Check your Jewel stores for the newest coupon booklets – some stores have them out on displays and some stores have them stored in the backroom.  A few decent coupons.

she was looking for some fruit to steal… or not, as the case may be.  You are looking at $6.31 worth of fruit.  For .20 more a pound you can get Chiquita bananas at Jewel.

Why did I hit Aldi in the first place?  I had read on other boards that they had really decent, fresh and tasty fruit for cheap. ha I say, ha squared.  Each piece of fruit was .49.  Back at Jewel I can pay with my RRs; Aldi expects the green stuff.

First off, I have to tell you that the Stoneyfield yogurt cannot be bought with the Dannon Oikos coupon.  I tried it Sunday morning to make sure there would be no problem; easy-peasy, just beeped for the price.  Went in today to stock up and -bam- item not found.  Methinks someone caught on and changed something.  grrrrr.

But having said that, we play the hand we’re dealt with, so you are looking at five fish purchases of slightly over $5 for the Mondavi wine rebates.  Rebate requires a meat or seafood purchase of at least $5.01.  Fish tacos tomorrow baby!

Then the biggie.  I needed to hit a $100 mark in groceries to get the $25 Miller rebate check for buying a 12 pack or larger.  Took every Friskies cat treats Jewel had, almost every Dannon Oikos they had and two half gallons of Nature’s Farm and three packs of tortillas.  Total was just over $100, not including tax (since I wasn’t gonna take a chance).  After all my coupons I was down to where $21 in cats brought me down to tax.  Remember the beer was about $8 or $9, no coupons for them or tortillas and the Nature’s Farm coupons were only those stinking $1 ones.

Friend bought all the cat treats for $6, so I’m covered on the high tax.

You are looking at three half gallons of Nature’s Farm milk ($2 coupons), a large cottage cheese, twenty boxes of Totino’s Pizza Rolls (coupons), ten boxes of cheesy hash brown HH and the rest is all clearance cans of dog food.  Check your local Jewel to see what they are clearancing out: the cans were .10 each!   Subtotal was $66+, but with the judicious use of coupons, cats and RRs, I was able to bring it down to $2.44  –  $2.20 was tax (mostly high due to the dog food).  I also got back $17 in cats.

My special order of 48 boxes (four cases) was in, so headed on back to clear it away.  While there I saw cheesy hashbrowns!  Man oh man, I wish I’d seen these sooner.  So threw another 12 boxes so I was up to 60 total.

I’d read that the deal was stacking at least three high, so ran two transactions of 30 boxes each.  This allowed me to use 10 coupons (instead of 9), saving me another $1.50 (for both).  woot!!  Guess you won’t have to be asking what our side dishes are going to be for the next six or so months…

On a healthier note, just think of all the money I’m earning for my local schools…

Okay, apparently I was the only person on the planet who did not know kids LUV totino’s pizza rolls.  Ran back there for two transactions of ten boxes each.  I used the two lousy bucks worth of coupons to get the total down to $8, but instead of rolling the $5 cat from the prior transaction, I used two $3.50 RRs from the Cottonelle deal (expiring 8/14) and paid $1.18.  Not thrilled, but not desperately unhappy either.

and i do not believe these boxes will ever meet their 12/2011 expiration date

Ran some transactions to test various scenarios.  First one is the Hamburger Helper deal.  Buy 10 for $10, use 3 of the $.75/3 coupons from 7/17S (other regions got $1/3 :() to drop $2.25 and out spits $5 and $2 catalinas.  You have now paid .75 for ten boxes!  This double dip only works with the HH (all the ones on sale) because they’re GM products.

I was amazed, frankly, at the wide variety of offerings in the HH line – I remember nasty cheese things from years past.  Even if you only use them as sides (as I plan to do), we’re talking about .075 per box.  Oh, I also got two bonus Box Tops catalinas:  a 25 and a 10.

Had read that the Dreyers ice creams were triggering cats off shelf price (like the good old days).  Since Dreyers is the name other regions have for Edy’s, decided to test this out.  Bought two for $6.  rock.  Bought three for $9.  rock.  Bought four at $12.  score!  Not as good as I’d like (free), but run it this way and pay $1.50 for each carton of Edy’s:  four cartons are $12;  use two $1/2 coupons from 6/12 S and you’re down to $10.  Get back $4 cat, or $1.50 each.

The Totino’s pizza rolls are also part of the promotion, so if you want these nasty pizza-ish rolls, buy 10 for $10, use 10 of the .35/1 from the 8/7 GM insert.  Pay 6.50 and get back $5, making these net .15 a box.  and worth the price!  Update:  I have only been able to find crappy .60/3 and .40/2 in the 8/7 GM insert and a whopping .50/4 in the 5/22 S.  Chicago really gets the shaft when it comes to coupon values.  That said, if you want/like these rolls, you’re gonna pay $8 and get back $5, so .30 a box.  life sucks and then you die (even faster eating this stuff — just sayin’).

The only Progresso soups that are part of this promotion are the Vegetable Classics. Buy 10 for $10, use the $1/4 from the 8/07 GM and you pay $8 and get back $5 or .30/can.  This is a very good price (when it’s not free) if you prefer Progresso to HC soups.

I don’t see anything really great here, folks:  the cereals would only come down to a buck a box; the breakfast strudels and sandwiches are too high to start with and the coupon values are too low.  If you see other things you need, throw a couple in and use the cheapie 10/$10 items to keep your costs low.  Remember that cats at Jewel always roll, so use the prior deal’s cats to keep your subsequent totals down.

Happy hunting – ’cause it’s a war out there!

Only the $3 catalina is still printing when you buy two SnackWell’s breakfast bars at 2/$5.  Tomorrow’s Smart Source (7/31) will have a .75/1 coupon, so buy two for $5 less $1.50.   You’ve paid $3.50 and gotten back $3:  .50 a box.  They are really squeezing us here because each box only contains 5 breakfast bars.