Fun in the Mail & Kroger Mega Sale

Sometimes going to the mailbox is a little bit like Christmas. You never know what goodies you are going to receive. In yesterday's mail I received

(1) A mailer from Vocalpoint for a free box of Rice Krispies (and several other coupons for Rice Krispies.) If you haven't signed up for Vocalpoint yet, I recommend that you do so. They send out fantastic coupons and free samples. This year I have received free Kashi Waffles, a free Bounce Dryer Bar, some great high-value coupons, and the free box of Kellogg's Rice Krispies.

(2) I also received a free sample of Mighty Leaf Tea from Kroger's webstite. It hit the spot while I sorted and filed my coupons. I don't think this sample is still available, but there are other free samples available HERE shipped right to your door!

(3) Lastly, I received a mailer from Kroger (with coupons) for the upcoming Mega Sale Event. I've seen some buzz about this in the blog-o-sphere, and I'm looking forward to a great two weeks shopping. (Publix's ad doesn't excite me very much this week, so Kroger will be getting my business most likely.) The Mega Event lasts August 16 - August 29.

The Mega Sale gives you the opportunity to earn $5 off your grocery bill for each set of 10 participating items that you purchase. That works out to 50c per item, plus you can also use coupons. This is one of the few times at Kroger that you can actually get overage on your purchases. The $5 credit is separate from your sale pricing and coupons.

Here are the rumored products that the Mega Event will mostly be General Mills products and affiliated brands including:

AMP Energy, Aquafina, Betty Crocker Baking Mixes, Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, Cascadian Farms Cereals and Bars, Cap’n Crunch, Cheerios, Cheetos, Chex Mix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Dole Juices and Juice Drinks, Fiber One, Fritos, Gatorade, Golden Grahams, Green Giant, Hamburger Helper, Life , Lipton Tea, Nature Valley, Old El Paso, Pepsi family of 2 Liters, Pillsbury, Progresso, Propel, Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Quaker Chewy Bars, Starbucks, Sobe Life Water, Totino’s, Trix, Tropicana, Yoplait and MORE!

Fortunately for us, there are tons of these coupons floating around from the Sunday inserts. There are also many, many more coupons for these guys at coupons.com and smartsource.com.

Here are some other hints for shopping the Mega Event:

(1) You must have groups of 10 products to earn the $5 discount. Double, triple, and quadruple check you item count before you check out. It would be a shame to go to the register with 19 items, and only earn one $5 discount, instead of hitting the 20-item mark and getting two $5 discounts.

(2) You can have more than one group of 10 Mega Sale Items, just make sure you have groups of 10. Some of Kroger's Mega Sales limit you to three discounts. It is rumored that there won't be a limit this time.

(3) Bring extra ideas and coupons to the store in case some of your planned purchases are sold out. This can easily happen. You plan to buy certain things, but the shelf has already been cleaned out. Build in some flexibility to your shopping plan, and don't worry. The sale lasts two weeks.

(4) In the event that you have overage on some of your purchases, make sure you have enough items in your order to absorb the credit. For example, if you buy five things that earn you 50 cents overage, that gives you $2.50 overage total. Do not expect to get cash out of the till. Use the overage to buy something that you can't usually get a good deal on. For me, it's usually produce, milk, and eggs!

Kroger usually puts the new sale up on their website on Saturday morning. Have fun, and happy shopping.