These are the best deals happening this week at Rainbow and they look good!
You can read this for full details, but in essence Rainbow will double the face value of up to 5 coupons when the shelf price (which is usually the full price) totals $25 before coupons on Wednesdays. That means a $1 off coupon becomes like $2 off. Learn to read this shopping list here. You should be able to print each online coupon two times from each link using your browser’s back button and if you have problems printing these online coupons try the suggestions found here.
Your turn: How are you organizing your purchases so you can reach $25 more than once and do multiple transactions?
Meat
Hillshire Farms $2.99
Use $.55/1 from 8/16 Red Plum insert
Final price: $1.89 after doubled coupon
Tyson Chicken Nuggets $4.99
Use $1/1 from 8/2 Smart Source #2
Final price: $2.99 after doubled coupon
Freezer
Aunt Jemima Pancakes $1.50
Buy 2 and use $1/2 from 8/16 Smart Source insert
Final price: $0.50 each after doubled coupon
Lean Cuisine $2.00
Buy 3 and use $1/3 from 9/13 Red Plum #1
Final price: $1.33 each after doubled coupon
Dairy
Sunny D Smoothie $1.00
Use $.55/1 from 5/31 Smart Source or printable here
Final price: Free after doubled coupon
Trop50 $2.00
Use $1/1 from 9/13 Red Plum #2 or printable here
Final price: Free after doubled coupon
YoPlus and Fiber One Yogurt Multi-packs $2.00
YoPlus: $1/1 from 9/13 GM or printable here or here or here or here
Fiber One: $1/1 from 9/13 GM or printable here or here or here or here or here
Final price: Free after doubled coupon
Dannon Yogurt Cups $.49
Buy 10 and use $1/10 from 8/16 Smart Source or 9/13 Smart Source #1
Final price: $0.29 each after doubled coupon
Yoplait Grande! $2.00
Use $.55/1 printable here or after registering here and here
Select Organic Valley Products—on sale 20% off
Use $1/1 printables here
Final price: Varies
Grocery
Wish Bone Dressing $2.89
Buy 2 as they are on sale buy one, get one free and stack with
2 $1/1 from 6/28 Red Plum or 8/2 Red Plum inserts or $.75/1 printable here
Final price: Two free after doubled coupons
Zone Perfect $1.29
Buy 2 as they are on sale buy one, get one free and stack with
2 $.55/1 from 9/13 Smart Source #1
Final price: Two free after doubled coupon
Ronzoni Pasta $1.89
Buy 2 as they are on sale buy one, get one free and stack with
$1/2 printable here or after registering here
Final price: Two free after doubled coupon
Select Quaker Products $2.00
True Delights Granola Bars (if included): Use $1/1from 8/23 Red Plum insert or printable here
Chewy Granola Bars: Buy 2 and use $1/2 printable here
Final price: As low as free after doubled coupon
Smart Balance Peanut Butter $2.29
Use $1/1 printable here
Final price: $0.29 after doubled coupon
Special K Crackers $2.29
Use $1/1 printable here
Final price: $0.29 after doubled coupon
Smart Balance No Cooking Spray $2.49
Use $1/1 printable here (this coupon has reset!)
Final price: $0.49 after doubled coupon
Hormel Compleats $2.00
Use $.75/1 from 8/16 Smart Source #1
Final price: $0.50 after doubled coupon
Powerade $1.00
Buy 15 and use “Buy 10, get 5 free” coupon on an in-ad
Final price: $0.66 after coupon
Weight Watchers Candy $2.00
Use “Buy one, get one free” from 4/5 Smart Source #2
Final price: $1.00 each after doubled coupon
Aunt Jemima $2.00
Buy 2 and use $1/2 from 8/3- Red Plum insert
Final price: $1.00 each after doubled coupon
Healthy Choice Mixers $3.00
Use $2/1 printable here (not all Rainbow’s accept printed coupons above $1 in value)
Final price: $1.00 after coupon
Newman’s Own $2.39
Use $0.50/1 from 8/23 Red Plum insert
Final price: $1.39 after doubled coupon
Pompeian Olive Oil $3.99
Use $1/1 printable here
Final price: $1.99 after doubled coupon
Kashi Cereal or Granola—on sale 20% off
Any Kashi: Use $1.50/1 here (IE) or here (FF) or
Honey Sunshine Cereal: Use $1.50/1 printable here (not all Rainbow’s accept printed coupons above $1 in value) or “Try me free” or $1.50/1 from Vocalpoint mailer (if you received them) or
GoLean Crunch Cereal: Use $1/1 printable here
Final price: Varies
Country Choice Organic Cookies –on sale 20% off
Use $1/1 printable here
Final price: Varies
Household and Personal Care
Dawn $0.88 (Limit 1)
Use in-ad coupon for $0.88 price and stack with
$.25/1 from 8/30 PG insert
Final price: $.38 after doubled coupon
Oxi Clean Powder $2.50
Use $1/1 from 7/26 Smart Source insert
Final price: $0.50 after doubled coupon
Herbal Essence Shampoo, Conditioner and Hair Styling $2.77
Use $1/1 from 8/23 Red Plum or 9/13 Red Plum #2
Final price: $0.77 after doubled coupon**
**I usually get this kind of stuff free at CVS or Walgreens, but this is a good price if you need it
Fresh N Soft $2.50
Use $1/2 from 9/13 Smart Source #1 insert
Final price: $1.00 after doubled coupon
Pocket Your Dollars is part of BeCentsable’s Grocery Gathering, a compilation of shopping lists for stores nationwide. If you want a shopping list for a store not covered by Pocket Your Dollars, then check out the Grocery Gathering.
