In the five years I have been couponing and deal shopping I don't think I have ever had a sale this BIG! Albertson's is having a tremendous sale this week! You can double up to 6 coupons, plus you get Catalina's (coupons to use on your next purchase) back too. I will explain this all in a minute. First, here is a pic of everything I got this morning:
9 packages swaddlers (I am so excited to stock up on newborn diapers for cheap!)Wonder how much I paid for all this? Would you believe I only paid $132.44 out of pocket? But wait....there is more....I also have $40 worth of Catalina's to use on future purchases....so I really only spent $92.44 on everything listed above!!!!!!! Just the diapers alone should have been $90 at regular price.
It worked out that I spent only $18.62 on just the 9 packs diapers....is that amazing or what? The Pantene was only .17 a bottle! WOW!
How did I do it? Let me explain how this sale works.
You purchase items in the sale in groups of $30. For every $30 you spend, you get $15 worth of catalina's back to use on a future purchase. For the diaper deal, if you spend $25 on any baby products, you get a $5 catalina back to use on a future purchase.
Are you still with me?
So the diapers are included in BOTH deals (at least the swaddlers and cruisers are). So I purchased 3 packs of diapers for $10 each, totaling $30. So I got both the $5 catalina AND the $15 catalinas too. Awesome! PLUS...I had manufacturer coupons to use as well to save me even more! I had 4 coupons I was able to use and I doubled 3 of them.
PLUS, Albertson's is letting you double up to 6 coupons at once this week. You have to use their special in-ad coupon to do that, so make sure you grab an ad if you don't have one. AWESOME!!!
Go to Albertson's website to look up the weekly ad if you don't get it in the newspaper.
HERE is the link to the printable shopping list on Pinching Your Pennies. They spell it all out for you...where to find your coupons, where to print them out, etc. Really easy. (This list is for Idaho so there might be a few changes where you are, I don't know.)
PYP also has an Excel Spreadsheet that spells it all out for you. It is on the same link I listed above, just scroll down a little to find it. This spreadsheet is AMAZING and I highly recommend you using it to be your shopping list. It's what I use when I go shopping on sales like these.
ADVICE: When you go to this sale, have it all spelled out before you get to the store. Know what coupons you are using with each grouping or you will get confused. It also helps because if you don't know how much you should be spending you won't know if they make a mistake. So take the Excel spreadsheet with you. I paper clip my coupons together in groupings. I made 7 transactions today of the $30 groups...you HAVE to do them separately to get the $15 back each time.....and I had all of my coupons grouped together for each group. That way you can just hand the coupons to the cashier each time you are ringing up a grouping. Make sense?
This sale is the perfect example of why you should SAVE (and organize) every coupon you get, even ones in the mail. You might think you will never use them, but you will be surprised....when sales like this happen you will be sad you don't have them. Refer to the coupon organizing posts I made below last week to get you started on organizing coupons. Because I saved all those Pampers coupons I get in the mail, I was able to save an additional $6 today! It IS worth it!
If you have any questions, please post here. This is a great week to build up your 3 month supply of food storage!
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UPDATE: Here are my Albertson's Sale Results! (as of 1/13/09 after my last trip on this sale!)
So the past few days I have spent a good portion of my day organizing my garage to fit everything I bought at the Albertson's sale this week! I am happy that I have plenty of diapers & wipes for my new baby for several months at least. We are well-stocked again on cereal, toilet paper, and popcorn among lots of other stuff. Yay! Here are the numbers:
(keep in mind on a few of these transactions I bought regular things I needed like butter, milk, eggs, chicken, etc. There were AWESOME prices last week on lots of things that are not on the $15 back promo)
Total out of pocket expense: $342.03
Manufacturer coupon savings (with some doubling): $99.27
Catalina's used: $345
Total Dollar Savings: $1,472.71
My total savings was 81%! WOW!
Everything I purchased should have cost me $1,814.74 !!! Holy cow. In case you are super curious, here is a list of everything I bought for only $342. Tell me what you think! I think I did pretty sweet. :)
Albertson's Sale: Items Purchased (all items below total price came to $342.03!)
