Do you consider the future when looking into your finances?

We all plan for the future, whether it be marriage, children, building a home or even what you are having for dinner but what do you to to keep those plans on track? Something like planning for dinner is simple, you look up the recipe, grab the ingredients and take the meat out of the freezer to defrost. But if you have plans for a good financial future it takes a lot more care and work to make it happen. How do you make it happen?

For my husband and I, we have a lot of goals both in our near future and in the distant. We want to build our home, have savings, I plan on going to school to become a registered nurse (RN), have another child and have savings for our children's future. Unfortunately we are late in the game on getting this started because of the cards we have been dealt but we are jumping in and never looking back!

So here is our little story on how we plan on getting where we want to be including our time line. Sure things may change, we may come across some bumps and have to leap over some hurdles but we are confident that we can reach our goals if we work together and remain focused.

We plan on building our home. Now this one is a tough decision because all of our other goals rely heavily on making this happen. If we can't build savings, we can't build a home, if I don't finish school, we can't build a home. Everything goes hand in hand so this one pretty much depends on all of our other goals but we will sock away every little extra that we have to get to this point in our lives. Our first goal was to clear our outstanding debt so we can begin building credit which we successfully did in May of this year. Now we begin building credit so we can bloom from here.

I am currently in the process of doing everything I can to begin and complete the registered nurse program (RN) In order to do this spending the least amount of money possible we have decided that I would focus on all of my upgrading for the remainder of this summer and fall through the Independent Learning Center. My decision to do this was a financial one. I had three choices when considering how I would find myself in the RN program. Decision one was to go to night school classes being offered in the city at least 30 minutes from my home. Now add in the factor that I do not drive and come September I will have four children in school this would mean two trips to this city twice daily for my husband and my children staying up late four nights a week. This was not a smart parenting or financial decision for us. My second decision was to skip the upgrading and apply to the college for the pre health sciences nursing program which would give me all of my pre-requisites for the program. This would save me time and would ensure I had all of the credits that I would need but this also brought up two obstacles. One being I again do not drive and the college is in the city so lots of travel and gas spent and secondly being that I would have to pay for this program to the tun of over $3000. This made little financial sense to us so I choose to skip this option. My last option was the Independent Learning Center which would allow me to do all of the upgrading in my free time at home online. This would be the cheapest option and still give me the flexibility to be home with my children and husband. This made the most financial sense to us and is the decision that I have committed to. Once this is completed I can then apply directly to the RN program, complete it as quickly as I can and hopefully be within my career of choice and making great income in no time.

Now another financial decision that have had to make was savings for both ourselves and our children's futures. For our own savings the best way for us to be able to accomplish this was to first get more income whether it be through surveys, or to save money on other expenses such as groceries. This is where my couponing really comes into play as well as freebies. This allows us to spend less than our budgeted amount every week and sock away that extra into savings. For our children's savings right now we aren't able to contribute much at this time but we ensure that we put all birthday, Christmas and other holiday monies in there. Although it may not be much it all adds up and helps build something for their futures. We also put in $50 per child each month and rather than spending outrageous amounts on holiday gifts for our children we instead have chosen to give them a larger sum of money to put into their accounts rather than a lot of toys that they will forget or will be broken months later.

Overall we have made some very small changes like couponing and having a very detailed budget but those have made a very big impact in our futures. We only spend cash, never credit cards and we never spend more than we need to for anything. We look for rock bottom prices and always wait on larger ticket purchases to see if we really need the items or if we can find it cheaper else where. Entertainment for us is almost always free or next to nothing as we will spend the day at the beach, swimming at a friends house or movies which we go to with free or buy one get it free movie tickets from cereal boxes and other offers.

What I would like to know from all of my readers is how you plan for your financial future? What steps do you take and how often do you revisit your financial plan? Do you talk to a financial adviser? I'd love to hear what you do to invest in your future! I look forward to all of your tips and will be sharing a sample budget with all of my readers for those of you who are interested in budgeting! I hope my financial plan has inspired you or has given you some ideas on how to invest in yourself and your future!

Listia, have you heard?

I just joined the site Listia after doing a little research on it first and wanted to share with all of my readers what the scoop is on it. So here is the basics of the site, you get 100 credits just for signing up and quite a few more credits (I got over 700) by filling out information, setting your first auction and bidding on other auctions. Basically you search for things you would be interested in finding, for example I searched for iCoke pins since I can never have enough of them. The search will then bring up any of the available auctions for the items you are looking for. If you like what they have to offer you then put in your bid using your credits given to you. This is a great way to get some free items using the credits that are given you initially and then as you list things that you don't want for auction you can use those credits that you receive for auctions of items that you do want.

It seems like a really great site to get some cheap items or even free and get rid of items that you no longer want. I've decided that I will only use the site to auction off pins or coupons, just things that would not cost much at all to ship. I think that is where it could get a little sticky because you could get stuck paying a lot more in shipping then you do for an item.

Anyhow I thought I would share this with all of you. I'm pretty new to it but thought others maybe interested in trying it! Best part is you can get started for free and try a couple auctions without having to invest much time into it just to see if you like it!

If you'd like to try it out and see for yourself just copy and paste the link into your browser and check it out! http://www.listia.com/signup/626487 I hope you enjoy it as much as I have so far! Happy bidding! I currently have a General Mills free towel pin listed, something I could not use (I've already reached my 10 total) and will hoping win the auction for the ICoke pins that I could use!

I appologize for my absence

After my long absence I am here to apologize to my readers. As much as we sometimes have good intentions life gets in the way of all of the things that we want to do and instead there are things that we have to do instead. With that said things have calmed down for us quite a bit and I am back into couponing full swing. I hope to offer my readers valuable information with couponing and am going to be offering many more things to my readers in the near future.
Things you can look forward to seeing here at My Thrifty Canadian Life include ways to find coupons, how to best use them and lots of information on the different types of coupons. I am forever being asked how I keep my binder full and how I find the unique coupons. I look forward to sharing all of this information with my readers in the near future. Along with this information I hope to provide direct links to printable coupons, manufacture coupons and websites that will allow you to order coupons that will be delivered right to your door step.
I also intend on offering links to sites which will allow you to order free items, some of which are limited time offers and others which you can contact the companies at any time to receive! These are great offers which I have enjoyed receiving both in the past and look forward to receiving in the future.
Here at My Thrifty Canadian Life I will be offering contests, giveaways, product reviews and movie reviews for all of my readers to enjoy!
I hope you are all looking forward to everything that my blog will have to offer in the near future as I am very excited to share with all of you.
For today I will leave you with a freebie that I recently applied for and am looking forward to receiving! On facebook right now Trident is offering a free gift pack to all members who help build a bike for the bicycle factory. These bikes are being built by entering UPC's from certain products. These bikes will be built and sent to students in Ghana.
The terms for this giveaway are: Enter unique pins participating UPC's below. As a thank you, we will send you a gift pack consisting of new Trident layers mint mint gum and new Trident Splash Grape Orange Gum. Limit one gift pack, per person, per day. 20 000 gift packs available. Offer expires the earlier of July 31st , 2011 or when all gift packs have been given away. Must be 14 or older. Only available in Canada.


You can find this giveaway here:

https://www.facebook.com/BicycleFact...39019656133966

And to get you started here is the 5 UPC codes needed to receive the gift pack. Please help continue to build the bikes though as this is for a great cause and will mean the world to the students in Ghana!

0 61200 08445 0
0 61200 22591 4
0 61200 00380 2
0 61200 08680 5
0 57700 21505 0

Enjoy your Trident Gift pack and doing a great thing for those in Ghana! 

Where to start?

I know there are thousands of people out there that say they want to coupon, tear off a couple coupons from their local grocery store and then see that it is only saving them a few cents they give up. So where do you start to save thousands of dollars every year on things that you would normally buy is the real question!

The answer to this really depends on the person and how much effort and time they are willing to put into coupon savings. Sure we all want to save thousands or get things for as close to free as possible but if you are already finding yourself lacking time clipping coupons, matching sales and spending time getting to the stores bright and early on the first day of the sales might not be a great option for you.

Here is the first thing that you need to decide, how much time are you willing to invest into using coupons to increase your savings? If your answer is none at all then you will save very little, if you can spend a moderate amount of time matching coupons to sales and coupon hunting then you can save quite a bit and if you have lots of spare time and are willing to spend as much time as it takes to get the most savings you can you can easily save thousands.

Once you have decided how much time to invest you can then start your task. Your first task that I would highly recommend would be to sign up at SmartCanucks.ca where they will post all of the weekly hot deals under the deals tab and you can simply match your coupons to those deals. I would also highly recommend signing up for save.ca, gocoupons.ca and brandsaver.ca these three sites will deliver the coupons that you have chosen right to your doorstep. Another thing that I did to start out was doing trades on smartcanucks to build my trade rating as well as getting some coupons that I could use. The users on that site are very friendly and are great to get you started, if you have any questions I can almost guarantee that someone there will have the answers.

A good way to start couponing to ensure that you don't get overwhelmed right away is to choose one aspect of your life and coupon for those items first. For some people it is health and beauty, others it is baby products, household cleaners or foods. By choosing one area this will give you a chance to get a feel for coupons, where you can find them, what stores accept printables or are very coupon friendly and which other stores are not as pleasant. Once you have successfully couponed for that area of your life and you feel comfortable with coupons you can then branch out into another area.

