The RETURN of Adventures in ACMELAND

So the lure of almost FREE FOOD got the better of me and I headed back to Acme on Wednesday.  It was a blessing really, having a "quest" like this to concentrate my energies on, as it helped me get through a couple of the roughest, physically painful days of my life.  When you are in pain, having something to take your mind off it is a help in getting through it.   Not being able to eat is a whole other issue though....

Anyway, the weather was nice and I enjoy having time alone in the car.  This trip I actually went to all 3 Acmes I had planned on visiting.  I had planned on going to the closest one, then hitting each of the other two stores, then backtracking and hitting store #2 again, as well as store #1 again, before heading home.  Well, I ended up hitting store #1, then store #3, then to store #2 and then home.  I had planned to go back to store #1 to finish off my shopping, but I got lost going between store #3 & #2 and ended up traveling in a giant circle so I lost a bit of time between that and the late afternoon rush hour traffic.  Also, when I finally arrived at store #2, I found that it was a fantastic, new, HUGH! Acme with hardly any customers and stocked on EVERYTHING and with FRIENDLY CASHIERS and MANAGEMENT who didn't have a problem with me going through the register oodles of times and using as many coupons and Catalinas as I dare well pleased!
Ahhhhhh.....Deal Shopping Heaven. ;-)

So, I just ended up hitting each Acme 1 time(many transactions though).
There were a couple of "glitches" on this trip.  At Store #1 doing my first double stack transaction(Buy$60/Get$30) my Catalinas printed out but they were BLANK!  Seems no one had cleaned the printer heads on the Cat machine in some time so nothing printed out.  The manager had the cashier hit some button on the Cat machine and then RERING every item in the order.
Ugh.
So again, the machine made the whirring noise to generate Cats but nothing printed on the papers!
So the Manager hauled all my bags over to the CSDesk and rang everything up a third time.
Double Ugh.
Finally, the Cats printed out...3 x $10 ones.  Now I was set to do double stack transactions the rest of the day.
That was until my second double transaction at Acme store #3, when only 3 x $5 Cats printed out.  I put a call into Catalina and there was a glitch with 1 item I bought(it didn't register in the system), so they are sending me my missing $15 in Cats.  Hey, I am NOT getting upset about this....if they show up they show up...if not, fine.  I more than got my monies worth on this deal without them.
But after the $15 didn't print, I was forced to do single transactions for the rest of the evening.  More walking out to the car and back in the store, so it took longer to finish up.

So enough of my rambling on.  I spent Thursday lugging everything out of my car, taking pictures and rebagging it all or wedging a few things into my stockpile.  Here are the photos of Wednesday's loot.

FINAL NUMBERS for This Shop
I did 13 Transactions(9 x $30 shops and 4 x $60 shops, so 17 x $30 shops).  I earned 17 x $15 in Cats=$255 in Cats. I spent $225 of those Cats and have $30 leftover.(One set of $15 in Cats didn't print and Catalina will be mailing those to me.)

VALUE of Products Bought in These Trips....$579.02
OUT OF POCKET on these Items...$16.57

SAVINGS of 97.13%


**************************************
GRAND TOTAL for ALL This Week's Acme Shopping

VALUE of Products...$1134.82
OUT OF POCKET....$62.75
NUMBER of ITEMS PURCHASED....442(includes 8 non-deal items)

