Albertsons Closing Stores

**UPDATE: Not that great of deals to be honest. They had a few things marked down 50% but most were just 10% or 30%. And it looked like they had hiked the prices up to compensate. I guess they are still trying to make money rather then clear things out. We will have to see if it gets cheaper.

For those of you who live in the West Jordan / Taylorsville, UT area the three remaining Albies stores will be closing down this month. In the mail today instead of receiving the regular ad I got a one page ad stating that the stores will be closing (I believe it's on the 22nd) and that starting tomorrow, the 3rd, they will have things marked down 50%. Of course quantities will be limited and what you will be able to find remains to be seen. What I think I will do is go through my coupons tonight and see what I would like to get more of and have those ready and then just see what they have on their shelves. With 50% off and then coupons on top of that I expect that there will be some great deals to be had.

Let me know what you are able to get!

Great Deals this Week

Here are some good deals that I got this week that you might want to consider.

Maceys:

Macey's has their Buddig Tubs of lunch meat on sale for $1.49 this week. There are $1/1 coupons in the 12/6 SS and HERE. I was able to get 10 of these packs for only $.49 each which is fantastic because we go through it so fast!

Albertsons:


Albertsons has their Shredded or Chunk Cheese, 32 oz. on sale for $2.99 with their in-ad coupon. That alone is a great deal on 2 lbs of cheese. But there is also a $1 off any 2 lbs of cheese coupon HERE making this deal even better.

They also have a P&G promo going on this week (12/30 thru 1/5) where if you buy $25 in participating P&G products you get a $10 cat back to use on your next purchase. Go to the GrocerySmartsPlanner in the right hand column to see all the participating items. Here is what I did:

6 Pantene Conditioners on sale for $3.33 (only $2 with the promo factored in)
1 Olay Body Wash on sale for $5.49 (only $3.29 with the promo factored in)
1 Olay Lotion (you will get this for free with coupon for buying the body wash)
Total before coupons $25.47
Used three $3/2 Pantene coupons from the 12/28 PG
Used one $1/1 Olay Body Wash coupon from the 12/28 PG
Used one Buy 1 Olay Body Wash get one Olay Lotion free coupon from the 11/29 PG (expires 12/31)
Total OOP $15.47
Got back a $10 cat to use on my next purchase making all 8 items only $5.47.
With the coupons and the promo factored in the Pantenes were only $.50 each, the lotion was free and the body wash was only $2.29.

Walgreens:

And don't forget that you can get free cereal at Wags this week.

Buy 2 Cereal products (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fiber One, Honey Nut Cheerios) and 1 Gallon Milk = $2RR (You don't have to buy the milk for the RR to print.)

Buy 2 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch priced at 2/$4
Use two $1/1 coupons found here IE or Firefox
Pay $2
Get back a $2RR
Final cost 2 boxes of FREE cereal!

Buy 2 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios priced at 2/$4
Use two $1/1 coupons from here
Pay $2
Get back a $2 Register Reward
Final cost 2 boxes of FREE cereal!

Albies Doublers 12/22

In Sunday's paper there was (or was supposed to be an Albies ad with a set of 3 doublers). None of my papers had it in them but my friend a couple blocks away did have them in her paper. Don't know why. But not a big deal. I just went to my favorite Albies (90th & Redwood) and to my favorite checker and asked her if she had some extra doublers and of course she did. I did three transactions. All this cost me $3.43!!

16 Del Monte Vegetables 11-15.25 oz. $.50 each
Used four $1/4 printable here
Final price: 4 for free!

3 Diamond Walnuts 8-10 oz. $2.49 each
Used three Diamond Nuts product, any 8 to 14 oz. $1/1 (1-15-10) SS-11/8
Final price: $.49 each

2 Nestle Morsels 10 - 12 oz. bags $1.88 each
Used Nestle Toll House Morsels, any variety .50/1 (12-31-09) RP-11/1
Final: $.88 each
OR use $1/1 printable here to get them for free! I printed these a week or so ago and can't find them ... so frustrating!

These doublers are good through Christmas Eve. Check out THIS PYP link for more ideas of how to use your doublers.