Where to find coupons is always another popular question. Before I really got into using coupons I thought the only ones that were available were in store tear pads and through emails. I never realized all of the different places that you can find coupons and I'm sure I have tossed hundreds of dollars in coupons away just not even knowing to look for them.
Some places you can find coupons include in store tear pads which are pads of coupons which are attached to the grocery store shelves, on a display board or at the cash registers. These are coupons that can be used at that store only sometimes but there are also other coupons that can be used at any store so if a product is cheaper at another store you can use them there as well. It is always recommended that you only take enough coupons that you will use and never all so if there is a full pad and you know you will use 10 it is fine to take them but never take a whole pad!
You can also find coupons attached to products either inside the packages, printed onto boxes, on peelie stickers attached to boxes and jars of products and behind labels. Most products will say on the outside packaging if there are coupons inside but sometimes you maybe surprised!
Many companies have mailing lists that you can be placed on or request coupons either monthly or yearly. A good example of this is Chapmans icecream. You can email Chapman's and they will mail out either a $3 or $5 coupon once per year per household. It is a great idea to contact companies with compliments for products that you truly do love. It is never a good idea to make false complaints or compliment companies just to receive coupons that you will not use.
Mail in rebates are another great place to get coupons. Many companies will offer promotions through out the year that if you purchase X amount of product and send in the receipt, mail in rebate form and UPC codes they will in return send money saving coupons or even free product coupons. One example of these would be the Pepsi Tostito promotion that was held in January for the Grey Cup. When you mailed in proof that you had spent X amount on specified products they sent a $20 coupon booklet which included 1 free 12 pack of Pepsi products, 1 free 2L Pepsi product, 2 free potato chips, 1 free Gatorade and 1 free 6 x 710ml Pepsi products. Offers vary from time to time and sometimes you may find old mail in rebate forms kicking around stores so before making purchases always check the dates on them to ensure they are still valid.
I listed a few websites above where you can choose your coupons and have them mailed right to your doorstep. These sites mailing times vary greatly, I have received my coupons in as little as 10 days but sometimes as long as 6 weeks so it is a huge variation.
Many companies have special offers on their facebook pages and websites that you can either request coupons which will be mailed right to your doorstep or you can print off money saving coupons. Often times these coupons will say "limit one per person" which means that you are only suppose to print one of these coupons. Other times they will say "limit one per transaction" which means you can use one coupon per shopping trip and another important detail is when they say "limit one per purchase" some cashiers argue that this means that you can only use one of these coupons for your entire shopping trip but this is not true. One per purchase simply means you can only use one coupon per product that you are purchasing, for example if you have 3 bottles of Heinz Ketchup and you have 3 $1 off coupons you can only use 1 $1 off coupon per bottle of Ketchup not 3 $1 off coupons.

It is very important in the beginning not to get discouraged by annoyed cashiers or rude comments as it is bound to happen and I promise you the first time that you have a loaded cart and pay very little out of pocket any attitude that you have ever received will be a thing of the past. Take things at a pace that you are comfortable with and if you have any questions ask. If you feel that a cashier is being unfair don't hesitate to ask for a manager and if you still feel it has not been resolved contacting head office is always encouraged. Customer service should be very friendly regardless of the number of coupons you are using as you are still a paying customer and the store will always be refunded 100% of the value of the coupon as well as a handling fee.

If you get discouraged give yourself some time, becoming a Coupon King or Queen does not happen over night. It takes time, planning and you are bound to make some mistakes, have some coupons refused or find that your shopping plan was derailed because of items being out of stock. It is ok to feel defeated, it is ok to make mistakes because it will teach you how you can better plan for the next time and how you can make your experience with coupons even better.

Share with me how you plan to start using coupons or how you started. Have you kept track of your total savings? Did you start with just one aspect of your life? What is one tip you would give to someone new using coupons?

Do you like make up?

Lulla Writes is having a St. Patrick's day giveaway with some great prizes!
First prize winner will receive:
A bag of Lindor Truffles♥
Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush body mist in appletini
Cutex Nail Polish Remover
Sally Hansen Nail Growth Activator
Nail File
EOS in Tangerine♥
W&W: Hallucinate and Sparked
Jesse's Girl: JulieG
oke doke: steal this teal and Pink This
Petites Color Fever: Periwinkle
Sinful Colors: Show me the way

And second prize winner will receive a beautiful handmade glass bracelet that she made! It truly is gorgeous!

Check out her blog for beauty tips, product reviews and how to guides! Great little blog that I will be following as someone who is a total make up newbie I look forward to finding some great tips! Check it out and enter the giveaway, either of the prizes are great!

Mars Needs Moms!

I've started to enter some contests even though I have absolutely no luck I figured it didn't hurt to try. So off I went entering a bunch of contests with some great prizes in hopes of winning something but not setting my hopes too high knowing my past luck. Boy was I surprised to receive the email yesterday from Xenia from Thanks, Mail Carrier! I entered a contest to win a Mars Needs Mom's prize pack and I won! Who would have thought, me the person who could be the only one to enter a contest and still lose won something! So what did I win you ask?
 Mars Needs Moms Prize Pack containing a Mars Needs Moms adult t-shirt, a Mars Needs Moms youth t-shirt and a 3-pack of Mars Needs Moms temporary tattoos!
Here is the contest that I won:
http://www.thanksmailcarrier.com/2011/02/disneys-mars-needs-moms-prize-pack.html

And my email saying that I won:
Surprise!

I just drew your name as the lucky winner of a Mars Needs Moms prize pack! Congratulations!

Please respond back with your size selection for the adult and the youth t-shirts (they will do their best to accommodate) as well as your mailing information and I will forward it over to Disney to send out your prize.

Thank you so much for entering and supporting Thanks, Mail Carrier, I really appreciate it!



So even if you have lousy luck like I have had, don't stop entering contests as you never know when you might win! Even a small win is still a win! I'm very excited to receive our prize as my youngest son brought the Mars Needs Mom story book home from the school library a week ago and it was such a cute story. We have been watching the previews and have anxiously awaited it to come to theaters so we can go watch it as a family! Hopefully our new t-shirts and temporary tattoos will arrive soon as it is in theaters so we can go all decked out in Mars Needs Mom gear!

Mars Needs Moms premiered in theaters March 11th in 3D! Have you gone to see it yet? What did you think?

Free Wii remote charger

Since I redeemed my bonus points at Shoppers Drug Mart yesterday for the Nintendo Wii I figured I better look at getting some more remotes and chargers but they are so expensive! One thing at a time! So off I went to search amazon.ca for a good deal on a charger. We decided that the four remote charger would be the best fit for our family of 6 at this point.
This is the one we decided to get
http://www.amazon.ca/Quadruple-Charge-Station-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B00366KE60/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1300031601&sr=8-11

$29.99 with free shipping isn't too bad of a price but why pay that when we could get it for free! How did we do it? It's simple, I used the amazon.ca gift cards I had accumulated from swagbucks and ordered it for free!

Order Summary:

Shipping Details : order will arrive in one shipment

Order #: 701-1836784-6561052 Shipping Method: FREE Super Saver Shipping Shipping Preference: Ship when entire order is ready Subtotal of Items:   CDN$ 29.99 Shipping & Handling:   CDN$ 0.00   ------ Total before tax:   CDN$ 29.99 Estimated Tax:   CDN$ 3.90   ------ Total for this Order:   CDN$ 33.89 Delivery estimate: Mar 18 2011 - Mar 23 2011 Shipping estimate for these items: Mar 14 2011 1 "Wii Quadruple Charge Station With 4 Rechargeable Batteries - Black" Accessory; CDN$ 29.99   Sold by: Amazon.com.ca, Inc.

What is swagbucks you ask? I'll gladly share since this is one of my very favorite websites and rewards programs.
Swagbucks.com is an online portal dedicated to helping you earn digital dollars called "Swag Bucks", which can be redeemed for exclusive Swagbucks.com merchandise. But in terms everyone can easily understand it's just like google, you use the search bar to look for things that you would every day anyhow and find swagbucks which can be redeemed for pay pal, merchandise, gift cards and enter into contests! There are many ways you can earn swagbucks other than just searching including doing surveys, daily polls, special offers, watching swagbucks tv, finding codes and referring friends! If you are not already swaggin' I highly recommend it, to date I have earned over $400 in amazon.ca gift cards. It is a rewards program that does work and costs nothing to join or use. There are no negative things about this program from what I have experienced and everyone who has joined has been very happy! If your not already using it why not check it out?
http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Wiserwithwords if you are already a member tell me what you have used your swagbucks on, I'd love to know!

A Wii for FREE No way!

Lets not get crazy no one is going to give a Nintendo Wii away completely free but a Wii for .16 cents now that is possible!
My kids have been asking for a Nintendo Wii since last Christmas but since they are a major luxury and not one that we needed we have put it off say we could spend that $209 + taxes better else where but a deal came up yesterday that I just couldn't pass up.
I've wrote recently about all the ways to get the most for your points at Shoppers Drug Mart and finally the day had come for Bonus Redemptions. Off I went hopeful that they would still have a Wii in stock. I had $310.00 in Shoppers Optimum points that I have gathered since January and thought it'd be a great opportunity to do some Easter shopping and get some free groceries. So how did we do it?
Well first we dropped the kids off with their Great Grandma, this made shopping so much easier and then they wouldn't see their Easter surprises. Into Shoppers I went dragging my husband behind.
Our first transaction went like this:
There were two Nintendo Wii's left on the shelf, one black and one white. I asked the cashier to set the black one aside while we grabbed the rest of our items. The wii was on sale for $179.99 so we had $20.01 still to spend in order to be able to redeem.
Transaction Number One Breakdown:
Nintendo Wii black with 2 games- $179.99 on sale from $209.00
10x Stouffers entrees (I needed 10 more pins for their newest promotion) on sale for $1.99 each
1x Gatorade $1.79 used free product coupon from Tostitos promotion
1x Mug rootbeer $2.49 used free product coupon from Tostitos promotion
1x Pepsi 12 pack $4.99 used free product coupon from Tostitos promotion
2x Ruffles chips $3.49 each, used two free product coupons from Tostitos promotion

Total before taxes: $200.40
Total after taxes: $210.16
Total after $200 Optimum point redemption: $10.16

So how did I figure out the Nintendo Wii to be .16 cents? Well once I entered the 10 Stouffers entree pins I now have a $10 gift card to the store of my choice coming to me as well as $15 worth of free product coupons! .16 cents for a Wii is affordable and the kids will be super surprised to see this Easter morning!