SAVINGS of......94.47%

And finally, THE BIG LIST of WHAT WAS PURCHASED


Betty Crocker Brownie Mix   2

Betty Crocker Cake Mix   1

Betty Crocker Cookie Mix   14

Betty Crocker Potatoes    16

Bisquick   3

Bugles Snacks   4

Chex Mix   7

Chex Mix Bars    2

Cheerios Cereal    17

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal    13

Cocoa Puffs Cereal    10

Fiber One Bars    1

Fiber One Pastries   1

Golden Grahams Cereal   5

Green Giant Canned Veggies    78

Green Giant Asparagus   8

Gold Medal Flour    12

Hamburger Helper    3

Hellmann's Mayo    6

Kleenex Napkins   1

Kleenex Facial Tissue    24

Knorr's Side Dishes    40

Lipton Soup Mix    12

Lipton Tea    7

Pillsbury Crescent Rolls    6

Pillsbury Toaster Strudels   2

Progresso Bread Crumbs   10

Progresso Broth   7

Progresso Soup   72

Ragu Pasta Sauce    9

Scott Paper Towels   13

Skippy PB   2

Viva Paper Towels    10

Wishbone Dressing    5

Yoplait Yogurt   6

*******
Banana  1
Celentano Ravioli  2
McCormick Salad Toppings   2 
Scott Toilet Paper   2
Frozen Turkey  1




Now I get to spend the next few days after I recover from my tooth extraction(yes, I FINALLY had it pulled today....HOORAY!) going through all these goodies.  I'll have the Brother-in-law come over and take what he would like/needs, then I'll pull out what we can use.  The rest will be going somewhere it can do alot of good.  Stay tuned for that installment....
I'm going to take some more drugs and take to my bed and hope I recover quickly.

Sluggy

How Many Canned Veggies fit into a Minivan? Part 1

That's the riddle hubby said I was trying to solve today.
On Saturday, I took off for the afternoon(which stretched into the evening too)and made a pilgrimage to Acme. 
There is a Buy $30(shelf price), Get $15 Back Catalina Deal this sales week there.  Not as good as the last B30/G15 Deal in August, but with the crappy Deals at Weis around here....I'll take it!!

I had ordered coupons but they didn't come in Sat. morning's mail so I took what I had(some insert Qs and some IP Qs-not much really)and I flew like the wind to the store.  The area I went to had 3 Acmes within close proximity and I planned to hit A, then B, then C and backtrack, hitting B again and A again, before heading home.
I was ready this time.  I had the Qs organized in the envie, I had the shelf/sale prices written out in a chart, I had my calculator and I had done up some scenarios on Friday so I could quickly get a very low OOP after sale prices and Qs.

The B30/G15 deal reportedly was doubling and tripling but I kept to single transactions to keep under the radar.  After the "being held captive episode" in Aug. at the evil Acme, I wasn't about to try stacking multiple $30 transactions.

So what happened?

First off, some of the items were on "knockdown".  While this is good for regular shoppers(because the price is lower), this is BAD for working a Cat Deal.  If an item is on knockdown, it means the shelf price does NOT apply.  IE-BC Cake Mix, the reg. shelf price is $1.59 so buying 19 boxes will put you over the $30 mark($30.21 to be exact).  However, the cake mix is on sale for $.99 box, meaning you will pay $18.81 for 19 boxes instead of the shelf price of $30.21.  Use the $15 in Cat Qs from your previous transaction and you pay $3.81 for 19 boxes of cake mix(or less if you have Qs for the cake mix) AND you get another $15 in Cat Qs to roll into another transaction.
Being on "knockdown" means you now have to buy 31 boxes of cake mix to get to the $30 threshold.
Using your $15 in Cats from a previous transaction means you have to pay $15.69 for those 31 boxes....$.49 a box for cake mix is ok but not such a great deal compared to $3.81, right?
So the items that had "knockdown" prices blew some of my scenarios right out of the water.
Ugh!

That was about the only problem....that and they were cleaned out of the Chicken Broth.  Having to do scenarios on the fly took me longer, making for a very long day.  But being out of the house and away from dogs, kids and yes, even hubby was a nice change.  That and there were hardly ANY people in this Acme!  I was there for many, MANY Hours and there was barely a line at anytime throughout the day/evening.

I never even got to the other 2 stores.  The store was deserted, was stocked and no managers bitching at me for doing small transactions. 
 Every B30/G15 Transaction worked perfectly and I got all my Cats each time.  Oh, it was a thing of beauty I tells ya! 
Some of my OOPs were a bit high(because of having to rework most scenarios to use what few coupons I had and to allow for the "knockdown" prices),but I managed to keep most of them under $1 for each transaction.