Albies 12/9

It seems like it's been a little while since Albies had a good sale going so I was glad that this week they had quite a few items that I wanted that I could get a really good deal on.

Before sales and coupons this would've cost me $97.54 but I got it all for $21.36!

Here are the details:

2 Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough 15-16.5 oz. on sale for $2.49 each
Used two $1.50/1 coupons from HERE
Final cost just $.99 each!

8 Campbell's Gravy 10.25-10.75 oz. on sale for $.50 each
Used two $1/4 coupons from HERE
Final cost $.25 each!

6 Chex Cereal 12.8-14.25 oz. on sale for $2.50 each
Promo: Buy 3 get $3 off instantly
Used three $1/2 coupons from HERE or HERE
Final cost $1 each.
I normally wouldn't pay $1 for a box of cereal but my son who up to this point would only eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch which is chuck full of sugar has decided that he loves Corn Chex so it's worth it to me to get it for him. It is actually an even better price this week at Maceys ($.75/box I believe) but it's limit four so it depends on if you want to stock up on a bunch of boxes or just want a few.

4 Wish-Bone Bountiful 9.5 oz. on sale for $1.99 each (my hubbie and I love these)
Used four $.75/1 coupons from HERE
Final cost $1.24 each!

* General Mills Promo: Save $5 on your NEXT shopping order when you spend $15
or more on participating General Mills products.*

4 Betty Crocker Cookies mixes 17.5 oz. on sale for $1.69 each ($1.12 with the promo)
Used four $.40/1 coupons from HERE or HERE
Final cost $.72 each!

1 Betty Crocker Frosting 12-16 oz. on sale for $1.49 each ($.98 with the promo)
Used one $.50/1 coupons from HERE or HERE
Final cost $.48!

8 Progresso Bread Crumbs 15-oz. on sale for $1 each ($.66 with the promo)
Used four $1/2 coupons from HERE
Final cost $.16 each!

HERE is a link to the Albies Grocery Smarts Planner so you can plan.

Albies 11/23

I got all this today at Albies using three sets of doublers for $11.53. Plus I can submit my receipt for a free pink kitchenware set from Good Cook's Hope line for spending $25 in participating P&G products (Herbal Essences). HERE is the form.

Here are the details:

4 Campbells Gravy 10.25-10.75 oz. $.47 each
Used one $1/4 printable from here
Used one doubler
Final price: 4 for free!

2 Dole Pineapple (20 oz) or Tropical Fruit Salad (15.25 oz) or Mandarin Oranges (15 oz) $1.00 each
Used two $.50/1 printable here
Used two doublers
Final price: free!

6 I Can't Believe It's Not Butter sticks $1.99 each (they were tagged as $2.99 each but rang up at $1.99 each)
Used two $1/1 coupons
Used four $.75/1 IP coupons
Used three doublers
Got back three $2 catalina coupons (Buy 2, get a $2.00 Catalina, only good on the sticks, not the tubs)
Final price: free plus $1.81 in overage!

1 Kraft Miracle Whip 32 oz - $1.99 with in ad coupon

4 Albertsons Yogurts $.60 each
Used one $.75/4 any yogurt coupon from coupons.com
Used one doubler
Final price: $.22 each

2 Solo products (I got cups) $2.49 each
Used two $.75/1 printable here (IE) or here (Firefox)
Used two doublers
Got back one $1 catalina coupon for buying 2 (Buy any solo cups, plates or bowls between 11/12 &12/5 buy 2 & get $1buy 3 & get $2buy 4 & get $4 coupon off your next shopping order)
Final price: $.98 for both.

6 Herbal Essences travel sized conditioner $1.29 each
6 Herbal Essences full sized stylers $2.99 - $4.19 each
Total $28.78
Used six by ANY Herbal Essences shampoo or conditioner and get ANY HE styler for free coupon from the 10/11PG.
Deducted $22.14
Final price: $6.64 for all 12 items plus the free cookware set.

And I had to throw in one candy bar because my second transaction came in as them owing me $.08 which they can't do. :)

Albies Doublers this Week

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I am having technical difficulties with my computer. I have gotten onto my kids computer to do a little post.

