Waking up and Getting Controll!

I joined a bunch of coupon websites today. I will take this savvy shopping up a step.  http://www.smartcanucks.ca/, http://www.save.ca/, http://www.websaver.ca/, http://www.pgbrandsaver.com/, http://www.gocoupon.ca/. 

Sorry, I should start from the beginning.  The purpose of my blog will be to share deals, highlight specials and some customer service rants and raves. As the commercial says, "If you don't want to pay service fees, don't pay service fees!" I no longer will pay full price for items that go on sale! I am beginning to figure out that almost everything goes on sale, has coupons or can be negotiated.   Businesses don't succeed without budgeting and forecasting....why would my household?  I am the CEO of our wallet and will make sure that wallet sends us on a great vacation every 2 years!!!

I am a wife and mother of three and found that even with a moderate income we found that we were living out of overdraft and sometimes scraping until our next pay cheque.  Watching "Til Debt Do Us Part" http://www.slice.ca/shows/showspage.aspx?title_id=93097 got me motivated.  My sister and I went to one of Gail Vaz Oxlade's seminars in Nanaimo and really woke up. 

I had to look at all of our accounts, loans, credit cards, etc.., make note of interest rates and hidden clauses etc....  Wow....were we ever in La La land. 

We are now following the program that Gail sets out in her show with the free tools offered on her website http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/.  With no expense and a little bit of time I had our family on the "jars".  Now in order to keep my marriage in tact I added allowances but pretty much stuck to her outline. 

One of our pay periods was really tight and I had to really stretch the jars...no allowance that time!  So I started preplanning our meals and only bought groceries that were needed for those meals.  Wow!  We made it and for once didn't waste any food.  So then I got to thinking about coupons and price-matching. 

Our local Superstore and Walmart will price match any local advertised flyer price.  We are saving about $30-80 a month just by price matching.  ( I usually spend $600-700 per month for a family of 5).  We now have a "store" where we stock pile products that were on sale.  We haven't physically reduced our food budget but have increased our grocery purchases.  Eventually the store will be full and we will only be buying products when they are on sale and not when needed.  Then we will see the extra $$. 

Current changes:
I got my new cell yesterday.  My love/hate relationship with Rogers is now done.  I joined Koodo and went with a BlackBerry Curve.  Walmart had a current promotion that gave me a $50 gift card when signing up.  Also, no charge for the phone.  I have a "tab" for the cost of the phone $148.?? that pays its self down (10% of my bill) every time I pay my bill.  No contract and if I want to cancel I just pay off my tab.   I love the no contract, tab option and free $$.  Now I just have to figure out how to get access to my account on-line.  

Deal of the week:
Catelli pasta 900gr.  $1.50 ea bag.  ( I have Catelli coupons on their way in the mail.  It could have been better!)  and Ragu sauce $1.25 each (down from $2.97) Bought both at Walmart but price matched from Country Grocer flyer. 

Also, for the 3rd straight week Shoppers Drug Mart has the lowest price on 4l 1% milk. 


Until next time,
Stacey :)