How do I love thee? Let me count the free cookies...

Submitted by Coupon Maven on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 10:20pm

This is a tip I share in my Super-Couponing workshops too, but if you like the holiday-themed refrigerated sugar cookies that Pillsbury makes, the best time to buy them is right after a holiday..! Keep your eyes open for clearanced Pillsbury Valentine's-Day themed cookies, as if the price is right, they'll be a steal. Every year, I have gotten lucky enough to hit at least one cookie clearance, stocking up to last our household through many months of impromptu, "let's make cookies right now!" cookie baking.

Look what I found at my Jewel tonight! All of the Valentine's Pillsbury cookies were on clearance for .50 a box. There are $1-off-2 cookie dough coupons in the 12/11/11 SS and 12/4/11 SS, and a .75-off-2 coupon in the 1/8 GM. As luck would have it, I had bought an extra paper both of those weeks (I subscribe to four newspapers, but some weeks I will pick one up on Saturdays to get a head start blogging, so I had five papers both weeks.) With five $1-off-2s from each December insert, I bought twenty (!) boxes. And aside from tax... they were all free!

Yes, there are still some more over at my Huntley Jewel, but not many -- 8 or 9 packages. A clearance sale is the one time you've pretty much got a license to buy as much as you'd like! My store's manager said "Take them all!" but I think this was enough. This is about all I can fit in the freezer at the moment... and if I had bought more, I would have had to use the .75-off-2 coupons, and they would have been .25 for two... not quite as good a deal (ha ha!) Free is good.

If you like holiday cookies, it's never a bad idea to carry the cookie dough coupons around anytime a holiday has just passed. If you hit it right, you're looking at free or very cheap holiday cookies at any store that stocks them. And if you don't find them this time around, the next cookie-holiday will be right after St. Patrick's Day...

Thanks for the Tip!

Submitted by mburke221 on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 10:06am.

I was able to buy 4 Pillsbury and 2 Nestle packages for a total of $2 because of your tip! I also found that at both my local Jewel and Dominick's, the cookies rang at the register at an even lower price than the advertised clearance price, so it was even nicer to get some additional unexpected savings.

I found the Pillsbury packages at the Frankfort Jewel. They were advertised as $1.50/each clearance, but they rang up as $0.99/each! I bought 4 packages and had two $1/2 coupons -- total of $2. Next I went to the Frankfort Dominick's. They had 2 packages of Nestle cookies marked as $2/each clearance price. I had two $1/1 coupons printed from Facebook. I expected to pay $1 for each package with Qs, but the register took off an additional $1 for each package, so those 2 items were FREE! I paid $2 for 144 cookies (each pkg makes 24).

I'll be watching for these cookie sales from now on! Thanks again, Jill!

?

Submitted by winnienet26 on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 11:33pm.

I'm confused. There are coupons on saturday?

Tribune

Submitted by Coupon Maven on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 11:40pm.

You can buy a Sunday Chicago Tribune on Saturdays (complete with "tomorrow's" coupons.) Many stores carry them, including Dollar Tree, Menards, Walgreens, Walmart...

Doesn't hurt to ask the manager!

Submitted by Taps2424 on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 10:40pm.

Jewel in Des Plaines didn't have them out so I asked a few employees who had no clue what they even were until we got to the manager. He had 12 in the back and rang them up at 3.69, but I had told him your Jewel had them for .50 so he gave them to me for that! If they're not even trying to sell them, why not? I wish they had the Mickey ones though, my son would have loved that, but these are perfect for free!

Stopped in Huntley

Submitted by sahettinger on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 7:18pm.

around 1pm this afternoon and found 1 lonely package of Nestle left. For 50-cents I bought it; heck, still a good deal for chocolate chip cookies.

Didn't go specifically for the cookies; actually needed to return a rental to Redbox and needed to pick up some more Vitamin water with the .80 cent deal when you buy 10.

Ended up being a fantastic trip - got a couple pork roasts, the cookie dough, 8 vitamin water, a couple single packs of popcorn, and a ton of vitamins (my folks take several different kinds each, plus my mom uses the glucosamine (sp?) stuff (like Osteo-Bi-Flex and the like) --- so it was time to stock up. There are manu Qs in the store for $2 off any Sundown vitamin. AND Sundown vitamins are on sale B1G1. This makes some extremely cheap vitamins. I think the calcium ended up being $1.49 total for 2 bottles.

It's about $210 worth of stuff for $54! :)

I had a bunch of running to

Submitted by lovedeals on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 5:07pm.

I had a bunch of running to do today and ended up at two different Jewel's. The Jewel in Lockport did not have any. The Jewel in Bolingbrook had them but they were 1.69 each. They also had Nestle chocolate chip Valentines for 1.69. Those looked good, but I did not have my coupon with me. O' well...I dont need the extra junk around my waist. :)

Nestle

Submitted by Coupon Maven on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 5:35pm.

If you find the Nestle Valentine's ones on clearance, you can still print the $1 coupons on Facebook - expiration date isn't until the end of the month. I couldn't use these coupons for this Jewel sale as they exceeded the .50 price there, but if they're marked down to $1 or a little more - still a deal...

cookies

Submitted by GB777 on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 12:27pm.

Went to 'my' Jewel on Randall- Alg. today. Still $3.69 or something like that!

Depends on the store

Submitted by Coupon Maven on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 12:59pm.

Every store clearances at different times, but you could try asking when they will drop. Huntley put all of their Valentine's items 50% off the day after Valentine's Day, and the same cookies were $1.50 on Wednesday. Yesterday, they dropped them even more. If they want the shelf space back for something else, one store might move the holiday refrigerated items out sooner than another.

One year I found the pumpkin cookies on clearance after Halloween for .50 in Schaumburg - just happened to stop on the way home from somewhere else. There were $1-off-3 blinkies that made them .25 for three boxes, and there was a Catalina running on all the Pillsbury cookie dough. If you bought 6, you got $3. That was a GOOD sale. :) The store had a whole separate open-top chest freezer filled with them, and I had run into some other coupon shoppers that night - after we figured out the Catalina worked on the Halloween cookies too, we stood around contemplating how much freezer space each of us had. :)

But as with any clearance, there is a lot of luck involved. I usually don't cut and carry extra coupons around in case of a clearance, but after holidays, if there are good cookie coupons out, I do. With the number of holidays they make cookies for, you stand a chance of hitting a sale on them somewhere along the line. :)