There is an Albertsons ad in the Sunday newspaper with a set of three doublers coupons. Check out THIS AThriftyMom post for some ideas on how to use them. Or just use them along with coupons on items that you need for Thanksgiving this week. Remember you can go to couponmom.com (there's also a link in the blog list to the right) and put in your state and a keyword of a coupon you are looking for to find coupons for an item that you might need.

Pie & Ice Cream

UPDATE: You can also print Breyers $1/2 coupon from Save-A-Lot.com so even if you don't get the paper you can still get your hands on some Breyers coupons to make this deal work.

Albies is running a great promo starting tomorrow ... great that is if you like pie and ice cream! :)

Sara Lee Pie Promo
Buy one Sara Lee pie for $6.39 and get another SaraLee Pie FREE
AND get two 1.5 qt of Breyers Ice Cream for FREE
Use 2 coupon for .75 cents off Breyers from the 10/18 RP
And use two $1/1 ANY Sara Lee Frozen Dessert coupon from HERE
Final price: 2 Sara Lee pies and 2 Breyers Ice Creams for $2.89

Albies Deals 11/9

16 boxes of cereal for $4.89!!

16 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams - $1.88 each
Used eight $1/2 coupons from 11/1SS or the internet
Used one set of three doublers - takes off an additional $3
Final OOP = $19.89

Got back $15 in catalina coupons to use on my next purchase

Final cost = $4.89
That's only $.30/box!

I also did one other set of doublers:

2 boxes of Cinnabon Bars - $1.99 each Used two $1/1 IP coupons from HERE
Used two doublers
Final cost FREE!

4 Albertsons Brand Yogurts - $.60 each
Used one $.75/4 yogurt coupon from HERE
Used one doubler
Final cost four yogurts for $.90 or $.23 each!!

Albies Doublers

There were doublers in yesterday's papers. They were found on page A7 of the Deseret Morning News and page A8 of the Salt Lake Tribune, as well as in a glossy insert in the St. George Spectrum. HERE is a link to the PYP thread that lists some ideas to use your doublers on. I plan to head to Albies this morning and will post my deals later. :)

Albies 11/4

Albertsons has a really great General Mills promo going on this week. Buy $30 in participating products and get back a $15 catalina coupon good on your next shopping order. Essentially this makes all these items 50% off without even having to worry about coupons. Combining this promo with coupons just makes them that much better deals.

Here is what I did:

Transaction #1:

6 boxes of Cheerios 8.9 oz - $1.88 each ($.94 with the promo factored in)
Used six $.55/1 coupons from here or here
(Or there is a $1.00/1 coupon if you haven't already used it here or here)
Using the $.55 coupon makes these each $.39!!

6 boxes of Kleenex Facial Tissue 110 ct $.99 each ($.49 with the promo factored in)
Used six $.50/3 from 11/1 smart source or here
Final price $.34 each when you buy 3

3 Knorr Pasta Or Rice Side Dishes $.99 cents each ($.49 with the promo factored in)
Use one $1.00 off 3 coupon here and here
Final price $.17 each when you buy 3

1 Lipton Dry Soup Mix $.99 cents each ($.49 with the promo factored in)

3 Progresso Rich and hearty Soup & Traditional soup $1.69 each ($.85 with the promo factored in)
Used one $1/3 coupon here , $1.00 off 2 or $1.10 off 3 here
Final price $.35 -$.48 each

2 Kleenex Dinner Napkins 50 ct. $1.99 each ($1 with the promo factored in)

My total OOP on this was $25.12 and I got back three $5 catalina coupons to use on my next order.

Transaction #2:

6 Progresso Rich and hearty Soup & Traditional soup $1.69 each ($.85 with the promo factored in)
Used two $1/3 coupon here , $1.00 off 2 or $1.10 off 3 here
Final price $.35 -$.48 each

1 Lipton Dry Soup Mix $.99 cents each ($.49 with the promo factored in)

4 Viva Bill Roll Paper Towels 115-ct. $1.99 each ($1 with the promo factored in)
Used four $.40/1 coupon from 10/11 smart source or here
Final price .60 cents each

12 Knorr Pasta Or Rice Side Dishes $.99 cents each ($.49 with the promo factored in)
Use one $1.00 off 3 coupon here and here
Final price $.17 each when you buy 3

I used the $15 in cats from my last order to pay for some of this order. My total OOP on this was $9.41 and I got back three more $5 catalina coupons to use on my next order.

