Again, it doesn't hurt to ask!

Below are two simple examples of "it doesn't hurt to ask".  

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This year, I did a lot of my Christmas shopping online. I think I got a bunch of unique gifts, which I hadn't seen in stores. 

I did the whole smart couponing thing and used "sign up to save" discounts on every site I could, googled "promo code for x" for every other site, and took advantage of sales or clearances they had running on the sites. Other than a deal I bought on Groupon which was a huge disappointment in my opinion, I was pretty proud of what I had bought and what I had saved. 

Then; Black Friday. 

I had bought a couple things on the Red Thursday from some online US retailers. I thought I was doing pretty good with coupon codes and free site wide shipping. Then Black Friday weekend came and both sites announced better deals than I had bought my items for. Of. Course. 

This is a lesson in, not beating yourself up for missing an even better sale, but instead being willing to ask. I always say it doesn't hurt to ask. 

So I emailed both companies. Said that I either needed to do a) cancel the order immediately to attempt to re-buy the items over the weekend, or b) have them simply credit me the difference instead of potentially losing the sale. I explained the date I had bought the items and the discount I expected to be applied to my credit card (on one site it was $10 and on the other site it was $12). I fully expected the response to be "tough shit" or "snooze ya lose", but I went by my own advice and sent the emails, plus a follow up email to both on Sunday. 

In the end, Both companies did refund me the amount I had asked on the Monday. $10 might not be a lot of money, but $10 US can buy a couple more gifts up here, and I'd rather it in my pocket. I profusely thanked both companies and told them they would have repeat business from me. 

So, shameless plug to some of the greatest sweatpants ever Crotchgear and to a necklace for every person in your life, The Needed Necklace. 

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Another example was for this magazine subscription we get, which recently got taken over. We had issues at the takeover, as suddenly a couple of the magazines my grandma loves to read dropped off their subscription list and she no longer got them. 

We called in and emailed and complained, needing an explanation, citing how unhappy we were with what we felt like was an almost bait-and-switch as we didn't get an email notification saying any magazines were going to disappear, in advance of the next monthly payment (which I explained I would have cancelled the subscription for had we been notified). 

Apologies and fluff later, they offered me 3 months at half price. That took me into this month, December, paying something like $7 for 112+ magazines. 

At work, we had a company come in to pitch something to us, and brought us "gifts" (bribes?) which included a free 3 month subscription to this company. 

Well I started scheming how I would cancel my subscription, then re-buy it (under a different email) at the current holiday promotional discount of 60 days free, then would cancel that and buy it again (under a new email again) with the bribe gift of 3 months free. In my brain it was all working but I was exhausted thinking about having to remember all these dates. 

But, I decided to call their customer service again to see what could be done. Could they just credit me these months instead of me jumping it around? Could they just apply this three month discount to my existing account?

The answer to both was yes, in part. They offered me a 50% discount for the next three months, and advised that my three month promotional coupon could be applied directly to my account when I wanted it to be. Saves me the hassle and sounds good to me to save some more money! 

Rewards cards/sites

So how long could this list be?! If you ask, there is probably some reward system in every place you shop. And even if they don't have a reward system in a store, your bank/credit card could have offerings that let you get points/air miles for every dollar spent. 

I've just kinda tried to think of some I use regularly. I have lots, and a bunch that I'll probably never use again, but everything can add up. 

Almost universal - Aeroplan/ Air miles. I have both an air miles card and a credit card that gives miles per $20 spent. In stores that accept air miles, I can essentially double dip! Air miles can be used for everything from gift cards and blenders, to flights and car rentals. It takes a long time to build miles (in my opinion) but it's money you'd be spending anyways, so getting free reward on top is great. Aeroplan works much the same way, but I haven't found it offered is as many places. 

Online - MyPoints. 

This is a new one for me, but there are a lot of places that will reward you for doing stuff you already do (like browsing the web). A lot of them ask you to watch videos or do surveys for points, which is easy to do in the background while doing other stuff. Usually points can be used toward gift cards. I've recently found MyPoiints because they give you points for printing coupons, and they have a TON of coupons (like currently 300 or something). 

