Target lesson

I decided to try out couponing at Target, I had a lot of fun with the deals below...

But on a side note; I haven't been grocery shopping since my last post, minus a quick trip to the park city grocery store for some cabin essentials....which were free with my $30 catilina's! (see earlier post)

But the point is that I've been stocked up so well that I haven't had to go grocery shopping for 2 and 1/2 weeks. And I needed a coupon break! (Remember I get my milk and eggs and bread home deliver style.) But Kevin and I got our coupon clipping skills re-energized and spent 4 hours or so organizing, clipping, sorting, comparing, preparing and now we're ready to hit 3 stores this week with our lists and coupons at the ready!

And technically I didn't HAVE to go last night, my mom had an errand for me to run at Target so I decided to try the coupon "stacking" there for the first time! Back to business....

Remember Target has their own coupons available online and other places and you can stack manufacturer coupons with those for the same item for double coupon savings.

Here's some deals I found across the blogosphere.....

I think this is going to be a great week at Target.

Target just released their new store coupons.

Here’s the list:

50¢ off Purchase of two Hamburger Helper boxed dinners
Use with $0.75/3 printable coupon

50¢ off Hellmann’s mustard
75¢ off Breyers ice cream
75¢ off Frozen popsicle product
$1 off Purchase of two 10-oz. or larger General Mills cereals
Use with $1/2 printable coupons here and here or from 8/23 inserts

$1 off With purchase of two Market Pantry® cheese products

(In the past this has made single string cheese sticks free)

50¢ off I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter
Use with $0.75/1 printable coupon

75¢ off With purchase of two 14-oz. or larger RAGU sauces
Use with $1/2 coupon from 8/2 RP insert

1.50 off Bertolli frozen pasta meal
Use with $1/1 printable coupon
75¢ off With purchase of two Wishbone salad dressings

$1 off Slim Fast weight-loss product
Use with $1.25/1 coupon from 6/28 RP Insert

Get a $5 Target Gift Card when you buy 5 of the Following:

Get a $5 Target Gift card when you buy 4 Special K items listed below

(11.4 to 13.4 oz cereal, 6ct bars and selected others) $2.39/each

Deal Idea for Cereal

$9.56 when you buy four boxes of special K Blueberry-

$4 Use four $1/1 printable coupons

(you will need two computers to be able to print four coupons)

Pay $5.56 out of pocket and get a $5 Target Gift Card back.

That’s like paying $0.14 per box

Deal Idea for Granola Bars$9.56 when you buy four boxes of Special K Bars (8ct)- $2 when you use two $1/2 printable coupons on Coupons.com or from 8/2 RP inserts and-$2 when you use four $0.50/1 Target Kelloggs Grain Snack printable coupons= $5.56 out of pocket and get a $5 Target Gift Card back. That’s like paying $0.14 per box

Another Deal Idea for Granola Bars

$9.56 when you buy four boxes of Special K Bars Chocolatey Pretzel (8ct)-

$3 when you use four $0.75/1 printable coupons on Coupons.com-

$2 when you use four $0.50/1 Target

Kelloggs Grain Snack printable coupons=

$4.56 out of pocket and get a $5 Target Gift Card back.

That’s FREE!!

14-oz. Häagen-Dazs or 1.5-quart Edy’s ice cream,

4-ct. Nestlé Drumstick treats and selected others.

$12.50 when you buy five Edy’s Ice Cream (1.5 qt) – $2.50/ea

Use five$1/1 coupons in 8/23 Red Plum insert

PLUS Use $1/1 Target printable coupon

Pay $2.50 out of pocket and get a $5 Target GC back!
You can also grab Nestle Drumsticks for fairly cheap with this $1/1 printable coupon.

