How to Find, Use and Benefit from Catalina Coupons

Catalina coupons are another great way to get discounted or free items at the grocery store. Each Catalina is printed based on a product and the number of the product that you purchase. For example, if you purchase two or three of an item you will receive a $1.50 off your next order Catalina but bumping the number up to four will generate a $2.00 Catalina instead.

If you look at the register in most grocery stores, you will see a small box that has a large green light on it sitting next to the cash register. This little magic box is a Catalina machine. When you purchase the correct item in the correct number, a Catalina coupon will print out for a certain amount of money off of your next order. It is printed on register tape like paper and usually has the store logo and instructions printed right on the front along with the amount and any restrictions for use.

The goal of couponing is to cut your grocery bill. Since Catalina coupons are based on products that are purchased, the key to utilizing these coupons to your advantage is only get them for products that you are going to purchase anyway. For example, if you have a dog and find that there is a Catalina for Purina dog food, you are going to want to take advantage of that Catalina opportunity if the price on the dog food is right. If you do not have a dog then it would be counterproductive for you to take advantage of that particular Catalina deal. It would cost you money in the long run.

Seasoned couponers know that sometimes it isn’t a good deal no matter how you look at it. If the product is not on sale and there is no coupon for it, unless it is something that is necessary for the moment, it may be better to pass on it at that time and wait for the next time it comes around. If there is a coupon for the product and it is on sale with a Catalina deal, then you just hit the couponing jackpot! That is the time to stock up and reap the benefits of free money!

The main benefit of learning and using the Catalina coupon system is that it gives you money to purchase items that are hard or impossible to get coupons for like meat or fresh produce. Most of these coupons will vary in value from $1.50 to $3.00 each. Occasionally a store will run a special where the Catalina can be worth quite a bit more. The key is to balance the number of items that you will purchase to your family’s needs and look at the Catalina coupons as a bonus.

Determining how many of any one particular deal a person will want to acquire depends on a few different factors. Is the product that has to be purchased to get the deal perishable? Is there enough room to store the product that has to be purchased to generate the number of deals that you want? What is the final cost of the product that has to be purchased? All three of these questions should be answered when looking at any Catalina deal.

A non perishable item such as Kleenex is on sale for 99 cents with a regular, non sale price of $2.49. There are coupons available for 50 cents off the Kleenex. There is a Catalina deal for $1.50 off your next order when you purchase three. If four or more are purchased, the coupon goes up to $2.00 and finally if six or more boxes of Kleenex are purchased a $3.00 coupon off your next order will print from the machine.

Regardless of whether your store doubles or not, this is a good Catalina deal. If your store does not double coupons, you are still receiving your money back in free product when you spend the coupons on your next order. If you store does double, you received the Kleenex for free plus the money off your next order. The store is essentially paying you to shop there the next time you go because you are shopping with their money.

• · If it isn’t something that you would normally buy, don’t do the deal. That costs you money in the long run because the product that you purchased to receive the deal will probably not be used.
• · They change monthly but not all at the same time. One deal may start of the 1^st and end on the 1^st of the following month while another one will start on the 10^th and run until the 31^st. They are random!
• · Find a website that you can trust, I recommend couponnetwork.com because that is the actual company that runs the program, and check it on a regular basis.
• · Remember that just like a coupon you get from anywhere else, these coupons do expire and it is generally within two weeks of receiving them.
• · As a general rule, Catalina coupons can only be used at the store chain they were acquired from. For example, a Kroger Catalina cannot be used at Marsh or Walmart. It has to be used at a Kroger store.
• · You are allowed one deal per item per transaction. If there is a deal for a $3.00 off coupon when you buy six and you buy twelve in one transaction, you will only receive the 1, $3.00 off coupon. If you split the purchase into two transactions of six each, you will receive two, $3.00 off coupons. It’s important to pay attention to the numbers!

There are quite a few websites that will tell you what Catalina coupon deals are available in your store. You can also look for tags on the shelves for products that will alert you that a deal is available for that product and exactly what the deal is. Those tags won’t be there for every one though so it is important to follow a message board or website that will keep you up to date on the current deals.

If you haven’t left the store yet when you realize it didn’t print, go to the customer service desk at the store and tell them. Sometimes they do have the ability to give you a manual Catalina. If they don’t or can’t do that for you, they will usually help by contacting the Catalina Company for you.

If you have already left the store, you will need to contact the Catalina Company via phone or email when you get home. That information is readily available on their website. Be sure to have the product that you purchased in hand when corresponding with them. They will mail the Catalina to you and you should receive it in 6 to 8 weeks

Catalina coupons are a great way to help cut your grocery bill if you know how to find them, acquire them and ultimately use them in the end. As part of a well planned couponing strategy, they can drop your bill tremendously when you use them on a regular basis. When done correctly, they really are free money and who doesn’t like free money and free groceries?