Gas, like PetroPoints/ EssoRewards

Again, you're getting gas and spending the money anyways, why not get some freebies on top? Gas reward points can be used toward discounts on gas or free items like car washes or candy. 

Walmart credit card

So this is a new one, but a great one if you shop at one store all the time. A lot of places will have their own credit card that will either give you a discount or some sort of rewards points. Walmart's card gives you points everywhere you use it, but more points if you use it at Walmart, plus no annual fee. Walmart has been a great place to price match and use coupons, so it might be a worthwhile thing to get to get even more rewards.  

Movies - Scene

Maybe you don't go to the movies that much, but when you do go you go with a group. How many of your friends have this card (in my group, like no one). You have the chance to use your scene card for everyone in your party, which might be the equivalent to free popcorn and such. They also have a Scene card in a credit card too I believe, which would give you points towards movies on everything you would be buying anyways. 

Airport parking - Park n fly

This was a recent find that gives you points per stay, towards free parking later. If you have a CAA card you can also get great discounts on your stay in these parking lots. 

Hotels - Marriot, Delta, etc

This is probably a very large category, but a lot of hotels (almost every one I've looked into) have some sort of rewards program. The ones that are kinda fun work at chains of hotels, wherever you go in the world. 

Grocery - PC Plus/ Sobeys

Another broad category but lots of grocery stores give you points for shopping there. Doesn't hurt to ask a t the cash register if they have anything like this you could sign up for. 

Brand/Food - Lumchmate club

Sorry mom, but I do still eat Lunchables. I'm not sure how many products have similar points for buying their product, but I know these guys do (I think Crayola might?). In saying this, it's taken me almost a year to get the points I have now.. Which is almost enough for a free lunchable. That's a lot of $3 Lunchables to get one free, but hey, I was buying the product anyways! 

Coupon Match-Ups - (Flipp app just got better!)

So I had a lot of excitement this morning when I updated my apps. One that got updated was my favourite must-have-while-shopping-app, Flipp, who have added coupons and coupon match-ups to their app. 

Whoooppeeeee!!

So what are coupon/flyer match ups? Basically, they're someone else doing the work of looking up what sales and coupons can be used together for the best bang for your buck! In one of my first blog posts I explained how I'll sit down and do the work of comparing apps to coupons to flyer prices to see where I can double or triple dip on deals.. But there are a lot of sites and people who will do this work for you to save you valuable time. 

Below are three examples. In all three cases, the coupon they mention is usually clickable and printable right from their list. I'm not saying this method should replace all of your flyer scouring though, as many times you will have a stash of coupons that you printed last month that are no longer active to print, so they might not show up in these kind of match-ups. 

Flipp app

Check out the deal for Clear Care that I will be buying two of tomorrow!

Do all of your flyer searching, coupon matching and now coupon printing in one spot. Their coupon match ups actually provide the coupons to download. Simply click on the coupons you want to print and email them to yourself to print. The best part? Coupons are the same ones that are on SmartSource.com but you do not need to be signed in to print them. This allows you to print the same coupons twice through both spots :)

MrsJanuary

This site is basically good for everything.

The team are pretty dedicated and pretty on top of things, so they are usually quick to put up match ups. A lot of the time the coupons are clickable as well, and will take you to where they can be printed from. I like this match up site as well because they also let you know of rebates on the cash back apps (like Zweet in this screenshot) that I've mentioned in another blog post. 

Canadian Free Stuff

Another site good for most things. Similar to Mrs January, coupons will be clickable from this site too. 

Anyways, three good places to start!

Have your say and get rewarded - Sample Review Sites

So there are a bunch of sites like this, and just to try, I've signed up for three. In the short time I've been on these sites I've received an offer from two of them. 

Basically the premise is that you get either free samples or points for reviewing products. Easy right? 

Influenster 

This one is all over the Internet, the most popular one I've read about. So far though, not a great fit for me, as I am not on every single social media system there is. I am on 4 of the 7 they ask you for, and my "reach" is only medium. The idea here is that the more you are a social media influencer, the more "campaigns" available to you. This site seems to work off points and badges, points for completing questions and posting reviews, and badges for milestones. I'm not sure I understand it all, but I'm still poking around. They have just come out with an app, maybe I'll give that a try. From the sounds of it by others, there's a lot of initial work to build up your numbers before they offer you a bunch of samples. 

