Starting this week, you can say goodbye to coupons and promotional blitzes at J.C.Penney.

As of Wednesday, Feb. 1, the department store chain has announced it's doing away with its endless barrage of sales and gimmicks in favor of lower prices across the board.

Interestingly, the chain is using social media and text messaging to promote the revamped strategy, even going so far as to poke fun at its former self:

"ON 2.1.12 THE MADNESS ENDS," its Facebook page declares.

The new strategy, which the company is calling "Fair and Square" pricing, comes after an apparently lackluster holiday season.

What does all this mean for you, the consumer, the next time you wander into a J.C. Penney during a shopping trip to the mall?

Starting Wednesday, shoppers will see:

A new infusion of coupons along with Super Bowl promotions make for an excellent week of deals. You can score bargains on soda, frozen pizzas, M&Ms and nuts. You can also collect several freebies, including greeting cards, chocolate and aspirin. But my favorite deal of the bunch: milk for $2.79 a gallon at Walgreens.

Read on for all the best deals this week at CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Kroger, Kerr Drug, Target and WalMart. These are the deals that stood out to me so please jump in and leave a comment if you spotted a bargain. That way, we can all save.

Here's a heads up on some great new printable coupons available:

$5/1 Enfamil baby formula

$1/1 Post Honey Bunches of Oats Fruit Blends cereal

.75/1 Dean's Heat 'n Eat Dip

$1.85/3 Coffee Mate creamers

$1.10/2 Coffee Mate Natural Bliss creamers

$1/2 Cracker Barrel cheese

If you're interested, print them now because they won't last.

Looks like it's a good week to store hop, cherry picking the best deals at each of the grocery stores. At Aldi, the produce deals are outstanding, including pineapple and cantaloupe for $1 each and a 5-pound bag of grapefruit only $1.19. Aldi also has chicken breasts on sale for $1.69 per pound. At Harris Teeter, you can score Orville Redenbacher popcorn for just 66 cents a box, combining a paper and a digital coupon. Harris Teeter has also got a nice Meal Deal special that would work perfectly for Super Bowl along with good prices on Kraft shredded cheese, Campbell's Select Harvest soup, Muellers Whole Grain pasta and Planters peanut butter. At Lowes Foods, PictSweet veggies are just 63 cents a bag and Red Baron pizzas are just $2.49 after coupons. And finally, at Food Lion, the sale on store-brand products is still going strong, allowing you to earn rewards for money off your next grocery order.

Read on for the best deals that jumped out at me at Aldi, Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods. (I've also added the Kroger deals from Sunday at the bottom of the post to make comparisons easier.) Please use the comments section below to post the deals you find so we can all save.

As we get closer to Super Bowl time, the deals on snack foods are ramping up. This week, the drugstores have some nice deals on Doritos, Pepsi and Coke. After several months of high-priced soda, you can finally buy either brand for $2.50 a 12-pack (or less with a coupon!)
Also at the drugstores this week, you can also score some FREE or incredibly cheap items, including Blistex, Triaminic medicines, protein bars, UP2U gum and Finesse shampoo.
At Kroger, there's a new promotion giving you $5 off when you purchase 10 specially marked items. Among the deals there: Hunt's canned tomatoes for 19 cents, Easy Mac for 49 cents and Steamfresh veggies for 69 cents.

Read on for all the best deals I found at CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Kroger and Target this week. Please add the bargains you spot in the comments section below.

The News & Observer's  coupon database has been updated with all of today's new coupons.

This Sunday's home-delivered Final Edition of The News & Observer contains two inserts -- one Smart Source and one Red Plum -- for a total of 98 coupons with a face value of about $114.

That's before you double the first coupon, of course, which we have the opportunity to do every day of the week at Kroger, Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods.

In addition to the insert coupons, there are four additional coupons in Parade magazine.

Not familiar with the coupon database? You can access it on the right-hand side of the blog. There's a button at the bottom right to view it as a full-size page.
Or, you can download it as an Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the attachment at the bottom of this post.

It's a handy tool, listing every coupon we receive in the Triangle in the Sunday N&O.
 

Documents:

Coupons.com is offering a dozen coupons on toys and games that have the potential to match up with clearance sales at Target and other stores trying to reduce their after-Christmas inventories.

The coupons range in value from $3 off a Jenga or Cranium game to as much as $8 off a Scrabble Flash, Simon Flash and Yahtzee Flash.

Think birthday party gifts and other special occasions throughout the year.

Most of the coupons expire March 11.

If you're looking for the very best deals on groceries, skip the front pages of the sales circulars this week. The best bargains are inside the sale pages or not in the circulars at all.

With the right coupons, you can snag FREE Wolfgang Puck pasta sauce, Colgate toothbrushes and toothpaste, along with 36-cent 6-packs of Coke Zero at Harris Teeter.
At Lowes Foods, there's a great deal on Hormel deli meats and it's the last week to take advantage of the 3-week sale using store coupons on snacks and cereals.
At Food Lion, don't miss out on the second week of its store-brand promotion that rewards you with a coupon for cash off your next grocery order. (Food Lion will actually pay you to buy some of its products!)
And finally, Aldi has some terrific sales on produce and split chicken breasts, which are just 89 cents per pound.

Read on for all the best deals and feel free to post any great deals you find:

You can pick up a half-dozen freebies this week at the drug stores plus some nice deals at Kroger as part of its 10 for $10 sale. (Remember, you don't have to buy 10 items to get the items for $1 each.)
My favorite freebies this week are the greeting cards at CVS, the UP2U gum at Rite Aid and the South Beach snack bars and ThermaCare heat wraps at Walgreens. Read on for all the best deals at CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Kroger. And if you spot a deal, please post so we can all save.

It's another great week for deals at the grocery stores with lots of BOGO deals at Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods and a store-brand promotion at Food Lion that rewards you with a coupon for cash off your next grocery order. Harris Teeter also has a few Buy 2, Get 3 deals. And it's the second week of Lowes Foods' in-store coupon promotion with several nice deals on cereal and snack foods.
If that's not enough, Harris Teeter has got milk for $2.97 per gallon and Aldi is celebrating a new store opening in Durham with a coupon for $5 off your $30 order.

Read on for a store-by-store breakdown of all the best deals at the supermarkets this week: