Jill Cataldo

Print this one before it hits its limit!

Target's site currently has a printable coupon for $5 off any Women's Denim.

Many readers are reporting finding jeans priced at $4.98 on the clearance rack. With this coupon... they're FREE!

I got mine this morning, and I also spotted a lot of $9.98 pairs that would be under $5 with the same coupon. What a deal!

(Sorry guys... no $5 off Men's Denim coupon to be found, unfortunately.)

Over the weekend, Target issued a new coupon policy internally to all of its stores to address the issues with coupons not scanning correctly at the registers. I'm posting the policy for everyone to read, which was sent to me by a Target employee who does not wish to be credited, but states "Every store got this today because of all the media attention... Target cannot afford another hidden-camera news piece showing this problem with the registers."

UPDATE: 2:55pm on 11/8: The Chicago Tribune follows up with Target on these changes.

There are some interesting points in the new policy, which I'll comment on below:

To ensure every guest receives the full value for each coupon, we are introducing a temporary coupon redemption process effective immediately. We expect to have this systematically resolved within the next 10 days.

NEW! Temporary Coupon Redemption Process
1. Make eye contact with the guest, smile and give a sincere greeting.
2. Ask each guest at the beginning of the transaction ‘Do you have any coupons today?’
3. Set the coupons aside until the end of the transaction
4. Scan all items
5. Process coupons one by one and check to ensure full value of each coupon was applied. If needed, adjust coupon amount by selecting

I've long enjoyed shopping at Target -- it's a great place to find excellent coupon deals, and for years, it's been high on my list of favorite stores. But recently, Target's registers have changed the way they're automatically scanning coupons. In many cases, Target's registers are only taking a fraction of the coupon's discount off when scanned, leaving unsuspecting customers paying significantly more for their items than they should.

There are two known issues to be aware of when coupon-shopping at Target these days -- how the register handles coupons for an amount off multiple purchases, and how the register handles coupons during sales involving gift cards. If you currently aren't aware of either of these issues, please keep reading.

Issue #1: Coupons for multiple items (i.e. "$1.00-off-8")

Here's a coupon for $1 off 8 Yoplait yogurt cups. With a coupon for an amount off multiple items is scanned, the register should look for the presence of the eight items, then take a total of $1.00 off.

In many cases though, what Target's registers are doing is taking a discount off ONE item instead. When this coupon is scanned, the receipt may show the register deducting a discount equal to the selling price of only ONE of the items:

As I touched on in Monday's Deals of the Week post, it's been a great week for clearance toy and clothes shopping all over town! Hope you've all been out bargain-hunting and enjoying your finds!

As I discuss at great length in my Super-Couponing classes, both January and late July/early August are when many stores slash prices on both toys and clothing. On Sunday, we picked up some clothes at the Old Navy 50% off clearance summer sale. Not all Old Navy stores dropped (it's not quite like the January Old Navy clearance where every single store drops at the same time) but Algonquin's clearance was running, and my husband got some nice work shirts in the under-$3 range, as well as a $1.97 shirts for our boys. Many readers posted reports of $2 swim trunks and children's clothes too.

As posted earlier this week, SuperTarget has the best price on baby back ribs this week -- Hormel Always Tender baby back ribs are on sale for the ridiculously low price of $1.79/lb -- a slab of ribs averages out to about $4.75 at this price.

Well, several of my readers wrote to say that there are also $1 coupons out for ANY Hormel Always Tender product! The 5/2 SS has one, and you can also print 2 from Hormel's site. Oh yes... guess who went and got MORE ribs today? If you have any freezer space left, it's highly unlikely we'll see them at this low a price again for most of the summer. The sale continues through TODAY, Saturday, May 29th!

Just as the after-Christmas sales have ended, and many of us have stocked up on holiday gear for next year...along come the clothing and toy sales. If you've taken my Super-Couponing 2 class, you know that January is my favorite month of the year to shop for clothes and toys!

Today I embarked on a shopping adventure that began at Old Navy for their 50% off clearance sale and ended at Target's 75% off toy sale...

This morning, numerous Target stores around Chicagoland dropped their Christmas toy overstock to 75% off! I do the majority of my toy shopping for next Christmas right now, in January, during these toy clearances. So can you! :)

How do you know what coupons a particular store takes? The answer lies in the store's coupon policy. Coupon policies are great tools for shoppers to know exactly where stores stand on what kinds of coupons they will accept.

Here are links to the most current coupon policies available at the time of this writing.

Jewel-Osco

Dominick's

Meijer

Hilander / Kroger