Saturday 25 February 2012

Diapers and In The Night Garden

First off, let me say how disappointed I am at the diaper sales for the past few weeks. Diapers from all brands have started at about $0.19 per diaper, going up to as high as $0.29! However, I was at a Superstore in Mississauga and they have an in-store coupon for Huggies Snug & Dry for $3 off. I don't remember the count, but a size-3 box with the coupon was $0.16 per diaper. Unfortunately, I recently bought a box of Pampers 222 count (and with a stupid coupon they totaled at $0.18 per diaper!), so ... I'm stuck with that for now.

On the plus side, I discovered a thrift store called Talize. I never bothered to figure out what it was all about. However, I saw their sign in Brampton that said "Discover the new Power of Thrift" so I thought, "Okay, why not?" Well, thank goodness I did check it out because I found an In The Night Garden doll for $1.99 and it talks, too My daughter absolutely LOVES this show and Upsy Daisy, the doll below, is her favourite character. (Like many first-time adult viewers, I totally found the show weird at first (uh...Makka Pakka and Hahoo?!), but then I discovered it was made by the creators of Teletubbies, so it all made sense.)


My friend was asking me the best days to visit thrift stores for good finds and to be honest ... I can't think of any best days. (But if you know the secret, let me know please!) From my experience, it's been a luck of the draw. Sometimes you find things, sometimes you leave empty handed. So if you're trying to save some bucks on toys ... just keep checking out the thrift stores whenever you can. But come spring and summer time, it'll be garage-sale season, so those will be fun to sift through!

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Free portrait from Black's!

Black's is doing a free portrait from Feb. 3-14, 2012.

Here's the link for details:

http://www.blacks.ca/User/feeds/blog/id/9370

Just want to say thanks to my cousin for passing on the tip!


Monday 6 February 2012

Price matching

I live by a monthly budget and in order to keep it up to par, I combine two money-saving methods: couponing AND price matching. The best places to price match? In my experience, Walmart, No Frills and Freshco. However, occasionally you'll get a lazy cashier who doesn't want to price match an gives some lame excuse. So if I have time, I just take my items and go to another cashier.

I've had a lot of friends ask me how price matching works, so here's what I do: I get my flyers from my local newspaper, star/circle items that I need and are at a good price. Then I also note on the flyers which items I have coupons for. So let's say I go to Walmart and I want to price match formula that's on sale at Zellers AND I have a $5-off coupon: I simply go to the Walmart cashier, show them the Zellers. They'll charge me Zellers' price, then take $5 off. Simple, right?

But when you're price matching, you do need to take note of the following:
  • Pay attention to the flyer dates, in particular, items that are only on sale from "Fri-Sun." 
  • Some retailers are ridiculously picky with fruits and vegetables. For instance, I tried to price match bananas from a competitor, but a cashier said I couldn't because the bananas weren't from the country the competitor stated. 
  • Occasionally there are limits to the number of items you can price match (i.e. maybe you want to price match six cartons of juice, but the store will only allow you to match four of them).
I'm not going to lie — sometimes this method is tedious and when you have a toddler circling your feet, it can get frustrating. However, I've been able to save up to 75% on items solely through price matching and couponing. In the past, I've paid $0.25 for a box of Catelli Healthy Harvest pasta, $12 for 900g of Similac Go and Grow formula, $0.97 for a box of Nestle baby cereal and $1.97 for a box of Heinz Nutrios.

Oh yea, one more tip: Don't throw away the flyers just because you think you're done shopping for the week! What if you need to do last-minute shopping?

And don't be afraid to ask retailers about price matching! What are they going to do, send you to the principal's office for asking?

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Where to find coupons

I am an avid couponer, though not crazy enough to be on Extreme Couponing! Really, in Canada, you can't practice couponing as freely as those in the U.S. (But if you know a way, PLEASE let me know!). However, I try my best to use coupons when the time calls for it. Wondering where I find my coupons? Here's a quick list of links for your reference:

-Pampers
-Huggies
-Think Coupons
-Websaver
-Save.ca
-Go Coupons
-P&G Brandsaver
-Heinz Baby
-Nestle

You'll have to join their mailing lists or make an account to get coupons/choose coupons, but it's not a big deal. Where do you find your coupons? Let me know!

P.S. Yes, I do have a coupon book! Best places to find coupon books? Dollar stores, baby!