ChickAdvisor

They want your product reviews, and that's the simple description. They will have various offers that you can apply for and they will choose a set number from the applicants. Sometimes it's trade show passes, sometimes it's product.. Their breadth of offers has been kind of random so far. 

SocialNature

This is a group that offer natural, holistic, human/environment-friendly products. Basically you go through their current list of products and select the ones you "want" and that puts you in a pool of applicants that they then choose to offer samples to. You receive the sample and review it, and that's it. I would be open to more sites like this as it is easy and simple to understand!

A quick search on the web has given a bunch of similar programs to both Influenster and SocialNature. For a more detailed understanding of Influenster and 2 other sites to give a try (the Smiley360 is for Americans only it looks like, but the other two are next on my list to sign up for and see if Canadians can get them) check out http://brokegirlrich.com/?p=721 

Need to know: Scanning Code of Practice

Won't be a long post from me, but it will reference others who have described this in more detail. 

Basically, if you have ever said "that's not what the price on the shelf said" then you need know of this SCOP!

The sticker you see above (that I took at Sobeys) will be posted at the registers or near the front doors of participating stores (which will be most retailers everywhere!).

Here is a great summary of all you need to know (basically) from a fellow couponer's blog:

http://canadianbudgetbinder.com/2012/09/26/scanning-code-of-practice-scop-in-canada/

Or you can read the sent out pamphlet: http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/vwapj/ct02380e.pdf/$file/ct02380e.pdf

Know it and use it!

Free Sample Review: Happy Water

So I am on a bunch of "advisor" websites that will reward your reviews with free samples and free product coupons. 

I'll do a different blog post on the panels I'm on, but this one was through "Social Nature". So they sent me an offer via email asking if I would be willing to try and review this product, and I clicked on the I Want It button. 

After saying yes, they sent me these items in the mail, including the free product coupon. 

Now, I don't like water. The only way I can drink it is if it's ice cold or has mixed powder/squirt flavouring in it. BUT, I like free, and my roommate drinks a lot of water, so I figured it would be used one way or another. 

On the back of the coupon it lists the stores that carry this product, in Ontario and BC only right now it looks like. The only one near me was Sobeys, so that's where we headed. 

So walking into a store and asking the team if they had heard of "Happy Water" gave a few chuckles and raised eyebrows, but it was there in the water bottle section, as expected. However, they were sold out of the 5L cases. Long story short, and after waiting a long time a customer service, they let me use the max value on the coupon towards the purchase of a 10L case.  

Basically it's a big bag of water in a box. The spout design pops out from it easily, and doesn't drip. It's like a mini water cooler in a box. The taste is very smooth and I was surprised that I actually liked it. I've tried mixing it with cordials and drink mixes and they all mix well, with a clean taste. My review I posted is below:

Anyways, sharing here because it was part coupon/great deal and part good product. 

Sharing Great Sales: Rosehill Liquidation

Okay, so you are in the market for anything from this list:

• furniture like sofas, chairs, ottomans to bedroom sets, dining room sets, display cabinets

• bedroom items like mattresses, headboards, box springs, bed frames

• rugs or artwork

• appliances like fridges, washers, dryers, microwaves, stoves

• small appliances like blenders, toasters, vaccuumes, air conditioner

• exercise equipment and entertainment equipment like fooseball tables  

And you..

• want to save money on the big purchase

• have done a little bit of homework so you know pricing for brand new

• don't mind buying something slightly imperfect

Then you need to take a quick walk around one of the Rosehill Liquidation locations.

http://rosehilloutlets.ca/brantford/index.html

Branford is my favorite location and where I have seen the best deals, and bought nearly everything when I bought my new house. They also have a "temporary" warehouse in Burlington and a large place down Fort Erie way. 

