Smoking Deals at Jewel-Osco Through Tomorrow

There's been a quiet saga going on in the Jewel-Osco bargain hound commuity this week. It started last Wednesday, when Jewel published a flyer announcing a ConAgra Catalina deal. Unlike past deals, which are usually "spend $25, get $10 off your next order" or if you're lucky, "spend $30, get $15," this deal was advertised as "spend $20, get $10."

However, there were tags up in stores advertising it as "spend $25, get $10," so it seemed that the deal as printed in the flyer was a misprint. But I have now confirmed that Jewel switched midweek to honoring the deal as printed, and has changed their Catalina machines to print out coupons when you spend just $20 before Preferred Card.

This will make for some free or very cheap food after the value of the coupon is deducted, until tomorrow night when the deal ends. The folks at Hot Coupon World's Jewel forum have some ideas for great transactions, as does Mashup Mom, whose blog first alerted me to the change.

My own experience: Last week I tried the deal as advertised in the flyer, buying 11 packs of Hunt's pudding and jello at $1.90 each before Preferred Card, for a total of $20.90, or $11.25 after I scanned my card. I got no Catalina coupon.

But today, I returned the pudding and re-rang the same exact purchase at the self checkout. This time, after I paid $11.25, I got the $10 coupon! That's 11 packs of pudding for $1.25! I didn't even have to use any manufacturer's coupons.