It was Acme Heaven!lol

 
The cashiers were young, males....my FAVORITE kind of Cashier.  No hassles from them or management.  By about the 10th trip through the register, it got to be a joke with the cashiers.....one of them asked if I had my sleeping bag so I could take a nap(it's a 24 hr. store) and another was going to get me a job there as a goodwill ambassador, for my work helping other shoppers find items in the store.
Why is it people always think I work in whatever store I am in, and start asking me questions, like I'm an employee??  This happens to me alot!lolol

Anyway, I took it slow and just kept doing transactions...
One.
After.
Another.
I took a break after 5 or 6 and went down the street for a late lunch/early dinner at a Chinese place.
Then back in for another 5 or so.
Then back to the car to call home and have some water and a banana I bought.(Had some overage to kill so I bought 1 banana...lol)
Then back in and more shopping.

I noticed a sign in the front window about a FREE TURKEY Deal....spend $300 and you get a free bird.  None of the stores around me locally do the Free Turkey for Thanksgiving anymore.  Only Shop-Rite and I haven't been in there in awhile so I'd probably never spend that much in time to get the bird.  All the grocery stores use to do the Free Turkey, then they stopped a few years ago.  Now it's either a piddly little Gift Certificate($5 or $10 depending on how much you spend)at the local grocery or a percentage off your next shopping trip at Weis(10% after you spend $300).  I hate those percentage deals because they make you spend $300 and up to get them.  Now once most people have spent $300 or more, they really don't need to spend a big amount the next shopping trip, so they spend like $50 and get $5 off.  Big Whoop, I say.....  To make a percentage deal good, you need to spend ALOT.
I don't know, I just always thought those were lame offers.  I'd much rather spend $300 and get a turkey. ;-)

So back to the Sign at Acme....they are running a spend $300, get a free bird. 
So after the first 6 transactions, I look at my receipt to see how they are calculating for the free bird-what I was actually spending or what the total was before discounts.

I had spent about $6 OOP at that point.
The receipt said I had $92+ toward the bird.
So that became my GOAL for the day.
To do enough transactions that my "spending" was over $300 and I could get a Free Turkey.
I told the cashier I couldn't go home until I spent enough for the turkey and it became a running concern each time I hit the register.....
Will she spend enough this time???!!!  
How many more trips will she have to do???!!!
Can her legs hold out to $300??!!


I finally shot past the magic number of 300 at around 7pm.
She shoots, she scores!


And there was much rejoicing in Acmeland.....

Then 1 final shop to get the bird and roll that $15 in Cats one more time....

So, after we get a shovel and "dig out the backseat area of the car" tomorrow in the daylight, I can take some pictures/make a list/get my receipts and do a final tally of my numbers.


For now, I am going to bed....my feet are killing me!
Part Two to follow--

Sluggy

Publish Post

Acme Shopping This Week....Grand Total for all my Trips

You may remember that 2 weeks ago, Acme had a killer Catalina Promo Deal on Unilever & General Mills products. I posted about my trips during that deal Here.
$15 of my OYNO Catalinas hadn't printed(due to an item I bought not being correctly entered into the store's computer system) so I had contacted the marketing company about getting those missing Catalina coupons. I received the $15 in Cats on Monday in the mail. Thanks Catalina Marketing! ;-))

Add those $15 worth and I had $79 worth of Cat Coupons in hand. All those $ off OYNO Catalina Coupons needed to be used by Aug. 18th(except for the $15 that had just arrived), which was Tuesday!
Add in that SuperValu owned grocery stores(of which, Acme is one) are in the midst of another nice little Catalina Promo this week. When you buy $25 worth of certain Kraft products, you get a $5 OYNO Cat Coupon AND a Mail-In-Rebate form for $20 back prints out at the register as well. So spend $25, get $20 back via MIR and a $5 OYNO Coupon. So in essence, free food!

