Vons Just For U & giveaway!

February 1st, 2012 by justJENN

If you follow me on twitter you know I like to post pictures of how much I save when I go grocery shopping. I’m no ‘extreme couponer’ I just buy what I need for meal planning, no 500 sticks of deodorant here.

People always ask me to give them a tutorial on how I save money. Today’s the day! Saving money is fun and can be time consuming, but it just got easier.

Vons (Safeway for all you Hawaii readers) invited me and a few bloggers to their headquarters and showed us how to use Just For U, a new way that savings are tailored to the things that YOU frequently buy!

You go online and add your deals to your Vons Club Card and the savings are automatic, so there’s no coupon clipping/forgetting them in the car etc. The money just comes off during checkout, no fuss! Not only that, you get one dozen free eggs just for signing up for Just For U – hey, you’re already ahead! The program is currently in California and Hawaii and about to roll out in the next month.

Vons took us to a local market where we shopped using Just For U and I ended up saving 54%. Not bad. Here’s how I did it – first I registered for the Just for U program, then I added digital coupons and then my favorite page: Personalized Deals. That’s where you get EVEN CHEAPER prices based on your purchasing history. Since I meal plan and use basic pantry ingredients, this is great.

You can even email all your deals to yourself so you have your complete list with you. This is awesome if you shop for groceries with your list on your phone like I do.

Now let me show you the ways of the couponing force, my young padawan…

1. Personalized Deals
So I needed lemons. At the store they are 88 cents and even if I walked in with a club card I’d still have to pay 88 cents. But with my Just For U personalized deal, they were selling lemons JUST FOR ME at a mere 33 cents. Come on!

This deal was seriously just for me, the woman next to me did not have this offer in her online deals. Vons must know I do Lemon recipe Week every year I guess…

2. Digital Coupons
So as far as the digital coupons go, once they are loaded they’re always in there. Barilla pasta sauce was 2/$4. Which means $2 for one jar. I had loaded a digital coupon for one dollar off, so in the end I only paid $1.00 for the regularly priced $3.29 jar of sauce and I only had to buy ONE not like a hoarder’s 100 of them.

3. Stacking Club Specials+Personalized Deals+Coupons too!
Finally – you can also STACK deals, which is key to saving a lot of money. Orville Redenbacher popcorn was on sale for 2/$4, basically $2 each. But my Just For U price was $1.49 PLUS I had a paper coupon for $1.50 off two, thus making the regular $3.59 popcorn just 75 cents!

So that’s my little ‘how to save $$’ tutorial. See how easy it is? And now I’m going to make it easier and let you save 100%! Vons generously gave me a gift card and since I saved $50, I’m going to give the $50 to you!

This is Super Bowl weekend and even if you don’t watch football, parties are a lot of fun. I should know, I throw a lot of them. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite party food is to make OR eat! (You have from now until February 6th, midnight pst.)

If you need party food ideas I have plenty for you right here. Vons is having a ton of Superbowl shopping deals this week and thank you to them for their generosity in hosting the blogger event and providing the gift card!

Disclaimer: I received a gift card from Vons/Safeway. Opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced by any form of compensation.