Garage Saling and Spring Flowers

I LOVE spring and all the colors and flowers blooming! This is a magnolia tree in bloom.

This Dogwood is stunning.

Apple tree in blossom.





We went garage saling this weekend. I find that garage saling can save us lots of money.  Not only that, the whole family enjoys doing it! I have learned that in the Okanagan you need to get shopping in spring as summer here is too hot and most people have their sales in the cooler weather.  I have a long list of things I am looking for.There is a list in my purse of sizes and measurements of things we, and also others we know, need.( I also kept some of my birthday money, especially for fun purchases for me.)
1) The snow boarding pants shown are for our daughter for next winter. They are Firefly brand and sell for $129.95 new! I paid $5!!!
2) I have been wanting the coffee machine shown. My Black and Decker coffee carafe is starting to flake inside( I bought it 5 years ago at a garage sale for $5), I couldn't find a replacement carafe and I knew that even if I did, it would probably be more than $20. I had priced out the brewing station pictured above, at Walmart this week, on sale for $60! Yikes! The first garage sale we went to there it was for $2! :)
3) Hubby has been looking for inflatable camping mats. They run between $44-$200. This one was $3!
4)The Rubbermaid see through storage containers are available on sale for $8.99 each. I paid $1 each.
5)The chairs I couldn't find a retail price for. We paid $7.50 each. They fold down for easy storage!
6)The candle, earrings and necklace were both $1.
7)The hardcover book was .50.
Total spent $29.50. Approximate retail value....$300...percentage saved 90%....that's not including all the taxes that would be paid on these items if they were bought new.



Garage saling is a great way to find what you are looking for, BUT you have to be patient. Kitchen gadgets are a great savings at garage sales as mostly people buy these, or get them as gifts, and don't use them. Things like bread machines, pasta makers, and rollers, juicers, coffee pots, etc. Half the fun for me is the hunt! How about you? Do you garage sale? If so, what are you looking for?
Happy Spring!!!!



This Week's Deals

This weekend at Shoppers they are having 18500 points when you spend $75. This is Saturday Apr 28th until Monday April 30th
The eggs are on for $2.29/dozen limit 2
Loreal hair color $7.99 limit 4
Looks like my hair color is on for an amazing price AND there are $2 off coupons...going to stock up so that this doesn't happen again.

Safeway is having Customer Appreciation Days on May 1. 10% off or 10X the airmiles.
The chicken breasts are $2.99/lb($26.36/box)
The romaine is .69
Extra Foods is having Customer Appreciation Days April 30th and May 1.  It's important to note that each level of spending, $25, $50 and $100, only gets the % off that exact amount. For example if you buy $45 worth of food you will only get 10% off of the $25...so it would be better if you could spend $50 and get the 12%.
Good deals are:
Strawberries 2lbs $2.86

The NN ketchup is a good price at 1L for $1.88 if your family doesn't mind it. Mine does so I'd have to save it for sweet and sour sauce and homemade bbq sauce.

The NN bbq sauce is ok at $1




The toilet paper has 7020 sheets so it is .00142(at 10% off $8.97 it's .00127, at 12% $8.77 it's .00125, at 15%$8.47 it's .00121). It's an ok deal, not fantastic. If you want all the gory calculations go here .

At Superstore this week they have the spend $250 get a $25 GC. The deals at Superstore are pretty much the same as Extra Foods.

This week at Walmart
limes are .25 each
3pk of romaine is $1.50

 If there are 6 or more kiwis this is a good deal.
English Cucumbers are .77 each
Tomatoes are .77/lb


 

Cheap Cheese at Safeway!

I love to learn. Sometimes, I am a slow learner. :) I probably should have known this a long time ago, but hey , better late than never! Each week you can go to Safeway put in your postal code and see the newspaper specials!(Would have been nice to know sooner!) Hopefully this will post today so you can take advantage of these great deals!
The cheese works out to $8.30/kg! Limit 1
Remember to play the cheese game and get the biggest size!
They had this on last in March.
The mandarins less than .50/lb, again limit 1.
You need to print these coupons to get the deals.

Kraft Gotta Have Snacks and Price Matching

I was in at Superstore this morning and at the front entrance next to the flyers there was this Gotta Have Snacks Kraft leaflet.

The Rexall flyer that starts April 27 has Christie crackers on 2/$3. If you take your Rexall flyer in to Superstore and price match Rexall you can get 2 boxes of crackers for $2.
I used the Springfield Bulk Foods paper ad to price match this barley today, with no problems.



Sorry about the glare! As you can see pearl and pot barley are on sale at Spingfield Bulk Foods for .15/100g. At Superstore it was .27/100g! This not only saved me money on this item, but a bit of driving and time too!