Clips of items from their newsletters for exampl of what they have at any given time:

Basically they buy truckloads of product from name brand places like Sears, which include scratch and dent items, returned special order items, or returned items. They don't know what they're going to get until they unload the truck, and they get one or two trucks a week full of new product. 

When buying the items for my house, I knew what kind of sofa I was looking for, so we went back every week to see what they had. Since it's a first-come first-served kind of place, we kept checking back until my perfect sofa with a matching ottoman showed up. We bought the leather sofa (who's defect was that one top cushion didn't zipper on all the way) for $475. 

The matching look ottoman was $125. 

Other items I've bought:

• washer and dryer combo (dents in both, washer at the front and dryer at the back) for $472

• pedestals with drawers for the units (colour doesn't match the washer and dryer) for $105 total

• my pillow top mattress. Don't know what was wrong with it, it was completely brand new. Right in the store I googled it and found it was priced everywhere at $2300, bought it for $560, and they threw in the boxspring. 

• both roommates bought their mattresses - one got a beautiful double for $400 and the other got a queen for $600 I think. Free boxsprings again

• headboard for the bed (chip in top corner)

• fridge. We originally bought a normal white fridge and within the month the freezer crapped out. We took it back to rosehill and they offered me my choice from the floor as a replacement. I chose an even nicer stainless steel double door fridge and paid an extra $200. Total I paid $800 for the fridge. 

• beautiful rug that matched my new leather couch and the walls of my new living room. Again I googled this in the store for what it's price was elsewhere, and ended up paying $135

• various blender, coffee maker, knife block set and such.. Basically each for $20

• a Christmas tree one year. Pre-lit very tall artificial tree that we ended up paying like $22 for it after their newsletter discount

• beautiful room dividing screens. Googled them in the store and bought three of them the next second because of how cheap they were. Two matched my new decor and one had birds and twigs on it, perfect for my mom (pictured)

• rod iron trees that my parents ended up using to create a beautiful deck

Important that you note their appliance and electronics warranties.. Are very short. They test them in the store, but for the most part they don't know what happened in the appliance's past life. 

Furniture is a pretty safe bet if you check it over thoroughly and test the frames and such. 

It's not everyone's cup of tea, and I totally get that. My Grandma pointed out that although she is totally willing to save money, she also can't handle removing a mattress and bringing a new one in on her own, so she would pay extra in Sears for example to have them come do that. 

If you're not fussy though, I would take a drive and see what they have to offer. I've never gone there and not walked out with something. 

Oh, and don't forget to sign up for their newsletter so you can get a further discount on your purchase (basically 10% off everything and they change the secondary discount each month)!

Renovations are expensive..

I bought a house in January after looking at 48+ other houses. As luck would have it, I bought a dud. The previous owners had hid all of the problems with a little paint and plywood. In Feb my basement was basically underwater from foundation cracks and I knew we had to do "some" fixing.

Over the course of a year I spent $20,000 on upgrades and fixes to my house that I had not planned on spending. I don't make a lot of money, but I refused to be in debt. I thought I might spell out below how I saved money on some major items for my Reno and maybe there are components I did that you hadn't thought of to save money. 

-a new roof. A leak in my kitchen led to discovering my roof was basically three layers of old shingles. I shopped around and was quoted over $8000 for my whole roof as the cheapest option. I offered to pay in cash and they reduced it. Then offered to leave their street sign branding out for as long as they wanted and they "threw in" my garage roof for free. I whined about other problems and they also threw in roof vents for free as well. I paid $6800 for the entire roof in the end. 

-new furnace and air conditioner. While the home inspector was an idiot and said everything was hunky-dory, my furnace was this beast of a creature that was no longer working. The air conditioner was also 30 years old. For discounts, it's all about who you know and not being afraid to ask and use friend-of-a-friend for discounts if you have them. My best friends dad is in this line of work and hooked me up with a great itty bitty furnace that now fits in a closet, a new air conditioner, and all new venting for a great deal. He also knew of a furnace rebate promo and sent off for it for me, so I got $250 back there. 

