What is a Catalina?
The name comes from the Catalina Marketing company that are connected to many of the Big Chain stores. This company supplies the stores with "Catalina Machines" these machines print out coupons and advertisements at the end of your transaction. Undoubtedly you have gotten some of these in the past. They also work in conjunction with many manufacturers to offer promo deals. Technically these are called coupons but couponers generally refer to them as catalinas or cats for short.
How does it work? At any given time there are dozens of promotions running at several different stores. By purchasing certain products it will trigger the machine to print out xx amount off on your next order or a coupon that the system has decided you are likely to buy in the future. Some promotions require you to buy certain products in certain numbers to get your catalina others it is determined by the amount of money you've spent on the selected products.
OYNOOff your next order catalinas are the ones we value most as we can use them to bring down the cost of our grocery bills.
How much can I really save using these "Catalinas"?
It's easy to think that a $5 off your next shopping trip is not going to make a whole heck of a difference in your monthly budget. However, if used wisely and in conjunction with coupons, promos and sales the savings can be significant!
Example:
Recently Jewel had a Catalina promotion, Buy 5 selected Kraft products get $5 OYNO Catalina. Included in the promotion were the Breyers Cottage Cheese Doubles....which just happened to be on sale for $1.19 that week. So:
5 X 1.19 = $5.95
Pay $5.95 plus tax get $5 back
So 5 products for .95 plus tax
Now this particular Catalina promotion was "Rolling". In other words you could take your $5 OYNO and use it to buy another 5 etc... etc... etc..
Keep in mind this was without using coupons! Sorry to say at the time there were not coupons out for these products...if there had been you could have saved even more.
