I'm all stocked up on cereal and Nature Valley Granola Clusters - thanks to the stacking of coupons at Dominicks -store and manufacturer coupons made this a super deal - regularily $3.79 a bag, I grabbed 2 for $.50 each. Over at Jewel, I combined this with a General Mills/Betty Crocker catalina deal and here's what I walked away with:

JEWEL - Buy $20 in participating products, get $5 OYNO
Jewel: transaction #1
3 boxes General Mills cereal ($2.79-$3.29 each regular price) $1.99 preferred card
2 bags Nature Valley Granola CLusters ($3.79 each regular price) 2/$5 preferred card
2 pouches Betty Crocker Cookie Mix ($2.39 regular price) $1.99 preferred card
-$1.00/3 General Mills cereal
-$.50/1 Nature Valley Granola Clusters (2)
- $10.00 catalina coupon from last week's sales
OOP = $3.19
Saved: $18.80

Received:
$5 coupon OYNO
$1.50/3 boxes General Mills cereal
50 bonus Boxtops for Education

Jewel #2:
3 boxes General Mills cereal ($2.79-$3.29 each regular price) $1.99 preferred card
7 boxes Hamburger Helper ($1.60 regular price) $1 each
-$.75/3 Hamburger Helper (2)
$1.50/3 General Mills cereals (from previous order)
-$5.00 OYNO coupon (from previous purchase)
OOP: $5.20
Saved: $15.60

Received:
$5 coupon OYNO
$1.50/3 boxes General Mills cereal
50 bonus Boxtops for Education

Dominicks:
$.98 - 1 gallon Lucerne milk (with in-store coupon)
$.99 - 18 count Lucerne large eggs (with in-store coupon)
$1.99 Oscar Mayer Bacon (4) (with in-store coupon)
$1.49 Cinnamon Toast Crunch
$1.49 Honey Nut Cheerios (1)
$1.24 CoffeeMate Caramel Apple coffee creamer (50% Off)
$.99 Oscar Mayer deli meat (9-10 oz. - mark down)
4/$6 Nature Valley Granola Bars & Clusters (with in-store coupon)
-$1.00 Nature Valley Granola Clusters (2)
-$1.00/2 Nature Valley Granola Bars
-$1.00 CoffeeMate coffee creamer, powder or liquid
-$.55 Honey Nut Cheerios (2)
-$.55 Cinnamon Toast Crunch
-$1.00/2 Oscar Mayer deli meat
OOP: $17.43
Savings: $34.79
Percent savings: 66%

Total OOP: $25.82

I've rolled $270 in cats, with $25 remaining in cats to use for (hopefully) the next big cat madness sale!

80 boxes Lipton soup mix
10 cartons Progresso Broth (chicken and beef)
25 pkgs. Lipton sides
16 boxes of Klondike bars
5 1.5 qt. Breyers Ice Creawm
84 cans Green Giant veggies
9 boxes Lipton Tea
2 cans Green Giant asparagus
3 boxes Betty Crocker Cake mix
12 bags Chex Mix & Gardettos

For a grand total OOP of $52.17 (includes tax)
Or an average of $.21 per item!

Too bad this sale doesn't continue for another week or two....

Jewel is the place to be this weekend - and I should know, I spent over 2 hours there yesterday alone, between my mom, my friend Sandy, and I we filled 2 shopping carts with more than 15 transactions worth of goodies. To say we've got a jump on all things for the holiday season and parties would be about right! Here are some items and approximate breakdowns on deals we found:

All prices listed are factored AFTER the $15 in catalina coupons that print at the register and before taxes. Your store(s) may vary, but usually not by too much. All of these prices are factored without manufacturer coupons, which, if you have, will reduce your OOP for each order.

11 Progresso Broth (carton 32 oz.) $1.39

16 boxes Lipton soup mix $2.00

20 pkgs. Knorr Pasta Side Dishes $5.00, coupon will print for $2 off 8 - making 2nd round only $3!!! Look for coupons left behind by other customers at self-check- we found 2 of them to get us started.

5 1.5 qt. Breyer's Ice Cream, 1 Lipton Side Dish $.99

8 Klondike bars (what would you do.....for a Klondike bar) $8.83

24 cans 11-15 oz. Green Giant corn, peas, green beans $3.96

12 bags Gardettos, Chex Mix, Bugles $5.xx each flavor is priced slighly different, so you OOP maay vary.

So for my holiday parties, I've got loads of stuff to make cheap dip, tons of party mix (thank you Chex!), lots of veggies. For me, I don't have to do much for a Klondike bar!!

