This Week's Sales

This Week's Sales

Marketplace IGA has a coupon in the local paper for .99 each eggs. It runs from Feb 1-7 and you are allowed one dozen per day.I am not sure if you can reuse the coupon or have to find new ones?

Superstore has Foremost Sour Cream 250ml 2/$1 !!! This is amazing...time to make banana sour cream muffins and sour cream choc chip cake!

Tuna has shrunk! It used to be 170g for .50!! now it's 85g!

Bagels are .44

Stewing Beef is $2.88/lb

Lemons and limes are 3/$1. Radishes and green onions are 2/$1

Shoppers has Everyday Cheese 540g for $4.99 This isn't screaming, but good. The sale goes Jan 31-Feb 13.

Canadian Tire Jan 30-Feb 5

Swan facial Tissue .48 Paper Towels 2 Pack .98

Walmart has Minute Maid Juices .57each.

Happy Shopping!!!

VOIP

Wow! Is that a great sky or what???

So, I was reading someones blog and stumbled upon their VOIP(voice over Internet protocol) provider. They were recommending a company whose rates were crazy cheap! I googled them and found out their service is far from stellar...very far. But, in the process of all of that I wondered if there was a way to do my VOIP cheaper. While checking it out I found out that right now the company I am with, Vonage, is offering a rebate on the equipment you need to make it work. When I signed up I paid a one time fee for that equipment. Right now Vonage is offering it for $9.99 new or free for refurbished!! That's a savings of $79.99! If you've been thinking of going VOIP this might be the time. Paying yearly can save you lots(close to $100), but try it for the free month first and see if you like it.

They have basic plans starting at $19.99, which includes tons of calling features and 500 free minutes long distance. We are on the unlimited long distance plan, but I'm wondering about the virtual phone number. This is where you have a phone number in the area code you call the most. For me that would be Alberta. This costs $7.99/ month. 500 minutes of long distance would probably be more than enough if I also had a virtual Alberta number.

If you are thinking of signing up with VOIP be sure to review the company first. Some are here today and gone tomorrow so be sure not to sign up for a year without first trying it for awhile and checking out the company background.

If you have a good VOIP provider let me know.

Pricebook

As you know I present a course on saving money, particularly in the area of groceries. To prepare for the course I saved my food flyers for a year and cut out these ads, in order to show how prices fluctuate and that pricing is confusing. All of these brand name cheeses were presented in the flyers as "on sale". My friend Randy was kind enough to put this onto the computer for me. Thanks again Randy.The hands on version I use at my course is laminated. I have several different food examples that I have cut out the ads for.
To make a Pricebook you need a loose leaf binder. I use pages that are 4 inches wide and 7 inches long. They fit perfectly in my purse which has a small binder in it.

It is important that the pages are removable so that you can add new items your family buys. Your Pricebook will reflect your family's grocery preferences. To start you write down prices of grocery items, from the flyers and when you are at the store. Don't worry if these aren't the lowest prices, this is what you will figure out. If you look at the flyers once a week and quickly jot things in when you are in the store, your Pricebook will start to take shape. It will take about a year to really have a full price cycle, but you'll be able to start noticing price changes right away.

It's a great tool for 1)knowing when a sale is a sale 2)knowing when things are going to cycle again and buying accordingly 3)knowing when something is a loss leader!

I'll continue this post....soon.Happy Pricebook keeping!Sue

This Week's Sales and Homemade Ice Cream Cake

January is typically a great time for deals at the grocery store. As I have mentioned I keep what is called a Pricebook. A Pricebook is a record of prices of grocery items. Prices typically fluctuate in an identifiable pattern. Usually an item has 2-3 dips in the year, where the prices are at their lowest. The whole premise behind this is to buy grocery items when they are at their lowest and to plan in season and on sale menus. This week at Superstore:

no name® flour
all-purpose, unbleached or whole wheat 10kg First 1 per family purchase $5.98!!!!This is screaming. Plan to have a friend or your husband come with you and you each buy a bag. At this price a cup of flour costs .20. If you are keeping a Pricebook write this one in as it is a new low.(Flour is one of the items that has drastically increased in price, I used to be able to get this same bag for $3.48 at least 3 times a year!)If you have a chest freezer it is most efficient when full, so toss your extra bag in the freezer!

no name® cheese bars
selected varieties (excluding extra old)907 g $7.98 This is $1 cheaper than last year!This works out to $8.80/kg which is a very low price for cheese.Remember you can shred and freeze cheese for casseroles, fajitas,etc.

