Catalina coupons are a couponers best friend - seriously. You really save a ton of money when you "work" the catalina deals.
Catalina coupons are called "Catalinas" or "cats" because it's the name of the company that issues them. Catalina coupons come out of the machines located right by the registers when you check out and the company that owns those machines is the Catalina company, the stores do not own the machines. Not all stores have Catalina machines. The Catalinas at Walgreens are referred to as "Register Rewards" and other stores may call them different names, but they are all Catalina coupons.
Most Catalina coupons that print are manufacturer coupons, but sometimes store coupons print on these machines as well. Sometimes the coupons that print are for specific items, like $1.00 off any Crest toothpaste, but a lot of the time the coupon is a certain $ amount off your next shopping transaction (OYNO=on your next order). Sometimes the print out may not contain any coupon but it will be an alert of an upcoming sale or Catalina offer. You want to pay close attention to your Catalina coupons that print out and make sure your cashier hands over all the Catalinas that print from your transaction. You will even want to look for Catalinas left behind by other shoppers. You would be amazed at the number of Catalinas that you can find in carts, in the parking lot, left behind at the self check-out registers or in the trash...keep your eyes open for these!
There are a lot of unadvertised Catalina sales running all the time. Some stores will advertise the Catalina sales, like Walgreens or Jewel-Osco in their weekly flyers, but there are many more Catalina deals that aren't advertised. This is why it's important to watch the alerts that print out as well as checking money saving blogs where bloggers post about unadvertised Catalina sales. The sale will usually be something like, buy a certain $ amount of ceratin products and get a Catalina coupon for a certain $ amount off your next shopping transaction. Sometimes its as simple as buy one item and get a Catalina back for that same value that you paid for the item - Walgreens usually works their Register Rewards like that. Walgreens is really great about advertising most of their Register Rewards each week so Walgreens is a great place to get started with Catalinas. I will be posting about Walgreens and how the rules are different there soon, so make sure you watch for that before diving into Walgreens shopping.
If you know a Catalina is going to print and it doesn't, make sure you take care of this right away at the store. If they won't give you the Catalina coupons or make it right, you can return everything on the spot for a refund. Sometimes it's because you purchased the wrong size, or wrong product, or not enough of the listed items. Sometimes it has nothing to do with the purchase and the machine is down, turned off or out of paper or ink. If you plan ahead of time, you shouldn't have any problems with Catalinas not printing, unless its a hardware/technical issue. The only time I have had problems is when I get careless and rush my shopping trip. Catalina machines uplink to the satellite between 11PM and 2AM so Catalinas don't print during those times. If you shop a 24 hour store or late at night you are taking a big risk that the Catalinas won't print.
If you realize after you are home that you didn't get all the Catalinas you were expecting, you can contact Catalina directly at 1-888-322-3814 with your receipt information and they will mail you your missing Catalina coupons. I have never had to do this, so I am not sure how long it takes to receive the Catalinas in the mail.
A lot of the money saving blogs will also post UPC code lists of items that are included in the Catalina deals. Most of the time there are more participating products than what are listed in the sale flyer. These are a great tool in helping assure that your Catalinas will print. If I am going to shop a BIG Catalina sale I always print out the list of UPC codes so I can double check my purchase to the list before I check out. This eliminates the guesswork of wondering if the Catalina will print - you KNOW it will print if you have all the right items.
A lot of the time Catalinas will "roll" meaning you can use them to pay for the next round of Catalina deals. This works a little differently at Walgreens though. You can "roll" Catalinas from one deal to the next, but if you use the a same Catalina that is supposed to print out to pay, then you won't get it. You can use a different Catalina (from a different offer) to pay for your transaction as long as it's not the same parent company. Occassionally at Walgreens you will find that they do roll, but that's not the norm. Again, reading the money saving blogs will help determine which at Walgreens are truly rolling and which aren't.
The most effective way to get the maximum benefit of the Catalina sales (not including Register Rewards) is to only buy what the deal requires in order to receive the Catalina and "roll" it into the same deal again (in another transaction). For instance, the Catalina sale may be "spend $30 (on certain products) and get a $15 Catalina OYNO. So in order to work this so that you get the best deal for your money in your first transaction, purchase only $30 in participating products. You will get your Catalina coupon for $15. Your next transaction would be another $30 in participating products, but you would use the prior $15 Catalina to pay for this transaction, greatly reducing your out of pocket.
One of the BEST aspects about using Catalinas is that you can combine them with other manufacturer coupons. You can use the individual item coupons on everything that you are purchasing and then use your Catalina coupons to pay down the balance due on your transaction. It's about the only time that you can "stack" manufacturer coupons.
Register Rewards will print out with the statement "Redeemable at Walgreens" but they don't say ONLY at Walgreens, so other stores who take competitor coupons will take Register Rewards (and other stores Catalinas). I regularly use my Register Rewards from Walgreens to pay for my groceries and other Catalina deals at Jewe-Osco stores. Many other stores take them as well...I know that Meijer and Dominick's stores take Catalinas printed at other stores also. Check your store's coupon policy.
Catalina coupons always have an expiration date and you will want to pay close attention to that. The expiry date is usually 2 weeks from the print date, but since Catalinas are such a great value you don't want to let them expire! If you find that they have expired, you can always try to redeem them at a store that takes expired coupons. Dominick's stores will take coupons expired within 6 months of the expiry date.
Catalina deals work a little differently at Jewel-Osco stores and I will also post a seperate entry about Jewel-Osco as well as Walgreens.
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