About Carrie Rocha
I organize my $25 purchases in my cart by taking one basket, this divides the cart into 3 areas, top, basket and remaining cart area. I bring my teen age kids and we each buy the limit which I tally on a tablet and when each area filled we each go through the line with our 5 $1 coupons each plus some other items we can’t pass by.
Speed Stick deodorant is also on sale B1G1 and there were 2 coupons ( I cannot remember which insert as I already had them cut out) which makes them free!
thanks, good week. the trop 50 Carrie predicted from this Sunday’s ad is even better
Barb, that is a great idea for organizing your cart into separate transactions. Nice, that you have teen kids who are willing to help with the shopping process! I take my husband along sometimes if I have more than 5 coupons I want doubled. He doesn’t seem to mind as long as he is in charge of the pizza-buying!
Gedney pickles are on sale 20% off and there are $1/2 coupons on their website. With the coupon doubled, this might be a good deal if you need pickles.
http://www.gedneypickle.com/
I typically only do 2 transactions in a trip because I’m shopping with my 2 yr old. I organize my list by transaction and divide my cart and purchases as I shop by those transactions (front & back) . I do the self check lanes and just tell the CS person that I’m doing 2 transactions.
I’ve got my shopping for tomorrow pretty much ready to go – yeah! It will only be one transaction and I am stocking up on the yogurt deals, but OOP should be about $11 after q’s.
btw Carrie – I shop at Pick n Save and I think all of your deals are the same except our flyer included a $3 coupon when you buy 5 for the Quaker Oats products. I planning on stacking for some of the Chewy granola bars (hoping that it works.) Our PNS flyers have been including mfr coupons lately that are good for more than the week that they are included in.
Valerie – We got that coupon too, but it is a manufacturer-issued coupon and won’t work stacked with other manufacturer coupons. $3 off 5 items is like $0.60/1 so I think doubling the others I mentioned is a better deal.
Hi Carrie. Thanks for all the hard work you do here! I really appreciate it!
Quick question: It there an “official” way to know that the $25 threshold is on the highest price, and not necessarily what rings up on the register? I don’t want to get a cashier who says that I can’t use my Qs because the total is only $20 when I have another transaction to do. Also, how does this work on the BOGO items? Does the 2nd free item count towards the $25?
Thanks!
i know that the BOGO free price for both items counts towards the $25 at Rainbow in Woobury and i am not a100% sure but i think whatever the sale price of that day is what counts towards it but that is what 2 cashiers have told me.
I have the same problem I have with Rainbow every week. I don’t have enough items to reach the $25. I have some $2 off coupon for Organic valley so I will hopefully use those to bring me up to $25. I guess only 1 transaction for me.
We also got a special flyer for a Rainbow in our neighborhood that just got done being remodled. It’s the Rainbow in St. Paul on Arcade St., and to celebrate they have some extra deals like 49 cent per pound whole fryers. It’s definitely worth checking out!
Carrie, You have probably answered this before, but how can we use 2 coupons when an item is buy one, get one free? Have you had any cashiers question this? If I do, what should I tell him/her? Thank you!
Melissa – a buy one, get one free sale is similar to a store-issued coupon in that the store absorbs the cost of the sale. The manufacturer pays for the manufacturer-issued coupon. All stores allow you to use both a store-issued coupon and a manufacturer-issued coupon at the same time on the same product and I am carrying that logic forward into the buy one, get one free sale. The store pays for the free item and the manufacturer reimburses the store for both coupons. Does that make sense?
Carrie – thanks for the feedback on the $3 coupon… I couldn’t make out the fine print on the version I got and wasn’t sure if the they would honor both.