So in couponers math :) all this cost me $19.53!! Without coupons and promos this would've cost me $96.09! That's a savings of 80%.

Albies Deals 11/4 - 11/10 - Select Stores

Looks like Albertsons has some really great deals coming up this week on a lot of items. I would check out THIS PYP link and plan your shopping trip ahead of time. This will be a good way to stock up on a lot of items!

BTW - If you are short on coupons on something that you really want to stock up on and you live in my neighborhood and can stop by, just email me and let me know what you are looking for. I am very well stocked on many of the items that are great deals and I can try to round up some extra coupons for you. :)

Great deal on Dr. Pepper at Albertsons

According to AThriftyMom, there is a great deal on Dr. Pepper at Albertson's right now.

Albertsons has a soda sale going on right now, buy 2 at $5.29 each, get 2 free. This is for Coke & 7-Up products. Plus, when you buy four 12 packs of Dr Pepper it is printing out a $5 catalina.

Deal Scenario:
Buy 4 packs of Dr Pepper your total will be $10.78 plus tax
After you pay a $5 catalina will print out that you can use on your next purchase

This makes it only $1.45 per 12 pack.
You can then use that $5 catalina towards another 4 packs of soda if you'd like and another $5 catalina will print. But of course you can spend the $5 cat on whatever you'd like within the next 2 weeks. These kind of deals go quick so if you'd like to stock up on Dr. Pepper you should get over to Albies (one of the ones that still have their catalina machines, like the 2 by me in West Jordan) and take advantage of this deal. Let me know if anyone goes and does this.

Albies Doublers 10/27

There were a set of three doubler coupons in Sunday's paper that can be used at Albertsons through today. So if you have some but haven't used them yet, HERE are some ideas of what you can do with them.

And here is what I did with doublers today:

Before coupons this would've cost me $43.21. With coupons, doublers and a $10 cat from last week I got all this for $2.99!!

Details:

3 Litehouse Caramel Dip, 16 oz. tub or 12 oz. 6 pk. - $2.50 each
Used three Litehouse Product $1/1 (12-31-09) SS-8/30 - Doubled
Final price: $.50 each.

3 Hefty Fresh Extend Gallon 12 ct. storage bags - $2.00 each
Used three Hefty OneZip Fresh Extend bags $1/1 (12-31-09) RP-9/27 - Doubled
Final price: free!

3 Nestle candy bars packs 11.5 oz. or larger - $2.50 each
Used three $1/1 IP coupon from HERE - Doubled
Final price: $.50 each!

Remember, you can only use one set of doublers (3) per transaction and usually you have to go out and come back in and they don't mind you doing multiple transactions with doublers. So I did have to do three transactions. In one of my transactions I added my bread, milk and bananas to get my after coupon total up over $10 and then I was able to use my $10 cat from last week to pay for most of that transaction.

Albies Doublers in Today's Paper

If you get the paper be sure to look for the Albertson's ad which has three double coupons on it. You can use 3 twice the value (double coupons) per family per shopping trip. They will double any coupon up to the value of $1.00 making that coupon twice its value. So if you use a .75 cent coupon it will double up to $1.50 or if you use a $1.00 coupon it will double to $2.00. They will not double a coupon for $1.01 or more.

Some coupons say DND (Do Not Double). Whether they will double these really depends on the checker. YMMV on this. Most of the time I have found that they will double them. Also, for those of you here in my area, the store on 90th and Redwood will only let you use one set of doublers per day while the store on 70th and Redwood will let you use as many sets as you like BUT you can only use one set at a time. So you can do one transaction, take your items out to your car and go back in and use another set and so on. It's more time consuming and a little bit of a pain but when you can get super great deals I feel it's worth it.

HERE is PYP's link for some great doublers deals.
And FYI - I asked the checker at Albies on 90th and Redwood a couple days ago about whether they were going to keep their catalina machines and she said that they WILL keep them and that they will stay open through the holidays and close sometime in February. I am assuming that this will also be the case at the Albies on 70th and Redwood. Lucky us here in West Jordan!

