Shaws Catalina Deals 101

First of all, what is a catalina?! A catalina is a coupon that prints out at the register.

Alright, so how do you take advantage of these deals and really make it work for you?! This particular deal works by purchasing $25 worth of the above items based on their pre-sale prices. However, you only pay out of pocket the total of what the sale price is. After you pay out of pocket, the register will print off two coupons for $5 off your next visit. Make sure you remind the cashier to give them to you if they forget!

Here is a scenario I just did:

(1) Wesson Canola oil (7.99) 2.50
(1) Wesson Vegetable oil (5.69) 2.50
(1) Wesson Best Blends oil (5.69) 2.50
(2) Hunts Ketchup (1.79) 1
(1) Popcorn (2.79) 3/5

Pre-sale total: 25.74
Sale total: $11.16
Received two $5 off your next visit coupon

What I will do is figure out more deals that come to about $10 after coupons and sale price and just keep using my $10 off and getting more $10 off and stock up on things like tomatoes, sauce, oil, hot dogs, etc.

My current system for figuring out deals is to write the product in one column, the pre-sale price in the next column, the sale price next, and then any coupons I have. I then add up the pre-sale price to make sure it's above $25, then add up the sale price and coupons. I subtract the coupons from the sale price and if it ends up being $10 or just above, I keep the scenario. If it's more than a dollar or two above $10, I rework the scenario. If the sale price comes out to under $10, I figure out what other groceries I need that could bring me up to the $10 mark so I can use my $10 coupons and get other groceries I need for free and still receive another $10 in Catalinas.

Other things to note are:
~Catalina's (the $5 coupons to use on your next order) usually expire in 2 weeks, so make sure you use them in that time.
~the Catalina deals do not work on manager special items or items that are reduced...I've tried it!
~you generally can only do one deal at a time, bring your purchases out to the car, then go back into the store to do your next deal and use your catalinas. They don't generally let you do back to back deals.
~you can only use 2 of these $5 catalinas at a time

If you need any help, please leave me a comment and I'll do my best to help. My biggest suggestion is to go to your store and mark down all the pre-sale prices on your flier and then figure out your deals. Good luck!