Neilson yogurt
selected varieties, 175g works out to be .33 ea. This is the lowest price I've tracked, even better than buying it in the large size!

no name® sour cream 1 L $2.98 Lowest price is $2.78 but regularly it goes down to $2.88 in January.

fresh pineapple $1.98 ea lowest price

Delissio Rising Crust pizza frozen, selected varieties1.67 - 1.85 kg $9.99 (Of course it's cheaper to make it yourself, and better tasting! I use the bread maker to make my dough.)

Superstore has the buy $250 get $30 off coupon. I don't typically use this as my purchases, things that are at their lowest, aren't usually more than $80 a week. I used to use it and found I was paying more for most of the items that week and I ended up buying things just to get to $250!?

fresh slicing cucumbers .86

no name® salsa mild or medium, 1.89 L $4.48 which equals $2.37/L and the lowest I have tracked this brand.

Homemade Ice cream Cake

It's a fun tradition to be able to have Dairy Queen Ice cream cake for a birthday celebration, but as we looked at the $20 for one cake, we decided to try to find a comparable homemade recipe. In the process I found a new blog to follow. The recipe I am going to follow is from this link.

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/970425a.cfm I will keep you posted!

Citizen Bank follow up: To follow up on the post I did about getting bank accounts with Citizens and receiving $50, we did it and the $50 is in our accounts and earning interest. Not bad pay for a few minutes work!

Happy Saving!!!Sue

Free Things and Customer Appreciation Deals

Here are some deals from RedFlag Deals!!!

Winners & HomeSense Customer Appreciation Day: 15% Off Entire Purchase, Today Only There's a nice sale going on today, January 22, at HomeSense and Winners stores across Canada -- 15% Off Your Order Total, excluding gift card purchases. Neither of them are advertising it on their homepage, but ads (like the one pictured on the left from the National Post) have been placed in papers across Canada and we've called the stores to confirm it's on. The Winners Store locator is here. The HomeSense store locator is here. Sale is today only, so get shopping!

438 Free Download of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” Audiobook The classic self-improvement book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey can be yours for free, in audiobook form from Audible.com. We're not sure if "download quality information for free" is one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective people, but if it's not, it should be! There is no credit card information required for this freebie. You can download the content to your iPod or other MP3 device or burn it to CD

Happy Shopping! Sue

This Week's Sales

I was out grocery shopping yesterday and came across a few good deals.

Costco has their Naleway brand perogies 4.54kg for $6.99 until Feb 1.This is the best I have ever tracked this brand, as well it's the lowest price even compared to a no name brand! I am going to stock up as my family loves these! Costco also had Honey Ham, sandwich meat in 1Kg size for $6.99.

At Superstore if you have a PC bank card or PC Mastercard don't forget to bring your own reusable bags for points that equal free groceries. They have oranges for .58/lb and Old South frozen OJ for .98.

In Kelowna at the Old Town Market red peppers are .98/lb and roma tomatoes are .79/lb.

Also in Kelowna at Quality Greens extra large field tomatoes are .79/lb as well as Ambrosia apples. Grand Forks Russet Potatoes are $2.99 for 10lbs. Happy Shopping!!! Sue

Shopping Smart Course

Christmas in January!

My family was able to get together last week for Christmas! It was wonderful! A special thanks to Linda for sticking with our weekly, Monday menu planning! I was able to entertain without the stress of what to make! Every meal was preplanned. No worries about defrosting or missing ingredients!

A quick note for your information, I will be presenting in Edmonton on April 4th. To register call Jeanne-Ann at Beulah. 780-486-4010 The cost is usually $5.

Originally, I was a counsellor for the Good Sense program. One of the comments from people after taking the course was that they needed help reducing their actual expenses.I was privileged to be able to write a course to help people reduce expenses, specifically in the area of groceries. We do this by learning menu planning, bulk buying and Pricebook keeping. I have had the joy of presenting in Edmonton, Stony Plain and Kelowna. I am willing to come speak at your business, church or group. Contact me by commenting on this post and I will be in touch.

