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I think we can all agree by now that I am just a bit obsessed with couponing. I will admit that I have calmed down a bit recently (because of the Pantry Challenge . . . or at least my very tiny effort at following the Pantry Challenge). I am getting back in the saddle, though, so you may have to put up with more sweet stories of how I feed my family of 4 on a budget of $200 a month.

Or, maybe just the photos.

Here ya go:

What are you looking at? Oh, just about SEVENTEEN (17) bags of shredded cheese that I picked up for free yesterday. No biggie.

{screeeeech!} WHAT? Free cheese?

Um, no. It gets better.

Here’s the story:

I’ve been slacking on my couponing lately. I haven’t even bought Sunday papers in the month of January until yesterday. Something about being out of money in that envelope? . . . . I dunno.

So, on Saturday night, my local coupon blog (Frugal Living NW) posts this AWESOME Kraft cheese promotion that a local store is doing. It will only work on SUNDAY (yesterday), so I needed to be prepared.

The promotion was this:

Fred Meyer had an in-ad coupon (coming in the Sunday paper) for Kraft Naturals Shredded cheese for only $1.25 a bag.
PLUS
There is a $5 Catalina printing when you buy 5 Kraft cheese products (this expired on Sunday).
PLUS
We could stack the store coupon with a manufacturer’s coupon. (eeek!!) There were new $1/2 ($1 off of 2) Kraft coupons in yesterday’s paper (which I buy 4 of), PLUS an internet printable (IP) for $1/2. Plus, I still had the IP from last month. So, I had 8 $1/2 coupons at my disposal.

If you just use the coupons, you are only paying .75¢ per bag of cheese (an awesome deal), but if you bought 5 bags in a single transaction yesterday you earned a $5 Catalina!! So, you spend $4.25 on the first transaction, and get a $5 Catalina. You use that to pay for a second transaction and so on and so on. You ROLL your Catalinas to maximize savings. Love this!!

Problem is, it didn’t work for me. We went up to the register with our bags of cheese and additional “filler” items to take care of the overage. (Oranges are on sale for .33¢ a pound!) I did the first transaction: 5 bags of cheese, hand them the store coupon, hand them two IPs, pay $4.25 OOP and NO Catalina prints!! {gasp!}

This has happened to me before, so I went to a different register for the next transaction, thinking that the Catalina printer at that last register must have been broken. I gave them 6 bags of cheese, 4 oranges, 1 store coupon and 3 manufacturer’s coupons (MC). I pay $5.33 OOP and NO Catalina prints!

At this point, we decided to leave the additional 6 bags of cheese and oranges at the register. You have to be willing to walk away from a deal that doesn’t work, people. Mitch started heading out to the car, then I stopped and said, “What am I thinking? .75¢ for a bag of cheese is still a stock up price! I’m going back.”

So, I grabbed my cheese and oranges and went to a third register. The Catalina did NOT print. I figured that I must have done something wrong or maybe my fav coupon blog was wrong.

I ended up spending $14.90 on 17 bags of shredded cheese and 8 oranges. I was sorta in panic mode, because I was NOT planning to spend that much money that day. It actually kept me up last night. (sheesh!)

However, as soon as I could, I hopped onto the computer to check out the comments from others who tried the deal. For about 1/2 of them, the Catalina printed, so I KNOW it should have worked. I called the Catalina company this morning (they are so nice) and explained how I even went to 3 different registers and it didn’t print.

He told me that the Catalina should have printed, so they are going to send me $15 in Catalinas!!

I’m so excited about this! FREE cheese!!

Now, don’t you wish you had been reading your coupon blogs on Saturday night? It pays to be crazy!

On a separate, but related note, Frugal Living NW is coming to my little town tomorrow (Tuesday) night to teach a coupon class! If you are interested in learning how to cut your grocery budget in half (or more), go to their site and register!!

AND, I ran again today. I feel great!