I then had $110.00 in Optimum points that I could still redeem for the bonus redemption. I sent my husband to go put our first transaction into our van while I started to shop for $100 in grocery items which proved to be a bit more difficult than I thought! I wanted to get as much for our points as possible and only things that we will actually use so they are not being wasted.

Transaction Number Two went like this:
7x Christie chips ahoy snack packs $3.99 each - $3 manager coupons on each bringing them to .99cents each

1x Downy Simple Pleasures fabric softener $9.99 - free product coupon

1x Mars bar $1.39 - free product coupon

2x Every day sugar on sale for $1.99 each

4x Dare Gummis for Easter baskets on sale for $2.49 each - $2 manager coupons on each bringing them down to .49cents each

1x Neilson milk $4.09

3x Eggo Blueberry waffles 8 count on sale for $1.99 each - 3x .50cent coupons from Smart Source flyer

3x Janes chicken burgers on sale for $5.99 each - 3x $1.50 coupons

4x Maynards bunnies for Easter baskets $1.49 each

4x Schneiders Red Hots on sale for $1.99 each

1x Kleenex tissues $3.99 - free product coupon

Crest Pro Health tooth paste on sale for $2.49 - free product coupon

4x Irish Springs body wash on sale for $2.99 - 4x $2 coupons from Smart Source = .99 cents each

Gillette Fusion shave gel trial size $2.99

2x Gillette deodorant twin pack on clearance for $2.62 - $5 wub 3 Gillette products coupon

Nestle Snack Size chocolate bars on sale for $4.49

2x Hotwheels color shifters $3.99 each

3x Life brand foil chocolate Easter eggs $1.99 each

4x Candy filled plastic eggs $1.49 each

12x Stouffers frozen entrees on sale for $1.99 each

4x Marshmellow Easter kabobs $1.49 each

1x Life brand Easter bunny jujubes $2.69

Total before taxes- $110.95
Total after taxes- $115.20
Total after redeeming $100 in Shoppers Optimum points- $15.20

I will be receiving another $10 gift card from the Stouffers promotion with the 12 entrees I purchased in this transaction and $15 in free product coupons. I also was able to use my pins on the Lean Cuisine site and redeemed for the flower swirl lunch bag!

Two awesome shopping trips that loaded up our cupboards, freezer and fridge for next to nothing. Easter shopping nearly done in one stop for next to nothing out of pocket.

We were also given a $10 gift card to Canadian Tire from a family friend who was leaving on vacation and could not use it in time since it expired yesterday. With this we were able to purchase 4x Crayola colored bubbles (one for each child) and only paid $6 and change out of pocket! These were selling for $3.99 each!

Freebies are out there, it's just matching sales to coupons, coupons to products that have promotions and only buying what you really need or will use. We could have done better had we purchased a product with a mail in rebate but these were all items we would have purchased anyways so it was really a smart shop for us.

Did you redeem your points? What did you get? Did you combine coupons to the sale to load up even more? Tell me about your Bonus Redemption trip!!!

Whats the appeal?

Many people are baffled to see my stock pile and just what I have been able to receive using rewards programs such as Shoppers Optimum, Stouffers and Swagbucks but then there are others who say it must take so much time or it's just not worth it since they buy no name products instead. This leaves me shocked! I have found 99% of the time that I can purchase name brand products cheaper than I can store brand since there are very seldom coupons for these store brand products and the quality is often times poor.
So what is the appeal of using coupons for me? The fact that I have a years plus supply of toilet paper, laundry detergent, cleaning products, dish soap, soup, pasta, razors and personal care products that I paid just pennies for each is the appeal for me! The fact that I can put that money that I would otherwise spend on groceries into things like fun birthday parties, entertainment for our family, paying off our debt and having a savings. It gives us security without having to give up the products that we love. I love that we can also try products like the Physicians Formula make up that I would never even consider buying because of the price for free. That is a huge deal for me since I am not too great when it comes to make up but I'd like to try a few different things and I found I hated the liquid eye liner and mascara so it wasn't a big deal to just give it away to my cousin.
I love that I can put together a basket full of items to give as birthday presents, get well gifts or just pick me ups for friends and family who have been having a hard time and it hardly costs us! The smiles on their faces and the fact that I have made their day just a little better is a huge deal. The fact that it is saving them money so they can use the extra to buy diapers or put gas in their vehicles for another week is huge.
I love that I can give back to my community whether it be the Humane Society who needs our donations, food banks, schools or people just down on their luck. I love being able to do my part which I couldn't previous do.
So here are a few more places you can put your money to work for you!
Icoke.ca is a great program where you can take your coke pins found under the caps and in the packaging of specially marked products. You enter the pins into the website and receive Icoke points. These points you can trade in for a variety of things including movie tickets and Pizza Pizza gift cards! All free for those Coke drinkers out there. We go through a ton since my husband is a huge coke drinker so we might as well get something for a product that we are purchasing anyhow!

Swagbucks is one of my all time favorite rewards programs. You use it just as you would google or any other search engine and earn "swagbucks" which can be redeemed for electronics, gift cards, pay pal and tons of other great items! It's completely free and it does pay! I've received well over $300 in amazon.ca gift cards using this program for a little more than a year!
http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Wiserwithwords check it out! I think you will be really surprised on just how easy it is to use. We are now saving up our gift cards for Christmas 2011 since last year it was such a hit! The kids got loads of books, games and dvd's which didn't cost me a penny!

Stouffers has extended the promotion that you get 12 stouffers pins (found inside specially marked boxes of Stouffers, Lean Cuisine and Bistro frozen entrees) and you receive a $10 gift card to the store of your choice and $15 in free product coupons! This is a great promotion when the entrees are on sale or if you have coupons you can combine with them!

It's truly remarkable just how quickly you can earn rewards using products or services that you normally do anyhow. It takes a little time and effort but the savings truly do pay off! With that said I am off to make my family a big ol' fat Tuesday dinner of crepes stuffed with all kinds of fruity goodness!

Shoppers Bonus Points

We all love Shoppers Optimum points, I mean really who doesn't love free stuff right? My favorite days of all though are when promotions are on and they have bonus points days! This week is one of those times where you can spend $75 and receive an additional $25 in Optimum bonus points (18500 points) on top of your regular purchase points. But who wants to spend $75 if they don't have to right? Here is a little tip that most cashiers will tell you is wrong but it has been tried and proven that it does work. Let me in on a well kept secret of how to get these bonus points with spending very little cash out of pocket.
Take a look at your Shoppers Drug Marts weekly flyer and make your list of items that you do need at their lowest prices. Then add that up and see just how much you have to spend to get to that $75. If you don't need anything at all then take a look at your coupons and match them to the sales. As long as your subtotal is $75+ you WILL receive your bonus points even after coupons bring your total well below $75.

Here is an example from my shopping trip today:
2x Goodnights diapers on sale for $13.99 - 2x $2.00 save.ca coupons
4x Gillette aftershave lotion/gel on sale for 2/$5 - $5 P&G coupon wub3
4x Gillette shaving gel on sale for 2/$5 - $5 P&G coupon wub3
4x Trial size Gillette shampoo on sale for .50cents (I purchased these to make my total for the $5 coupons just $5.50 each, the shelf said these were $1.99 but they rung up at .50 cents)
4x Satin Care shaving cream 2/$5 - $4 wub2 P&G coupon
2x Busy Bones denta bones $2.99 each - $3 save.ca coupon
1x Lysol No touch soap dispenser $15.99 (will do the mail in rebate to receive $14.99 back plus taxes and postage)
My total before coupons was well over $75 but after coupons I only paid $48.05. I could have made my total much lower but I needed the Goodnights and that is the best price I have ever seen in awhile and the Lysol mail in rebate will return a good portion of what I spent back.

So 18500 points which is equal to $25 + $14.99 rebate (plus taxes and postage) = $39.99 in points/cash back so out of pocket I will only be out roughly $8! Fantastic bargains! This bonus offer is going all week long so I will be participating at least once more to pick up some bargains.

Shoppers also has 10 pack Advil Night time on sale for $3.99 with $4.00 coupons found in store on tear pads which make them free. Some cashiers will not allow you to use the coupons are higher than the value of the product but you may get lucky and get a great cashier. Most stores have had their shelves cleared of these but if you are lucky and can find some it's a great deal! If you can't you should be able to get a rain check for 4 that you can use within the next month at the store where you received the rain check.

Happy Shopping at Shoppers!

A great week for deals or more like steals!

This week has some really great sales on, so good that it will have you running out the store feeling like a security guard is following you, they are just that good!