There is also this .75 when you buy 2 Christie crackers from tear pads. If you have this one you can use it at Rexall if you prefer.



These are the coupons you'll find inside the leaflet. Coupons are only valid from April 27-May 10th. They are all specific to Superstore, SuperValue, Loblaws, Provigo,Save Easy,Dominion,valumart,Your Independent Grocer, Zehrs,Maxi, Maxie&Cie,no frills.
I got one more insert in our free paper! I took my Rexall flyer and these coupons and price matched at Walmart! 4 Boxes of crackers for $4!

Signs of Spring and New Milk Coupon

Spring Flowers!

Doesn't it make you happy just looking at them???

Today in the Event paper is the May 2012 Coupon Savings Guide.

Inside it is a $1 off coupon for milk good until the end of May. Remember you can price match at Walmart if you don't live close to Lakeview Market.

Free Gas, Free Movies and MIR

Today I logged into my Shaw account to check to see how much longer our cable would be connected. We usually have it for 6 months of the year. When I logged in I learned that because we had 2 or more services with Shaw we were eligible for Shaw Friends. What is this you ask?
Well, upon signing up(putting in your email address) you get....
This is from their website
If you have 2 Shaw services
 1. 2 free Shaw on Demand Movies(these usually run $4.99 each)
Program benefits

■Shaw Friends Concierge Service
■15% off NFL Sunday Ticket and NHL Centre Ice (Already subscribed to the current season? We'll credit your account.)
■Extra 25 GB of data per month for Shaw Internet
■Free Distinctive Ring for Shaw Home Phone
■Complimentary Installation
■A lifetime warranty on your hardware

If you have 3 services with Shaw you get all of the above with an upgrade to 50GB data.

I am happy to get 2 free movies as we were hoping to rent The Help anyways! Free is always fun! :)

Last week I got a quote from BCAA for our home insurance. It's coming up to renewal time and rates have really increased at our insurer. Right now if you get a home insurance quote, you can do it online in a few minutes or you can go in if you prefer, they will send you a $10 gift certificate for Husky or Mohawk! From what I can see it looks like this might be Kelowna only, anyone else in BC able to do this?
 I got mine already today!

You can click on this picture and see it larger.

Remember the Dare MIR I was telling you about? Well, here it is. I found it at Safeway. I wasn't in the cracker aisle, but at the end of the aisle, close to the cash registers.

The fine print. Read it carefully before mailing yours in. I always copy my receipt so I have a record of it. Hope you can get in on this! :)

Jelly Roll and Celebrating 15 Years of No Smoking!

So today I celebrate 15 years of being a non-smoking person! My sister in law came over and we decided we needed to learn how to make jelly roll(I had lots of eggs and the first thing that came to mind was jelly roll). Lynn and I have a long history of cooking and baking together. We started when our kids were babies. We typically bake and cook 2-3 things at one time, we used to have small children(they are preteens and teens now)running through the house, usually squealing or breaking something!(sometimes, more than I care to remember, arms!). It's usually messy, loud, chaotic, and oh so fun! Today, we are older and somewhat wiser(as you can tell by the saran wrap protecting my America's Test Kitchen Cookbook from whatever might fly through the air!). We have decided that we need to keep records of our oopss so that we don't repeat them. Today started out fairly orderly....5 eggs were set out to warm to room temperature, while we got pasta dough started for our ravioli(that was the other thing we were making, see we are wiser, we aren't doing 3 things anymore! :)

Protect your cookbook....a little saran wrap goes a long way!

3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4  tsp salt
Whisk together, set aside.

Meanwhile whisk the 5 eggs on med high speed.

Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar and then add 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Continue to whip for 4-8 minutes until it is very thick and voluminous.

It looks so pretty!

Add the flour mixture and stir just until incorporated.

First you GREASE your baking sheet, then put a layer of parchment paper, GREASE it and then pour your batter on.

Try and make it nice and even. We didn't have the handy dandy tool shown in the ATK pictures(it kind of looks like a trowel) but we managed. Then we put it in the 350 oven for 12-17minutes. We turned it half way and checked it regularly as we both love baking on convection setting.

Once it springs back it's done! Take it out and run and knife along the sides to release it.



Grease another piece of parchment paper(thanks again Heather!)



Flip your cake onto the parchment paper.

Peel off the top layer of parchment paper, being sure to eat any yummy bits that are left on the paper!

Roll the warm cake from the short end. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes cooling time unroll your cake.

Add 1 1/4 cup of your favorite jam. (You can add pudding instead)We used grape jelly made from our grapes! Leave a 1/2 inch border jam free for rerolling.

Reroll leaving the parchment paper behind.

Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Mmmmmmm.....

 A jelly roll cake to celebrate 15 years smoke free!