But, if you need something to do with all those cheap pasta sides - grab Target printable Q's, head over there wih the $1 off Archer Farms bakery and grab a loaf of garlic bread...for $.50. If you've got a Caputos near by, head there for Bston Leaf lettuce $2/1 (by the lb. I believe). There's a cheap and tasty meal!.

I'm getting all geared up for my next big shopping excursion! I just had a look at the list Kraft put out for their rebate (offered through Supervalu affiliated stores) - and a couple of the items I'm eying have fabulous coupons for them. Well, that and I grabbed a dozen of the Nabisco coupon booklets. Which have a separate set of rebates in them. This is when shopping madness occurs...

Shopping madness is defined (by me) as having more deals, more cheapies/freebies than one person thinks they can grab in any given time frame (an afternoon, a week, a decade). Between BOGOF on Planters trail mix, to 10/$10 a box Mac 'n' Cheese crackers - I'm really not sure which direction to turn in first. Not that that's a problem. At least, not a problem for me! I'm armed with loads of good coupons!


Step #1: Drive to nearest Jewel.

Step #2: Check to make sure all catalina machines are working properly at self checkout.

Step #3: Grab shopping cart.

Step #4: Ladies, start your shopping (as I picture someone waving the green flag, like they do at car races - and I'm in the lead - we can all dream, can't we?)!

Step #5: Leave with $20 rebate, $5 cat, and a whole load of goodies!

So, looks like Wednesday afternoon, I'm back out on the hound. But, out of curiosity, has anyone out there tried the Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese crackers and are they any good? Please let me know what you think! That's the basis for my deal.

Sunday sure isn't a day of rest for us couponers! DaMama and I hit 2 stores, did 4 transactions, and spent less than $8 between us. How did we do? Keep reading!

Ultra-Foods
36 jars Fisher Peanut Butter reg. $1.90 - sale $.99
1 36 count box Hefty One-Zip bags reg. $4.05 - sale $1.00
Q's:
36 -$1 off any Fisher product 4.0 oz. or larger
1 - $.20 peelie coupon from the Hefty bags

Total OOP - $1.19 Saved $68.75

From there, we scampered to Jewel - in search of some free ice cream. In and out of that store in less than 40 minutes, here's what we found:

Transaction #1:
16 boxes Lipton Onion Soup Mix - Regular $2 - sale $1.00
After $15 in catalina coupons - $1.96 was our total, and $15 in cats printed out - love it!
Saved: $31.25

Transaction #2:
5 - 1.5 quart Breyer Ice Cream - assorted flavors reg. $6.50 - sale $3
1 64 oz. Dole Juice blend regular $3.49 - sale $2.50
1 8 oz. Jewel brand Swiss cheese regular $3.00 - sale $2.00
- $.50 Q's off each (5)
-$15 in cats
OOP = $2.34 Saved $38.75
got back $15 in cats

Transaction #3:
4 bags Chex Mix reg. $3.17 - sale $1.66
6 bags Gardetto's reg. $3.16 - sale $1.66
2 bags Bugles reg. $2.99 - sale $1.67
- $.50 Q's printable (4)
-$15 in cats
OOP = $1.66
Saved: $29.85
got back $15 in cats.

Got to love rolling a cat, the deals are great, Annie's Market is bursting with tasty goodies!

Total OOP = $7.15
Total Saved = $168.60

Saturday was a hop & shop kind of day. Jewel had their generic cereals on sale for $.99 a box, Arm & Hammer laundry detergent onsale for 2/$5, and StarKist Tuna for 2/$1. After numerous transactions - mostly on Saturday - and filling the back of my car, DaMama & I ended up with:

64 boxes of cereal (limit 4 per person)
16 bottles of Arm & Hammer (Limit 2 per person)
32 cans of tuna (Limit 2 per person)

And rainchecks for 16 additional boxes of cereal as well as 12 more bottles of Arm & Hammer.

After all that shopping, I was ready for a nap! But dinner and a movie with DH was even better. We went to see The Proposal, used our free movie passes - tickets cost us $0! Dinner was late, so we grabbed some tacos fresco from Taco Bell for $8.84. And we snuck in an caramel apple empanada. Dinner, dessert, and a movie for under $10! Now, there's some date night savings.

Now, I'm gearing up for the Jewel deal: spend $30, get $15 in cats on select Knorr/B.C./etc. products. Let's see what kind of cheapies & freebies I can load up on!

I love cookies - I love cheap/free cookies even more. Here's how the cookie hunt went:

First 8 transactions:
4 boxes of Keebler Chips Deluxe Cookies - assorted flavors
1 2L. Dr. Pepper - assorted varieties (I love the Cherry Vanilla)
Total before discounts = $21.25
Total after preferred card = $11.47
Total after $10 cat (for each order) = $1.47.
Or about $.29 per it em - I can live with that.

