I went back a short while ago with my 49 Chiquita coupons since I had to pick up the 46 boxes of SnackWells I had ordered and paid for a couple of weeks ago. My original OOP was $59.49 (after the few coupons I used), so subtract the 49 other coupons and a $5/50 cat that PITA found and $54.09 was taken off…now we’re down to $5.40.

I had placed a special order for 60 of the Chiquita bites (apple, apple with grapes and pineapple) and stopped in to Lisle to pick them up.  The Santa Cruz lemonades are on sale for $1 (reg. $2) and I had 15 of the Mambo Sprouts coupon books, so .25 per quart of organic beverages – I’ll take it.  Used the free milk cats, free dozen eggs and the free one pound of fruit store cats:  full price on the bananas (!!!).  I’ll return later with 49 of the Chiquita coupons, since I only had eleven with me.   This will drop my total OOP to $10.49

Had to pick up my beloved Almond Roca.  Checked out the clearance cart and found more gum!  This is the Stride Spark ones, also at .50 each and also a Trident gum, so used those $2/3 coupons.  Ended up with six packs of gum, three cans of Almond Roca, four packs of Chiquita Bites and the nasty (I assume) Shoppers Value potato chips.  PITA found the store cat for the chips, I had the Bites and gum coupons and used two $3 in RRs from Crest.  Total US cash was .75.

Ran across the street to Jewel and picked up the stuff in the picture.  I had $2/1 coupons for the milk (I picked up 5 total), PITA found a coupon for free baby carrots and $5 any Jewel pizza (so both free).  Subtotal was $14.90; used $14 of the Register Rewards from the Crest and .90 US currency.

Note:  Jewel has the Chiquita Bites on sale 10/$10.  Print out this $1/1 Chiquita bites coupon and they’re free!  Since it’s a sale price (through July 27), you can always get a rain check on these.

Had zero interest in cooking dinner, so headed over to Jewel to see what I could get for cheap.  No SnackWell’s have appeared for my special order (it’s ok,  I have lots in the basement); realized that sometimes it’s not the fault of the manufacturer.  Say you wanted the StackWell’s and were planning on buying a box or two – suddenly it’s a free or almost-free deal and you pick up 20 (I know, I know, not very realistic:  you’d better be buying more or stop reading this site!).  Well, Kraft didn’t plan on such a huge number of products being sold.  They start cranking them out of the oven as fast as they can, but then realize that they have run out the individual wrappers and/or the cardboard box…see what I mean?  It’s an entire trickle-down effect, and I’ll admit that I never before looked at the problem from a logistics (nightmare) standpoint.

but i digress…realized while at Jewel that the Tyson $3 coupons were expiring today, so decided to pick up another 12 and a loaf of crap bread.  The chicken nuggets, strips, etc. are really, really tasty and quick to prepare (pop in toaster oven – done!).  So here’s the deal:  subtotal was $62.66, so I was able to use a $5/$50 and a $1.49 store bread cat on the crap bread (FirstBorn is rebelling against Pepperidge Farm), then 12 of the $3 coupons.  Ended up paying $17.07; an acceptable compromise…

Don’t forget:  If you buy the nuggets and patties today (the 22nd), you can return within 60 days with your receipt and coupons and get your cash back, even though the coupons have since expired.  They were valid on date you purchased the products and that’s all that counts to Jewel.

I’d read Monday about the double-dip cats printing on the GM cereal deal:  buy 4 boxes of specially-marked cereals and receive two $2 cats plus a free milk cat, so naturally, I had to check the stockpile in the basement to see what we might need.  Turns out we are rather low on cereal, so ran over to run this a few times and see if they had any more of the Snackwell breakfast bars.  Zippo, zilch, nada on the SnackWells – shelves cleared even with all the extra they ordered.  I’ll check tomorrow, although I’ve picked up about 60 boxes already (FIRSTBORN eats lots of these for breakfast).

We’re looking at 16 boxes of cereal, a dozen jumbo eggs (PITA-found cat) and two gallons of milk (saving the other cats for later).  Each set of four cereals will come up to $4.04, which ain’t too shabby, when you consider the milk cat alone is worth $4.50.

I had a bunch of those artisan bread coupons to use up today, so made a fast run through Jewel.  Dr. Pepper was free today, the Tyson nuggets were $1.99 after the $3 coupon and all the rolls and breadsticks! will go into the freezer.  I needed butter, but after seeing the $4.79 shelf tag for Land o’Lakes, said the hell with it and took all the 18% light cream quarts they had in the case.  Making butter is easy-peasy and cheaper than buying the stuff.

Total was $30 OOP, including a free dozen eggs cat and a $5/$50 cat PITA found.  Sheesh!  Do people really pay this much for food?