Gold Medal Flour Coupon

Thanks to AThriftyMom for a heads up on this new coupon that would be great to use at Albies this week with their GM promo.

HERE is great coupon for $.50 cents off any 5lb Gold Medal Flour. Albertsons has Gold Medal Flour as part of their promo this week where you spend $25 and get back a $10 catalina. Gold Medal Flour 4.25 -5 lb $2.00, only $1.20 after catalina, with the coupon you can get it for .70 cents each.

You will need to make sure you grab the 5 lb bags.

More Great Albies Deals

Here is another great Albies deal to be aware of this week. Within the GM promo are the Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks and many Pillsbury refrigerated roll type items. But the best thing is that there are separate catalina deals going with those items as well.

Catalina Offers:

Pillsbury Refrigerated Baked Goods (crescents, cookies, sweet rolls, grands biscuits, grands cinnamon rolls, pie crusts, dinner rolls, loaves, breadsticks or pizza crust)
Purchase between 10/5/09 and 11/1/09
Buy 3 get $2.00
Buy 4 get $2.50
Buy 5 or more get $3 OYNSO

Betty Crocker Fruit Shapes, Fruit By The Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, or Fruit Roll-Ups Fruit Stickerz
Purchase between 10/9/09 and 11/1/09
Buy 3 get $1.50
Buy 4 get $2.50
Buy 5 or more get $3.50 OYNSO

So you can combine the promo with the catalina deals for even more savings. Here is what I did:

5 Fruit Snacks - $2.50 each
1 Pillsbury Simply Refrigerated Cookie Dough - $2.50
4 Pillsbury Grands Refrigerated Biscuits - $1.67 each
2 Pillsbury Crescent Refrigerated Biscuits - $1.67 each
Total $25
Used five $.40/1 IP coupons for the fruit snacks
Used one $1/1 IP coupon for the cookie dough
Used two $.30/2 coupons from the 10/4 GM insert for the Grands
Used one $.50/2 coupons from the 10/4 GM insert for the Crescents
Also used my $10 cat from the cereal transaction
Final OOP $11.66.

BUT I got back another $10 cat from the GM promo for buying $25 of participating items AND a $3 cat from Pillsbury for the rolls AND a $3.50 cat from the fruit snacks.

Final cost $5.16 for all 12 items!

**Note: If you were to buy 10 fruit snacks in one transaction you would only get the $3.50 cat once because it's on 5 or More fruit snacks. I bought 7 Pillsbury items to get my total up to $25 but I could've just bought 5 and filled in with other items to get my total up to $25 and still gotten all the cats.

My total OOP spent for the day between these items and the cereal (in my previous post) was $38.37 and I have $16.50 in cats to spend later making my total cost $21.87 for everything. My savings for the day was $112.50 ... all because of a little planning! :)

Albies GM Promo - Stock up on Cereal

Albies is running a really good GM promo right now. BUT be aware that the only Utah stores that are running this full ad are one in Toelle, two in Orem, the St. George stores and the two in West Jordan right by me (Yeah!). 90th & Redwood and 70th & Redwood. So all you in my neighborhood who would like to stock up on cereal, here is a good opportunity. But with only a few stores running this you might want to get in there sooner rather then later because I am guessing that the stock will go fast.

I was able to get 26 boxes of cereal for $16.71 which works out to be $.65 each. 8 boxes for me, 18 for my cereal-aholic brother. :)

The promo is buy $25 in participating items, get back a $10 cat to use like cash on your next purchase. So I bought 13 boxes of cereal, used coupons to pay down the amount due and then got back a $10 cat. Then I bought 13 more boxes, again used coupons to pay down the amount due and used my $10 cat from the first transaction.

AThriftyMom's weekly post has tons of IP coupon links so go HERE and check that out. I used all IPs so if you are going to be shopping in West Jordan and are going to use multiple IPs, you will need to go to the 90th store because the 70th store will limit you to only 2 of a certain type of IP per transaction.

Albies 10/7

There are a few good promos at Albies this week that you might want to take a look at. Check them out by bringing up the Grocery Smarts Planner and shrinking the list down to show the 4 & 5 star deals at Albies this week.

