Rebekah Sivonen, WA
Great deal #1 -- J&J $10 Catalina coupon I first heard about this deal in "Centsible Chat" about 5 days after it began…. (I wasn’t reading the site as frequently as I should…shame on me.) I went to my nearest Albertsons in search of the coveted J&J band aids on sale for $1, but did not find any. I think a local couponer had beat me to them. So I bought 5 Reach toothbrushes as my first try on this deal. (I did not even have my coupons with me because I was so anxious to see if the Catalina coupons were working that I inadvertently left my stash at home!) So I spent $8.57 on toothbrushes and anxiously watched the Catalina machine. It worked! I know, I know, I spent too much on my first order but hey…I was so excited!. Then I went home to find coupons to match the sale priced items (J&J band-aids- $1; Reach tootbrushes, floss, and toothpaste- $1.50; Stayfree pads and J&J baby products $2.50). I matched a few and went back to my nearest Albertsons. This time I found 2 packages of bandaids on the shelf, and noticed unopened boxes on the floor. Hmmmm. I found the nearest stockperson and asked if there were any bandaids in the boxes. After looking through the stock she found 12 more boxes. Yeehaw! So I purchased 5 bandaids, used two coupons, and got $6 in groceries for about a quarter. Patience was required from my four children who were shopping with me and we went to the shelves for all Reach toothbrushes. I hope this doesn’t sound greedy, but I did not want to let this opportunity pass me by. I carefully separated my J&J products into piles of 5 each and added groceries to get the purchase price to as close to $10 as possible. I did about 7 orders, with overages ranging from 10 cents to 75 cents, depending on what groceries I purchased. Wow!. My children tolerated this fairly well, and were excited to get character band aids which are a luxury in my household. The next day, I went in search of more coupons for the sale items and wiped out the dental floss (5) and toothpaste (15). I had an idea! Being newer to this area I wondered if there was more than one Albertsons store nearby. I found 3 more listed in the phone book! So, I aggressively, but politely utilized this Catalina coupon at all four stores. I ended up with numerous toothbrushes, toothpaste, and band aids. I also acquired several floss, pads, and baby shampoo. With some of the product I made a stockpile, and the rest I gave to low income friends, made a baby shower gift, and donated a huge bag of toothbrushes & toothpaste to my local church pantry which helps feed the needy. I only encountered flack from one of the Albertsons stores where the evening shift supervisor thought I was doing something wrong and was vocal about it. The second day I went to that same Albertsons, she freaked out and loudly said that she got audited and the Catalina coupon was not covering the tax, so her register was off because Alberstons was paying the tax on the product purchased. I flipped the coupon over to read the back, while she went in search of what to do. Sure enough it did say that the coupon does not cover sales tax. So she said I need to make sure my purchase amount over the coupons is enough to cover taxes. Fair enough. I did my best to make sure that I paid enough overage to cover the tax which ranged from .22 cents to .74 depending on what I purchased. At the other three Albertons, I had no problems, in fact a few cashiers were impressed with my shopping skills. I spent $23.03 and got $ 515.000 worth of groceries and toiletries! (I also received 3 free loaves of French bread, printed on the receipt, purchased enough Chef Boyardee to get 6 free movie tickets, and a free Doritos after rebate.) Great deal #2: Balance Bars A person on my local refunding cents email group posted that Fred Meyer was having a sale on Balance Bars 2/$1 and there was a coupon for $1 off 2 of the trail mix kind, attached to the displayer. So, free Balance Bars! At my Fred Meyer, I found the coupons mentioned, as well as, coupons for $1 off any Balance Bar. After three trips I ended up with 200 Balance Bars for free! Several of these went to low income people at the church and to our stockpile in the freezer. I spent $0 and received $100.00 (sale priced) worth of Balance Bars Great deal #3: Albertson’s coupon book After hearing about the Albertson’s coupon book on Refunding Cents, I requested one while doing the last of my Catalina orders and ended up with 10 books. So I had 50 - $1 coupons to spend. I had no problem using them at my closest Albertsons. They rang up 5 at a time and I did 5 orders. I decided to go another Albertsons to use the rest later in the week because they have the self checkout. (I thought this would be a low-key alternative.) Well, I got through my first 3 orders just fine, and guess who comes running out of nowhere? The coupon police! The night supervisor who was so flustered with the Catalina deal, stated that I could only use one coupon…period, and that this was from corporate. She also told me the clerks were supposed to ask me if I already had a coupon book at checkout and not give me another one. (Hmmm, if this were true why did one of their cashiers hand me three, when I asked for one?) After talking with her and some other supervisors for several minutes and her loudly insinuating that I had done something wrong in having so many coupons., I gave up. I exited with my purchased groceries and left the rest at the checkout. I asked if they wanted me to put them away, and a nice cashier said she would do it and apologized for the behavior of her supervisors. Downhearted, and after considering the situation for a day , I decided to muster the courage to try the coupons at my nearest Albertsons again. (Perhaps I enjoy embarrassing situations. Nah.) They had no problems. They took five coupons per order, and I did two orders to use up my coupons. After emailing corporate about the troubled Albertsons, I did get a phone apology from the store manager about the behavior of the employee, and that they had misunderstood the coupon usage guidelines for this coupon. Sometimes it is worth it to politely stick to your guns, which can require a tough skin. Usually I have no problems when couponing. I spent about $6 and got $50.00 worth of groceries! Thank you Michelle and all of you Marvelous Refunders who post such useful info! Rebekah, WA