That was enough to get me up & off bright and early to my favorite Acme on Tuesday to use all those Cats and get some FREE Kraft items.
But it was going to hit 90 DEGREES here on Tuesday.
I don't.
Do.
Heat!
But I pulled up the online weekly ad, pulled out the Coupons I needed from my binder & my Cat stash, pulled the cooler down from the shed shelf, put in the freezer ice packs and just went and "got 'er done"!
The heat index be danged.....

I made two trips through the register, then went down the road to WAGS, had lunch as well, then back to Acme for one more transaction before heading home.

No photos today. It was bad enough to get it all home(the frozen stuff into the freezer before the big thaw down)& unloaded into the garage stockpile before I collapsed into a sticky, sweaty, Wicked Witch of the West "I'm melting....meeeelting" puddle.
Just use your imaginations to picture the cheesy, soda, iced tea, EVOO & shrimpy goodness.lol

Transaction #1(The Kraft deal items are in green.)

4 x Easy Mac Cups on sale $1=$4.00
4 x Philly Cream Cheese on sale 3/$5.00=$6.67
1 x Ritz Crackers on sale $2.50
1 x Wheat Thins on sale $2.50
2 x Kraft Cheese Chunk on sale 3/$5=$3.34
5 x Kraft Shredded Cheese bags on sale 3/$5=$8.34
1 x Acme Applesauce $1.79
2 x Acme Roast Beef Hash @ $1.79=$3.58
2 x Fritos on sale @$1.69=$3.38
1 x Starbucks 4 pack on sale $5.00(this might have also been a participating Kraft deal item)
4 x Swiss Tea 1/2 gallon @3/$5=$6.67
3 x Celentano Ravioli on sale @$1.99=$5.97
1 x CPK Pizza for One on sale $2.50
SubTotal....$56.24


Coupons Used
2 x Easy Mac Cups .55/2 doubled=$2.20
2 x Philly Cream Cheese $1/2=$2.00
1 x Buy Ritz/Get Wheat Thins free=$2.50
1 x Kraft Cheese Chunk $1/2=$1.00
5 x Kraft 2% Shredded Cheese $.50/1 doubled=$5.00
2 x Swiss Tea $.75/2 didn't double=$1.50
SubTotal....$14.20

Acme $5 Cats Used
5 x $5=$25.00

Total Coupons....$39.20

$56.24-$39.20=$17.04
Minus tax adjustment of $1.50=$15.54OOP
Received a MIR form for $20 rebate and $5 OYNO Catalina Coupon.

Went back in and bought some more Kraft....

Transaction #2

2 x Ritz Crackers on sale @$2.50=$5.00
2 x Wheat Thins on sale @$2.50=$5.00
2 x Easy Mac Cups on sale @$1.00=$2.00
4 x Kraft 2% Cheese Shreds on sale 3/$5=$6.67
2 x Kraft Cheese Chunks on sale 3/$5=$3.34
1 x Kraft Parmesan Cheese on sale $4.99
1 x Bush Baked Beans on sale $2.00
1 x Mushrooms on sale $1.69
1 x Snapple 12 pack on sale $4.99
1 x Swiss Tea Gallon $2.99
SubTotal.....$38.67

Coupons Used
2 x Buy Ritz Crackers/Get Wheat Thins FREE=$5.00
1 x Easy Mac Cups .55/2 doubled=$1.10
4 x Kraft Cheese .50/1 doubled=$4.00
1 x Kraft Cheese $1/2=$1.00
1 x Snapple $1.00
1 x Swiss Tea .75/1 this one doubled=$1.50
SubTotal....$13.60

Acme Cats Used
4 x $5=$20

Total Coupons....$33.60

$38.67-$33.60=$5.07
Minus $1.20 tax adjustment=3.87OOP
Received a MIR form for $20 rebate and $5 OYNO Catalina Coupon.