-flooring. I shopped around and was essentially looking for the cheapest I could get. Eventually Rona had a good sale on a particular light wood laminate style, but I wanted to use the Lowes "take 6 months to pay" option. I priced matched with Lowes for a similar style, price matched underpadding with somewhere else and walked out with some great savings. 

-Up flush toilet. These are the fancy basement toilets that don't require piping into the floor and cost over $1000 usually. I got mine for somewhere around $750 while it was on a short promo sale, plus I sent a note to the vendor asking if they had any rebates available if I were to purchase the unit. Saniflow let me send in for a $50 rebate that they didn't advertise, just because I asked. 

-new walls and sub floor. DriCore has a great subfloor material and at the time was just coming out with a new wall material called SmartWall. For their subfloor, my dad made friends with the dricore rep who let dad buy "seconds" from their factory store. Instead of paying $6.50 a tile, we paid something like $5 (not a big deal but that was $155 that stayed in my pocket). Then for the walls, I contacted the company asking how I could use their wall and save money since each panel was $50+. They advised to find some hockey magazine that had a coupon for $10 back a panel, plus if I did a testimonial for them they'd give another $100. We bought the panels on a storewide discount sale of 20% off, then we sent in for the rebate with receipt and got $430 back, plus another $100 when I did the testimonial (read it here: http://www.dricore.com/en/test_sam.aspx). In the end we had too many panels so I took the extras back and got a gift card for something like $250. I also sent in a question to dricore when I had a couple flaws in the wall and they offered another $100 gift card to come out and look themselves. 

-Ontario power authority rebate. This was advertised a bunch, basically make at least two improvements to your home to save energy and get rewarded. I contacted a company which had to basically do a "before" test and an "after" test. Things that qualified were like, changing out windows for reward of $-- a piece, change out doors, reduce "air leakage" in your house by sealing stuff up  around windows and doors and walls, new furnace installed, etc. Unfortunately for me, I only found out about this program AFTER the furnace and 3/4 windows had already been changed out. I missed out on some rebates there which was disappointing, but got $1750 (in two installments) back for what I did complete. 

-windows, sump pump bucket and perforated hose piping. Not sure if I should promote these ones, but when it comes to unnecessarily expensive items, watch for how they're priced in store. The windows for my basement were $250 each, so when dad was at a store and found one priced in the wrong spot at $75 he didn't ask questions! He got three windows for $75 each. Same deal with the sump pump hose, which was in really the wrong spot and I paid something like $20 for the $100 hose. The sump pump bucket (which looks like a garbage can with a weird lid) was scanned at the cash register as only $25 because she only scanned the lid. The bucket portion was another ridiculous amount so we just paid and didn't ask questions. 

-drop ceiling and tiles. Kijiji! I am a shameless Kijiji buyer and seller. We found used tiles from an office and paid $150 for 85 tiles (that's 1.75 each compared to brand new 6.50 each) and another guy took $150 for three boxes of metal bars. After installing the ceiling for my whole basement, including closets, I still had a box and half leftover. I took these back to a store for a store credit and got a whopping $170 back. I still have 20 tiles leftover as well, which are sitting on Kijiji right now (so far sold 5 for $10 haha)

-vanity, sink, medicine cabinet and shelf. Outlets or warehouse or "re-store" places. Vanities are expensive, so we were happy to find an outlet-style store nearby. I picked out a vanity with matching cabinet and shelf and paid $250 for it all, which for the same version at Lowes started at $1000. 

-paint and supplies. Ask your family and try the cheap stuff. Chances are someone in your family and friends network has paint supplies in a bucket in a closet somewhere. Mine did, everywhere. I didn't have to buy a roller, brush or tape - just paint. For paint I wanted a basic grey, but since it's just a basement I didn't want anything fancy. Walmart had a sale on "Loop" paint, plus when I talked to customer service they said we could try a bucket and if it sucked we could bring it back (if we only used a bit). I took a chance and bought buckets for $15 a piece on sale and was actually very happy with the result. Two coats and it had good coverage and dried quick. Bonus!

