It's friday, friday, gotta get down on friday

1Get down?  Get down to the week's shopping list, I mean.  The grocery stores I shop at start their sales week on Friday, and since Rite Aid and CVS start on Sunday, I find that friday morning is a good day to gather any sales information I can from around the internet.

I've talked about Catalina (CAT) deals before- that's when you go to the grocery store and the coupon printer spits out a $ off coupon when you buy certain items.  These are usually a GREAT way to save at the grocery store.  For example, there are two frozen food CATs running this week at Stop & Shop, and they overlap.  One is buy $100 of frozen foods, get $25 off your next order- and the other is buy 6 of certain frozen items, get $5 off your next order.  As an example, let's take a look at Pillsbury Toaster Strudel, which are $2 per box and qualify for both deals- a "double dip".

6 boxes of Toaster Strudel @ $2 each= $12, earn $5 back
buy 54 boxes (I know... gross.  But stick with me here)= spend $108, and earn back:
-$25 from first CAT deal
-$45 from second CAT deal (you will have purchased 9 sets of 6 boxes each)
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total OOP $38 for 54 boxes, or .70 a box


Now, clearly I just used the Toaster Strudel as an example... I really hope nobody runs out and does this.  But it nicely illustrates my point, that CAT deals allow you to save money- even without using any coupons- if you're willing to sit down and do your math before you head to the store.

Wondering what I'm planning on buying this week?  Me too!  Well, I'll be taking advantage of the buy 6, get $5 off CAT above- I highly doubt I'll get anywhere enough to do the double dip with the buy $100 get $25 promo.  At a different store, there's a Buy 5, get 5 CAT running, so I'll take advantage of that to get Charlie more juice boxes for snack time at school.

As for Rite Aid this week- I haven't really looked yet.  I'm sure there'll be some decent freebies to pick up, but recently they've been playing around with limits on deals and it's been sort of tricky to shop there.  Hopefully I can come up with something good.

ETA:: I'm back from Stop & Shop and Shaws.  Both trips involved a Catalina deal.  Wanna see how I did?

Stop & Shop
1 McCormick Rotisserie Chicken spice mix
1 McCormick Vanilla Extract
2 Toaster Strudels
2 Orieda Steam & Mash potatoes
2 Yoplait Frozen Smoothie Mixes
1 40 oz. Bisquick
1 Kikkoman Soy Sauce
1 lemon juice
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total before savings: $33.43
coupons used:- $9
CAT for frozen items: -$5
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total after sales, coupons and CAT: $15.47

Shaws
1.5 lbs. red grapes
1 16 oz. pack of strawberries
1 pk. Joseph's oat/flax wraps
5 Capri Sun 10 packs
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 total before savings $27.12
coupons used: NONE! (I know, right?  Sad.)
CAT for Capri Sun: -$5
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total after sales, coupons and CAT: $13.38

So a little over 50% saved...