If you are going to be going to Safeway today or tomorrow, you might want to consider these two catalina coupons that are available. They both end on 5/27 (Thursday), so you will have to act quick if you want to take advantage of them.

Hamburger Helper Catalina Coupon

Buy 4 boxes of Hamburger Helper through Thursday 5/27 and receive a catalina coupon for $2 off your next purchase of ground beef.

Buy 4 boxes of Hamburger Helper at $0.99
Use $1.00 off 3 Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, or Chicken Helper (IE) or (FF) (Bricks)
Use (if you have) $1 off 1 Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, or Chicken Helper from General Mills Spanish Que Rica Vida (sign up here to get future coupons)
Also Available: $0.75 off 3 Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, or Chicken Helper from SmartSource 4/11 and 5/2 Sunday paper inserts
Final Price: As low as $2.00 for four ($0.50 each), plus $2 ground beef Catalina)

General Mills Cereal / Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks Catalina Coupon

Buy 3 General Mills Cereals or Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks through Thursday 5/27, and receive a catalina coupon for a free box of Nature Valley Granola Bars:

The best deal is the Betty Croker fruit snacks, but it really isn’t much of a deal since you can often get these for $0.50 or less each — but if you happen to need any of these:

Buy 3 Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks at $1.99
Use $1.00 off 2 any flavor Fruit Roll-Ups Mini Rolls Fruit Flavored Snacks from the ShrekTacular Savings booklet
And load $0.50 off 2: Betty Crocker Fruit Roll Ups, Gushers, eCoupon: (shortcuts.com)
Final Price: $4.47 for three ($1.49 each), plus Free box of Nature Valley Granola Bars Catalina)

There is a new coupon booklet beginning to show up in the dairy sections at Safeway (and all Safeway affiliated stores: Vons, Dominick’s, Genuardis, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Pavailions and Carrs) – it’s pretty big and hard to miss — called “Add Dairy to Your Summer Adventure” and contains over $26 in coupon savings including Safeway store coupons and lots of recipes. All expire 7/31/2010:

The following coupons are included in the booklet:

$1 off 2 Kraft cheese singles (10.5 oz or larger)
$1 off 2 Kraft Natural Shredded cheese (6 oz or larger)
$1 off 2 Jello Gelatin, Mousse or Pudding snacks
$1 off 2 Knudsen or Breakstone’s sour cream or cottage cheese (16 oz or larger)
$1 off 2 Lucerne cheese (16 oz shredded or chunk) — Safeway Store Coupon
$1 off 2 Lucerne cream cheese — Safeway Store Coupon
$1 off 2 Lucerne sour cream (16 oz) — Safeway Store Coupon
$1 off 2 multi-pack Eating Right Pro-biotic Yogurt — Safeway Store Coupon
$1 off 2 Lucerne non dairy creamer (32 oz) — Safeway Store Coupon
$0.50 off 1 or $1 off 2 Lucerne Creamery fresh Ice Cream (1.5 – 1.75 quart) — Safeway Store Coupon
$1 off 2 Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Sorbet or Frozen Yogurt
$1 off 1 Nestle Coffee Mate liquid creamer
$1 off 5 Weight Watchers yogurt cups (6 oz)
$1 off 2 Florida’s Natural premium not from concentrate juice
$1 off any 2 lb baby Loaf of Tillamook Cheese
$1 off 2 Chobani Yogurt (32 oz)
$1 off 2 Sargento Natural Deli Style sliced cheese (any variety 5 oz or larger)
$1 off 1 Sorrento or Precious fresh mozzarella or ciliengini
$1 off 2 Kozy Snack (22 oz tubs or 6 packs)
$1 off 2 Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough (any variety)
$1 off 10 Yoplait Yogurt cups (any variety)
$1 off 2 popsicle Ice Pops and Fudgsicle Ice Pops multi packs
$0.55 off 1 Promise Spread product
$0.50 off 1 Fage Total Yogurt
$0.55 off 1 Silk Soymilk half gallon
$0.50 off 2 Simply 100% Juices (1.75 L)
$0.50 off 1 Land O Lakes butter
$0.55 off 1 International Delight (pint)
$0.55 off 1 Horizon Organic Milk (half gallon)
$0.55 off 1 Simply Hashbrowns
$0.55 off 1 Crystal farms all whites

They also have an instant win game that you can enter daily at Dairy Adventure where they are giving away thousands of prizes. Definitely worth picking up a few if you use any of the above products.

