Vons

Vons, which is part of the Safeway chain, is my store of choice.  My stores will double coupons up to one dollar, not all Vons will do this so please check with your store.

A few times a year they have special that always have a fun name like Rally or Marathon, these deals last from 14-20 days, and with these deals I stock up my shelves.   How it works is, if you buy 25 marked items you will get $20 off your next order.  There are 2500 items to choose from, and the mission is to keeping buying items on the list, and rolling your $20.  We just finished one of these sales it when for 20 days in July 2008.  I went to the store 17 times; I spend $190 and saved $1560.  With these sales you are allowed to use coupons to make the deal even sweeter.

Vons is really into the $$ off your next order promotions, and do have them going on every few weeks.  Not all of these promotions are as big as the one I mentioned above, and to be honest not all specials I take advantage of.

The trick is to use the promotions to your benefit.  Earlier this year there was the “Sara lee” deal.  Sara Lee owns Hillshire Farm, and various other brands.  The deal was if you buy 5 items you get $10 off your next order. Well the Hillshire Farm lunch mean was $2 each, so buy five and use the $10 off your next order all five would be free, and you would get another coupon for $10 off your next order. Go back and do this special over and over, the meat will freeze.  My regret is I only “bought” about four months worth of meat; I really should have bought more.

One cool thing to know, is if you have $$ off your next order coupon and you are afraid it might expire, you may use the coupon to buy a gift certificate for the store or any gift certificate the store sells.

Often Vons issues store coupons with their ads; you are able to combine the store coupon with manufacture coupons to get even better deals.

Vons meat department is always marking the meat down 30%-50%; my feeling on this is if you eat it that night or freeze it, the meat is good.

With coupons I get free food every week from Vons, I will always let you know what the good deals are at Vons, so check back to the Stew often.