Best deals that I have found this week are at No Frills! They are having their half price sale and it'll be on for 2 weeks! That's 14 days of stocking up and saving a bundle, can you handle it!?!
Here are the highlights:
Sunlight 2x Liquid detergent 64 washloads or Powder 80 washloads for $4.77. This is an awesome deal in itself but if you combine it with the $5 when you buy 2 Sunlight detergent coupons found on the back of Naturel Milk you'll only be paying  $4.54 for both or $2.27 each! For powder that would be .03cents per load and liquid would be .04cents per load!

Campbells tomato soup is just .44 cents per can, combine that with the $1.00 off when you buy 3 blue band soups that is only .32 cents for four cans or .11 cents per can

Campbells mushroom, chicken noodle and vegetable soup is also on for .44 cents per can which can be combined with the $1 when you buy 4 cans coupon for a total of  .76 cents for four cans or .19cents per can

Pogo original 10's or all beef 8's 600-750g are on sale for $3.97 which is a pretty good deal but combined with the Toonies for Tummies $1 coupon you as a smart shopper will only pay $2.97 a box!

Kelloggs Nutrigrain bars remain on sale for $1.88 per box which can be combined with the $1 off coupon found on specially marked cereal boxes for a great bargain at only .88 cents per box

Kelloggs poptarts and rice krispie squares are also on sale for $1.88 per box

4L Neilson chocolate milk is only $3.99! That is cheaper than what they sell white milk for!

Dole Caesar or light Caesar salad is only $1.47 but combined with the $1.50 off any salad found on specially marked cereal boxes you will pay absolutely nothing and if you have a super nice cashier you might just get .03 cents towards your other purchases if they do not adjust the coupon

My favorite bread Golden Mill Vienna bread is on for just .99 cents per loaf. We intend on picking up at least 50 loaves before the sale is over. This bread freezes so well and comes out just as fresh as when you put it in! Unlike many other breads which you freeze and taste like yeast when unthawed this brand is not like that at all.

Secret deodorant is just $1.49 which can be combined with the $1.00 P&G coupon making it only .49 cents or for even better value why not grab two and a Venus embrace razor which is also on sale for just $5.99 use the $7 when you buy 3 P&G coupon making your total just $1.97 for all three!

So there you have yourself some amazing deals. If you have a SPC card or the VIP SPC you can save 10% more bringing even more savings to you! This is where I intend to do some price matching tomorrow.

Happy Savings!

What can one person do?

This is a question on many people's minds when it comes to making a different. I am just one person, what can I do? One person is all it takes to start a change, to make a difference in someone's life and to start a chain reaction. When one person takes a stand for something they believe in it's incredible to see the reactions from others following suit.
So what have I as one person done to make a different in my frugal and thrifty journey? Well I've just begun but I will share with you what I have done and what I will continue to work towards.
You see my husband and I do not make a ton of money, we follow a strict budget to make ends meet and pay the bills at the end of each month. There are not always tons of extras and before I started this way of life there was very seldom any extras at all. Since we have begun price matching, searching clearance and using coupons we have not only brought our grocery and personal hygiene aspect of our budget down dramatically but we have also been able to provide my parents and my grandmother with items to bring their budgets down as well. This has given both of their families a chance to get caught up on past due bills, have a few extras that they would not normally have and feel a little more positive about the future. This has also given me the opportunity to be able to take the freebies or pretty darn close to it and make donations to the food bank and local humane society. Without following this way of life there is no way I could have made these changes.
Following this path has also really given me the push to give back to others and make a positive change in others lives. It has helped me teach my children about those who are so less fortunate than us but that we can make a difference in their lives by giving back.
After much consideration and planning we have decided to put together a benefit for the SIDS foundation. This has been an active plan for the past three years when a friend of ours lost their son to SIDS. It is something that has weighed very heavy on our hearts and something that we wanted to do to keep both his memory alive and actively work towards putting an end to SIDS. We've decided that this will be the year to do it. Knowing how to get the best deals now and having a great support system when it comes to finding the best deals we are begun to put together the benefit. With much planning and consideration we should be able to put together a successful benefit with nearly nothing out of our own pockets but will be able to make a large donation to the SIDS foundation. This is one of many ways we plan on giving back.

So you may think that you are just one person, and that just one person can not make a difference. But I beg to differ. One person can make all the difference to a child who has to go without meals because there is no food on the table and the food banks shelves are empty, one person can make a considerable donation to a foundation that may be short on funds or may give just the money needed that may make a break through in research. One person can put a smile on someones face and give them hope when they thought there was none. Don't ever think for one second that one person can not make a difference, because one person can make a world of difference.

Make a difference in someones life! It doesn't have to cost you anything, just a simple smile, hold the door, have a bit of extra patience while shopping, make a meal for a family that is going through a difficult time or just tell someone you are there to listen. Those are all things that don't have to cost anything but can make a world of difference in the life of someone else.

You may be just one person, but together we are a whole lot of people willing to step up and make a change.

Greenworks, Scrubbing bubbles, Chewy bars the deals go on and on and on

This week is an amazing week for fantastic deals! Yesterday we spent the day loading up our van with deals that were so good it felt like we must have been stealing! Here's what we loaded up on!

Zellers transaction number 1 (we had to do two transactions since their computer only lets them enter 99 items)
3x Smuckers jam on sale at Zehrs for $2.99 price matched to Zellers - 3x $1 coupons= $1.99 each

5x Quaker chewy bars on sale for $1.00 price matched to Food Basics no coupons

1x Nature Valley trail mix granola bar on sale for $1.00 price matched to Food Basics - .99cent coupon = .01cents

20x Campbells Cream of mushroom soap price matched to Food basics for .47cents/can - $1.00 wub4 cans = .22 cents per can

20x Campbells Tomato soup price matched to Food Basics for .47 cents/can - $1.00 wub4 cans = .22 cents per can

3x Mach 3 disposable razors 3 pack price matched to Zehrs for $4.99 each - 3x $2.00 coupons = $2.99 each

8x Beggin strips price matched to Zehrs for $1.99 each - 8x $1.00 coupons = .99cents each

12x Ziploc 100 count sandwich bags price matched to Zehrs for $2.29each - 6x $4.00 wub2 = .29 cents each

21x Greenworks Cleaners on sale at Zellers for $1.99 each - 7x $1.50 coupon wub1 and 5 x $5 coupon wub3 = .30 cents each

10% savings with Student Price Card

For a grand total of $41.67
A total purchase savings of $109.52 excluding all coupons
A total coupon savings for $89.49
A total savings of  $199.01

Zellers Transaction #2:

1x Green Works Cleaner on sale at Zellers for $1.99
4x Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer on sale at Zellers for $5.99 - 4x $5.00 coupons = .99 cents each
4x Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer refill - B1 Scrubbing bubbles power sprayer G1 Refill for free = $0 each

For a grand total of $6.69
A total purchase savings of $17.60 excluding coupons
A total coupon savings of $39.96
A total savings of $57.56

Walmart Transaction Number 3 of the day

Janes Chicken strips on sale for $7.00 - $2.00 coupon = $5.00

Scrubbing bubbles toilet gel starter kit on clearance for $7.50 - $7.00 coupon = .50 cents

2x Toaster Strudel blueberry flavor - 2x $2.00 coupons = FREE

Diet Pepsi $3.50 - $3.50 coupon = FREE

Natrel 2% milk $5.77 - $5.00 coupon = .77cents

Johnson and Johnson Bedtime baby set $15.97 - $15.97 coupon = FREE

2x Black Diamond 500g Marble Cheese bar priced matched to Price Chopper at $4.44 each

Total $16.50
Total coupon savings = $37.47

Sobeys was transaction number 4 of the day and I hit it large!

Pilsbury Crescent rolls on sale .99 cents - $1.00 coupon = +.01 cents

6x Marrobones on sale $2.99 each - B1G1 free = $8.97 for all or $1.50 each

5x Pedigree dry dog food 3.3kg normally $9.99/bag on clearance 50% off for $4.99 each - 5x $3.00 coupon = $1.99 each

Beneful Slices 312g on 50% off clearance $2.49 - $1.00 coupon = $1.49

Tide Strain release spray on 50% off clearance $2.50 - $2.00 coupon - .50 cents

2x Gain laundry powder on 50% off clearance $3.15 each - $3.00 coupon wub2 = $3.29 for both or $1.65 each

2x Nutella spread 750g $6.79 - 2x $6.79 coupons = FREE

Busy Bone large 425g on 50% off clearance $3.65 - $3.00 coupon = .65 cents

Total- $35.72
Total coupon savings- $47.55
Total clearance savings - $39.90

Sobeys is generally the last place that I would shop but I could not find the Marrobones anywhere else in that size and they also have a High 5 in the morning promotion going on where you purchase 5 Quaker items one must be a Tropicana product and they will send you $25.00 in coupons! You need to purchase all 5 items in the same transaction and write the UPC codes on the back of the receipt. Unfortunately they did not have any of the forms available so I will have to make another trip to get one. Very good promotion right now with the Quaker granola bars on sale at Food Basics this week for $1.00!

Some great savings this week! My savings yesterday was $381.49 which is far more than what I paid! This is a great week to get Quaker granola bars, Kool-Aid jammers are just $1.00 at Food Basics, Greenworks is a fantastic price and cheese is a great price as well! Save yourself on traveling from one store to another and do price matches! It pays to shop around and use coupons!

Utilities got you down?

There is nothing worse than opening your mail box to find a stack of bills all saying pay me now with hefty dollar signs beside them! What if you could cut that amount down significantly and keep more money in your pocket without having to spend a bundle? We have and boy does it feel good!

