Hilander Mega Saver is back!

Last spring I wound up with 24 free bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner during the Mega Saver sale, so I was excited to see that it was back again this week. I was counting on it coming - Ohio Kroger stores (Hilander is owned by Kroger) had the deal last week, and Kroger deals tend to travel around the country, so I was already making plans.

This sale has a lot of baking items included, so I'm focusing on stocking up for my holiday cookie and candy making. Customers of the Ohio stores had reported Carnation evaporated milk and Nestle chocolate chips on sale, both of which I'll use a significant amount of, so I went ahead and ordered coupons for those items, as well as some Bic razors which will be free after coupons. It does sound counterintuitive, but I spent about $10 on coupons that will save me $80. I usually order my coupons from The Coupon Clippers, but have also used the Coupon Master in the past. TCC is my favorite - super fast shipping, though coupons for hot items do go quickly so you've got to be on the ball. This time I also ordered from ebay - I'll let you know how that goes! (Side note: I am not actually buying the coupons - those are illegal to sell. I'm paying for the time it takes to collect and clip them. That's the official word ;))

First, a few Hilander tips:

• Sales in this area run from Thursday-Wednesday - the sale flier arrives in my mailbox on Wednesday, and also goes out in the paper if you get the fabulous usually less than worthwhile couponwise Rockford Register Star (and don't even get me started on their "journalism"). If you don't get either you can view the ad online at http://www.pay-less.com/.
• You need to sign up for the Kroger Plus card - another one of those goodies to put on your keyring. Scan it every time you shop even if you're not buying anything on the card - you can rack up points toward 0.10 off a gallon of gas if you buy it at the Hilander next to the mall. Sometimes you may also receive coupons in the mail, depending on how much you spend that quarter.
• There are also websites to link e-coupons to your Plus card - Shortcuts and P&G E-saver. When you buy an item for which you've loaded a coupon onto your card, it comes off automatically at the register.
• Hilander doubles coupons up to $0.55 everyday. Given the choice between a $0.50/1 coupon or a $0.75/1 coupon, I'd choose the lesser because it will actually give me $1.00 back.

So this is how the Mega Saver sale works: If you buy any ten items included in the sale you get $5.00 taken off your transaction immediately at the register. These items are sale priced from $1.00 to $3.00 - basically you get $0.50 taken off each item. Combined with coupons, especially those that double, you'll make out well on certain items. Here's a few of my scenarios for next week:

Johnson & Johnson baby wash 10x3.00 = 30.00

Q's:
Mega Saver bonus = 5.00
J&J coupons $1/1 (from 11/2 SS) 10x1.00 = 10.00

Total after q's = 15.00 (1.50 per bottle!)
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Nestle chocolate chips 10x2.50 = 25.00

Q's:
Mega saver bonus = 5.00
Nestle coupon $0.50/1 10x(2x0.50) = 10.00

Total after q's = 10.00 (1.00 per bag)
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Carnation evaporated milk 10x1.00 = 10.00

Q's:
Mega saver bonus = 5.00
Carnation coupon $0.50/2 5x(2x0.50) = 5.00

Total after q's = 0!

These can be mixed and matched as well, meaning I could buy 3 J&J, 5 bags of chocolate chips, and 2 cans of milk and still receive my $5.00 bonus. As long as I have ten items included in the deal I'll get it. One word of warning - be careful if you're using coupons that require you to buy 2 items - make sure you have an even number of those!

Some other great deals:

-Bic Razors 2.50 (use 2.00/1 coupon from 10/12 SS to make them free after Mega Saver)
-Quaker Oats 1.50 (use 0.50/1 coupon from 9/7 RP; after it doubles and the Mega Saver these are free too)
-Swiss Miss hot chocolate 1.00 (use 0.50/2 shortcuts coupon, combined with MS it's 0.50 a box)
-Domino sugar 2.50 (use 0.50/1 coupon from 10/12 RP, making it $1.00/5 lb bag after q and MS)
-Scotch lint roller 1.00 (use 1.00/1 coupon from 10/5 RP; after the MS deal this is a money maker!)

So you know where I'll be in all my spare time for the next week or so! I hope it's helpful to you to see how I work out my scenarios - it helped me when I first started couponing to see what others were doing. If you're inspired to try for yourself, leave me a comment and let me know!