Couponing for Beginners-Volume Five (Catalinas, and $$ off purchase coupons)

One term you will see/hear a lot when couponing is "catalina". Catalinas are coupons that are printed at the register when you buy certain things. It differs per store, and some stores do not have catalina printers. The stores that do in the area right now are Albertsons, Safeway, and Target. Target is a recent addition to the list. Target coupons are usually on things like lotions, Target cafe items, or other personal care items. They are triggered by different things, and usually we don't know what triggers them until someone goes through a line and gets one, because there usually is not a list of catalinas for Target. Albertsons and Safeway have a variety of Catalina coupons from dollar amounts off your next purchase, to discounts on certain brands and products. Sometimes you have to buy a certain product to trigger it, and sometimes they print just because. Hip2Save and krazycouponlady usually have lists for these and are really good at alerting everyone to what the latest ones are. Recently for Safeway and Albertsons they had a promotion where if you bought $25 worth of frozen food items, you got a $10 catalina to use on your next frozen food purchase. The $25 was before coupons, so I only spent $20 on frozen food items (thanks to coupons) and I got a $10 coupon back. It was awesome. :) These are easy ways to stock up on things as well, especially if they can be frozen or already are frozen.

Sometimes Catalinas do something called "rolling". This means that you get the Catalina and use it on the same type of items to get another Catalina. Sometimes Catalinas do not roll. Often, however, they do, so you would spend the dollar amount to get the first catalina and then be able to spend smaller amounts as you go. This is another one of my favorite ways to get cheap or free food. :)

Walgreens has what are called "Register Rewards". These are talked about in their ads every Sunday and print at the end of your transaction. They are for dollar amounts off your next purchase. Usually, Register Rewards do not roll, but they often do. You can use them to purchase just about anything at Walgreens (I like to use them to buy multiple copies of the Sunday paper) you just have to make sure you have one item for every coupon you're using. In other words, if you have three RR to use, you have to be buying three items. The same thing goes for other coupons, unless you are using a Walgreens coupon and a manufacturer's coupon on the same item (which you can do, as is stated in their policy). You cannot use a manufacturer's coupon and a RR on the same item (technically). Making sure you have more than one item for two coupons is called finding a "filler item". The filler item can be a .05 cent piece of candy, or something else you need. It doesn't matter, you just have to have enough items. :) It's a cheap way to get other things you need too. :)

Rite Aid, as I mentioned earlier, has coupons for dollar amounts off your purchase. Most commonly these are $5 off $20 or more purchase, or $3 off $15 or more purchase. What I do with these is I take them with me when I am going to coupon at Rite Aid. I make sure my purchases before coupons add up to $20 or $15 depending on what coupon I am trying to use, (before taxes, because they do have to add up to the purchase total before taxes). When I am at the total, I hand over my Rite Aid purchase coupon. After that has been deducted I hand over all my manufacturer's and other Rite Aid coupons. That way I save even more money. This is not against any Rite Aid coupon policy. :) You can get these coupons by going to the Rite Aid video values site or sometimes they are offered online at various places. :)
Usually you can use store amounts off purchases before coupons, but sometimes they are meant to be used after all other discounts. Hip2save and krazycouponlady are very good at explaining all that though, so you will know from the time you print the coupon whether or not you can use it before coupons. Rite Aid's $ off purchase coupons are always able to be used before coupons though. :D