Safeway weekly deals: November 11-17 including Home for the Holidays promotion

Whew! It’s been quite a month of grocery sales and I’ll just say I’m plain tuckered out from writing grocery ad reviews! For Safeway’s deals this week, I’m just going to feature the Home for the Holidays promotion. There are other good deals in the ad, so be sure to check them out by viewing the entire ad.

If you want to know if something’s a good deal, you can leave a comment, or better yet, use the search tool on the right sidebar to see what past prices have been!

Home for the Holidays Promotion

It’s the second week of Safeway’s Home for the Holidays promotion – buy $25 in participating products, earn a $5 catalina for use on your next order.  Some of you requested I share how I thought this could be a good deal and how to get up to $25, so here you go!

Here’s what I did:

I purchased C&H sugar (used printables from RedPlum.com and insert coupons), Duncan Hines brownie mixes (used insert coupons), Gold Medal Flour (used printables from EatBetterAmerica.com).  Between multiple insert coupons and printables, I had quite a few coupons.

My subtotal after sale prices was $25.90.  After coupons, it was $14.50, and then when you figure in the savings from the catalina I earned, my net cost was $9.50.

Now, if you don’t have multiple coupons, you won’t be able to do quite as well, but there are still some great deals.  Remember that if you don’t have the coupons and need to stockpile those items, in many cases you would be just fine to go ahead and stockpile them without using coupons.  We may or may not see this prices again when we have a coupon, so you’ll need to decide if it’s wise to go ahead and stock up even if you only have one coupon.

I went ahead and ordered some extra coupons so I can stock up.  I don’t mention “ordering coupons” often because I think it’s better overall to just buy extra newspapers, but if you really want to stock up you might look into it.  Here are the sites that I have used in the past and have been satisfied with: The Coupon Clippers, Collectable Coupons, and Coupons By Dede.  Just remember that the cost of these coupons goes into your grocery budget, just like the cost of your extra newspapers!

Here is a complete list of participating products from Hot Coupon World (MS Excel file).  Hundreds to choose from, please leave a comment if you see any that are hot deals!

Some important information you’ll want to keep in mind:

• Your savings percentage if you got to $25 exactly would be 20% after you figure the savings from the catalina you’ll be able to use on the next order.  Of course, your savings percentage goes down the farther away you get from $25.
• You can only do this deal once per transaction – if you buy $50 worth in participating products, you’ll still only get on catalina.  Break it up into as-close-to-$25-as-you-can-get transactions to maximize your savings.
• I don’t recommend trying to do multiple transactions at once with this promotion since it is difficult to separate orders when you are counting dollars and not items.
• Your savings from the catalina won’t be reflected until the next order.  You won’t really save $5 on your first order, you’ll earn the catalina on your first order and then use it for your next order.
• You should roll this catalina for maximum savings.  Buy $25, earn a $5 catalina, then take that $5 catalina and use it to purchase $25 more.  You’ll earn another $5 catalina… rinse and repeat.
• Your $25 total purchase of participating products is before coupons.
• Typically on sales that are B1G1 free or B2G3 free, only the products that you pay for are actually counted towards the deal.  So if BC frostings are B2G3 free, only the first two will count toward your $25 purchase.
• The Home for the Holidays promotion runs through 11/29.
• If this totally confuses you, or you still don’t understand how it could save you money, consider attending the workshop on November 21st!

Ready for the deals?  Here you go!

Nestle Baking Morsels $2.50
Use 50¢/1 insert coupon
Net cost at checkout: $1.50 plus catalina savings
Rating: 3 – cheaper at King Soopers

Gold Medal Flour $1.50
Use 50¢/1 printable
Net cost at checkout: 50¢ plus catalina savings
Rating: 5

Betty Crocker Frostings Buy 2 Get 3 Free
Use two 50¢/1 printables from Coupons.com or insert coupons
Net cost at checkout: ?
Rating: Not sure since I can’t remember the price, but it’s probably a great deal! Need to confirm that they are still B2G3 free this week.

C&H Powdered and Brown Sugar, 2 lbs $1.69
Use 45¢/1 printable from RedPlum.com
Net cost at checkout: 79¢ plus catalina savings
Rating: 4.5

Argo Cornstarch $1.50? (need to confirm price)
se 50¢/1 insert coupon
Net cost at checkout: 50¢, plus catalina savings
Rating: 5

Duncan Hines Brownie Mix $1
Use 55¢/2 insert coupon
Net cost at checkout: 50¢ each plus catalina savings
Rating: 5

Betty Crocker Cake Mix 89¢ plus catalina savings
Rating: 4

Safeway Sugar, 5 lbs $1.99 plus catalina savings
Rating: 4

Betty Crocker Speciality Potatoes $1.50
Use 40¢/1 from Coupons.com
Net cost at checkout: 70¢ plus catalina savings (check for [cellfire] and Shortcuts e-coupons, too!)
Rating: 3.5

Hefty Foam Plates (50 ct) or Plastic Cups (30 ct) $1.50 plus catalina savings
Rating: 4? – just compared to Sam’s Club’s prices and the plates are 1.1¢ per plate cheaper than Sam’s, cups appear to still be quite a bit cheaper at Sam’s if you buy the off brand.

This weekly ad review is part of BeCentsAble’s Grocery Gathering.