Giant Eagle Coupon Matchups 9/6-9/12 (Deals Worth Your Time This Week...Plus Get $7 Black and Gold Bucks in the Pittsburgh Area)

I’ve been trying not to eat many processed foods. I’ve been cooking at home from scratch (can you say homemade chicken stock and fresh baked bread), but there are a few “convenience” foods I like to keep around in case I’m feeling lazy…or if Mike’s left to fend for himself. GE has a lot of great deals this week when combined with printable coupons, plus many of those great deals get you Black and Gold Bucks. If you buy seven participating products, you get $7 back when you check out to spend on any Pittsburgh Steeler’s merchandise in Giant Eagle or at their online store. And many of the participating products are around 50 cents, so you can’t go wrong this week! Here are my favorite deals:

• Helluva Good Cheese Blocks are $2. Print this 50 cents/1 coupon (will double) to score your cheese for only a buck! (Eligible towards Black and Gold Bucks promotion)
• Helluva Good Dips are 3/$5. Print this 50 cents/1 coupon (again, will double) and dip till your heart
  is content for only 66 cents! Or get this $1 one dip coupon when you “like” Helluva Good on Facebook.
• Chex Mix, Bugles, and Pillsbury Baguette Chips only 99 cents. Combine that with this coupon or this coupon for 50 cents off (will double) and you’ve scored free chips!
• Totino’s Pizza Rolls are only 99 cents…get a 75 cents/3 coupon here and score them for 50 cents a box
• Knorr Rice and Pasta dishes are 99 cents…use this $1/3 coupon to get them for 67 cents each…they have a lot of new varieties. (note: you will have to register on the Unilever site to print coupons).
• Skippy Peanut Butter is $2.29. Print this 50 cents/2 coupon to get your PB and J on for around $1.69 per jar. (Plus this product qualifies for the Black and Gold Bucks promotion in the Pittsburgh area).
• Ragu Pasta sauce is 2 for $3, plus get a free Giant Eagle pasta instantly when you buy two. Since GE now accepts competitor coupons, this 75 cents/2 Target coupon (will NOT double) will get you all of the above for $2.25. (Ragu sauce also counts towards B and G Bucks promotion).
• Philadelphia Creme Cheese Indulgence (in quite a few chocolaty varieties…mmm) is $2. This 75 cents/1 coupon (will double) gets you there for only 50 cents.

Giant Eagle is also having a 2 day meat sale, but if you live in the Pittsburgh area, head on over to Shop ‘n Save where the deals are a lot better. Bagged chicken breasts and ground chuck are WAY less expensive, and so is lunch meat and cheese. I generally don’t buy my meat and deli products from GE…I believe they are WAY overpriced, even when on sale. Shop ‘n Save, Aldi’s and Bottom Dollar have frequent great sales on meat that put GE to shame. Sorry Giant Eagle…I love ya, but not when it comes to my protein…usually.
Soooo…for $17 (plus 20 cents off my gas, and $7 back to spend on Steeler’s merchandise), I got…

• 6 boxes of Totino’s pizza rolls
• 5 bags of Bugles/Chex Mix
• 6 Knorr pasta/rice sides
• 2 jars of Ragu pasta sauce plus one box of GE brand pasta
• 2 jars of skippy peanut butter
• 1 tub of Philadelphia Indulgence spread
• 4 blocks of cheddar/monteray jack Helluva Good cheese (don’t forget…you can shred blocks of cheese, and you can freeze ‘em, so stock up now!)
• 2 tubs of Helluva Good chip dip (buffalo wing and jalapeno cheddar…mmmm)
• Store brand butter
• 1 Starkist Tuna pouch (I had a 55 cents off coupon from a long time ago…)

Not too shabby…

A Few (Awesome!) Shop 'n Save Deals...Select Pittsburgh, PA locations only...9/6-9/7 2-Day Sale

Hi friends!! There are a few GREAT deals at Shop n Save…and this is the last day to get them! Below are just a few of my favorite deals, those that I consider “stock up for the zombie apocalypse/eventual economic downfall of America” good buys.

