Signs to watch for: Get $ off when you..

Just a super quick post about something we saw while shopping.. try on and get $ off. 

 

Interesting concept and if you were buying anything at all in the store, in my opinion it would be a no-brainer! I'm all about free money! 

So just a note that while you're out shopping, watch for signs like this. This sign was only on a couple tables of pants in one corner and not throughout the whole store. 

Sharing Great Deals: A Moore’s Sale!

Just sharing a great “start the car!” deal we got during a recent shopping trip, highlighting Moore’s. Moore’s normally has some great deals when they’ve got a BOGO event on, usually alternating between suits and shirts and pants.

 

 

We were on the hunt for a pair of new dress pants for my hubby. My husband is a tall guy and pants can sometimes be a pain to find and more expensive when you find them, as they’re typically not in the normal stores like the Bay, Sears, etc. We checked those places first and ended up at a Moore’s near our house. They had a big sale going on, with little signs throughout the store. One of the sales was buy one get one on dress pants… Bonus! My smarty-pants husband started in the clearance section and found a pair of pants that fit him, marked down to an incredible $24.99 (and get this.. they didn’t feel like curtains!) We matched the numbers and found a second pair of pants in a different colour for the same $24.99 price. We asked at the counter and indeed clearance pants counted in the BOGO Free deal! 

 

While I was waiting for him to try on the pants I found a nice pair of dressy black shoes in his size, also on clearance. Shoes again are usually expensive as he’s a size 13. They were $50 which we thought was a great price and we were in the market for a new pair for him anyways. Then he had been coveting a pair of flip flops in other stores, and found one that had another clearance sticker on them here. They fit and got added to the pile. At the checkout we found out one of the other little signs said 30% off select clearance, which applied to these two pairs of shoes and took another $27 off!

We walked out of the store with two brand new dress pants that fit and didn’t need to be hemmed, one pair of dress shoes and one pair of leather flip flops, all for just under $100. I was happy and proud of my husband and I think he was happy to expand the wardrobe!

 

Free So Delicious Ice Cream from Social Nature - Review

Received an offer from Social Nature to try some Dairy-Free Ice Cream. It was good! I have previously tried “Happy Water” through them (you can see my review in a previous blog post) and now I got the opportunity to try ice cream!

A  recap of Social Nature is it’s a site that encourages people to flag items they would like to try that are new, healthy, Made in Canada/USA and all the good things.

You go through a list of available offers and flag items as “Want It”, then answer a few questions relating to what else like it you have tried or regularly buy. Then they will choose a pool of people to accept and send free product coupons to take to a store to purchase. You need to do a review of the product after to increase your chances of getting more “want it” items, plus the more people you have on your lists the better an influencer you are and again the better chances you have at being selected.

Only downside is occasionally where the products are sold.. Happy Water was a tough one for me to find as only certain stores carried certain versions. Luckily, this ice cream was at the grocery store we normally shop at.

So we were looking for this ice cream and found a big cooler of it near all the organic foods. All of the bigger tubs were on clearance, which still made them within the coupon max price limit, so we opted to go big or go home! Lots of flavours to choose from, but I had to go with the all chocolate Soy version!

The other night, I was craving ice cream and so I pulled this out for a few spoonfuls. It tastes like ice cream, all good, did the trick. While I am not lactose-intolerant, it was great to try this and see that healthier foods can actually taste good. I recommend it to anyone needing the dairy-free route.

As I’ve said in my review, the only thing that would make me hesitate from buying it in the future was the price. The size of a “normal” ice cream tub was normally $7, but was on clearance for $5.99. The smaller tubs, similar to a Ben&Jerry’s small size, was around $5. When you can watch for the Chapman’s ice cream sales, you can get the big box for $2 (or free if you request your yearly free product coupon).

Don't do long term gym contracts

Okay. Rant time. 

 

I had been piggy-backing on my roommate's Gym Membership by paying him $20 a month and being able to go to the gym with him (it’s like a rider to his contract that allows you to bring up to two friends each time you go). “We” signed up with the gym when it first opened and were happy with its size and amenities. I didn’t go all that often.. Maybe once or twice a week. Working up to my wedding, I flipped between going as much as I could to not going at all. All in all it reminded me of our high school gym, nothing special, but lots of space meant you weren’t ever right next to a heavy breather or awkward gym jock.

 

Then my hubby came over to Canada and we got married and started signing up for the couple-y stuff like bank accounts and Costco memberships. Next on the list was a gym membership. Our roommate had nothing but good things to say about the current gym and I didn’t really have an opinion other than staff seemed lazy. My husband and I checked out a couple other gyms and their pricing and went in for an appt with the Manager at the current gym.

 

We asked for the best deal after a while, and he worked out some sort of thing that basically gave us free gym hopping to any facility and a slight discount on the monthly rate. My husband and I liked that the gym had a pool and a lot of machines. We asked some questions related to classes (why weren’t there many) and the manager assured us that he was working on that and there would be a bunch more added. We signed up and paid the lump sum for a year-long membership. Did not get any swag for free, did not get a safety tour, just gimme your money and go. 