Jolly Time Popcorn...17 boxes (all were free after coupons)
Powerade (packs of 10 each)...5 packs
Cereal... 38 boxes (no box was more than .50 after coupons)
Bounty (packs of 8 BIG rolls) ...2 packs
Charmin (packs of 9 jumbo rolls)... 14 packs
Pampers Diapers... 18 packs (averaged out to be about $3 per pack)
Baby Refill Wipes...16 packs
Pantene...2 bottles (only .17 each after coupons)
Crest Toothpaste...1 tube
Cascade...2 packages
Always Infinity...1 package
Dawn Dishwashing...1 bottle
Magic Eraser... 3 packages
Gogurts... 9 boxes
Yo Plus Yogurt... 2 packages
Fiber One Granola Bars... 11 boxes
Muffin mix... 3 boxes
Chex Mix... 4 packages
Warm Delights... 2 packages
Frosting...2 containers
Stuff purchased not on the $15 back sale:
Milk... 2 gallons
Fresh Chicken... 8 lbs (price was $1.24 lb after $5 promo discount)
Rice A Roni... 8 boxes
Butter... 2 lbs
Mtn High Yogurt... 2 containers
Eggs... 2 dozen
Bread... 1 loaf
Cheese... 4 lbs
Newspaper...1
Note that even though my coupon and catalina savings totals more than my out-of-pocket expense, this doesn't mean I got everything for free. It means I got everything stinkin' cheap!
See what coupon shopping can do for you? Don't knock it until you try it! :)
13 comments:
Amazing. Tisha said you're a bargain shopper and you definitely are! Way to go! And Congratulations on the new baby that's a-comin'!
so my question is... do you take your kids on these shopping trips? One time I geared up with coupons to add to the super sale at Smiths... and then I just couldn't gear myself up to take the kids and do a big shopping trip dealing with coupons and such. I feel like I'm juggling tots as it is. How do you keep everything straight. Help!
Marne, you do not have to break them out. They will do up to 4 of them at a time. So I spent 128.00 ( I had some meat) and I got 3 15.00 dollars back, I did not have to break mine up. If you are going to get more than four back than you had to break them up.
You did awesome... I might just need to go back and get the powerade and the charmin.
Heather...NO, I don't take my kids! I went early this morning. It can be a nightmare with the kiddos. In Utah it is really crazy. I have several family members in Utah that say if they don't go at the store opening time they don't get what they want. So go quick! I went back again tonight to get more diapers. I now have 12 packs! I am so excited come May with a new baby I will set with diapers for a bit.
Katie....that is good to know. However, I was told by Kathleen tonight (my fav cashier) that it might or might not work...so I would rather split it up to make sure I guess.
All in all I spent $160 out of pocket today (including what I bought tonight) PLUS I have $55 in catalinas to still spend! I saved over 50%. I mean really, I bought 12 packs of diapers PLUS a ton of food for $160. The diapers alone should have been that price! Wahoo! This sale is so HOT!
I found you from a friend of a friend... I'm a fellow couponer... LOVED the Albertson's sale!! I stocked up today as well. It's so great for food storage! When I walk out of there knowing I saved $250 it's worth getting up at 5:30AM!!
Awesome! Thanks for coming by. It is fun to hear about other people's great deals!
I lied Marne. For the pampers you would want to split it up. For just the food, I did not need to. I went back tonight because I had forgotten stuff, and I did the pampers with my food, and still got the 5 dollars off.
I got back 75.00 dollars for my next purchase and I spent about 180.00. So excited.
Good to know Katie!
I think it also depends on whether or not you want to use your catalina coupons on your next purchase...called "rolling them." If you do, you will want to do seperate purchases no matter what. That's how I was able to spend $2 on one of my orders of 20 items!
I went onto print my coupons and they say do not double or triple does that matter for this sale??
Also, is everything in the ad included in this particular spend $30 get $15 back?
No, not everythin in the ad is included. Look at the special section and it will show you what is included. The diapers are not pictured in the ad but they are included in the sale. Pampers Swaddlers, Cruisers, and Baby Dry Jumbo packs only are the ones to buy.
If your coupon says 'do not double' on it, then you are right...it cannot be doubled. You can only double coupons that don't say that.
You know what? I am writing a memo on pinching your pennies- I don't think it is fair how people in Utah hoard everything. I went for the second time this week to find the shelves completely empty. The lady in front of me had 25 boxes of the fiber one pancake mix...she would just divide it and keep getting her 15 back...it is kind of rude you know?
That is so awesome. How do you know when Pampers will be on sale? I never see them advertised as "on sale" in the ads that come in the mail.
riggsfam,
I knew because of Pinching Your Pennies, that great website I keep talking about! They posted about the deal on there, that way I was prepared for the sale. Most of the time Pampers are not on sale like this, so it was a once in a lifetime deal.
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