I was able to get all this for $22.04!! ($138.13 in savings!)

Quaker Promo - Buy 10 participating items and get $5 off instantly.

6 Quaker Chewy Granola Bars - $1.50 each, $1 each with the promo
Used six $1/2 IPs from HERE
(There is a PDF coupon available but it sounds like they won't take it because it is an Associated Foods coupon. So use the GroupC link above for these. Thanks Amie!)
Final cost $.50 each.

4 Quaker Pancake Mix - $2 each, $1.50 each with the promo
Used four $2/1 coupons that were available previously.
I don't usually print coupons out until I need them UNLESS they are a real high value one like this was and I think there is a good chance I will use them. I am really glad I printed these out.
Final cost $.50 PROFIT one each.

Mix or Match Promo - Spend $10 on participating items and get $3 off instantly.

6 Birds Eye Steamfresh Meals - $5 each, $3.50 each with promo
Used two $1.50/1 coupons from the 9/13 SS
Used four $1.50/1 IP coupons from HERE (Looks like this coupon might be gone. They only stay available for a little while and then they disappear.)
Final cost $2 each.

4 Welch's Reduced Sugar jelly 18.8 oz. - $2.50 each, $1.75 each with promo
Used four $.75/1 coupons from HERE
Final cost $1 each.

6 Nestle Cookie Dough 24 oz. - $2.50 each, $1.75 each with promo
Used four $1/1 IP coupons from HERE
Used two $1/1 coupons from the 9/13 RP
Final cost $.75 each
** I buy these and freeze them so when we want a treat at night I can make up one pan of cookies and not have a whole batch sitting around the next day tempting me. Besides, buying them ready made like this is cheaper then a pack of chocolate chips.

12 Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 3 ct. - $1 each, $.70 each with promo
Used six $1/2 IP coupons from HERE
Final cost $.20 each.

I was able to do all this in the same transaction. You do not have to seperate out your items into batches of 10 items or $10 or even seperate them out into the different promos. If you buy $70 worth of participating items on the Mix & Match Promo the register will take off $3 seven times. Do be sure to check your receipt. I checked mine before I left the store and found that my $5 from the Quaker and one of my $3 didn't come off so they just gave me $8 cash back. Going on Wednesday morning, the first day of the sale does have it's disadvantages because sometimes they don't have all the participating items linked to the promo so they have to work out the kinks. But they are always very nice about it.

Albies Step By Step - 9/23

I thought I'd take a little time and use Albertsons sale this week as a good example of a grocery store promo that you can use to get some very inexpensive items. I will give you a step by step on what I do in hopes that it helps you get the hang of this yourselves.

1) Check out the grocery smarts planner (there is a link off to the right, towards the bottom of my Frugal Sites list).

2) Choose your store, in this case, Albertsons and shrink the planner down to show you just the 4 & 5 star deals. You do this by choosing your store from the drop down menu, click on the Start button, click on the red Stock Up Star, then click on the Shrink button. Now you should just see the 4 & 5 star deals from this weeks Albies ad.

3) Go through the good deals showing on the planner and see which items you might want to buy. In this case, I only went in for items from the Keebler/Kelloggs promo so for this tutorial I will just scroll down and focus on those items. But when you are making your list I would for sure check out which items outside of the promos you might want to get.

4) Make a list. I cut and paste the lines of items that I want to get from the planner into a word document. This is what my list looked like.

This is helpful when I get to the store because I know exactly what I need to get to hit the quotas and that can be tricky, especially if you are doing multiple promos at a time.

5) Then I went back to the planner to see what coupons are available so I could decide how many of which things to buy. This is a great promo to start with because there are a lot of internet printable coupons available. The planner will give you links to the coupons available so all you have to do is click on the link, select the coupons you want to print and print them out. Usually you can print 2 of each coupon per computer but there were some on this list that only let me print once. Once you see how many coupons you have you can decide what you want to buy. Just remember, on this type of promo you want to buy in increments of 10. Don't buy 9 items, you have to have 10 to get the $10 off instantly. Also, you don't have to seperate out your items into transactions of 10, you can buy 30 participating items all in one transaction if you want and the register will take off $30. That makes it easier. Just check your receipt before you leave the store to make sure that the right amount of money was taken off instantly.