At this point, I had $34 in Cats left PLUS $10 MORE I just got from these 2 transactions, for a total of $44 Cats to use up.
After a walk around a nearby WAGS and a cheap lunch, I returned to Acme and spent those Cats on items that didn't generate Cats.

Transaction #3

2 x Ocean Spray Drink Mix on sale @$2.50=$5.00
2 x Cento EVOO on sale BOGO $14.49=$14.49 for 2 BIG bottles
4 x Sunkist Soda on sale @$2.50=$10.00
1 x Snapple Tea 12 Pack on sale $4.99
1 x Crab Rangoons $7.99 I love these but never buy them cuz they are expen$ive!
2 x 2lb. Shrimp on sale @$17.98=$35.96(an oxymoron of HUGE shrimp)
SubTotal.....$78.43

Coupons Used
1 x Ocean Spray $1/2=$1.00
4 x $1/1 Sunkist=$4.00
1 x Acme Buy 4 Sunkist/Get Free Snapple 12 pack=$4.99
SubTotal....$9.99

Acme Cats Used
7 x $5=$35
9 x $1=$9
Total=$44

Total Coupons....$53.99

$78.43-$53.99=$24.44
Minus Tax adujstment of $2.04=$22.40OOP

Total spent for all 3 transactions OOP=$41.81
And after I send for 2 $20 Kraft Rebates(one to my addy and one to BIL), I'll be OOP for these 3 Transactions.....2x$20=$40 $41.81-$40=$1.81
$1.81 Out of Pocket.
Yay!!!

After Rebates....
Total OOP=$1.81
Total Savings=$277.33
Total Value of Items=$279.14
Total Percentage Saved 99.50%

AND the GRAND TOTAL for ALL the ACME Shopping for the past 2 Weeks is....
$73.86 OOP(after Rebates)
$1220.19 Saved in Coupons/Sales/Cats
$1294.05 Value of Everything I Purchased
Total Percentage Saved 94.30%

And I also received a card for .05¢ off of a gas fill-up for each of 2 of my transactions. No clue why or what stations these are good at but I have some time to check into it. These are good until Feb. of 2010.

I think I got my money's worth of Acme goodies the past 2 weeks. 8-))

I don't plan on hiking down to AcmeLand again unless a Shopportunity like this one comes up again. I won't say never again, because, well....you just never know, do you?lol

Sluggy

The Mother of All Shopping Trips....in the last few Months at least

I got wind a couple of weeks ago, of a great Shopportunity coming up at the Acme chain of Grocery Stores.

This was a joint Unilever/General Mills Promotional deal that ran for 2 weeks at the SuperValu owned chains of grocery stores(Acme, Albertson's, etc.), from Aug.2-Aug. 13th. When you bought $30 in select Unilever &/or General Mills items, you received $15 in Catalina Coupons at the register. That $30 was based on REGULAR SHELF PRICE. Many of the items that qualified during the 1st week of the Promotion were ON SALE. Plus, many coupons were floating around both in the Sunday inserts & online printables to pair with the sale prices and the Catalina rewards.

I was able to scoot down to the "Land of Acmes" outside of Philly for 2 days during the 1st week of the sale.
You can check out my post HERE with the details of the Rewards for the Promotion and a list of what I bought the 1st day I shopped the sale.

I finally got 'most' of the food I bought(except for the refrigerated products)onto my dining room table(note-table with BOTH leaves in it!) and took a couple of pictures before it collapsed into a heap from the weight of all that stuff!lol
Here are 3 photos.

Pictured is all the food I bought--except for....
4x 12-packs of Snapple Tea
8x 1/2 Gallons of Milk
4x 4-packs of Yogurt
2 lbs. of grapes
1 loaf of bread
1 single serve cup of Ben & Jerry's(that never made it home!lol)
2x Milkbones boxes
1x Chex Mix
4 bags of Lay's Chips
2 Bags of Bugles


Here are 2 close-ups of everything from the 1st photo.



