A few weeks ago, Acme was paying me to take Progresso soup off their hands. $3 for every 8 cans, if I recall correctly. So I ended up with lots of catalinas from that deal, and 200 cans of soup. Last week it was the P&G deal, so I stocked up on Bounty, Tide and Swiffer. And while there were only a few limited freebies to be had (Olay cleansers), the stuff was very, very cheap and I had $60 in catalinas from that deal. I wanted to use those on the General Mills deal this week. But I slightly screwed up. In my mind, I kept thinking that I had to get my shelf-spending threshhold to $25. But it was only $20. The P&G deal was spend $25, get $10, so mentally I guess I was stuck in that deal. This one is spend $20, get $5. Oh well, all the GM stuff I got yesterday was still free, thanks to the other cats I had from P&G. I just could have used them a bit more efficiently if I had only reached $20 on my transactions. Those of you that know me personally know that my plate was pretty full this week, so it was a logical mistake. I’m going to do a few more transactions this week.

Got the winter blahs? Want to get out? I do! We’re going to the PA Farm Show. The kids like seeing the animals, I like the food. Free admission, though it is $10 to park. Check it out, it’s lots of fun.

I also heard on TV this morning that the Camden Aquarium is running a special today, only $10 to get in. I didn’t hear all the details, so check out their website for details.

I had to take my son to his horseback riding appt this morning, so while I was waiting in the lobby, I planned out my Acme transactions. I really should have taken a picture, but it’s all put away now. I did four separate transactions. The first three were back-to-back transactions of only the GM deal. Then I took that out to my car and went back in to do my regular weekly trip, but added another GM deal into that purchase. At the end of it all……….

13 bags of the Nature Valley granola clusters
6 cans of Progresso soup ( I soooo did NOT need this! ha ha)
1 box of Bisquick
21 Yoplait yogurts
8 boxes of cheerios
8 boxes of honey nut cheerios
18 boxes of toaster strudel
That’s my item total from four of the General Mills Deals–
All free! Only paid a bit of change out of pocket, paid for the rest with coupons and catalinas. I also now have seven of the 50 point Box Tops for Education slips too…..so Kevin’s school also gained an extra $35.

I was able to double dip on the Nature Valley stuff, so those were better than free–we money makers.

My last transaction was $106, but included my weekly stuff–milk, produce, etc. After sales, coupons and catalinas, it was down to $38. And I still have about $23 worth of catalinas. I think I may go back and sigh…get more soup. I probably have over 200 cans of Progresso in my basement, but it is a moneymaker, and my school is doing a canned food drive soon so I’ll donate it.

I had a great cashier, he called me coupon-shopper-extraordinaire!

Tomorrow starts a new ad at Acme, and a new catalina deal. Spend 20 on GM products, get $5 oyno. As always, should work on shelf prices. *Warning* Since I last posted deals like these, we couponers have realized that knockdown prices at Acme count at the knockdown price number, not shelf price.

Here is the list of participating items, credit given where credit is due.

So start clipping those GM coupons from last weekend. Then go shop! Get your total up to $20 using shelf prices, then start subtracting. You’ll pay sale price, minus any coupons, then receive $5 back.

If you like those fruit thingys, there are double dip deals on those. If you buy five of them, you should receive two catalinas.

Good luck & happy couponing!