, Illinois Woodman’s location after my mom gave me a heads-up on a cookie deal she spotted there. And along the way, I spotted some good prices on other items that I’ll likely continue to buy at Woodman’s in the future… as well as a few I won’t. Come along for my Woodman’s deals photo tour:

Nabisco Cheese Nips crackers are $1.69 every day. There were coupons on the display for $1-off-2, dropping these to $1.19. The coupons expire 4/30 and are limited to one per transaction. The 1/27 SS and 1/6 SS1 have .75-off-2 coupons too!

WhoNu nutrition-rich cookies are $2 per box (thanks, Mom! We love the “Oreo” kind.) With the .55 coupon from the 1/13 SS, these are $1.45. The coupon expires 3/10.

64-ounce bottles of Nestle Juicy Juice and 8-pack juice boxes are regularly $2.99 but currently on sale for $2.49. With the $1 coupon from the 2/10 RP, they’ll be a cool $1.49. The tags say this sale runs through 3/5.

64oz. bottles of Shur-Fine (store brand) apple juice are $1.69 every day. I try to stay under $1.50 per bottle of apple juice (Jewel’s $1.25 sale this past week was great!) but in the absence of sales in this price range, it’s good to know Woodman’s isn’t too much more than my good-price benchmark.

When I saw this Musselman’s apple sauce, I felt like cheering! Musselman’s is running a great promotion right now. Through 8/31/13, when you buy a package of Musselman’s applesauce cups, you can take the cardboard sleeve and this voucher to a participating bowling alley for a FREE game of bowling! We took our entire family bowling free in Marengo last month with five applesauce packages. But Jewel clearanced out their Musselman’s and isn’t carrying the brand anymore. And neither is Dominick’s. And neither is Meijer..! We want to go bowling again soon, and Woodman’s massive mix of products came to the rescue.

It’s cheaper to buy a 6-pack of applesauce for $2.39 than it is to pay for a game of bowling. And, if you’re really pinching pennies and just buying the applesauce FOR the bowling aspect, they also sell…

… 4-packs of Musselman’s applesauce for $1.79. I went for the 6-packs though as I had some coupons to use too. I saw that many of the 6-packs also had the free bowling vouchers right inside the packaging too.

12-16oz. Barilla pasta is .99 at Woodman’s every day. Now that I know this, instead of waiting for a sale on it when I have a coupon, I know I’ve got the option to pick it up here. The 1/6 SS1 has a $1-off-3 that will drop these to about .66 per box (expires 3/2.)

Nivea Lip Care lip balms are on sale at Woodman’s for $1.69 through 3/11. With the $3-off-2 coupons from the 2/10 RP (they expire 3/5!) you can drop these to .19 each.

One-pound bags of Twizzlers are $1.99 at Woodman’s. Yep, I’m a Twizzlers junkie, and that’s a good price. When there are coupons out for these, they will be even more of a deal.

These Mom’s Best cereals are $2 per box every day at Woodman’s. We like them – they’re all-natural and there are $1.50-off-3 coupons out pretty often to drop them to $1.50 per box.

With the wild product selection at Woodman’s, you often stumble across product flavors or varieties that you didn’t even know existed. Like Post Churros cereal? Churros? I love churros! And for .99 a box? Yep, those came home with me. (And they were ridiculously delicious. I don’t know if I could eat them for breakfast every day, but they make a great snack!)

These big boxes of ValuPak trash bags (40 count!) are only $3.99 at Woodman’s. When I run out of trash bags, I’ll buy a box and see how they hold up.

Libby’s canned vegetables are .55 every day at Woodman’s. I remember back in December we all got excited because Dollar General put Libby’s on sale for .50 a can when there were $1-off-4 coupons to drop them to .25 a can. If we see those coupons come around again and they’re not on sale anywhere else… I know where to bring them.

See that white bottle of Neutrogena Pore Refining Toner? That stuff is skincare gold in a bottle. I have used it for at least the past ten years, twice a day. Love, love, love it. Sometimes I even refer to it as my “magic toner.” But as it’s one of those things that has been out for quite a while, it’s also a product that a lot of stores around me have dropped. I haven’t been able to find it at Walgreens or CVS for a long time. Jewel-Osco still sells it, but the last time I picked up a bottle at Jewel, I paid a whopping $10.79! Ouch. But I was starting to think I’d never find it anywhere else. And now, to see that Woodman’s sells it for $6.49? I know where I’ll be buying it in the future.

Last year, Arm & Hammer had a $1 off dryer sheets coupon in the inserts. If they come out with that coupon again, this is the kind of price you want to match that coupon up to.

Knorr Homestyle Stock 4-packs are $1.50 each. With the $1 coupon from the 1/27 RP1, they’re just .50! That’s cheaper than buying canned broth, especially since you get four meals’ worth with this.

4-count Snack Pack puddings are .89 every day at Woodman’s – that’s pretty cheap. At the supermarket, they often go on sale for .99. When there are coupons available, these will be an even better deal.

Fans of natural, organic, gluten-free and ethnic foods will find a treasure trove of goodies to browse through at Woodman’s. If you are a fan of real black licorice, as I am, try the Panda natural black licorice. It will completely ruin you for other licorice. And Woodman’s sells it for a lower price than Trader Joe’s…

We used to frequent a great Filipino grocery in Dundee until they sadly closed down. Woodman’s has a good variety of Filipino and Asian foods too that we enjoy, like these shrimp chips. (Don’t knock ’em until you’ve tried ’em!)

And banana ketchup, a staple in the Philippines! Think of everything you love about ketchup – now replace the tomatoes in it with bananas! Sweet and tangy.

This is the usual brand of soy sauce I buy – a Filipino brand called Silver Swan. It’s got a great flavor and it’s usually super-cheap for that big, 21-ounce bottle. But today, I spotted a better deal…

5-ounce bottles of Kikkoman soy sauce are $1.09 every day at Woodman’s. With this $1 off any Kikkoman’s printable? Just .09!

My kids know that whenever I make cupcake or muffins, regardless of what month it is, they’re usually served up in holiday-themed cupcake papers that I scored on a post-holiday clearance for five or ten cents. But these 90-count Shur-Fine cupcake papers are just .55! That’s a great price and I bought a package. Now my daughter can stop being embarrassed having to take cupcakes to school in papers with holly leaves and gingerbread men on them.

(You think I’m kidding. I’m not. :)

Sugar-soda fans can pick up Mexican Pepsi (Cokes too!) for under a buck. The Cokes will run you a dime more, but… they’re worth it.

And Woodman’s is probably the only place in town that you can get Green River all year round, not just in the month of March :)

While .23 Kool-Aid isn’t a deal (it’s around .10/packet when it goes on sale at supermarkets) Woodman’s has a lot of flavors that you can’t find anywhere else. I like to keep some packets of the “Invisible” Kool-Aid on hand (it’s colorless) for making homemade Pedialyte. When kids are sick and things are not staying down, it’s nice if what’s not staying down is clear, not bright red or purple… know what I mean? And .23 is a bargain compared to buying Pedialyte.

My mom and dad often say Woodman’s has some of the best prices on watch batteries. After seeing them, I’d have to agree.

Heading over to the meat department… one-pound packages of Honeysuckle ground turkey are $1.19 every day – a great price for this.

Ditto these one-pound bags of frozen Tilapia fillets – $2.79! Nice price.

Woodmans sells several brands of one-pound butter quarters for $1.99 – always a good price.

Woodman’s greeting card section is large and pretty reasonably priced, with a whole aisle of .99 cards. Sure, you could go to the dollar store for cheap cards, but if you’re already shopping here? A deal.

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So, those are the things that stood out to me as things I would buy. Here are some things I’d pass on:

While I found some bargains in the cereal aisle, a lot of the name-brand cereal prices aren’t that low.

This past week, all the Honey Bunches of Oats were on sale for $1.99 at Meijer. And with the $1 coupon from the 1/6 SS1, well, you know the drill…

The same was true for the granola bars and fruit snacks. (We do get spoiled paying “couponer prices,” don’t we?)

These jars of Planters peanuts are $3.19-$3.49. A better price for these is $1.99 per jar, as they were this past week at Dominick’s. Then, with the current $1 coupon, they were just .99.

These Barilla pasta meals are $2.29 each at Woodman’s. Dominick’s just had them on sale for $1.49, and with the $1 coupons from the 2/3 SS, they were just .49. And, this week, the Hormel Compleats are $1.29 at Dominick’s – .29 after the $1 coupon in the 2/10 SS or a printable.

10-packs of Minute Maid juice boxes are $3.29-$3.79. The last time I bought these, they were on sale for $3 per pack at CVS and part of a “Spend $30, Get $10” sale, which dropped the price to $2 each when you bought ten. (Then, with the $1 printables that were available, it dropped the price further to $1 each… and that was a good deal.)

Seeing these Capri-Suns (at $2.29, not a good price) reminded me to remind you that Woodman’s doesn’t have Catalina machines or participate in Catalina offers. So, there’s no opportunity to take Capri-Sun home for .59 a box, like there was last week at Dominick’s.

I love these Old Orchard juice concentrates, but they go on sale pretty frequently at Meijer for $1. That gives you more bang for your buck when you pair them with a $1-off-4 coupon — which also come out pretty frequently.

Organic milk: I was hoping to see better prices here, considering the Walmart near me sells half-gallons for $3.59. The cheapest organic milk was $3.79/half gallon for Organic Valley. Gallon jugs of Organic Valley are a little better at $5.99 each if you don’t mind the plastic jug.

You’re not likely to find any free-toothpaste deals in the personal care aisles at Woodman’s as the name brands aren’t priced anywhere near a dollar. But did you even know Crest still made Citrus and Cinnamon flavored toothpaste? They do, and Woodman’s has ’em.

Kleenex boxes are regularly $1.59 and currently on sale for $1.39 – neither of which can come close to the .59 we were paying last week at Walgreens with their coupon & Catalina deal.

And, 6-packs of Dove Men + Care bar soap are a high $7.29. These have been cheap all over town lately – around .83 per pack at Target, Meijer and CVS with their post-$4 coupon deals. They’re still on sale at Jewel for $5.99 this week.

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If you go to Woodman’s:

A few things to note. Woodman’s is huge. It’s not a place for quick in-and-out trips unless you go late at night. Expect fairly long lines and allow yourself at least an hour to cover the whole store.

Woodman’s also does not accept credit cards. You can pay with cash, check or debit card.

Woodman’s coupon policy also has some specifics to note:

– Coupons will be adjusted down in the event of an overage.
– They do not accept expired coupons or competitor coupons, and they don’t price-match.
– They accept ONE internet printable per like item per transaction. (Yes, even though you can print two like coupons, you can’t use them in the same trip.)
– Woodman’s also doesn’t accept free-product coupons without “proper anti-fraud features.” If you have a coupon that passes approval, you can use one free-item coupon per transaction per day.

I took some photos of the coupon policy and free-product coupon notice, but both were laminated in plastic and were difficult to get clear pictures of.

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