And here is a photo of all the Toiletries/Cleaning Supplies I got. Everything is here except for 3 large Dove Shampoos that I had already taken upstairs.


Here's the list of everything I bought.

8 BC Cake Mix
1 BC Warm Delights Snack Cake
15 boxes Nutri-Grain Bars
2 Nature Valley Nut Clusters
30 boxes Pop-Tarts
8 BC Brownie Mix
7 BC Frosting
32 Skippy Peanut Butter
19 Assorted GM Cereals(HN CHeerios, Kix, Honey Kix, Cookie Crisp, Cinnamon Toast Crunch)
4 boxes Lipton Tea
4 BC Cookie Mix
9 Wishbone Dressing
10 Hellman's Mayo
10 Lipton Dry Soup Mix
2 boxes of Chex Mix Bars
1 box of Fiber One Cereal Bars
4 boxes of Bisquick Mix
3 Chicken Helper
2 Macaroni Grill Dinner Kits
6 Ragu Pasta Sauces
5 Chex Mix
4 Bugles Snacks
1 Sobe Drink Bottle
2 6-pack of Soda
4 Cases of Snapple Tea
8 1/2 Gallons of Over the Moon Milk
4 4-packs of Yogurt
2 lbs. of grape
1 loaf of bread
1 single serve cup of Ben & Jerry's
2 boxes of Milkbones
12 Q-Tips
2 Suave Body Wash
3 Degree Deodorant
2 Degree Body Mist
4 Vaseline Lotion
10 Dove Ultimate Deodorant
2 Dove Body Mist
2 Degree Men's Deodorant
16 All Laundry Detergent
8 Dove Shampoo(large size)

That's 271 Items in 10 hours of shopping.
That's 11 Transactions that contained 26 orders of $30 or more.
The first order(a triple order) cost me OOP $58.81.
The total for all orders after that was $13.24OOP.
A Total OOP of $72.05 including tax for everything.

I earned $15 in Catalinas for each of the 26 $30 orders. 26x$15=$390.
I also earned an additional $12 in Cats for 4 of those orders(double dipping or overlapping deals). 4x$12=$48
And for every 2 Skippy Natural PBs purchased I received a $1 Cat. 32 jars divided by 2=16x$1=$16.
TOTAL Catalinas earned $454.

I spent $330 Cats over the course of the trips(most of them on items that were NOT part of the Promo like the Pop-Tarts, Milk, Nutri-Grain Bar, etc), so I have $124 Cats left to spend when I go back to Acme next week.
(Well I WILL have that much once I get the $15 from Catalina Marketing that didn't print due to an item not being programmed into the computer for this sale AND the $45 in Cats that were STOLEN from me by the Customer Service Person in the Horsham PA store.)

With Coupons and Catalinas spent I SAVED a Total of $942.86.
The Value of everything I purchased comes to....
$1014.91.
A savings of 93%.

Just imagine how much I could have carted home if I didn't live 2 hours away and I had a full week down there to hit the stores?
I would need to buy a second home to hold it all.lol

This haul should keep the kids in Junk Food around here at least through the end of the year and still leave me plenty to send to #1 son at college in care packages.

Let me just state for the record that YES!....there is such a thing as TOO MANY POP-TARTS!

Sluggy

Sunday Shoptastic Sunday! Part Two

So after a quick trip to Rite-Aid, 2 stops at CVS, we finally made it to the Acme Grocery Store.

