Vons and Safeway are having a promotion - if you buy a certain amount of participating items, a Catalina coupon will "spit" out for savings off your next order of groceries. I believe the limit is once per day. I tried this promotion (buy 25 items get $20 back) last week at Pavilions but no coupon was produced. I was very careful to buy the participating items as stated on the shelf tags. The "supervisor" did not care and stated that I had to call the Catalina company regarding the issue and I actually called them from the store. Catalina staff called me back on Monday and will be mailing the coupon to my home -- for some reason there was a glitch that she could not explain.

A friend has done the promo at our local Vons so I thought I would go there last night and try again since I had lots of good coupons to maximize my savings. I usually do not go that store because it is so small. But I scored!!

I bought 35 items (not all part of the promotion) -- paid $18.02 out of pocket and received the $20 off my next order! Yay! And I did buy things that I could and do use. I got:
S&W pinto beans
S&W white beans
Tava diet soda (new product - tastes good)
Rice a Roni
Honey nut cheerios
Yogurt cheerios
Fruity Cheerios
Betty Crocker cookie mix
Betty Crocker cake mix
Betty crocker frosting
Cascadian farm granola
Wishbone spritzer salad dressing
Quaker Oatmeal
Propel Water
Clorox bleach
Pillsbury french bread
Green Giant frozen vegetables
Clorox wipes
Ensure
Balance bar
Marzetti salad dressing
Caesar salad mixes

I did tell my DD that if she starts helping me cut and sort I will give her a percentage of the savings. She did not go with me on the trip, but her the look on her face sure showed an interest in helping Mom for the next trip!