This post was originally written and published during the January 2010 Kroger Mega sale. I thought that it would really help a lot of you who are totally confused by all the Mega Sale talk. The deals mentioned in it are no longer valid - but the techniques are! If you'd like to see our current Mega Sale deals, you can see the full list in our Kroger Mega Sale post.You also might be interested in another post from earlier this year:  Understanding the Big Sale. It explains how I utilize the big sales so that I shop less, spend less and have a lot more in our pantry!-----------------------First let me start by saying: Slow and steady wins the race! The Kroger Mega Sale is getting a lot of attention, and for a lot of you it's your very first sale using coupons! I'm getting tons of e-mails and comments on our Facebook pages LMKIA and cincysavers.com with questions on how this works. So I will try to lay it out for you step by step. But back to my first point . . . If you jump in today, without ever using a coupon before, and try to do get $138 down to $13, you will not do well. The slower you take this at first, the faster you will learn! And if you take it slow, I promise you that you will be able to get $138 down to $13 before the Mega Sale ends in two weeks! It really does go that fast - but only if you take it in small bites. My suggestion is to find a total of ten items that you can get with the printable coupons, and try that today. That shopping trip will be broken down into a small enough bite that you will understand it faster and easier than if you try to do the big $138 trip first time. But the $138 trips come faster than you think, so be ready to be a coupon queen in no time! Using coupons and saving like a coupon queen is a lot like making a lasagna. There are many layers that add together to make the best dish (or savings) possible! So here's how it works: 1. Big sale. Kroger has many items on sale. And we never pay full-price for items! Add 2. Mega Sale discount. Every time you purchase ten of the Mega Sale items, they take $5 off your entire order. For math simplicity we break this down into $.50 off each item. They are mix and match items - you do not need ten of the same item to get your discount. Add 3. Coupons. We layer coupon savings - coupons that double everyday - on top of the sale and the Mega Sale discounts. Add 4. Electronic coupons. Kroger offers electronic coupons via Kroger.com. These are added to your Kroger Plus card and come off automatically. Add 5. Instant Rebates. These are those coupons that print after you buy certain items at the registers. Called Catalinas, they usually will say "Save $2 off your next order" or "Save $1 off Johnson & Johnson Baby products." These can be used to pay for items during your next order. So here's a sample sales item: 1. Kraft Shredded Cheese, $1.99 eachAdd2. Mega Sale discount of $.50 off, makes it $1.49 eachAdd3. Kraft printable coupon for $1 off two packages (or $.50 a package for simpler math), makes it $.99 eachNow, we can stop right there and it's a great deal. $.99 for Kraft cheese is a fabulous price since it's usually more than $2.50 each.  But you can still add more layers to the savings!Add4. No electronic coupons.Add5. Catalina rebate:  "Save $2 off your next order when you buy $20 of Kraft cheese."  (This is a cumulative deal, and priced before coupons or discounts, so you can buy six bags today, and five tomorrow, and still get your $2 Catalina.)So here's what I did:

• 11 bags of Kraft cheese at $1.99 each = $21.89
• $.50 Mega Sale discount x 11 = $5.50 off
• $.50 off coupon savings for each bag x 11 = $5.50
• Paid $10.89 out of pocket. Got a $2 Catalina good off my next order.
• That's $8.89 for 11 bags of cheese! Or $.81 each!