Since we have an unpredictable income we use equal billing for our electricity and gas. This ensures that every month we will know what we are paying and makes life a ton easier when it comes to budgeting. This does not really save us any money but it does give us the opportunity to plan for where our money is going each month ahead of time and more often then not have a month free service from what we have over paid. Some will recommend against this because the utility companies are building interest on the money that you are over paying but for anyone who has a small budget or unpredictable income I strongly recommend it.

The biggest savings you can have on your bills is to cut out the extras, do you really need voice mail, call waiting and caller idea? Buying an answering machine at a one time cost of about $10 can save you big bucks at the end of even one year! We were being charged $3 every month just to have voice mail on our phone, that's $36 per year! Out will the frills, on with the savings!

Cell phones, everyone has them and they are expensive! If you need one for work or emergencies when out and about I strongly recommend using pay as you go. If you do not use it a lot every single day pay as you go is the way to save money. Also if you hit a month that you can't afford the extra expense of a cell phone or you know you will not be using it for a few months you are not paying for unused service. It just makes sense! Many cell phone companies offer unlimited text messaging and incoming calls for a minimal cost which could save you quite a bit each and every month.

Electricity, it's something we all need but one of those bills we cringe opening. It's one of our highest bills and one that we used to hold our breath while opening. Not anymore! We have cut our electricity usage in almost half following a few simple tips.
- unplug everything that is not in use, even though it is not turned on it is still drawing electricity
- switch to gas cook stoves, dryers and hot water tanks, the gas usage is far less than electricity
- in the summer avoid turning on your a/c until necessary and even when you do keep it at as minimal use as possible
- update your appliances, you would be surprised just how much energy those old appliances are using
- ensure your freezers are full at all times, this uses less electricity and if you don't have enough food in the freezers to fill it use containers filed with water to fill in the extra space
- shut all lights off when you leave a room, it's amazing how much we pay by just forgetting to flip a switch
- change to energy efficient light bulbs, these babies are a great investment and last much longer than original bulbs
There are just a few that some people just do not think of. There are many common sense electricity saving tips out there. Do a quick search on the internet and you will find a ton. Calling your provider may also help with finding energy savings tips. If you update your appliances some providers offer bonuses for doing so. Some providers are also offering savings for energy usage that is after peak times so this is a good thing to look into to avoid paying the highest rate.

Gas usage can be outrageous especially in the cold winter months and if your like me there is nothing that is going to stop me from staying warm! Here are some tips on how you can still stay toasting with out suffering from the shock of opening that winter bill:
- wear layers in order to keep the furnace turned down just a bit lower
- install window kits to keep drafts from cooling down certain living areas
- install a ceiling fan to circulate the warm air
- turn the temperature on your hot water tanks down, you don't need boiling water coming out of your taps not only is it dangerous but it's costing you a fortune!
- do your laundry all at once, this way the dryer will not completely cool off between loads and you won't have to run it as long
- wash your laundry in cold water
Again you can find loads more great tips all over the internet or if you phone your provider. It never hurts to ask, but you could come out ahead with a lot more money in your pockets!

Water usage is one of our least expensive bills but still one that we like to make sure we keep in check. Any penny saved is a penny more that we have instead of our utility providers:
- wash only full loads of laundry and use cold water
- ensure that all taps are completely turned off and not leaking, you may need to replace seals from time to time
- ensure your toilet is never left running, this can use gallons of water
- never leave the tap running while doing dishes, filling a sink once to rinse will use far less water than allowing it to run the entire time you wash dishes
- only water gardens and grass at dawn or dusk, watering during the day can not only be harmful to your plants but is a big waste of water!
- limit showers to lower water waste
- ensure hoses are always shut off after use

Seems like common sense tips but not everyone does these! It's surprising just how much water gets used every year. You can do your part and save yourself money at the same time!

Hopefully these will give you a good starting point for cutting down your utility bills. These are the three major bills that everyone pays. Things like cable, phone, and other entertainment I consider a luxury. If you feel those things are necessary price around for the best offer and don't be afraid to ask your current provider for a better deal!

Happy savings everyone!

Where there are questions asked, answers must follow!

I've been asked a lot of questions lately about my journey and thought what better way than to answer them in a blog post for everyone to see. If there is something you have ever wondered hopefully I will cover it in this post and if not I'd be  happy to answer for you in future posts!

The easiest question that I have been asked is who am I? Well it seems like a easy question doesn't it and just stating my name would be the easiest answer but I don't think that is what people are really asking. I am a mother to four amazing children ages 9, 7, 5 and 3. My eldest son is Autistic which brings on a whole lot of different expenses and challenges than average families face. I have been married to my amazing husband for nearly 3 years and we have spent the past 7 years together. I was a high school drop out when I had my first son at 16 but have since went back to school and amongst my other goals I will be a high school graduate this year, in just a few months actually. I am a stay at home mom who stretches every penny as far as I can so we can achieve our goals. I am a only child who was raised with very little financial sense and found myself in a whole lot of trouble when I entered the real world. I am determined, motivated, thrifty, very money wise now and equally as concerned about our environment.

Hopefully that will give you an idea of who I am. There are many layers to me, some which contradict the others. My purpose in writing this blog is to help others who have found themselves in the same position that we are in, little income, lots of expenses and big dreams. I've been watching Til Death Do Us Part and learned one very important thing, if you want to get yourself out of debt you either a) cut back on expenses or b) get more income. My husband and I have decided to get where we want to be in the next year we are going to do both and boy has it shown in our plans!

I have been asked many times why now and why have I chosen this route to get ourselves out of debt and build savings. The answer to this is simple, we couldn't go on living the way we were without finding ourselves under a huge pile of debt with ruined credit ratings and absolutely no chance to get out! This was the easiest decision we made, now putting it into action wasn't nearly as easy.

What is our plans? My husband and I plan to be debt free by the end of 2011, we plan to have a nice little savings cushion to fall back on, have education savings begun for our children and a budget that we can work with for years to come. We have huge plans and have worked very hard towards them.

How are we going to accomplish everything above in just 11 months remaining? With a tight budget, extra income whenever we can get it and watching where every penny goes. Before we even entered 2011 my husband and I both sat down and wrote out a very detailed budget which included everything from car insurance and rent to hair cuts, gifts and savings. Everything that we will spend money on is accounted for. We are using an envelope system to keep track of our money and to ensure that we do not over spend. The only thing that we do not use the envelope system for is car insurance, debt repayment and our utility bills since those are automatically taken out of our accounts on a date that we have chosen or we pay online on pay day.
Extra income is a huge blessing on building our savings, stock pile and paying debt off faster. There are many ways that you can earn extra income no matter what your talents are. We have sold many things that we don't need on a website called kijiji. You can also do things like babysitting, having yard sales, selling crafts that you make or baked goods and doing handy man work. The possibilities are endless! What may seem like just a few dollars here and there can end up as a huge amount of money at the end of 12 months.
Lastly we have kept track of where every penny that we spend is going. This will give us a detailed view of where our money is going and where we can cut back. For example if you need to tighten up your budget further because of sickness or having an unexpected bill you may see in your detailed spending sheet that you are spending $1.75/day on coffee from Tim Hortons! It may not seem like much but when you start considering you are buying a coffee every day that becomes $638.75 every single year! That could easily be a few utility bills covered just by skipping that one cup of coffee and making it at home instead.

We have spent countless hours researching how we will save money. Couponing has become a huge part of that. Wednesday night when we receive our weekly flyers we take a look at what will be on special for the week and pair that with the coupons that we have available for big savings. Having a stock pile at home will ensure that we spend the lowest possible price for the grocery items that we use. Watching for sales rotations will help you determine just how many months supply of pantry items you may need, for example if you use Cashmere bathroom tissue and see that it is on special for $5.55 as it was at No Frills this week that maybe the lowest price that you will find it at. If you watch the sales rotations you may find that it goes on special every 6 months so you would need to buy a 6 month supply at that time to make sure you get the best possible price. SmartCanuks.ca has been amazing with helping me find all the weekly deals available paired with coupons and the ladies there have been fantastic at trading coupons with me for the products that I use.

There is a lot that you can do to save money. You may not have a pile of debt haunting you but unless you have 6 months to a year worth of emergency savings you could easily find yourself with debt if illness, injury or job loss was to affect your family. It's always a good idea regardless of income to take a look at their finances on a regular basis to see where there money is going, ensure that you can't get a lower rate with companies and make sure you are keeping as much of your hard earned money in your pocket as possible.

I hope that some of these tips will help you on your savings journey and have cleared up any questions you may have. I will be touching base on saving money on your utilities in my next blog post with lots of energy savings tips that anyone could do!

Happy Savings!

My first month in summary

January was really the first month that I committed myself to using coupons and boy has it been a journey! I've really learned a lot and I am much more sure of myself with each check out that I do. I've learned a lot about the scanning code of practice, which stores will accepted printed coupons, mail in rebates, Optimum points, HBC points the list just goes on and on. I'm very excited to share all I have learned with my readers and can't wait to continue on with this journey.

My stockpile is well on it's way, and I've been able to help out others in our family with free items or majorly reduced prices. I've gained the title of personal shopper and couponing diva from a few! But the biggest gain that I have had this month is massive savings. I didn't start using coupons to this extreme until mid January and everyone around me thought it would just be a fad and I would quickly move onto something else. After seeing this months savings of $884.81 I can proudly say that I will never stop using coupons, this is the first month in a very long time we have come out ahead and we will continue to stay ahead because of our frugal nature.