For the others struggling to get to the $25, I will stock up on the meat that’s on sale that week to help get my total where it needs to be. I haven’t had to do that recently because my coupon stash is typically enough to get things to $25. Alot of the cereal type deals get you there quickly. When I do my planning I assume sale price to get to $25 because I’ve seen my store change regular price from one week to the next too much. I can’t make assumptions about the regular price because it’s not consistent. (which is a whole different infuriating topic of conversation!)
what am I doing wrong??
problem #1–I can’t find either of these in the flyers.
problem #2–when I try to print using the link it keeps telling me to install the printer( when I already have)
Dannon Yogurt Cups $.49
Buy 10 and use $1/10 from 8/16 Smartsource or 9/13 Smartsource #1
Trop50 $2.00
Use $1/1 from 9/13 Red Plum #2
If I’m having trouble getting to $25, I just ad in a giftcard. I’ve never been told I couldn’t do that.
Christina- buying a giftcard is a great idea to reach $25.
I called my Rainbow to ask what the policy was on the $25 threshold (whether they went by sale price or reg. price) and the woman I talked to said “I think it’s sale price.” I told her I had heard reg. price, so she checked and came back saying “it’s regular price” It would be nice if people working in the stores actually KNEW their coupon policies!
It is regular price…I had a cashier (in EP) tell me last week that my coupons weren’t going to doubled because it had to be $25 and the total showing up was only $15 (I had added up all of the regular prices so I knew it was over $25 but with the sales it was ringing up $15). I told her I thought it would work and explained…she ran my coupons and sure enough they doubled. She was surprised but I knew it would.
On a separate note I did get called unethical at Byerlys today for trying to use 2 coupons when it was a BOGO sale. =) I explained that I have done it several times before…earlier that week in that very store actually…and hadn’t had a problem but nevertheless I didn’t argue with her and just took one of my coupons back.
I’m having the same problem with Trop50 printable coupon. It keeps telling me i need to install coupon printer. Even tho i already had it, i did re-install it. Still kept saying install, so i restarted computer, then tried printing it again. It didn’t work. It still says to install.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Couldn’t get the Trop50 coupon to work for me either, several tries.
I’m thinking the printable Manufacturer coupon (double-able) for $1/1 Freschetta pizza combined with the sale price of 2/$10 sounds like a good deal to me @ $3 a pizza!
Wish I could find a coupon for the Bellatoria pizzas on sale. Anyone?
i did a Byerly’s deal this week and had the store manager ring my order, his badge said 12 years of service. he put through all my coupons for the BOGO stuff. no questions. i would insist that is not coupon fraud. one q per item and the store happens to have their own sale going on too.
I went and signed up on the Tropicana site and then tried printing the Trop 50 coupon and then didn’t have an issue. Hope that helps!
I was having a lot of coupon printing problems. Especially with the error that tells you to keep re-installing the printer, anything that uses Java and I could never use the back button to print coupons twice. Last week I downloaded Mozilla Firefox and use that Instead of Internet Explorer and I haven’t had a problem since. And my internet pages load a zillion times faster. Hope that helps!
If anyone has a mac and installed the new snow leopard that came out, oh about 2 weeks ago, the coupon printer does not work on that operating system. I e-mailed customer service at coupons.com to see when they will begin to support the new operating system and have not heard back. In the mean time, i’m lucky i still have an old desktop at home to print coupons on.
Not sure if any of you are mac users but I know that with the new snow leopard upgrade there are issues with the coupon printer on safari. It does seem to work most of the time with firefox. Hoping that the coupon printer people will upgrade their program to work with snow leopard soon!
FYI for any Freschetta pizza lovers, there are $1.00 off coupons on the boxes @ Rainbow in Chaska.
going to rainbow tonight and if my math is right I should get $153 worth of groceries for $25!! Rock on! One set came out to -$0.94 (that’s negative!) but in order to not create issues I am getting another pound of grapes.
Can’t wait to see if I got it right… I will update tonight.
I am having it out with my Rainbow today!! Apparently other people that use my rainbow get the “shelf price” but I have tired MANY times and it never works for me. My question for you all with the shelf price how do you know ahead of time? I do plan on taking a calculator with me and I will even purposely go over the $25 and get at least $26 so I know for sure I am over $25. I have to go twice so I may do both cashier and self check out. I’ll let you all know what happens. Wish me luck!
@Becky- If you get the Pioneer Press you will not have these coupons. I get PP and am often disappointed when I can’t find a coupon. I actually do not like ST so I stick with PP and if the coupons are really good then I buy a ST in the store. I am on coupon trains (on other sites) so I rely on that to get those elusive coupons.
Ruth – leave a post tomorrow and let us know.
I had 3 awesome trips to Rainbow. I spent a total of $38.49 for $115.43 worth of groceries. Free bananas and free deodorant. If you’re buying Kellogg’s cereal watch for the packages that have the $5 coupon book in them. The coupons are for $1 off 1 box. Not my best day ever, but I was so excited that I took a picture and put it on my Facebook wall. The big bummer was that the Rainbow that I went to didn’t even carry the Tropicana 50 oj, and I really don’t feel like making another trip today.
