This post is for those of you who refuse to cut a coupon, but still want to save…don’t worry.
My feelings aren’t hurt.
Remember my most amazing sis-in-love with 10 kids?
She loves me, I love her, but she doesn’t cut coupons….even with me guilting sharing about all the money that she could save.
She knows it, but sometimes necessary sanity outweighs savings, and she saves money in other ways.

Here is a simple grocery guru concept that will equal stupendous savings.

BE OBSERVANT WHEN YOU ARE SHOPPING, and enjoy the hunt!!

Since you have already stocked up on things ONLY when they were Buy one get one free, or on sale, your mind has already trained itself to avoid impulse buying. If not, don’t worry, baby steps are the best way to begin, and there’s nothing like inexpensive food to get you excited about saving.

This past week I bought 12 packages of JIMMY DEAN sausage that averaged $.50. I mention averaged because the first time I went, I got them for $.25, and assumed that EIGHT packages of sausage would last me…through the holidays. NOT! So I went back…and got more.

Let me show you how because anyone who is ACTIVELY LOOKING for deals like this….WILL FIND THEM.

You may not find this every shopping trip, but at least 2x/month, I have found steals like this.
Unfortunately on this shopping trip, I was just doing my family manager thing and not thinking “blog post, ” so the pictures of some key definitions will be missing.
Follow closely, and put on your math brain. This may seem a little wordy, but I don’t want you to get lost. It will be worth it, so stick with me.

Scenario: the sausage rolls (not patties or links) pictured at the bottom were on sale 2 for $5.00 making them $2.50/piece.
I literally ran into Harris Teeter “planning” on only buying graham crackers for my cheesecake dip, but  my eyes wandered to this bright yellow tag.


I am ALWAYS looking for Bright Yellow tags
because it means prices are drastically slashed due to the approaching “sell by” date. This never matters to me….I either use them within two days or stick them in the freezer. For sausage, the sell by date means “nothing.”

What the yellow tag told me was that the sausage rolls that were being sold for $2.50 were now going to cost me $1.50. Since the holidays are rapidly approaching, and I LOVE my favorite Homemade Gourmet hot enchilada dip recipe with sausage, I gathered up all the ones that were marked down…
BUT WAIT….
I then noticed that there was a “peelie thing” right on this same marked down package.
(no picture, but formal definition: Peelie – Peelable coupon located right on the package)
Could it be?
It was too good to be true, but this tearable coupon said that if I buy THIS sausage roll, then I can choose any other cooked patties or links for free (and they’re marked $3.99 a box).Does this mean the patties and links that I always tell my children they can not have since they’re too expensive are now going to be FREE?
It’s like Christmas…sausage links for everyone. Eat up kids! Forget about all those preservatives…THEY’RE FREE, and I am crowned “Mom of the Week”!
I was now at TWO packages of sausage for $1.50 (yep, .75/piece) but it was getting even better.

I glanced over and saw a Catalina machine – right above the sausages.
What’s a Catalina machine?
Rats….wish I had a picture (pretend picture), but you know them well. Those annoying little machines that our children love. The ones where just last week they took 20 coupons before we realized it. The machine that leads to “I’m laced with guilt from the bad mom, let my kids run wild in the grocery store” syndrome.
Yep, that that’s the machine.
Official definition:
Catalina: thin paper coupon that prints out from a separate machine.

Guess what….The catalina had a $1 off of any Jimmy Dean Sausage.
Clapping with glee; I was giggling like a little school girl.
I was now going to take ANOTHER $1.00 off of my 2/$1.50…
do the math, ladies.
One box of sausage patties(free) and one sausage roll for $.50!!!!!
That’s .25 a piece for EXPENSIVE, yummy sausage.
PICK ME UP OFF THE FLOOR!
I purchased $24 worth of sausage for $2, people!
And it was all there at my finger tips….I just had to be observant. Not a coupon had to be cut – just peeled and pulled!!


I know you are know asking, “they let you use all of those coupons?”
If you were following closely, it was really only one coupon per item. The bright yellow “special today” isn’t considered a manufacturers coupon, so I always try and use as many multiple forms of savings that I can. Each roll had one coupon to receive the boxed item for free, and each sausage roll had one “catalina coupon.” I stood by that Catalina machine waiting til I had one coupon per roll.
The only difference one week later was that there were no “special today” sausages marked down. No sweat, I still think .75 is a steal, and just wait til you see what else I found on my”only running in for graham crackers” excursion.Make this drudgery we call grocery shopping a game….what “steals” can you find this week?
Your local grocer may still have this sausage steal going on. I should preface that by saying, maybe not in the Piedmont Triad.
I do believe I snatched all those up…or at least my friends did after I told them about it last week.
Oh, and any suggestions on a new series title?
This one just doesn’t cut it.