 

Fast forward a couple months and my husband and I were both basically spitting mad about the gym. The staff stopped caring and everything immediately hit the dirt floor. Showers never washed, broken machines, inattentive and inappropriate staff and horrible advice from their “fitness” manager (they told me to lose weight I should only eat fish and use just my body weight.. no machines). We could go to the gym as long as we didn’t use the bathrooms, showers or lockers. 

 

After complaining numerous times we were met with excuses and answers that never made sense (the janitor quit the day before… SO.. you as the manager just don’t clean or tidy yourself then?). After two separate issues came up for me (one involving a shower that wouldn’t drain (pictured) with flies stuck to the wall and another with the fitness manager making me feel like I would never lose weight because I wasn’t willing to do her a, b or c) I basically refused to go back to the gym.

 

It was a weird feeling getting emotional about it. My husband and I cared, but no one else at the gym did, and the reviews we saw on social media must have been posted by staff as they continually said the opposite of what we saw each week. And we felt like we (should have) held some sort of importance as we had paid for a whole year.. we weren’t about to end the contract and head off like other monthly members. Yet this didn’t matter and there was nothing you could do about it. Getting out of a year commitment is tricky and in our case would have required some deceit to end.

 

We haven’t been in months and in amongst that we have moved cities. My husband found the same gym name close to our new home and went and had a look at it. What a difference! Small, but clean. So we will be able to at least finish out our year-long commitment at a gym that is actually maintained. 

 

It’s been a disappointing learning experience for us. There are a couple benefits to staying month to month:

·         Negotiating power if you see they have a cheaper rate on, or if you are unhappy with stuff. Threatening to leave can often give you the cheaper price or a promise to clean up their act

·         You can leave

·         Paying all at once can hurt the bank account

Compare that to only having the one benefit of saving a little money if you sign on yearly, and in this situation I believe month to month for the little bit more makes more sense.

How to make your own discount

There are a bunch of ways to get a discount on every purchase you make.. and a lot of them take little effort. When I say I can get a discount on anything, I’m not lying! The comment I hear most from people who I say this to is that they don’t have time to coupon clip or search multiples sites online for the best deal.. so below are simple solutions for these guys!

Okay, maybe it’s a too-simple one… but “ASK!”

·         I’m notorious for a quick question in line with the cashier to say “any current promotions or deals you could offer me?” which has recently been responded to with “here’s a free small slurpee coupon on your next visit since you bought a large one” or “yeah, since you bought 3 Hallmark cards I can give you this coupon to get $5 off”. I have lots of instances where someone had something I didn’t know about that they could offer me just because I asked.

·         Asking can also include the online “chat with us now” boxes just before you place the order. It takes only a couple extra minutes to see if there is a promo code they can give you to apply for being a new customer or a frequent customer, and for me this has worked most of the time.

·         “Ask!” if you have an expired coupon, or if a deal “cannot be combined” if you can use it anyways. This has worked for me in the past for small shops or restaurants who will either give me the discount anyways or offer me something similar. A good example has been our ice cream place, where I can use a discount coupon or my normal discount card PLUS get a stamp on the stamp card that shouldn’t be applicable.

·         Simply ask at checkout if they have any discount programs.. Sometimes they will say “Oh yeah, CAA gets 10% off” or similar. I always look at the store or website to see if they have icons suggesting they take CAA or SPC discounts, but I will always ask too, just in case. In the example of ice cream place again, they have both CAA and SPC, but one is better than the other and I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t ask.

Sign up for credit/bank cards that give you points/miles/cash back.

·         Again, maybe this is too simple, but switching to a bank/credit card that rewards you is a no brainer in my opinion. I have an Air Miles mastercard and my husband has a cashback debit card.. so every time we swipe, we get a little bit extra. Basically every purchase I make gets me closer to another Air Mile, which we use for our vacations. It counts as a discount in my book!

Online shopping – search for the coupon codes!

·         When purchasing online, take the extra couple minutes to google search for a coupon/promo code. Retailmenot is a great starting point, but there are a number of sites with various codes that have worked for others. Take the few minutes to try some

·         Also, sign up for the website’s e-Newsletter. Oftentimes, first time subscribers will get a coupon code for a discount off their first order. If you are an existing email subscriber, check their last few emails to see if they sent out a promo code. If truly determined, use a new email.. I think everyone nowadays has at least 2. I haven’t checked to see if you unsubscribe and then re-sign up later if this works or if it remembers you already got a code… anyone with insight here is welcome to comment!

·         Another option is to quickly check the sites Facebook page, as sometimes they have added a tab that says “sign up here and get a code” or “enter the contest” and at the end you’ll get a code just for entering.

Use the Flipp app

·         Again, no-brainer, but for every shopping trip, check the flipp app. You never known when something you were going to buy regardless is one sale that same week somewhere else.. Price match and save a little bit of money.