It's a Unilever & General Mills Catalina deal that the SuperValu chains are holding that drew me to Philly. At Acme the deal is manifesting itself as a Buy $30 of participating products in 1 transaction and get $15 in OYNO Catalinas. The $15 prints out as 3 $5 Cats.
Now the $30 value is based on the regular shelf price AND alot of the participating items are on Sale! That along with using Coupons makes it easy to get to $30 and stay closer to $15 if you even go OVER $15! And some items you can work out scenarios that don't involve coupons and you end up spending under $15 out of pocket and get $15 of Cats back so it's like getting the products for free!
For example.....the Betty Crocker cake mixes(which qualify for this deal)are reg. price of $2.59 at this particular Acme store. 12 Boxes cost $31.08 reg. retail which is over the $30 mark. 12 boxes on sale for $1 each would cost you $12 out of pocket. Pay that and you get $15 in Catalinas. Buy another 12 boxes plus something that costs $3, for a total of $15 and pay with that $15 in Cats you just received. When you pay you get ANOTHER $15 in Cats.
You could just keep going through the checkout until you cleared the shelf of BC cake mixes and only be out your initial $12 for infinite boxes of mix!lol
Now, don't you DARE go clear the shelves of cake mix though. It would be very bad Couponing Etiquette & you would get lots of stares and probably be put on the managments "Don't let this person in the store" List. Plus WHERE on earth would you put that much cake mix??LOL

Some of the Unilever products also qualify for both this B30G15 Deal and another Catalina Deal-Buy 10/Get 3, Buy 20/Get 7 or Buy 30/Get 12. So if you were to buy $30 shelf priced worth of Unilever goods that qualified for both offers you would receive a total of $27 worth of Catalinas on this one purchase.($15 for the main Cat deal and $12 for this Cat deal).

There is also a $1 Cat printing when you buy Skippy Natural Peanut Butter in multiples of 2 jars. Skippy is also part of the Unilever/General Mills Cat Deal. So if you were to buy 10 jars of Natural type PButter plus a cheap item that also qualifies for this Deal to get to $30 of reg. shelf value(like a cake mix for $1), you would end up spending WITHOUT COUPONS, $21 out of pocket and get back $15(3x $5) in Catalinas as well as 5 $1 Cats from Skippy, for a total of $20 worth of Cats. Basically, without using coupons even you could 'buy' 10 jars of PButter and a Cake Mix for $1. Now if you had Skippy coupons(use 5 $1/2 ones), you would pay $16 OOP and get $20 in Cats back, making the PButter & Cake Mix MORE than free!

So now do you see why I had to hotfoot it down to Philly on Sunday?lolol

Since Hubby was with me, I couldn't do lots of single transactions.....this would have made my OOP MUCH lower on that 1st trip through the register, since I would have shelled out less the 1st time and then rolled single transactions one after another after that. I had to resort to doing 3 $30 groupings($90 in product)in one transaction. I picked up some things that weren't part of the Uni/GM Cat Deal too.
Here goes.....
First the items that qualified for the Cats in green.
10 Skippy Naturals Peanut Butter($2.99) @$2.00=$20.00
5 All Detergents($6.49) @ $3.50=$17.50
3 Dove Shampoo($7.89) @ $5.00=$15.00
2 Q-Tips (300 count)($3.49) @ $2.50=$5.00
Uni/GM shelf price total=$93.00(Double dip items total $30.65)
Sale price total=$57.50

Coupons Used
5 Skippy Naturals Peanut Butter $1/2=$5.00
5 All Detergents $1/1=$5.00
3 Dove Shampoo $1/1=$3.00
2 Q-Tips $.30/1 doubled to $.60=$1.20
Total=$14.20

$57.50-$14.20=$43.30 + $2.25tax=$45.55 OOP.
I received a total of $62 in Catalinas-3x $5 for each $30 grouping, 1x $12 because 1 of the $30 purchases was for items that qualified for 2 Cat deals & 5x $1 Cats for buying the Skippy Naturals.
Spend $45.55, Get $62. That's my idea of shopping!lolol

I also bought....
2 Lay's Chips on sale for $1.88 ea.=$3.76
2 Milkbones @ $4.29 ea.=$8.58
10 Pop-Tarts on sale for $1 ea.(you had to buy in groups of 5)=$10.00
Subtotal...$22.34

Additional Coupons Used
1 BOGO Q on the Milkbones=$4.29
5x $1/2 Pop-Tarts Q=$5.00
Total $9.29
$22.34-$9.29=$13.05+$.21tax=$13.26OOP on non-Cat Deal items

Grand Total of $58.81 for the Transaction.
And $62 of Catalinas.
8-))

So I had time to go back in for one more round of 3 groupings.