How did I do it? Well I will be the first to admit that I spent too many hours reading on smartcanuks.ca and talking to the amazing members on there! Without those ladies I truly do not think I would have had half the savings that I had. They pointed me in the right direction, posted lots of great deals and took trades from a newbie like me to get my coupon binder beaming!
I matched my coupons to sales for all of the items that we use and maximized our savings this way. You would not believe the amount of regularly used items that go on sale in rotation that you can find coupons for.
I emailed and called too many companies to even begin to mention to give thanks to and many of them sent me coupons to use towards their products. I've said it before and I'll say it over and over again it pays to compliment!
Price matching at Walmart has become one of my favorites! Not only do they give you .02 cents off the competitors prices but you save gas because your not driving all over the place! This has been a huge savings for me.

I hope to do more detailed posts on each and every one of my savings tips that I have gained along the way. I know there are many people out there who would love to have this kind of savings but they just don't know where to start or think that you have to make a career out of this. You do not have to make a career out of it, sure I spend a ton of time on it but that is because I am not working right now. This gives me an opportunity to stay at home with my kids without having a bigger financial burden on us but we can still pay off our debts, build savings and still eat healthy! Anything that you want badly enough in life can happen it just takes a lot of motivation and the determination to really go for it!

Stay tuned I will be posted in detail how to price match, use coupons most efficiently, building and maintaining a stock pile, how to get the most Shoppers Optimum points possible and how to save yourself money! There are so many ways to save money each month besides just using coupons and I will tell you how!

Happy Savings!

The deals are at Walmart ladies and gents!

Yesterday I went with a friend on a little shopping adventure in efforts to pick up the last of the things needed for my son's birthday party tomorrow. Boy oh boy did I hit it big!
Walmart had loaded shelves full of Gillette Foamy shaving cream for $1.46 each! This came in all different varieties. This is what I purchased on my first shopping trip of the day broken down into the 3 separate transactions that I did.

12 Gillette foamy shaving cream original $1.46 each =  $17.52 then I used 4 $5 Gillette coupons when you buy 3 of their products for a grand total of -.20 cents! The store actually owed me! Now I have to make it clear that Walmart is not going to pay you to shop there, and they will not give you that 20cents but I owed absolutely nothing!

Second transaction was pretty much the same but I purchased 12 Gillette Foamy sensitive skin shaving cream. Same price, same coupons and same amazing total!

My last transaction during this shopping trip consisted of:
12 Gillette shaving gels with 20% more in each can= $2.00 each or $24.00 for all used 4x $5 Gillette coupon when you buy 3

3x Clorox disinfecting wipes and price matched to No Frills dollar sale = $1.00 each or $3.00 for all three - 3x $1.00 save.ca coupons

5 Vial cake decorating sprinkle kit = $2.62 no coupons

Tic Tac 100 pieces = $2.38 no coupons

12x Campbells Chicken broth priced match to No Frills dollar sale= $1.00 each or $12.00 for all 12 - 6x $1.00 off when you buy two coupons

My grand total for all of the above was a whooping $17.82!

I just wouldn't be a mom if I went into a store and managed to forget my head, I mean everything that I need so off to Walmart we headed again last night to get the last of the things needed for my son's party. He decided that he wanted taco's instead of pizza and there were a few things that we just didn't have in the house. On this Walmart shopping trip I had the cashiers eyes bulging and scratching his head thinking he rang in something wrong! All joking aside he was fantastic and had a sweet Aussie accent, very pleasant young man which I have found can be difficult when you are using so many coupons.

Here is what we purchased on our second shopping trip of the day:

Salt and vinegar Kettle Chips- $3.38 - free product coupon = FREE
2x Pedigree Marro bones- $3.88 each,  used buy one get one for free coupon
3x Beggin dog treats- $2.46 each used $1.00 coupons x 3 = $1.46 each
Large Beggin strips- $3.78 used $1.00 coupon = $2.78
Johnson & Johnson baby bed time bath set- $15.97 - free product coupon = FREE
3x Quaker granola bars- $2.00 each = $6.00 - $5.00 Quaker coupon = $1.00 for all 3
Large jar of Planters Dry roasted peanuts- $4.97 - free product coupon = FREE
Carl Budding Honey Ham lunchmeat- $0.87 - free product coupon = FREE
Good Value Hard taco kit- $2.57 no coupons
3x Good Value Soft taco kit- $2.57 x 3 = $7.71 no coupons
8x Cold Water Tide 31 loads powder regular price $8.77 price matched to Food Basics for $4.97 and used 4x $5.00 coupons when you buy two qualifying Tide products = $2.47 each
Lays chips- $2.47 no coupons
Windex large refill bottle- $5.87 - $5.00 coupon = $0.87
Glade jar candle- $4.18 - $4.18 free product coupon
4x Fleecy liquid fabric softener 48 loads each- $4.76 each or $19.04 - 4x $5.00 coupons ($20.00) = - $0.96
3x Bear Paw crackers- $1.97 each or $5.91 all - 3x $1.00 coupons found on box and 3x 0.50 Dare coupons = $1.41
3x Royale Bath tissue 12 double rolls - $4.00 each or $12.00 all - 3x $5.00 = -$3.00

Before coupons without the price matching price would without taxes would have been- $150.41

After taxes and coupons were taken off- $22.30! That is $128.11 in savings just in this shopping trip! I feel my bank account swelling already!

Tonight's big deals are Ladies Skintimate shaving cream, Pepsi 6x 710mL and Tasters Choice coffee. I maybe surprised at what else I can find! I never go anywhere without my coupon binder, you never know what kind of clearance or sale might be on that you didn't see advertised! Some of the best store sales are not found in the flyers but rather on end caps found in stores. Know your prices, get to know your stores sales rotation and know what you need! These 3 small tips will save you a bundle in no time!

Happy Savings

No Frills Dollar Days are coming to a end

Have you got your fill of No Frills Dollar days this year? Although I will admit I was rather disappointed with the sales this year compared to previous years but I still managed to get some really great bargains. I have been in a few different times this week picking up my Lean Cuisines needed for their offer and the colored mini marshmallows that my kids love for treats.
Today by far was the best that I have done in that store all week and I wanted to share my finds with you. Their dollar sale is great, but combine that with coupons and it is even better!
Del Monte Fruit Twists are on sale for $1.00 for a 6 pack of either the sticks or pieces, I grabbed 3 x $1.00 - 3 x $1.00 coupons = FREE

2x Cavendish Potato wedges $2.79 each = $5.58 used two coupons that I received in the mail for any potato product for free and had two of them = FREE

Christie Triscuit crackers on sale for $1.00 - $1.00 Save.ca coupon = FREE

Sunlight Green Clean laundrey detergent $6.97 - $6.97 free product coupon = FREE

8x County Harvest 14 grain Vitality bread on sale for $1.00 each = $8.00 - $7.50 in coupons, I had 1 buy 3 get $2.50 off, 1 buy 2 get $1.50 off and 1 buy 1 get .50cents off

So today I purchased 15 items for a grand total of $25.85 including taxes and before coupons. After coupons were taken off my total was a whooping $2.80, $1.20 of this was HST! That is a $23.05 savings on the original price!

No Frills has had their dollar sale on for two weeks and it will be coming to a close on Thursday January 27th, 2011 so you still have time to stock up on some great bargains! Some of the highlights from the flyer all for just a $1.00 are:
Country Harvest Vitality bread (use those coupons and get it even cheaper)
Christie snacking crackers (if you have the Triscuit cracker from save.ca it's time to use it)
Pineapples
No Name orange and apple juice
Coke soft drinks 2L bottles (remember to save those Icoke pins found under the caps)
Clorox wipes (there are $1.00 coupons out there for this)
Campbells Chicken and Beef broth (there are coupons out there for buy 2 save $1.00, making them just .50cents each)
Glad Sandwich bags 50 count
Lancia pasta 2/$1
Del Monte fruit twists
Yoplait Minigo or Source yogurt (there are .50cent coupons out there for these)
Gold Seal salmon
Blueberries 170g (there are $1.00 fresh berries coupons found on specially marked Kelloggs cereal boxes)
Marc Angelo pork souvlaki (there are $1.00 coupons for these out there too)

There is a whole lot of savings to be had and if you have any coupons for these products you can get them for next to nothing if not for free! No Frills also does price matching to competitors stores and accepts printed coupons for additional savings!
I can say from experience that our local No Frills in Essex, Ontario has some of the best cashiers, very clean store and well stocked! Although there are no rain checks offered for products they have great value and friendly staff which makes it all worth while to me! Remember to bring your reusable bags or bins when you shop, they do charge .05 cents for each of their bags and boxes are sometimes limited.
Tell me what you have found this week to be a bargain. Did you stock up? Did you use coupons for even a greater value? I want to know how you shop!

Great Shoppers offer- MUST READ!

Here is a must ready Shoppers offer for all of you who want the $25 in Optimum points either tonight or tomorrow while they are offering the spend $75 get $25 in Shoppers Optimum but don't know what to buy!

On the back page of the Shoppers Drug Mart flyer there is a offer for Neutrogena aging kits that you can try for FREE! If you go into Shoppers and choose which kit you want, I chose the starter kit priced at $59.99 you then only need to buy $16.01 more in products in order to get the $25! When you get the Neutrogena make sure you ask at the cosmetic counter for the mail in rebate form and don't use any other coupons when making this purchase as it may effect your rebate.

