Coupon Love

Boy has this been a fantastic week! All the coupon stars have apparently aligned and I love that. There were and are a couple of promos that are going on that are awesome and money saving. Some I have pictures for and the earlier transactions I don't.

When I started this entire 3 day craziness, I was starting with $13.50 (might have been $10.50-can't remember now) worth of catalinas which essentially is cash to use at a later day for Albertsons from the manufacturer that promoted the deal. Basically a cash coupon in a sense. Twice the Value coupons also came out in Sundays paper and they are good for an entire week! These allow you to double the value of a coupon up to a $1 creating more savings to you. So here are the first two transactions without pictures:

Transaction #1 (promo: buy 10 participating products get a $10 cat back)
8 Old Orchard frozen juice concentrate-cranberry & pinapple
2 Dreyers icecream (the super spendy stuff)
-2 Dreyers coupons
-2 Old Orchard juice coupons
-3 Doublers
- $7 cat from another order
Out of Pocket = $3.10
Got back $10 in catalinas

Transaction #2:
8 Old Orchard juices-pinapple orange
2 Bagel Bites
1 2lb cheddar cheese ($3.99/lb with instore coupon)
1 2lb bag shredded cheese ($3.99/lb with instore coupon)
-2 Old Orchard coupons
-2 bagel bite coupons
-3 doublers
-$10 cat
OOP = $5.44
Got back $10 catalina

Transaction #3 (promo: buy 5+ boxes of these items, get back $3.50 back in cats):
6 Betty Crocker fruit snack type products (gushers, rollups, anything really) $1/box on sale!!
-3 BC coupons
-$3.50 catalina
OOP: $.36 tax!
Got back $3.50 catalina

Transaction #4: did the above one all over again


Transaction #5:
6 fruit snacks
8 Old Orchard juice-grape
2 Ore Ida french fries
-3 fruit snack coupons
-1 Ore Ida coupon
2 Old Orchard coupons
-$3.50 catalina
-$10 catalina
-2 doublers
OOP: $3.02
Got back $10 catalina
Got back $3.50 catalina
Transaction #6: (it was suddenly discovered that OO apple juice and blends are in the promo and they are advertised at $.99 cents in the store starting today!! making them FREE without coupons)
10 Old Orchard apple juice and apple blends
-$3.50 catalina
-$5.00 catalina
OOP: $2.00
Got back $10 catalina

Transaction $6:
10 Old Orchard apple juice and apple blends
-$5.00 catalina
OOP: $5.50 (couldn't pay with another $5 cat because they would be owing me money)
Got back $10 catalina

So I spent a grand total of $19.78
It would have cost $177.10 overall but I saved $157.32
Which means I saved 89%.
I still have $20 worth of catalinas to use later!!
I was able to get 45 Old Orchard juices which I am so excited about. That may seem like alot but not really when they are good through next year. We go through juice like crazy and this is good 100% juice. This stuff never goes on sale with coupons, doublers and catalinas together. And it may seem like we have lots of fruit snack type of things and that is because we do but Gunnar goes with Heidi twice a week to her work so he needs a lunch/snacks and they will last quite a while until the next sale. Plus they are good to throw in my purse when we are out and about and a great little snack for me and baby once in a while. I am so excited! I think I am done for a while until the HUGE Post cereal happens sometime later this month. Hmmm,those catalinas should hopefully come in handy if they don't expire before than.

I hope this possibly inspired you to give this a try. It really does save TONS of money if you shop and plan menus with what is on sale instead of the other way around.