1 transaction:
5 boxes Keebler Fudge cookies (assorted)
Total before discounts $21.25
Total after preferred card = $12.72
Total OOP (after $10 cat) = $2.72

A survey printed at the bottom of one of our receipts, filled it out for $2 off my next transaction. Yeah, I can find a use for that.

At the first store I did 4 transactions, then Sandy met up with DaMama and I at the 2nd Jewel, where I rang up 13 transactions back-to-back. We were there for over an hour, andm ost of that time was at checkout. The clerks didn't give us any problems, which was a surprise and a relief - as I've been limited to the number to transactions I could do there in the past. The great thing - between Sandy & I - we covered 4-6 different Jewel stores without having to go out of our way. At prices like that, it's no wonder I haven't been baking as much as I used to. It's cheaper not to bake but to buy Keebler instead.

I made a $10 bill, a $10 cat, and my change purse last all night. For the last two transactions, we paid for them with loose change. And that lightens some of the weight in my purse, though the cookies will add some weight to my *ss, I mean hips....

The days and ways of rolling a cat are slowly coming to a close. You know the cat, that holy grail of coupons - that which every couponer that can get them holds near and dear to their wallet? I may wax poetic, but wait til you hear my tale of woe. It all starts at Jewel.

I was gathering my tomatoes, catsup, pudding packs - almost like a normal person (except that I was buying one transaction of each), I had rung up my first (of 4 orders), everything went without a hitch. Rang up the second order, had the cashier come over to scan my coupon (we're not allowed to scan them ourselves anymore), and was told that I couldn't use my $10 on a prior purchase. I said, "That's fine, I don't see how you could anyway." The cashier then told me that you could not use the $10 on a purchase of products from the same company.

She kept pointing to the wording of previous purchase. I was assured that the coupon wasn't intended for the use I had planned on, the cashier allowed me the 2 transactions I had already rung up and would not allow me to ring up the next two transactions I had ready. Her logic, "Well, if I let you do this, you'll be here all day getting stuff for free." I hesitated to mention "Yep, that was the plan all along, but I wouldn't be here all day - you'd run out of stuff in about an hour anyway. I am still puzzling over how that cashier managed to grossly misinterpret the coupon, but as I have 3 other Jewel stores in a 5 miles radius, I left to visit one of them.

So I just popped over to the next one and ran 2 more transactions. The odd thing, the cashier asked me if I was doing "the same" transaction and I pointed out I was buying catsup first, then I was grabbing some snackpacks. This seemed to satisfy her and I receive no more hassle over the $10 cat. Keep in mind ,that doesn't mean I received no more hassle.

Now, the $3 off any grill meat, fresh deli, or product hangtag I grabbed from some wine bottles at the 1st Jewel gave her some problems, but after 5 minutes of her asking/arguing with her manager over what a "grill meat" is and reading all the fine print; they agreed that I was using the coupon according to the wording listed, but the cashier persisted in acting like we were doing something wrong.

Naturally, I was fed-up and beyond being friendly when it came to that piece of nonsense. I finally asked her (using my polite-yet-icy tone of voice), if she was done examining my coupons and was going to scan them. This illicited a dirty look, hand-on-hips, glare, followed by running the coupons and letting me pay for my order.

I left, frustrated, aggravated, and wondering - is Jewel not allowing the cats to roll aymore?

I popped into Jewel last night, to roll my cats, after they had "fixed" the lopphole for the cheese and planters $0 OOP (plus tax) and changed gears - going after some crackers now. After all that cheese, crackers are the next natural thing. I wasn't too surprised that the BOGOF Q's from last Sunday's insert (Wheat Thin Artisan Crackers) were long gone. But, what I did notice were peelies for $1/2 on the crackers - and I do love some good peelies.
Here's how it broke down, I ran 2 transactions:

Transaction #1
3 boxes Chicken-in-a-Bisket crackers $4.15 sale price
3 Boxes Cheez-Its Reduced Fat crackers $2.48 sale price/10/$10 (preferred card)
4 boxes Wheat Thins crackers, assorted varieties $4.15 sale price
-$1/2 peelies (5)
-$10 cat
-$3 cat
+$.30 was tax
$6.30 for 10 boxes of crackers
Savings of $30.74
And got another $10 cat.

Transaction #2
6 boxes Nabisco Graham Crackers, assorted $3.75 sale price
3 cups Kraft Easy Mac, assorted flavors $1.08 sale price
-$1/2 peelies (3)
-$10 cat
+ $.19 tax
$2.19 for 6 boxes of crackers and 3 cups Easy Mac
Savings of $23.55
And got another $10 cat.
I think of the cats as the bank, and I periodically go and "refresh" my money!