These were the 10 items I bought.

I used $1/1 coupons on the cookies and the Cinnabon Bars and I used $.55/1 coupons (all IPs) on the crackers. In the end I paid $5.90 (plus tax) for these 10 items which works out to be $.59 each. Much better then buying them for $2.50 each.

One more piece of Albies info that might be helpful to you that live by me. The Albies on 78th & Redwood is my favorite Albies to shop at. BUT they only will let you use 2 of each type of IP in a transaction so I wouldn't have been able to do this there today because I had 6 of the cookie IPs. So I went to the store on 90th & Redwood which doesn't seem to care. Just FYI.

I usually look through Smiths and Maceys at the start of the new week (Wednesday for Grocery stores) to see who has good deals and to decide which store(s) are worth hitting that week.

Hope this helps!

Store Specifics - Grocery Stores

Okay, on to grocery stores. I am combining them into one post because the same basic rules apply to all the grocery stores I shop at like Albertsons, Smiths, Maceys etc.

1) As far as I know, all the grocery stores accept internet printable coupons. The Associated Foods stores such as Maceys have just changed their policy to accept these which is great!

2) Use the Grocery Smart Printable Planner to find the best deals of the week. Now, I don't shop the way normal people do. I don't write a list of what I need that week and then go out and buy it. I look at the upcoming deals and see what items have a great price (4 & 5 star deals) and stock up on those items that we need if I am out or running low on them. I do have to do some regular shopping for milk, bread and produce but I usually just do it while I am doing my stocking up shopping. You will find that as you build up a good store of items you don't NEED to buy so much in the week because you already have so many items on hand.

3) Promos are Great! Smiths & Albertsons (and occasionally the Associated Foods stores) will run promos that make it easy to get killer deals on many items. There are 2 main types of promos.

Here is an example from this weeks Albies ad of a CATALINA promo:
**Campbell's promo: Save $5 on your NEXT shopping order when you spend $15 on participating products.**
Included in this promo are their Campbells Chunky Soup. The planner will show you the sale price which is $1.25 each. The price is listed as 1.25/.84 which means that they are on sale for $1.25 each but with the promo factored in they work out to be $.84 each. So if you were to buy 12 of these (which equals $15) then after you pay a $5 catalina coupon will print out which you can use on your next order. This means you got all 12 of them for $10. The planner also shows coupons that you can use on that item. There is a $1/4 coupon in the 8/16 Smart Source so if you used 3 of these you would end up getting all 12 soups for $7 or $.59 each which is the price they show as the bottom line price in the right hand column.

Now you don't have to buy all of the same item, you can mix or match, just be sure that you get your BEFORE coupons total (using the first dollar amount listed in the planner) to $15. In this case if you were going to buy a lot of items you would want to seperate your transactions into $15 batches. If you bought $30 in one transaction only one $5 cat would print out. If you are going to go multiple transaction, do your first one, then use the cat that you got from that transaction to help pay down your out of pocket total on your next transaction and so on. It's a great way to get really great deals. Just be sure to check the dates on your catalina coupons because they do expire in 2 weeks from the date you get them.

Here is an example from this weeks Albies ad of a promo where you get a specific dollar amount off INSTANTLY:
**Nabisco promo: Save $3 instantly when you buy 4 participating items.**
Included in this promo are their Ritz Crackerfuls. The planner will show you the sale price which is $2.50 each. The price is listed as 2.50/1.75 which means that they are on sale for $2.50 each but with the promo factored in they work out to be $1.75 each. So if you were to buy 4 of these then the register will automatically take off $3 from your total. This means you got all 4 of them for $7. The planner also shows a $1/1 coupon from the 7/12 Smart Source so if you used 4 of these you would end up getting all 4 boxes of crackers for $3 or $.75 each which is the price they show as the bottom line price in the right hand column.

Again, you don't have to buy all of the same item, you can mix or match, just be sure that you buy items in increments of 4. If you are going to buy 7 items, you might as well pick up one more and get the extra discount. In this case you DO NOT have to seperate out your items. If you buy 12 participating items the register will take off $9.

Clear as Mud? Questions?