Wednesday Ad Picks, 8/11-8/17

Safeway
• If you watched my video, you know I told you the General Mills promotion would come around again, and it's here already! The basics on this one are not very basic. Really these can be kind of complicated to put together, because there are so many different items involved, all of which are not listed in the ad, and there are also some Catalina offers to consider. Catalina's are the coupons that print for a certain amount off your NEXT purchase. Here's the overview; if you buy 4 or more (up to 20) General Mills fruit snacks or cereal, you will get $1 off per item The promotional pricing then, assuming you buy 4 or more, is .99 for fruit snacks (like Fruit Roll-Ups and Gushers), 1.49 for granola bars and cereal (Nature Valley, Fiber One, Cheerios, etc.). The wording is not clear, but you DO NOT have to buy in multiples of 4, I purchased 5 items today and it took the $1 off each of them. The Catalina's are for $3 if you buy 5 of the fruit snacks, and $3.50 if you buy 5 of the granola bars, can be the Nature Valley or the Fiber One bars.

o So here’s a sample scenario. Today I bought 5 of the fruit snacks, at .99/box. I used 2 paper coupons for .50/2, which double to $2 total. I also had 2 e-coupons which took off a total of $1. My total out of pocket was $2, and I got a $3 Catalina for my next purchase. If you haven’t already been loading e-coupons, there is probably only 1 available, so that will be a variable for you. You can find the paper coupons here. This would be a simple introductory transaction to help you figure this stuff out.

o The next transaction I do will probably be along these lines. I will buy 1 box of Cheerios at 1.49, minus e-coupons and paper coupons those will be free. I’ll also buy 5 granola bars, probably a couple of the Fiber One, and some of the Nature Valley, so I can take advantage of more e-coupons, and paper coupons here, and get the $3.50 Cat back. I’ll also buy another 4 of the fruit snacks, so I’ll get a $2 Cat for those, rather than $3, but I don’t have any more e-coupons for them, just paper coupons, and that will still make them free when you consider the Cat. I’ll use the $3 Cat I got today to pay for these items to bring my out of pocket cost down even more. I know this is confusing as all get out, but you’ll just have to trust me that once you learn the ropes, this is a ridiculous deal.

 One more note on this deal, there are signs up in the store that if you buy any cereal and refrigerated almond milk (I think it was Blue Diamond brand, but please double check), you’ll get another $3 Cat. This is awesome, because the almond milk is $2.99, so basically you can try it free! I love almond milk, and I bet some of you are skeptical, give it a shot!

• Wow, let’s see if I can be more brief for the rest of this post! Bone-in chicken breasts are .99/lb, definitely a buy price for me. I know people are intimidated by boning meat, but boning chicken breasts is sooo easy, it’s the perfect way to try your hand at it. Plus you have the bones and skin to use to make stock, which is a bonus to me!

• Whole wheat bread is $1.25/loaf, I try to pay $1, but it’s been quite a while since they had it on sale. If you aren’t particular about whether it’s whole wheat or not, you can pick up the butter top bread for only .39/loaf, with the coupon in the Serve up a Sandwich booklet. I found these in the packaged lunch meat section at the Westside store today.

• There’s an in-ad coupon for store brand pasta, .59/lb, limit 6. This is the best price I’ve seen in months, they had it at .50/lb last winter, but nowhere near that since.

• Pillsbury Sweet Moments are a new item, in the same area as the biscuits in a can and all the stuff of that genre. They are ridiculous looking desserts, like chocolate caramel brownie bites and brownies that you heat in the microwave. I have been resisting bringing them in my house, but you can get them for free with the in-ad coupon, the MF coupon here, and the e-coupon here. Heaven help me.

• Plenty of yummy produce deals to be had, Colorado peaches are .99/lb, black grapes are too. When you find the Serve up a Sandwich booklet, you’ll score an awesome find, $1 off any produce; minimum purchase of $5 (does NOT have to be $5 worth of produce). My warning on this is that I have now used 2 of them, and neither has deducted, so be prepared to go to customer service. Worth it to me though, produce coupons are super rare.

After all of that yapping, I really don't have anything to say about other stores! If I see anything good, I'll post separately. Happy shopping!