Then take your original receipt, and fill out the rebate form. Mail it to the address stated on the rebate form and make sure it gets post marked in time, I believe it was February 11th, 2011 (sorry I already filled mine out and it's off in the mail.) In 6-8 weeks you will receive your check for the full purchase amount and taxes at your door step! Make sure you follow all of their instructions carefully in order to ensure you will receive your rebate.

So you get to try a great new product for FREE and only have to spend $16.01 to get $25 in Shoppers Optimum! Great deal!!! Check it out!

Free Hamilton Beach Indoor Grill

For all of you Dempsters fans out there I wanted to share a great offer with you. My family is not a whole wheat bread kinda crew but for this deal we most certainly will be!

So I've heard all the hype about Dempsters pins and had no idea what it was all about. Then when I was in Shoppers Drug Mart today getting those extra Optimum points I seen a skid of Dempsters Whole Grain bread on sale for $1.99 but looking a little closer I saw that it was on manager special with two coupons attached for $1.00 off and .50cents off! This brought the bread down to just .49 cents per loaf, so even though we don't love brown bread it'll be great to use it for stuffing and although it expires tomorrow once thrown into the freezer it'll last quite a while past the expiry date.

You need 15 pins found on the loaves of Dempster bread, you can't miss them there is a sticker with that beautiful Hamilton Beach Indoor grill right there on the top of the packaging. I found 15 pins for a grand total of  $7.35!! That's right I am going to be a proud new owner of a Hamilton Beach Indoor Grill for $7.35 and a $18 money order to cover postage!

There is only limited quantities of the grills available so if you are interested in taking part in this offer I highly suggest that you do so quickly! I can't wait to cook up a storm on this little beauty.

All envelopes must be post marked no later than March 7th, 2011!

Complete list of contest details and the site that you will register and enter your pins at is here:
http://www.thinkbreadinstead.ca/IndoorGrill/Forms/MyAccount.aspx

If you are taking part in this offer let me know, I'd love to hear from some other pin and coupon collectors!
Soon to be... Happy Grillin'

Stouffers and Lean Cuisine Offers!

Right now Stouffers and Lean Cuisine has a offer going on that could be very valuable to any of my readers! When you buy 12 Stouffers or Lean Cuisine products you get a $10 gift card to the store of your choice AND $15 in value coupons for free products! This offer is great and one I am proud to say that I completed twice already.

So here is the details:

Inside each specially marked box there is a pink printed Stouffers pin! This pin is your ticket towards getting that gift card and coupons. Once you buy your Lean Cuisine or Stouffers entree (better yet if you haven't used your free coupon that was posted on facebook use that for a completely FREE pin or buy your Lean Cuisine or Stouffer entrees at No Frills for $1.88 which is a great savings and they are actually really tasty) open up the box and you will find the pink pin, cut that out and enter it on the stouffers website.
https://www.stouffers-rewards.ca/en/
You will need to register first but once you do your on your way to your $25 worth of savings and a chance to win a 2011 Ford Focus! Once you are registered and logged in you can enter your pins one at a time on the right hand side. You will need to know where the pin came from so you can select that entree so remember to keep track! You will then see each of the numbered circles turn orange when each pin has been accepted. 12 of these babies and you will receive a email from Stouffers so you can confirm your address and they will mail out your $25 in savings!
It really is simple and their entrees are of really great quality! My favorite is the turkey and stuffing and the kids love the ravoli!
If you do not eat these types of meals ask friends and family to save their pins for you, but hurry the offer ends January 31st, 2011 so you have to get those pins in quick!

Happy savings!

Great Tostito's Mail in Rebate

I just wanted to let you all know about this great rebate that Pepsi, Tostito and Gaterade has on right now. When you spend $20 in one store in one transaction you can fill in a official mail in coupon offer form and mail it away to receive $20 worth of coupons in the mail!

Here are the official details:
Participating products must be purchased between December 26th, 2010 and February 6th, 2011 and must be purchased at the same time and in the same transaction to be eligible for the coupon booklet offer. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
How to get a $20 Coupon booklet back by mail:
1. Purchase any combination of the following participating products for a total of $20 or more (before taxes) at participatin retailers across Canada: Tostitos tortilla chips (220g-420g), Tostitos Salsa (430L-645L), Salsa Con Queso (400mL-628mL) or Spinach dip (432g); Pepsi, Caffeine-Free Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Pepsi Lime, Diet Pepsi Lime, Pepsi Throwback, 7UP, Diet 7UP, Mountain Dew, Mug, Diet Mug soft drinks (all sizes) Brisk beverages (all flavours, varieties and sizes), Gatorade or G2 beverages (all flavours, varieties and sizes)

2. Enclose the original itemized store-identified cash register receipt dated between December 26th, 2010 and February 6th, 2011 with the purchase price of each participating product circled, and UPC codes handwritten on the back of the original receipt. All products must be purchased in the same transaction to be eligible for the offer.

3. Complete this official mail-in coupon offer form with your name, address (including city, province and postal code) and phone number.

4. Mail all of the above (with sufficient postage) postmarked by February 28th, 2011 to:
PEPSI/TOSTITOS/GATORADE $20 Super Bowl Coupon Booklet Offer, P.O. Box 12119, Saint John, New Brunswick E2L 5E7

In past years they have sent some really great coupons back for this offer and every single coupon has been a free product coupon!

My biggest recommendation to anyone who wants to use this is to see if any of the participating products are on sale prior to going shopping. If they are then take all of your sales flyers to Walmart and price match to get the lowest price so you can get the most for your money but still complete this offer. You may only do the offer once per household.

I chose to use mine at Shoppers Drug Mart today as they had a promotion on spend $75 before taxes get $25 worth of Shoppers Drug Mart optimum points. The tostitos are buy 2 for $6.00 right now and they still had the sign up for the free dip when you buy two bags (this offer ended yesterday but because the sign was still up they honored it)

Keep your eyes open for all the deals! There are lots out there to be found!

And it goes on and on and on!

The savings that is! I've just started really devoting my time to using coupons and finding the deals out there and last night it really paid off! So far in the last two weeks I have saved... are you ready.... $301.94! That is a huge savings compared to what we spent and what we have purchased.
There are a few tricks that I'm going to share with you guys to save you even more than just coupons alone. Fortunately my husband is Native so he has a Indian Status card so we do not pay full taxes, this is not something just anyone can have so this is a added bonus for our family but there are many other ways for you to save a ton on your monthly shopping bills.
If you are a student I highly recommend going to Zellers or any other retailer who sells the SPC card, this alone will save you a bundle. You can use the SPC card at many different retailers and the starting cost is only $10. I mainly use mine at Zellers but when you purchase the card you will find a whole list of places that you can use it or you can look online to find retailers in your area that accept the SPC. Every time I use this at Zellers I save 10% off my bill, even on clearance items! This is huge when you pair it with coupons, clearance and price matches.
Zellers is a great store to price match too, you just bring in the competitors flyer and show them. They will price match to the competitors price so you will then get the lowest sale price that you have found, plus your 10% off for using SPC AND add your coupons to that and you could be laughing!

Here are the weekly deals that I have found:
No Frills has blueberries on sale for their $1.00 sale, pair that with the $1.00 off any fresh berries found on specially marked Kelloggs cereal boxes and they are FREE!

You may also want to check out No Frills sales flyers for other great deals and if you have coupons to match even better! There is $1 Clorox disinfecting wipes, Del Monte fruit twists and Marc Angelo skewers that I know for a fact all have $1.00 off coupons out there to be found! Also the Campbells broths are on for $1 paired with the buy two get $1.00 off your only paying .50cents each! Really good deal!

Zellers is where I did most of my price matching last night for huge savings! This is what I did:
No Frills has Coke and Cristie crackers on special for $1.00 each, I price matched to Zellers and used my SPC card and my husbands status. Before taxes these were now .90cents each the cheapest I have ever seen Coke 2L or Cristie crackers EVER!

Gillette Foamy shaving cream was on special at Zellers for $1.79 pair that with the buy 3 Gillette products coupon save $5.00 found on brandsaver and it came to a grand total of .37 cents for all 3!

And the greatest deal that I found there was price matching the Tide cold water laundry soap 20 loads to Food Basics sale of $4.97 then I paired this with the buy 2 get $5.00 off brand saver coupon for a grand total of  $2.47 per bottle before the 10% SPC was taken off!

I also purchased my little coupon helpers (my daughters) each a .99 cent Disney Princess snow globe candy that was on clearance from $4.99!

So I walked out of Zellers with 8 Tide cold water laundry detergents 20 loads, 2 Disney Princess snow globe candies, 10 2L bottles of Coke, 10 boxes of Christie Crackers and 3 Gillette foamy shaving creams for a grand total of $43.82! That's 45 items so I paid less than $1 each! Not to mention that I earned 3350 HBC rewards points to use towards future purchases!

Then I made a stop at Shoppers Drug Mart to check out their clearance and sales. The sales there were not that great for me this week but I did find a few things to make the stop worth my while.
Tostitos are 2/$6 and when you purchase two you get a free dip! I purchased 6 bags and got 3 Con Queso cheese dips for free valued at $3.29 each.
I also grabbed a 6 x 710mL Pepsi pack (not a good deal but I'll tell you why in a minute)
And a Scrubbing Bubbles toilet gel pack that was $5.46 but used my $7.00 coupon I received from the company so I got that for free.
Now the reason I stocked up on the Tostitos and the Pepsi is that the company is running a super bowl special right now that when you spend $20 before taxes you receive by mail a $20 coupon booklet for free products! You just have to have your original receipt, circle the qualifying products and write the upc's for those products on the back. It must be postmarked by February 28th, 2011 to qualify for this offer though. So the items that I purchased were just over $20.00 which included 6x Tostitos, 1 x 6x710mL Pepsi bottles, a Scrubbing Bubbles toilet gel pack and 3 Tostito's dips! I saved $15.33 alone on just the dips and Scrubbing bubbles and will receive $20 of free products in return! On top of the savings I earned Shoppers Optimum points. My numbers are a bit vague as I already filled out the mail in offer so I don't have the receipt but this a great offer if you use these products, just remember all products must be on the same receipt to qualify.