This Week's Sales

Is it just me or is everyone getting a lot of snow this winter. I personally have had the bun with winter. I'm totally ready to switch to spring, or better yet summer. I'm pretty sure my body functions better when the sun is shining!

Now that January has arrived, so should some nice grocery prices. As some of you know I have made a PriceBook, which I hope to go into in another post, which tracks the cycles of grocery items.(Yes, they cycle.)

This month quite a few things cycle down!!! Yeah!

A few deals I found this week are:

Superstore Jan 3-9

Chicken Legs $1/lb

Neilson Yogurt 3/$1

Green grapes $1.68/lb

No Name Ketchup(my family won't eat this,Heinz only, but I use it for cooking meatloaf and anything that asks for ketchup, as well as homemade BBQ sauce) 1L 2/$3

Red Peppers 4 count $2.68

No Name Bacon 500g $2.49

No Name Canned Veg 341-398ml .50!!(this is a great price and it hasn't been this low for quite awhile, I didn't notice a limit)

No Name Oriental Noodles 5/$1(I shudder buying these things, but my kids love them)

Zellers Jan 2-16

Ragu 700ml .97

Shoppers Jan 3-16

Everyday Market Cheese 540g $4.99

For those of you with kids costco has a free diaper sample! Here's the ad from Redflags

Costco Members: Get a Free Sample of Kirkland Signature Supreme Diapers from Costco.ca If you're a parent and a Costco member, you can get a free sample of Kirkland Signature Supreme Diapers by clicking the link on this page and submitting your information. Costco says the diapers have just been redesigned for better fit and increased comfort for your baby.

Happy Shopping!! Sue

$19 Flights fromToronto

Do you know anyone who needs to fly from Toronto to Orlando in January? Pass this deal on....

This is how it reads at the Red Flag Deals site.

Toronto to Orlando in January with WestJet from $19 Each Way innacana from our forums spotted some hot deals on flights from Toronto to Orlando starting at just $19 each way at WestJet.com. A quick search shows a variety of $19, $49, and $69 flights with the cheaper $19 flights mostly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. There's too many options to list but here's a couple sample itineraries with prices after tax:
Depart Mon, Jan 5, 2009: Toronto 20:10(YYZ), arrive Orlando 22:57(MCO) - $92.29 including taxes, fees, & surcharges
Return Fri, Jan 23, 2009: Orlando 07:00(MCO), arrive Toronto 09:46(YYZ) - $56.72 CAD including taxes, fees & surcharges
Total Return Cost: $149.01
Depart Tue, Jan 13, 2009: Toronto 20:10(YYZ), arrive Orlando 22:57(MCO) - $92.29 including taxes, fees, & surcharges
Return Wed, Jan 21, 2009: Orlando 07:00(MCO), arrive Toronto 09:46(YYZ) - $56.72 CAD including taxes, fees & surcharges
Total Return Cost: $149.01It's a good opportunity to escape the Canadian winter and get some sun. They also have a New Year's Sale going on with other discounts from cities outside Toronto as well if you book by January 6th and travel Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday before May 31st.

Happy Flying!!! Sue

Free Things

A flock of birds flew over today!

As, you know free things are fun. After doing my post about tracking finances it was suggested to me that I look into Quicken or some sort of budgeting software. Whenever making a purchase I try to research and price compare it first. While doing this I found a free 3 month trial of both Microsoft Money and Microsoft Home and Student 2007. Use the link below and scroll down to the middle of the page for the free trials. They expire after 3 months.


http://www.microsoft.com/en/ca/default.aspx


Red flag deals had this deal:
1236
Store ratingZellers.com Free Stayfree Pads at Zellers after $2.50 Printable Coupon Grab the $2.50 off printable coupon from the LivingWell.ca and get a package of Stayfree pads for free this week at Zellers! The pads are on sale at Zellers until January 9th for $2.47 each and you can see it on page 12 of the online flyer. The coupon is not store specific, is good for any Stayfree product, and it's directly from Johnson & Johnson which runs the LivingWell.ca site.