I mentioned during my Eating Well On $1 A Day Challenge that men don’t buy tampons and my succumbing to buying tampons for a jar of free peanut butter. One of the comments on that post was from Julinda who said:

My sister is poor and frequently visits a food pantry. She, like many other women, would appreciate your womanly products donation. She has gone without the items she needs, which is sad in this day and age. I try to help her when I can. Thank you on behalf of the woman that will use it.

Safeway had Carefree pantiliners on sale for $0.99 this week and I had 39 coupons from inserts I had collected for $1.00 off 1. Even though I knew this and had read the words from Julinda’s comment, I had no plan on buying them. Getting one package of tampons for a jar of peanut butter was completely different than walking up to the cash register with 39 packages of pantiliners. I was embarrassed enough with one in my basket and so buying a bunch wasn’t even a consideration.

This afternoon I was talking with a group of friends and telling them my tampon for peanut butter story. One friend asked if getting tampons and pantiliners for free was common. I said I didn’t know since I really didn’t pay attention to when they went on sale, but mentioned the Safeway deal and how I could buy a bunch, but that would really be embarrassing. She looked back at me and said in a stone serious face, “How embarrassed do you think those women are that are unable to pay for sanitary items when their period comes each month?”

I was ashamed. Yes, it would be slightly embarrassing for me to put 39 pantininer packages into a shopping cart and buy them, but it’s a pretty pitiful embarrassment compared to how women in that situation must feel. And so this evening I went pantiliner shopping buying 39 packages worth $82.00 for $0.18 :

I don’t think I will ever be ashamed of buying tampons or pantiliners again…

I hope that you take a look in your cupboards to see if there is any extra food that you can spare. If I can can spare some food from my meager resources this month, I am sure that you can find at least a couple of cans of food to help those in need as well.

On my trip to Safeway today to get some more food for my Eating Well On $1 A Day Challenge, I came across a booklet of coupons on the end of one of the aisles called “Shrek-Tacular Savings” with $10 in coupons inside. I grabbed a few and will continue to look out for them on each trip because there is a good chance that I may be able to use a couple of them for the $1 A Day challenge or for the food banks. The coupon booklet includes the following coupons (all expire 6/13/10):

$1 off 2 boxes of Total cereal
$1 off 2 bags of 19oz – 24 oz Green Giant Frozen Bagged vegetables
$1 off Yoplait Go-Gurt Yogurt
$1 off 2 boxes of Fruit Roll Ups
$1 off 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Box Supreme Brownie Mix
$1 off a 40 oz or larger Bisquick pancake mix
$1 off 2 Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods
$1 off 2 Pillsbury sweet rolls
$1 off 2 boxes of any type Cheerios cereal
$1 off 2 boxes of General Mills “sugar” cereals

Keep an eye out because these coupons could be great to have for some stockpiling (or getting food to donate to your local food bank) in the weeks to come.

There will be times when you end up at the grocery store with no shopping plan in place. Due to time restraints, you failed to review the sales flyer and you rushed out without any of your coupons. It could be that you’re on vacation and in a town that’s unfamiliar. You may even be in the grocery store without a well thought out shopping list.

Even when you aren’t prepared, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still make the grocery shopping economical and not a waste of money. When you find that you have arrives at the grocery store without a battle plan, there are still a number of steps that you can take to reduce your the amount you spend at the grocery store:

Buy store brands
Pay attention to the sale prices
Use your loyalty card for discounts or rebates
Look for coupons along the aisles or on products
Buy in bulk, or at least price compare the various sizes
Look for BOGO offers
Stick to the outside aisles of the store
Don’t buy more than you need for this trip
Don’t assume that, “special” means sale
Look for displays selling damaged or about to expire foods
Watch for pricing mistakes
Don’t buy more than you have to

Keep these steps in mind when you do find that you are in the grocery store unprepared so that you don’t pay more than you have to.

You can read the full article and details on each of the above steps to reduce the grocery shopping when unprepared at saving advice