Confessions of a Cheapskate

This is a Catalina Machine. It lives next to the cash register at most major grocery and retail outlets. This is the little beige box responsible for that handful of paper the cashier hands you along with your receipt at the register.

These little slips of paper are referred to as:

Catalina Coupons or “Cat”: These are coupons. Maybe you’ve purchased a box of Kellogg’s cereal and receive a coupon for General Mills cereals. Some print deliberately and some seem to print at random. These are usually Manufacturer’s coupons with the store logo on them. Sometimes they are store coupons. Sometimes they are oddly specific like, ’save 15% on any one regular priced lawn ornament,’ and other times they’ll be vague like, “Save $1 on any pound of cheese.”

Advertisements: These are pretty common, and probably what prompts most people to just throw away the entire wad of paper after merely glancing at it. They’ll let you know that Kleenex has fancy new designs on their boxes or that pop-tarts now have added fiber. Sometimes these advertisements will be alerting you that starting next week, you’ll earn $3 OYNO by purchasing X amount of these participating items, and give you all the details for an OYNO campaign. I advise anyone who thinks they will be purchasing these items to get the OYNO to keep this slip with the details. It may come in handy.

On/Off Your Next Order or “OYNO”: When you shop at a store like Meijer or Kroger, you’ll find little shelf tags that tell you “Buy 3 (product name) between 10-1/10-29 and receive a custom coupon for $2 Off Your Next Order!

Register Reward or “RR”, or Custom Coupon: “Register Rewards” are what OYNO Cats are called at Walgreen’s. “Custom Coupon” is what Meijer calls them. Many stores refer to them with their own name, but they are all the same thing.

I have a habit of using all of these terms interchangeably, which is why I felt it necessary to explain in this post.

When you receive a slip for $2 OYNO, this is also a manufacturer’s coupon, and the store is reimbursed by that company when you use it for payment on your next order, just like any other coupon. Often times if you look them over, they’ll read specifically, “Save $2 On Your Next Order compliments of Unilever!   (or General Mills, or Kelloggs, or Del Monte, etc.)

These have store logos on them and 90% of cashiers will tell you that this means they can only be used at that store, even though it says “Manufacturer Coupon” across the top. I have never used one at a store that didn’t have the logo, but I’ve read personal accounts how a store manager or a cashier allowed them. This is not set in stone, and if you want to know if your store accepts them from another, there’s no harm in asking.

Some of the promotions with the Catalina Machine are heavily advertised, while others aren’t. This means you’ll find some advertised right in the weekly circular and others that aren’t. These deals can be local, regional, or national. Sometimes manufacturer’s run the same promotion across different stores so the deals will overlap.

Many of these OYNO coupons expire within 1-2 weeks, so watch the dates. Many of the actual coupons have months before they expire.

Rolling

“Rolling” is using OYNO (On Your Next Order) to purchase more of the original item.

Example: Buy 3 Kashi cereals, get $4 On Your Next Order, then use that $4 Catalina to pay for the next order of 3 Kashi cereals.

If Kashi cereal is on sale for $2.50 and you have $1 coupons per each box, then originally, you’ll pay $6 for 4 boxes of cereal and then receive the $4 On Your Next Order coupon. If you return to the store, buy 4 more boxes of cereal, used (4) $1 coupons, again your total will be $6. Use the $4 OYNO from the last deal and pay a mere $2. If a Catalina ‘rolls’ in this fashion, you can enjoy .50/box cereal all day long, so long as you have that many $1 coupons.

MOST Catalinas, or RR do NOT roll at Walgreen’s at all. This means that if you pay with a Catalina coupon for the same item you earned it for, another will not print. Even more confusing, this is usually true for anything from the same manufacturer. So for example, if you bought 3 SoftSoap body washes from Walgreen’s one week and earned $5 RR, and returned the following week to buy 3 Skippy peanut butters and 2 jars of Ragu under a promo to “Buy 5 and get $3 RR,” and used that SoftSoap RR, you would NOT receive the new $3 RR because all of these products are from the same company: Unilever.

For as long as I’ve been couponing, there have not been any restrictions on rolling cats at Meijer or Kroger. However, some of the more recent deals have had wording on them that this was not going to work. Before you plan on a Catalina rolling, try reading the fine print on the coupon itself.

What to do when something I expected didn’t print:

Check the machine before you perform the transaction. If you have an order that you are expecting to receive OYNO coupons from, make sure the Catalina Machine has green lights on and not red; make sure the Catalina Machine lights aren’t blinking; make sure that you don’t see ripped/jammed up paper. If you are a checkout with a cashier and you can’t see the Catalina Machine, ask him/her if it is on and in working order. They’ll know. If it’s not, move to a line where it is.

If your Catalina Coupon does not print, you are at the mercy of your store’s assistant manager, or service desk employee, or cashier. In my experience, people do not line up in droves because these slips didn’t print so the people handling the issue don’t have much idea of what to do about it. Some will make up excuses as to why things didn’t print like,

“You used a .50 coupon on your grocery order and this causes the machine to not print anything.”

Or, “That promotion is over. <Apathy. Shrug>.”

Some will look down at your receipt and see that maybe you just paid $2 for your 4 boxes of cereal and explain to you that your store is not going to pay you to shop. This last scenario is by far, the worst to go through. I’ve been treated like a criminal, I’ve been told I was trying to fraud the store. Many really think you are trying to get one over on someone, it’s just not normal to pay so little for items.

Some will call up the department and have an employee look around for a Custom Coupon sign to verify it and just write out a slip for you. However, if the sign is not up, be prepared to receive nothing, nada, zip.

The best advice to ensure the machine is on.

You can also save your receipt and call the Catalina Marketing Company to investigate the matter for you. Typically, they’ll ask you what you purchased, what you expected to receive, some code numbers from the receipt and then ask you to fax it in. If they found there was an error, they’ll mail you the Cats.

Telephone number:

1.888.coupon8

Many of the best deals I’ve posted on this blog are due to Catalina promotions. While they can be a real PITA (That’s Pain In The Ass as we’re decoding acronyms today), they can also worth experiencing the occasional pain for the reward.

The key is to actually use them and spend them as cash. I love getting OYNO Cats from places like Meijer and Kroger because without a doubt, I can spend those there. I shop at these places weekly. Now Walgreen’s, on the other hand, I do not shop every week. I’ve had Register Rewards Cats expire before I used them. What a waste!

I recommend that you spend OYNO Catalina money just like you’d spend your own cash. This is how you’ll ultimately lower your grocery expenditures.

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