• Ground Chuck is only $1.99/lb (haven’t seen it this low in about a year…stock up!)
• 10 lb bag of potatoes is only $1.88 (Holy Crap! If you have the space, store them. I’ve been looking up potato recipes like crazy…this is a really great price on these).
• Amish Classics American or Swiss Cheese is $2.98/lb (even if you usually buy the generic Kraft-style packaged slices, you’ll still make out on this deal…a pound is just about equivalent to two packages, and the quality is far superior).
• Sugardale Ham/Honeysuckle Turkey Breast from the deli is $2.98/lb (Mike did a Turkey Happy Dance)
• Domino Sugar is only $1.99 for a 4 lb bag...print out this coupon for 75 cents off 2 Domino Sugars (which will double) and get some shuga for only $1.25 per bag when you buy two.
• Select Hamburger Helpers…only $1 per box! There have been several coupons in past newspaper inserts (I’ve been slacking, so I’m not sure of the dates…they are 75 cents off 3 though, plus they double), but you can also print your HH coupons here.
• Hillandale Bagels and Cream Cheese are only $1
• Get a super-duper big container (I try to keep these around for my fiancee) of On-Cor Chicken Patties (I believe 14 in a package) for only $4. That’s only around 28 cents per patty!! Cheap lunch!
• Xtra Laundry detergent is only $1.99
• 3 lb bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are $5. But hopefully you stocked up a couple of weeks ago when they were only $4. If not, still not a bad price!!

Note: Giant Eagle Now Accepts Competitor's Coupons...Just Don't Try to Use Them in The Self-Check Out Aisle...

Greetings! Awesome tidbit of news for those of you that don't already know; Giant Eagle is now accepting all competitor coupons. This means that you can snip, cut, clip or print coupons til you're blue in the face from other grocery stores including Target, K-Mart, Walgreens, etc. and GE will gladly accept them (but not double them). Quick warning: avoid the self check-out aisles at all costs if you plan on using these coupons without severe delays/embarrassment.

I visited Giant Eagle today, and I was super-stoked to get free Bugles, Chex Mix and frozen veggies, not to mention super-cheap cheese, dips, pizza rolls, Lipton rice and pasta sides, etc. I had one coupon that I had printed from Target's website. The two regular checkout lanes were backed-up, so for the first time in my life I headed over to the self checkout lane. I scanned a few coupons, and everything was going great. I felt proud of myself for venturing into the unknown. I felt like a pioneer. I should bypass the cashiers all the time, I thought.  Then I can avoid that "why are you making my job a living hell?" glare that some of them tend to give you when you hand over a stack of coupons that is roughly the thickness of Webster's Dictionary.

I scanned my Ragu pasta sauce coupon. The scanner rejected this Target coupon like a demon rejects holy water. Lights were blinking. The machine stopped working. I was sure some kind of Artificial Intelligence defense mechanism was going to override the system and scramble my molecular structure with a laser gun. I stood in silence, trying to look inconspicuous with my wad of (non-competitor) coupons stacked up in front of me. Inconspicuous is hard to pull off when the lights above your head are blinking frantically and an automated voice keeps repeating "Help is on the way!" in a tone that is bordering on panicked.

After five embarassing minutes of this, a cashier finally came to rescue. Or not. Upon seeing my Target coupon (for 75 cents off two Ragu sauces) she proceeded to SCREAM (across every single other checkout lane), "She has COMPETITOR COUPONS in the self-check aisle. You can't use COMPETITOR COUPONS here. Only in the REGULAR check-out!!" I lowered my head, feeling much like what I would imagine a guy would feel like if he were buying tampons for his wife and they did a price-check over the microphone. Every person, in every aisle, paused simultaneously to check out the chick who had the AUDACITY to try using a Target coupon in self-checkout. Their stares were long and ominous (or maybe I'm just paranoid.) The folks behind me in the self-checkout were glaring at me, as they probably assumed the self-checkout was the quickest place to go for a roll of toilet paper and a few TV dinners. Wrong. Did I mention this particular Giant Eagle only had one self-check lane open?

Long story short, after ANOTHER long, uncomfortable five minutes (and the help of another sales associate, and after that someone who I'm presuming was a manager), they literally had to transfer my whole order to a regular lane, manually deduct the rest of my coupon savings, and warn me adamantly to never, ever try to go through self-checkout with competitors coupons ever again. Trust me, GE, I never, ever will. I promise. Lesson learned.

This is just a helpful hint, folks. All kidding aside (although the incident was very embarrassing), I realize this coupon policy is new and the employees are probably still ironing out the kinks. And the manager was VERY helpful and lighthearted about the whole situation. No ill will against Giant Eagle at all.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I don't want anyone to be late for work or to pick up the kids, just to save $1.50 on pasta sauce.

On a happy note, I got TONS of food for $17, and got $7 back in Steeler's Bucks (and 10 cents off on gasoline).

All for the price of my pride. Happy Couponing! :)