First the items that qualified for the Cats in green.
1 Betty Crocker Warm Delights($2.79)on sale $1.66 **
1 Chex Mix($3.29) on sale $1.66
2 Bugles Snacks($3.29) on sale $1.67=$3.34
2 Betty Crocker Cookie Mix($2.39) on sale $1.67=$3.34
1 Cinnamon Toast Crunch($4.39) on sale $2.00
1 Kix Cereal($3.99) on sale $2.00
1 Honey Kix($4.39) on sale $2.00
2 Honey Nut Cheerios($3.99) on sale $2.00=$4.00
8 Betty Crocker Cake Mix($2.59) on sale $1.00=$8.00
4 Betty Crocker Brownie Mix($2.99) on sale $2.00=$8.00
5 Betty Crocker Frosting($2.19) on sale $1.50=$7.50
3 Hamburger/Chicken Helper($2.99) on sale $1.50=$4.50
2 Macaroni Grill Meal Kit($5.19) on sale $3.99=$7.98
Uni/GM shelf price total=$101.17
Sale price total=$57.11

Coupons Used
1 Betty Crocker Warm Delights $.50 doubled=$1.00 **
1 Chex Mix $.50/1 doubled=$1.00
2 Betty Crocker Cookie Mix $.40/1 doubled=$1.60
1 Cinnamon Toast Crunch $.75/1 doubled=$1.50
1 Kix Cereal $.75/1 doubled=$1.50
1 Honey Kix $.75/1 doubled=$1.50
2 Honey Nut Cheerios $.75/1 doubled=$3.00
3 Betty Crocker Cake Mix/Frosting Buy 2/Get $.50 doubled=$3.00
2 Betty Crocker Brownie Mix $.50/2 doubled=$2.00
1 Betty Crocker Frosting $.55/1 doubled=$1.10
1 Hamburger/Chicken Helper $1/3=$1.00
2 Macaroni Grill Meal Kit$1.10/1=$2.20
Total=$20.40

$57.11-$20.40=$36.71
I received a total of $45 Catalinas for these purchases.
Spend $36.71, get $45.

I also bought....
2 Lay's Chips($3.99) on sale for $1.88 ea.=$3.76
3 Hershey's Syrup($2.39) on sale @$2.00 ea.=$6.00
10 Pop-Tarts($2.49) on sale for $1 ea.(you had to buy in groups of 5)=$10.00
10 Nutri-Grain Bars($2.67) on sale for $1.67 ea.=$16.70
Subtotal...$36.46

Additional Coupons Used
1 Buy2/Get1Free Hershey's=$2.00
5 $1/2 Pop-Tarts Q=$5.00
5 $1/2 Nutri-Grain Bars Q=$5.00
Total $12.00
$36.46-$12.00=$24.46 on non-Cat Deal items

$36.71 for Cat Deals+$24.46 for other purchases=$61.17 Grand Total for the Transaction.
I used $61 of the $62 in Cats I received for my 1st Transaction and paid .17¢ OOP!
I received $45 more Cats for a total of $46 Cats after this 2nd Transaction to roll into more products.
**The Warm Delights did NOT ring up on sale for $1.66. I didn't notice until I got home, so I'll be getting a price adjustment when I go back to the store. My total should have been $1.13 lower($60.04), so technically I will get back 1 of my $1 Cats(and only pay .04¢OOP!). That leaves me with $47 Cats for next trip.

So far in the Saga, I have $234.36 worth of items & $47 in Cat Money to spend and I am Out of Pocket $58.85.

Sluggy