-ceiling fans, faucets, and more. Auctions! There is a great "home renovation auction" place called Bryan's that is a great place to start shopping. They specialize in complete kitchen cabinet packages, but also sell everything else for renovations. At any one auction they'll have sinks, toilets, hot tubs, exercise equipment, flooring, seasonal stuff, doors and windows, faucets, drills, dehumidifiers and more. It is an auction setting so you should know your budget before walking in. We were able to get two really really ugly ceiling fans for $20 each that painted beautifully. We also got a couple faucets there for cheap and I think every time we went we came home with something else. When I get around to fixing my kitchen, I'll be starting there for my cabinets. 

Okay that was a lot and doesn't cover everything either, but it gives a good breadth of ways to save on your next big project. I might write a part 2 of this, considering I saved on every single item in my renovation :)

Print at Home Coupon Sites

Everyone's favorite question to me: where do you get all your coupons?!

A previous blog post of mine mentioned all the places you can find coupons, including on product tear-offs, newspaper inserts, from the vendor, on free samples etc. All of these methods are just watching the shelves and papers and come hit-or-miss. 

Print at home coupons are usually updated weekly/monthly on these sites, so they are a little more predictable. You at least know there will be coupons to print when you look there, right?

I've said it before too, make sure to join a good Facebook/email site that will notify you of great offers that appear. Usually these are BOGO and completely free product coupons. The best ones go extremely quickly and having a service that does the monitoring and watching for you will make sure you get a piece of the action. I have two email subscriptions and a couple Facebook groups I'm part of if you wanted a starting point: 

Something to note for most of these sites is that you need a special printing add-on. Basically a driver that automatically pops up when you click print and it wants you to install the special print software. You will need to say yes to this, otherwise the coupons won't print. Only a few sites need this driver, but just a heads up. Also to note, almost all of these sites will only let you print the coupons once (pushing the print button once), though there are a couple that will let you reprint once. 

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SmartSource - usually impressed with this site. Lots of offers, lots of different products. This is another one of the companies that send out newspaper mailers. This is also the site usually that I've seen rebate offers posted to, that let you print the rebate request page to make a product completely free. If you want somewhere to start, try here. 

P&G Everyday - usually has a lot of coupons and wide variety. Products from this company for example include Crest, Tampax, Swiffer, Pantene, Bounty, Tide, Old Spice, Mr Clean, Pampers, Dawn and lots more. This company also puts out newspaper mailers, so you can sometimes double up on the offers if you also print the coupon at home. 

Websaver - usually higher value coupons, but hit and miss on what they offer. They are great if you like to try new products. They also offer a Mailed Coupon Envelope, which comes with popular and new coupons - sometimes for things like vegetables. You have to sign up for the service and then be one of the first to click on the "I want my envelope" button basically. 

Walmart.ca/coupons. - usually high value, and with a lot of grocery brand coupons for stuff you may actually buy. Their coupons usually can be used anywhere. So far the best BOGO or completely free coupons I've seen have come from this portal, but this is where the group notification service on Facebook is good as when the coupons have been claimed, they disappear from the site. 

Save.ca - similar offerings as Walmart, which might allow you to double up your deals if you print both. 

Kraft - hit and miss on whether they are offering your favorite popular Kraft products that month, or not as popular themed coupons (like right now it is almost all coffee offers). Interesting to note that not all Kraft product coupons will be here, as they will also have offers on the other websites mentioned here (usually for more generic stuff like $1.00 off any Kraft product). 

GoCoupons - usually high value, but small offering. One of the few that will still send out paper coupons, depending on the offer. 

Right at Home - from SC Johnson company. This includes brands like Pledge, OFF, Glade and Ziploc. Small assortment but I've been happy with the high value offers that show up here. 

HealthyEssentials- from the Johnson and Johnson company. Usually high value, and decent offering. Brands in this company include Aveeno, Band-Aid, Listerine, Tylenol, and baby products. This site also gives you points for printing coupons and interacting with the site, which you can redeem for either free product coupons or gift cards.  

Hidden Portals:

Websaver,  Save.ca and P&G Brandsaver all have hidden portals for various companies. This list is huge, and awesome. Check out extremecouponingmom.ca/hidden-coupon-portals/ for an extensive list (kudos to her for this research!).