What’s Very Cheap

Aveeno Baby products $3.50Use $2/1 manufacturer printable coupon

Use $$1/1 Target printable couponPay $0.50 each after coupons

Bananas – $0.56/lb

Use $0.50/1 lb Target printable couponPay $0.06/lb

International Delight $1.15

Use $1/1 printable coupon

Pay $0.15 each after coupon

Hungry Hippos Travel Game $4.99

Use $4/1 printable coupon

Pay $0.99 after coupon (great stocking stuffer!)

Kellogg’s Cinnabon Bars–$1.75-$2 (price varies at some Target stores)

Use $0.50/1 Kellogg’s Grain Snacks Target coupon

Stack with $1/1 printable coupon

Pay $0.25-$0.50 after coupons

Kellogg’s Yogos–$1.75

Use $0.50/1 Target Kellogg’s Fruit Snacks printable coupon

Stack with $0.50/1 manufacturer printable coupon

Pay $0.75 after coupons

A-1 Steak Sauce $2.09

Use $2/1 coupon from the 8/16 SS insert

Pay $0.09 after coupon

Dove Visibly Smooth Deodorant $3.29.

Use $2/1 manufacturer’s printable coupon

Use $1/1 Target coupon here

Pay $0.29 each.

Skittles Crazy Cores--$0.52 (in the checkout lanes)

Use $1/1 Target coupon here

Free plus possible overage

Starkist Tuna Pouches-$1.33

Use $0.50/1 Target coupon here (the pouches are over 11 oz.)

Stack with $0.50/1 manufacturer's coupon here

(You can go to play every day so you should be able to print one coupon per day.)

$0.33 after coupons

Baked Lays Chips--$2.33Use $0.50/1 Target coupon here

Stack with $1/1 manufacturer's coupon here

(Click on the floating dollar sign.)

$0.83 after coupons

Thanks to Discount Queens and Common Sense with Money

for putting together this list of great deals above.

But I definatly spent way more than I wanted to when I went.... and the receipts there are weird for sure. It doesn't seem to minus the target coupons from the original prices to give me my actual saved total so I will re-add some things to be sure it's right/ and update the savings total when I have more time....

Here's some examples of the confusing receipt items....

Here, for Starkist Tuna Packages, I had a mfr coupon for .50 each and a Target coupon for $1 off wyb 3 tuna packs.....

According to my calculations when stacking the .50 coupon and 1/3 of the $1 off (.33) that's .73 off each package....so the tuna should've been .50 each, for a total of $1.50 for three, but here it says it's 2.99 package total??? I don't know what's going on here...

Another example?

Purina Dog food $29.89 original; target coupon $2.00 off, MFR coupon 3.00 off, that looks okay here but see how the original price LOOKS like it was 27.89? When the receipt calculates the total savings, I'm not sure it's including the target $2.00 off coupon.

I actually had 3 $3.50 coupons so the item should have been free! (well, .50 cent overage actually stacked with my $1.50 coupon....but It's only showing one here, so I don't know what happened!

Here's some Dove deodorant, you can see I got these for .29 each.... cool!

Here's the total shopping order; $118.82, with a savings of 82.00. or 41% off; not bad! But my goal is 50-75% off total, but sometimes you have to be okay with mediocre :)

Here's my receipt.....

As I was shopping and mentally calculating I only thought I'd spend about $50 with coupons, so I'm not sure how excited I am about going back to Target again....I'm not the type to go spend another 1/2 hour fighting with the customer service desk over incorrect coupons that the cashier has already put in his coupon drawer.... I really don't like dealing with "Mr Fabulous" at their cs desk, anyone who goes to the Layton target and has dealt with him knows what I mean! :)

So in conclusion..... if coupons and deals don't work like they "should", or if some don't get added in and I have to fight for my rights; I just go to places that DO work for like they should without too much effort on my part. I will give Target another chance, and go when I only need a couple of items; and go without my 4 year old....maybe you have to hand them all the mfgr coupons first, then the Target ones for the deals to work? Hmmmm.....

Have any of you had better luck at Target?