Right now Safeway is having an event called Savings Rally which lasts until February 26th. The deal is that you get a dollar off coupon for buying a number of items off a list of 2000 participating items. If you buy 25 or more items you will get a coupon for $20 off the next purchase. If you buy 20 to 24 items you get a coupon for $10 off the next purchase, and if you buy 10 to 19 items you get a coupon for $5 off on the next purchase. This is a very good deal since Safeway has many 10 for $10 items and it is possible to chain the coupons. For example, purchase 25 items and get a $20 off coupon and then visit Safeway again and use the $20 for 20 free items and get a $10 coupon, then do it again for 10 free items and get a $5 coupon for more free stuff.

I checked it out today after preparing a batch of coupons. An especially useful coupon right now is on Smartsource.com for Rice-A-Roni or Pasta-Roni Nature's Way products. It gives you 50 cents off per box. I was able to print out four since it allows 2 prints per computer. I do not recommend copying the coupons since it is coupon fraud and each coupon has a distinct bar code. However if you do have multiple computers it is okay to print out more than one. The 10 for $10 items I targetted were: selected varieties of Colgate toothpaste, Pasta-Roni and Rice-A-Roni, and Del Monte canned tomatoes. Additionally I also printed out the Flat Earth chips coupons at Smart Source since they are a promotional freebie.

With my coupons in hand I set out to the first Safeway and bought 21 boxes of Rice-A-Roni and Pasta Roni, 4 tubes of Colgate toothpaste, and 3 bags of Flat Earth chips. The total was $23, and I was supposed to get a $20 coupon, but the stupid machine only spat out a $10 coupon. So I went to customer service and asked for help. At first the lady at the register said it is because I used coupons on the Rice-A-Roni and maybe the machine did not think it counted. I then calmly pointed out that their promotion did not state that customers cannot use manufacturer's coupons, and the manager gave me $10 in cash back. This brought my purchasing total down to $13.

I drove to the second Safeway with my $10 coupon in hand and scooped up 10 cans of Del Monte tomatoes. These are useful because my husband loves to cook Italian food and some of his Filipino soups also have a tomato base. I paid with my $10 coupon and the machine correctly printed out a $5 coupon. The man at the register said, "Wow that was nice wasn't it?" I smiled, nodded, and went on my way.

Finally, I went to a third Safeway store and I had $5 to spend on anything I want. I really wanted some juice so I bought two half gallons of Dole juice for $5 and paid with my last coupon. The man at the cash register read the coupon very carefully as if no other customers have ever used it before, and said, "that is a nice deal!" I replied, "yup it is."

The final tally: I got 21 boxes of Rice-A-Roni and Pasta Roni, 10 cans of Del Monte canned tomatoes, 4 tubes of Colgate toothpaste, 3 bags of Flat Earth chips, and 2 half gallons of Dole juice for $13. I am sure some of you could do better, but I was quite proud of my nine bags of groceries. I hope noone goes overboard with this promotion and buys 200 items, but we are totally stocked up with Rice-A-Roni now for the nights when we have no time to cook!