New Jewel Catalina Deal

Remember when I told you about the free ice cream on Saturday that Jewel had a catalina deal coming up that was bound to be a good one? Well, it is a good one and even though it hasn't been advertised yet (will be on the back page of Thursday's ad)...it is ALREADY working!!

I made a quick run to Jewel last night to give it a whirl! The deal is from General Mills, Unilever and Kimberly Clark. The ad states Buy $30 in one shopping trip earn $15 in catalina coupons to be used on your next order (this actually stacks 3 times so you can do $30/$15, $60/$30 or $90/$45). There are several items all listed on the back page that work for the deal.

If you want to guarantee that your catalina's will print, you should spend $30 in sale prices and your coupons will print. BUT as I mentioned before, the registers are program to calculate the $30 on the non-preferred card price (this is the first price that scans and prints on your receipt before your preferred card savings is listed). Using these prices to get to $30 often makes a good deal turn into a GREAT deal since you will only be paying the sale price but getting credit for the non-preferred card price. Confused? I will break it down to an easy scenario.

Buy 11 Progresso Broths - the non-preferred card price is $2.99, but the sale price is $1.49. 11 X $2.99 = $32.89 (enough to trigger your $15 in catalinas). But here is what you actually pay - 11 X $1.49 = $16.39 (only $1.39 after catalinas for 11). Then if you add coupons in the mix you're making it even a better deal! Say you only have 3 .50/1 coupons - you pay $14.89 and get back $15 = FREE. If you have 11 .50/1 coupons - you pay $10.89 and get back $15 - you just made $4.11!

Once you have your first set of $15 catalinas you can "roll" them and essentially pay tax after coupons if you have them, for whatever you want to buy in the deal!

IMPORTANT: And I can't stress this enough...please be kind to your customer service people. If you choose to work the deal in this way (basing it on non-preferred card prices) and your catalina doesn't print (which DOES happen for a variety of reasons)...please do NOT go to customer service and complain, yell or demand your cats. Just be prepared to return everything and try again. Your cat machine might be offline, out of paper, you didn't add right (all of these things have happened to me)...and most of the time it is my mistake (bought the wrong sku, short by a few cents). I can almost guarantee the answer you will get back if you do is that you didn't buy enough because it works on sale prices (which is not actually the case).

Ok, so back to the Jewel run. Here's what I did:

11 Progresso Broth - $2.99/$1.49

11 Regular Chex Mix - $2.49/$1.69

Total pre-preferred card price - $60.28

Total sale price - $34.98

Used 5 $1.10/2 Chex Mix (from a General Mills Better at home Booklet)

Used 1 $1/1 Chex Mix (wine tag)

Used 2 .50/1 Progresso Broth (10/5 GM insert)

Used 8 .50/1 Progresso Broth (printables from mypoints.com, coupons.com, smartsource.com)

Used 2 $10 catalinas from a previous deal

Paid $4.27 on a gift card and got back $30 in catalinas and a catalina for a free box of Idahoan Potatoes (which was a surprise)!

So even though I used 2 cats to get started, I still left with a profit of $5.73 which is better than FREE!

(Note: If you are doing Chex Mix alone, you would need 13 bags to get over $30 alone. Also, always always always double check your math - many stores have different pricing!!)

What are you planning on getting?

Thanks to Couponer's Wanted!!