Price-matching places

Here's a quick list of Ontario stores that price-match 7 days a week. Enjoy, savers!

• Real Canadian Superstore
• Walmart
• Freshco
• No Frills
• Toys R Us (yes, seriously)
• Canadian Tire (yup, this one too!)

Take note: There are "fine print details," so pay close attention. For instance, Freshco sometimes says you can only price-match four quantities of one item in one shopping visit. So ... just be aware before you tell the cashier to shut the front door ;)

Did I miss any stores? Let me know!

Cheap must-haves for baby and toddler messes

My husband and I have had to face a gruelling fact: HAVING A KID IS A MESSY AFFAIR! However, we have been able to save our home and favourite threads with a few cheap finds:

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
Like any toddler, my 18-month-old loves crayons. Thank goodness she stopped trying to eat them! But she does enjoy drawing everywhere - cupboards, doors, walls, you name it. Sure, we have colouring books and crafts, but do you think she wants to colour on those? Nope! So the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser has come super handy for rubbing off scribbles. You can buy a single eraser first to test it, then consider buying a two-pack. A two-pack is around $3 at Canadian Tire. Plus, you can find coupons online or in the newspaper, at 50 cents off.



President's Choice Soil & Stain Laundry Stain Remover

This is probably the best stain remover I've ever used. It has removed stains from purees, sauces, dirt, coffee, pop, crayons, diaper-related mishaps ... the list goes on. (No joke - a lot of my daughter's clothes are in great condition, even the white onesies.) Whenever I buy a bottle at No Frills, I've bought it for $2.99 (650 ml). Not sure if this is the regular or sale price, but even if it's a little more expensive, I'd splurge on this product. What I love too is that you don't need much to remove stains, so one bottle goes a long way.

Generally speaking, I am open to trying out new products. What I do here is store away samples for detergents, air fresheners, sponges, wash cloths, etc. - pretty much, the same method I use for baby-related samples. Usually, they come with coupons too, so that always helps.

What do you use for your kid-related messes? Feel free to sound off!

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?