My last stop of the night was at Walmart where we shopped like rockstars and paid very, very little in comparison to what we got! Two shopping carts were overloaded for a grand total of $193.98. Here is most of what we got, some things are not on the receipt because they were FPC's (free product coupons) so they did not scan them at all. I don't think we chose the best cashier because he made a few mistakes with the coupons and was very slow but it was a learning experience for both of us.
Here I got:
2 bags of Natrel 4L milk- paid .47cents each after 2 $5.00 coupons from the company

3x Goodnights boys diapers- $14.97 x 3= $44.91- 2 $4.00 coupons and 1 $2.00 coupon makes it $38.91

2x Spitz salted pumpkin seeds $3.13 x 2 = $6.26 - 2 free product coupons = $0.00

Airwick Freshmatic $7.97 - $7.00 coupon when you buy any Airwick freshmatic product = .97cents

Johnson and Johnson bath set $15.97 - $15.97 = $0.00 used new baby coupon received from company for any free Johnson and Johnson product

Quaker cheddar cheese rice cakes x 10= $5.00 - $5.00 Quaker coupon = $0.00

Edge shaving kit includes 2 shaving creams and a razor = $5.94 no coupon

Skintimate shaving kit includes 2 shaving gels and razor = $5.94 no coupon

Gillette deodorant 3 pack with bonus razor = $4.47 used buy any Gillette deodorant get a body wash for free and used that towards a Gillette body was pack with free razor savings = $4.47

Rice Krispie Squares 30 pack minus $7.98 minus free product coupon = $0.00

Softsoap the big one $5.47 - $5.00 coupon from company = .47cents

Old Spice deodorant $2.57 and used the buy one deodorant get a Old Spice body wash for free body wash was $4.28 so I paid $1.71 for both!

Playtex tampons 72 in the package $14.27 - 2 x $5.00 coupons = $4.27

Pledge Lemon scent $3.97 used a buy one get one free so $3.97 for two! That's only $1.99 each

Two pack Secret deodorants purchased 3 two packs at $3.48 each so $10.44 - $7.00 brand saver coupon that when you buy three secret products you get $7.00 off so for 6 sticks of Secret deodorant I paid .57 cents each

10x Creme eggs for Easter .10 cents each on clearance = $1.00

Schneiders chicken fingers $8.00 -$10.00 product coupon made my total for these - $2.00

Lays chips big bag $3.00 - $3.00 for coupon from company for a free bag = $0.00

Brownie bear paws $2.87 - $2.87 coupon from company = $0.00

Quaker Chewy bars club pack $10.27 - 2 x $5.00 Quaker coupons = .27 cents

2 x Lean Cuisine Cannelloni $3.33 each or $6.66 for both - $6.66 for facebook coupon for one free per person = $0.00

Sponge towels largest package they carry, I believe 18 double rolls $12.97 - $10.00 coupon from company = $2.97

2 x Cinnamon Toast Crunch - $3.97 each x 2 =  $7.94 - 2 x $1.00 coupons = $5.94 and these have the free kids movie admissions on them!

16 x Tide Cold water combination of liquid and powder price matched to $4.97 =  $79.52 - 8 x $5.00 brand saver coupons of save $5.00 when you buy two so that brought the total down to $39.52 for all 16 boxes/bottles which made it $2.47 each!

16 count Eggo waffles price matched from $4.47 down to $3.00 then used the $2.00 coupon found on the back of specially marked Kelloggs cereals for a total price of $1.00

Then I purchased 7 boxes of Kelloggs cereal 3x Frosted Flakes which had the $5 gas gift card offer on the back which turned out to be expired so I will be calling them on Monday and 4x Fruit Loops which have the $1 fresh berries, $1 bananas, $2 eggos and $1 Smuckers squeeze jam coupons on the back. I priced matched these cereals to the Real Canadian Super Store sale of 2/$6 or $3.00 each for a grand total of $21.00 then I used the buy 3 Kelloggs cereals get $3.00 off so $15.00 for all 7 boxes which would make them $2.14 each with 3x $5 gas offers so $15.00 and 4x $5 Kelloggs coupons $20.00 so I was really ahead by $20.00 just for buying this cereal!

I also got the girls each a baby doll gift pack for $10.00 each on clearance for being such great troopers $20.00

After reviewing my receipt today I noticed that they did not process all of the coupons so I am off to Walmart later today after already phoning in to pick up my $21.98 that they still owe!

So my original total of $193.98 will actually be $172.00. But my grand total of savings yesterday alone was $220.67 and I spent out of pocket $262.80 so I saved almost as much as I spent and I have a house full of goodies! This is not totaling in all of the freebies that I got yesterday because not all were on the receipt. Very good deals to be had, you just have to search, price match and know your prices!

Happy shopping everyone!

Where to start saving money?

We all want to save money, I don't think there is a single person out there who would say no if you offered them a legitimate way to save money but many people just don't know how. I was one of those people not too long ago but now that I am in the know I want to share those tips with all of my friends, family and anyone who will listen! I love telling people how to get a great deal and keep money in their pockets! Here is how I got started on my money saving venture that has already saved me almost $50 and we're less than three weeks into the new year!
I decided this year I'm really going to save, I pounded that into my mind until I couldn't any longer. I decided that I would take whatever time necessary and I would save money and at the end of the year we will be in the positive instead of seeing red like years prior. So I put on my thinking cap and started searching out websites that could help me with my mission.
The first two sites that I came across was save.ca and brandsaver.ca both of these sites have amazing coupons that you can order for free and they will mail them right to your door step! I got myself all signed up and started choosing my coupons. Then I decided I was going to stop there I was going to take it as far as I could until there was no return so I started searching for a forum that could help me match those coupons to great deals and would give me all of the information that I would need on this journey, that's when I found smartcanuks.ca I absolutely love this website and spend far too much time on it these days but it has saved me a ton already! Smart Canuks is a forum full of seasoned couponers and newbies like me willing to share advice, trade coupons, host coupon trains and lay out all of the great deals so you can price match and match your coupons to get your goods for as close to free as possible. I strongly suggest that if your looking for a good deal you start by signing up there!
Then I really started searching out coupons, I knew if I wanted to trade any then I needed more in my collection AND I needed some good ones. So I went to different companies websites and called their 1-800 numbers and told them how much I loved their products. I made sure I only contacted the companies that I really do love, I don't want to ruin it for others out there by abusing the system. Many of the companies were happy to send money saving coupons or direct me on where I can find coupons for my favorite products!
Then I did another search looking for samples or FPC's (free product coupons) the ones that I have found and have headed my way right now are:
Chapmans ice cream will mail out either a $3 or $5 coupon towards any of their products, match that with a sale and you could have a couple cartons of icecream to indulge in!
http://chapmans.ca/ click on their contact us button and tell them how much you love their icecream if you really do and request a coupon! They are happy to send one out to every household but will only do so once per year!

Another great one is Kashi cereal. I emailed them telling them that I would like to try their cereal and they told me to click on their tasty savings button. You can sign up for a $2 coupon towards Kashi Honey Sunshine but many of the ladies who have received this coupon actually received a FPC for a free box! Free breakfast cereal!?! Just tell me where to sign up! 
https://www.allkpass.ca/kashi/en/sunshine/register.aspx remember just click on the tasty savings to request your $2 coupon and maybe you too will get the FPC for a free box!

Another great deal going on right now is the money savings coupons found on the back of specially marked Kelloggs cereals. There are coupons for $1 off berries (use that coupon at No Frills and you can get blueberries for free!), $1 off banana's, $2 off eggos and $1 off Smuckers Squeeze jam and sundae topping YUMMY!

And the last great deal that is available right now is the Lean Cuisine free entree found on facebook! Sign into your facebook if you have one and search for Lean Cuisine Canada- make sure you go to the Canada one for this offer. Then click on like and then offers. Once you click on offers you will see a Free Lean Cuisine coupon, just click on get my coupon, print and run to a store that accepts printed coupons! Lunch for free and it's soooo tasty! In my experience you can use internet printed coupons at No Frills, Shoppers Drug Mart and Walmart but each individual store has the right to refuse the coupon. Make sure to print in color for best chance of the store accepting.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/LeanCuisineCanada?v=app_140251982696061 and when your done cooking and enjoying their delicious meal remember to save the pin from the box! Inside each Stouffers product boxes there is a pin printed in pink ink. If you sign up for stouffer rewards at the site below you can get $25 in free groceries at the store of your choice when you enter 12 pins! The $25 actually consists of a $10 gift card to the store that you choose and $15 worth of money saving coupons.
https://www.stouffers-rewards.ca/en/

There are so many great deals out there it just takes a little time to find them. I'm hoping that by listing some of the great deals here I can help others keep their money where it belongs in the pockets but still enjoy products that they know and love!
I am now a couponer for life, I will never pay full price for things I know I can get a better deal for again! Will you join me too?