Natalie Van Beek, CA
I first heard about the Albertsons/Johnson & Johnson deal by reading about it online on Chit Chat. It was a few days before I tuned into this deal since my local Albertsons stores tend to be very mediocre stores. They usually have a low stock of sale items, and the stores are old and run down and poorly arranged. But when I saw in their weekly flyer that the Kelloggs cereals were on sale 10 for $15, I started to pay more attention. I was almost out of cereal, and my family goes through it very quickly. Since I have no intention of EVER paying $4 for a box of cereal out of desperation (unless, of course, the premiums inside the boxes are gold nuggets, which they should be for the current shelf price of cereal!), I pulled out my coupon box to see what I could come up with.
Two of my local Albertsons stores take expired coupons, but in general their sale prices are the about the same as the sale prices at other stores around here that double coupons, so its not worth bothering to keep expired coupons since I can get a better deal at the double coupon stores. But it has been quite a while since my coupon box has gotten a good clearing out, and as an unexpected reward for not updating my coupon box frequently enough to clear out expired coupons, I found a handful of expired $1/1 Band Aid coupons, as well as a few current ones. I also had a few Kelloggs coupons that I thought might work, depending on what types of cereal were included in the sale. So off I headed with my 5 year old son to our nearest Albertsons to see what we could find.
I had pretty low expectations based on my previous experiences at Albertsons, but I was pleasantly surprised. I found plenty of Band Aids on the shelf, so my first purchase was just five boxes of Spiderman Band Aids. I used 5 of the $1/1 coupons, so my purchase total was $.39, which was the tax on my free Band Aids. Much to my delight, the $10 J&J coupon printed out without any hesitation or problem. Wow! I turned my cart right back around and picked up 5 more boxes of Band Aids and 10 boxes of Kelloggs cereal. To make the deal even better yet, right on the shelf next to the cereal was a little box of pull out coupons for $1/2 any Kelloggs cereal. Usually the coupons near products are either low value or not very useful, but these were a great value and the expiration date is December 31, 2005! I was thrilled to find them since I was low on coupons for cereal, and thats what I really needed to buy. So I grabbed only enough coupons for a few deals, leaving plenty of coupons behind for others.
My son, Joel, worked hard to find the cereal boxes with the best premiums. It just so happens that both of my sons are very conveniently crazy about Star Wars right now, and there are lots of different Star Wars premiums available. Some of the boxes we chose were Frosted Flakes with the free light saber spoons and Mini-Wheats with the UPCs for a free Star Wars Episode I DVD. And the middle of the aisle was a cardboard stand full of Star Wars poster books, with a tear pad coupon for Buy 4 Kelloggs products, get a poster book for $.99. I tossed that in my cart too, and plan to use the poster book as a gift for my older sons birthday, which is just around the corner.
At the register they scanned my items, my total was $30 plus tax. Then they took off $5 for the five Band Aid coupons, $5 for the five $1/2 Kelloggs coupons, $9 for the poster book (shelf price was $10), and $10 for the J&J coupon. My total was $1 plus tax, and of course another $10 coupon printed out.
Since that morning the store was quiet and there were only two cashiers available, I called it quits there and rushed home. After quickly unloading my new stash of freebies, I hurried to the computer to post my find on Chit Chat and our local Good Deal Alert list. Southern California was a little late getting in on this deal for some reason, and I didnt want anyone to miss out.
Over the next few days I went to each of three local Albertsons stores a few times each. It took time and a little bit of gas, but clearly it was worth it as I saw the cereal boxes starting to stack up at home.
I did the Band Aid and cereal deal a few more times. And I discovered yet another bonus deal as I went along. At one point I bought four boxes of Froot Loops, and that generated a $4 off any grocery item, courtesy of Kelloggs coupon. This was labeled as a manufacturers coupon, so I knew I could use it in combination with the $10 J&J store coupon to get $14 off each purchase without causing the cash register to beep. Thats when I decided to buy Goodnights with my free grocery money, since I usually have to pay around $9 or $10 for a mega pack of Goodnights, even with sales and double coupons.
When my Band Aid coupons ran out, I switched to buying the childrens Reach toothbrushes and toothpaste. In all these transactions I only experienced two problems. The first was that each time they scanned my $10 coupon, it would only take off $.01, so they had to hand-enter the correct amount each time. The second was that I purchased one of the Oral-B power toothbrushes that was supposed to generate the $5 rebate instant coupon, but it didnt. I did not bother to haggle over the toothbrush deal or return the toothbrush, though, because at that point I had gotten so much for so little money that I didnt want to appear greedy. I also was always careful to not go to the same checker more than once a day or to be obvious in any other way, such as getting a negative total. I didnt want to spoil this deal by drawing attention to it.
In all, I ended up with 50 boxes of cereal, 34 boxes of Band Aids, 19 Reach toothbrushes, 12 Reach toothpastes, 2 mega packs of Goodnights, 1 jumbo pack of Goodnights, 2 gallons of milk, 1 Oral B power toothbrush, 1 jar of cider vinegar, 1 jar of sesame oil, and 1 Star Wars poster book, plus 4 light saber spoons and enough UPCs for 3 free movies on DVD. All of this came to a grand total of $28.81 out of pocket, and of that $7.64 was tax. According to my receipt, my Total savings was $395.75. This truly was the deal that kept on giving, with bonus after bonus. With all the free products, the $10 J&J coupons, the $4 Kelloggs coupons, and the free DVDs and other premiums, I think this has even exceeded a quadruple play. Now wouldnt it be amazing in addition to all of this if one of those cereal boxes is a winner in one of the Star Wars contests advertised on them!
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"hoarding". I wouldn't even say there is a fine line between "hoarding" and "stockpiling". I too am a coupon Queen and I freely give J&J products to our local Crisis Pregnancy Center as well as Food Banks,and pet food to local Shelters. I saw no mention of your giving.If you feel guilty,you are
Nov. 12, 2009 By:
Karen
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Good thing you've not seen my cereal stockpile...I'm in with the stockpiling mafia lol
Oct. 19, 2009 By:
tina
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Hoarders (like you, based on your "photo") leave nothing in the stores for us simple couponers to redeem. think about others instead of yourselves
Sep. 26, 2009 By:
A Friend
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