$86 in Catalinas

I did quite well at Shaw's this week. I did the Kraft deal 4 or 5 times. Then, I discovered over at HotCouponWorld a hidden Crystal Light deal: buy Crystal Light On-the-go packets at 3/$1, and get a $2 catalina toward your next purchase! I bought 36 at the regulaer check-out, and then did several transactions, buying 6 at a time, and paying with a $2 catalina. That worked out well because I didn't have to pay any money out of pocket!

Shaw's discovered that this was going on and limited it so that you could only get 1 catalina at a time. So yesterday, Bear & I went to 2 stores, buying 3 packets per transaction. This meant I did have to pay $1 out of pocket for each transaction in order to get my $2 catalina.

There are some issues with the freezer coupoon book as well. First of all, the Hood frozen yogurt coupon expired in May, 2008. Originally, the manager said they would still take them, but they didn't have any frozen yogurt. Almost every store is cleaned out. I went to another store that said the coupon was not meant to be printed and was not redeemable. I had to go back to yet different store to get a refund on the Planter's Trail Mix since I was overcharged. They had a sign up saying the coupon should read 5/31/09, but they were out of the item anyways. And then I went to a completely different Shaw's that I had never been to. They are honoring this coupon, and they had tons of frozen yogurt. At this point, my freezer is super-full, and I can't eat dairy, so I only got 2 containers.

The second issue is that many stores are completely cleaned out of the products that are free. I was able to get some veggies and bagels, but no corn on the cob anywhere. Thankfully, the coupons are good until 4/2, so hopefully I can score some corn - that is, once I eat some of the food in my freezer :)

As a result, I have $86 in catalinas that I need to spend in less than 2 weeks. I also have a very full freezer, as yesterday I went to Stop & Shop and bought 10 10-ounce bags of spinach (along with 3 pounds of strawberries and some sale apples); they were on sale for 99 cent a piece, and I couldn't resist stocking up on spinach for my green smoothies. So I see a lot of canned goods and lots of dehydrating in my future!