Trident Gum on clearance for .69- buy 3- use $1 off 3 coupon- double it -tax only
Tabasco coupon .75–Tabasco is 1.45 –Free
Thanks Anita, I seriously thought my eye sight was bad…never dawned on me that the coupons would be different …makes it a little more of a challange.
I see I’m still very new at this…I was so excited that my savings, $37, was more that I spent, $24, just now at Rainbow.
Joanna please tell me HOW you could spend so little? You can only double 5 coupons so maybe you could email me your list or something? I think I am doing well until I see how much you are saving. Just trying to get the hang of this. THANKS!!!
Hi, Patty– you can only double 5 per transaction, but I bet Joanna is doing multiple transactions, and doubling each time. Many of us do this–I take my spouse/teens along or do 2 back-to-back trans. myself (though I still feel slightly nervous doing so!) This method is complicated for me, and takes some time to figure out. Hats off to the pros on the list who are doing this so smoothly!
Yaay! ;) Got $119 of groceries for $69 at Rainbow today! That’s a savings of $50!!!! The most i’ve saved sofar using PYD, doubled coupons, & Rainbow customer savings card. Plus, got some great freebies. :)
All thanks to your help Carrie. You are an angel ! ;)
Smiles & Hugs,
Heather =)
Can anyone tell me what the benefit of having a Rainbow card is? The first time I went to Rainbow (month or so ago) I was told that it was only good to have if I was going to get my gas from Rainbow…since I wasn’t…I didn’t get the card. But, everytime the cashier asks me, I wonder if I’m missing something….TIA
Someone was looking for Prego coupons. At the Rainbow on Arcade there is a display by the cheese aisle with 3 coupons.
1. save $1 on 2 Prego
2. save $1 on any pasta when you buy one Kraft Parmesan Cheese
3. save $1 on 2 Pepperidge Farm Frozen Breads.
Well my math was a little off but not much. I did get screwed up by the store being out of Quaker oatmeal and the Quaker true delights bars not being part of the promo. So I made few changes on the fly.
My total= $162.23 shelf price +tax
OOP= $39.29
savings of = $122.94 or 76% woohoo!!
Not to bad this week at Rainbow.
Thanks for all your help Carrie!
Just FYI when I did my third trip through Rainbow today I used 2 Lunchables coupons ($1/1) as a back-to-school treat for my kiddos…and with my receipt I received TWO register-generated “$1 off any mdse” coupons good for a future purchase! That was an unexpected bonus. :-D Net cost: $.49 per Lunchable.
p.s.–This morning I was behind some ‘seasoned veterans’—a mother/daughter team. I was in awe (although others were irritated, they rang up a LOT of transactions in a row). I realized I was calculating my $25 by the sale price instead of regular price. I still saved a ton, though. Thanks, Carrie!
Tiff the Rainbow card is so you can accumulate money off of gas at BP gas stations. I saved mine until I was up to .70 off per gallon. I am in SLP and had to go to Edina to get gas, but my cost ended up being 1.89 a gallon. There is a flier in the stores that tell you which stations participate.
Patty, SarahBB and others – Yes, I do multiple transactions. This week I did 3. My first trip in, I did 2 orders at once just separating them on the belt. I took those to my car and came back and did one more. On each of my transactions I doubled 5 – $1 off coupons, but had several other coupons for my filler items to reach the $25. I know there is debate about whether to use the sale price or the shelf price to reach the $25, but I plan out my transactions and know the exact amount I will spend minus tax. In order to be that precise I plan by the sale price because most of the time the shelf price is not listed in the ad. For those of you newbies, just keep it up – you will have lots of frustrations, but after a few weeks or months, you’ll get the hang of it. Good luck!
It worked for me this week with shelf price. I did have to alter my plans as I couldn’t ge tto the store until after 8pm and they were wiped!! More people taking advantage of doubles. My shelf price was around $27 and the sale price was $20. I paid $8.47.
Joanna and others— You can get a target shelf prices off the adds becasue they usually say how much you save by buying “X” amount, then you divide that number by “X”. It’s usually within a dime or so. So you can get a pretty accurate estimate at home for shelf price on slae items. I then record the actual shelf price at the store and then keep a record at home for future reference. I also shop with my calculator out and double check my home version as I shop and will fill in any gaps with produce or fruit. Hope this helps. Happy hunting.
Ruth – thanks for the awesome advice! That will be my next step.
Ewww. I’m about to see how my Rainbow’s customer service operates as this morning I opened a pork roast I bought on sale last Wed and it REEKS. Blech. Sale/freeze by date is today, so am hoping they will replace with a fresh roast.
Update: No hassles to return pork roast. Yay!