FREE Pillsbury Grands til 2/20

Having just returned from Kroger, you can still get Pillsbury Grands biscuits in the refrigerator section for FREE until Saturday, February 20. I'm still hoping they'll be some other great Pillsbury deals on Sunday, the last day for the $4 savings at check-out. Read on for details.

For the Grands deal, make sure you've loaded savings for this item from Shortcuts and Cellfire. If you did so a few weeks ago, you should have at least 3 $.30/2 esavings. Through papers and online sources, you can easily find a few $.30/2 coupons which Kroger doubles. This item qualifies for the $.30 savings if you buy 10 items; remember to buy exactly 10. Four Campbells Chunky soups are an inexpensive way to get to 10 ($.79 a can after doubled coupons from paper).

So here's the breakdown. Buy 6 Pillsbury Grands biscuits for $1.39 each. Esavers should save you $.90, coupons $1.80, the mega event another $1.80. For buying 6, you'll receive $4 off your next shopping trip at check-out. You've only spent $3.84 and you get $4 back. Not bad.

Another good deal if you're trying to get up to 10 qualifying items is the big box of original Cheerios. It's normally $4.49, on sale for $2.49. The mega event knocks off $.30, Shortcuts $.55, and a coupon another $.75. That brought the total to $.89!

And you can still qualify for the Ziploc $5 rebate and $2 catalina off your next shopping trip when you buy 3 products. I bought 4 boxes for $3.19 each and used 1 $1.50/2 and 1 $1/2 coupons. All the discounts bring it to $.82 a box. Just make sure you're willing to follow through with the rebate.

Setting up for Savings-Free Pillsbury Grands til 2/13

After writing the blog below, I've been watching the Pillsbury deals at Kroger. This week you can actually make money with Pillsbury Grands biscuits. Here's how.

Make sure you've loaded savings for this item from Shortcuts and Cellfire. If you did so a few weeks ago, you should have at least 3 $.30/2 esavings. Through papers and online sources, you can easily find a few $.30/2 coupons which Kroger doubles. This item qualifies for the $.30 savings if you buy 10 items; remember to buy exactly 10. I suggest you get 4 Breyers ice creams to round out the savings, but Campbells Chunky soups also qualify.

So here's the breakdown. Buy 6 Pillsbury Grands biscuits for $1.29 each. Esavers should save you $.90, coupons $1.80, the mega event another $1.80. For buying 6, you'll receive $4 off your next shopping trip at check-out. You've only spent $3.24 and you get $4 back. Not bad. I'm hoping the next few weeks will present savings for other Pillsbury items like the pizza dough. I'll be watching...

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I'm no Kroger insider or coupon guru, but I'm going to make an educated guess that February will be a good time to stock up on Pillsbury products and that Sunday, February 21 may be the ideal day for savings. Hmmmm, how does she know this, you ask?

In December and January, Kroger hosted "mega events" the last week of the month starting on a Sunday. These give you savings of usually $5 instantly if you buy a designated amount of chosen products. And last month Kraft had a special: buy 5 designated Kraft products and get $5 off your next trip. These two events overlapped for one day only and made it possible to not only get free products but "make money." See how here.

Pillsbury has a similar promotion now through February 21. Buy 4, get $2, buy 5, get $3, or buy 6, get $4 off your next trip to Kroger. The nice thing is you can mix and match products including crescents, cookies, sweet rolls, biscuits, pie crusts, dinner rolls, loaves, breadsticks and pizza crust. All items must be purchased in one shopping trip, and I think you can only get one per day or at least per transaction, but you could earn savings every time you shop. These are Catalina coupons that will only print after your transaction is complete but are usually good for 2 or 3 weeks.

Since Pillsbury coupons seem to be in every Sunday newspaper and among most internet printable sites like here or here or here, you shouldn't have a problem finding a coupon for every item you buy. Just make sure you don't use more than two IP (internet printable) coupons per product, per transaction--new Kroger rule. But you can use as many from the paper as you can gather. And since most of these are $.50 or below, Kroger will double them.

The other way to save on Pillsbury is with Shortcuts and Cellfire (electronic coupons saved directly to your Kroger Plus card). I would advise you to load as many as you can now and then check back every couple of weeks to add more. Cellfire should be adding more Feb. 9. I currently have $6.80 from Cellfire and $4.90 from Shortcuts of potential Pillsbury savings. Make sure you print out lists from both sites so that you can match up coupons and e-savers, being careful to buy 2 as many of the coupons or e-savers require. Also check the expiration dates for both; some of mine expire Feb. 8, others Feb. 22.

Here's an example of how you could save (not sure of specific prices). Say I find crescents are on sale for $1.80, pizza crust for $2, and cinnamon rolls for $1.50. If I buy 2 of each, I can use a $.50/2 coupon for crescents, a $.40/2 for pizza crust, and $.40/2 for cinnamon rolls (those doubled = $2.60 savings). Shortcuts gives me an additional $3 savings. Since I'm buying 6, I'll get a $4 coupon at check-out. That's like getting all 6 products for just one dollar or $.16 each! I could be way off on the sale prices but you never know!

So if I'm correct in my prediction, Kroger will be hosting a mega event that includes Pillsbury products Feb. 21 - 27. If you go Feb. 21, you can still get in on the Pillsbury promotion. If you can pare a sale, a coupon that's doubled, an e-saver, a mega-event and a discount on future trips, you could save big. You just have to be patient and wait for the sale (hint: it's not this week!). But just in case I'm wrong about the Feb. 21 prediction, you might want to jump on any sales between now and then and buy at least 6 at a time. Hey, I've got no crystal ball! ;-)

Super Savings Sleuth or Crazy Coupon Lady?

This morning at Kroger I ran into a good friend. When I asked, "Are you here for the big one-day sale?" she gave me a blank look. I continued a bit too eagerly, "You know: Kashi, Kellogg's, and Keebler have lots of half off items today." "Oh, that's nice," she replied. Later when I noticed she was buying only one box of cereal and my cart was loaded with 12, I thought to myself: Have I gone over the edge? Have I advanced to a Super Savings Sleuth or have I transformed into Crazy Coupon Lady?

Last night I spent nearly an hour printing and sorting an arsenal of potential coupons to use today. Since I take 2 kids with me and allow myself one hour grocery shopping, I have to be organized. Thanks to Coupon Katie's tip on one coupon that rewards $5 for buying 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, this trip wasn't just about saving money. Today was a test to see if I could finally save more money than I spend.

On the way in, I passed one guy exiting with 20 boxes of cereal. Am I already too late? Have all the best deals been snatched up? It's only 7:45am! I bee lined it to the cereal aisle. I relaxed when I saw the aisles weren't empty yet. Panic's over, folks. Methodically, I selected all our favorites and put corresponding coupons into my envelope. Lately my standards for cereal bargains have gone up: only coupons worth $1 or more per box are good enough. And in general, If I can't find an item on sale AND use a coupon, no deal! My, how I've changed in just a few months!

When I checked my savings at home, I was practically giddy with pride. Through Kroger sales, E-savings, and manufacturer's coupons, I saved $92.77 and spent only $67.56! I saved 84% off the Kellogg cereals ($.44 - $.59 per box) and 60% off Kashi cereals. I got 2 small Pillsbury crescent rolls for free (buy 2 at $1 each, Cellfire discounts $1, and $.50/2 is doubled). I got Kellogg Cereal Bars for $.74 a box and Keebler cookies for $.62 a package. And though it was expensive, I bought one beef tenderloin since it was more than half off (spent $27.05 and saved $15.48). Hey, I can splurge on occasion!

I'm sure to my friend, there was no doubt I had become a little obsessed with this new bargain hunting game of mine. While she was sipping her Starbucks latte, I was flipping through a sea of coupons. Call me crazy if you will, but this game has only just begun.

Ok, I know I said I was done with the savings rant. If you can bear one more, here are three of the best deals I found at Kroger today (my total savings: $45.88).

There are several items that can earn you discounts on future trips (within two weeks)--like Walgreens register rewards. I bought 4 Pillsbury pizza dough tubes, got $1 off from Cellfire.com and $1 off from Shortcuts.com, and earned a $2 reward. I could have saved another $.40 from a coupon I printed online, but my printer was running low on ink and it wouldn't scan.

Another good deal I thought was Ziploc bags: buy 3 boxes and get a $2 reward. I'm now going to send in for a rebate from SC Johnson and will get $5 back. Since you can get 50 sandwich bags for $2.29, it's like getting three boxes for free. And if you have manufacturer's coupons, you can even make some money. May I suggest the Ziploc Evolve version (same price as the regular) but it's better for the environment because it uses 25% less plastic and is made with wind energy. With this deal, you get to be a Super Mom on several levels!

Finally, I stocked up on sodas because of the free Cheezits promotion: buy 3 12 packs or Cokes / Sprites on sale for $12 and get 2 free boxes of Cheezits (worth $5.58). Even though I've seen Cokes cheaper at Target, if your kids like Cheezits, this is the better deal.