Staying (& Getting) Motivated to Save

This is a topic that has been on my mind lately. I think it is easy to get lazy, get discouraged, get overwhelmed, and all sorts of other things that distract from couponing or saving money. 

We get busy with work. 

We get "busy" with relaxing.

We get discouraged with a lack of deals. 

We forget the coupon binder at home. 

We get that craving for fast food...

I've been guilty of all these, and personally for me they seem to do a snowball effect of happening together and one after the other. Some weeks I can be super good and a super dedicated saver, and then some weeks I just give up and buy the pre-made dinners and order pizza for dinner without a sale or coupon in sight. 

So how can you re-motivate yourself? For me, the best way has been to get "safe" results. 

-use a coupon. It doesn't matter for what, just use a coupon on something. That usually gets the ball rolling 

-request coupons and send feedback to companies. When I get those high value "thank you" coupons in the mail, it kinda feels like Christmas and re-motivates me to try and do a great savings shopping trip. 

-take inventory of what I have and need, then take that to the Flipp flyer search app to see which of those items are on sale

-browse the blogs and Facebook pages for the deals posted by them. There will usually be at least one item that has been posted that I can go out and get 

Another great way to stay motivated for me is to not stop. Literally, don't take a hiatus from couponing and just keep doing a sprinkling of items at every shopping trip. Or simply actively searching the rebate apps and the front page flyer specials usually keeps me motivated enough to continue every week - wondering when I can score the next big deal! I also keep motivated and active by spending my lunches entering contests and requesting free samples. Not a lot of effort and when items come in the mail, they spark me on to continue. 

Something I kinda wish I had to keep me motivated? A support team! A team of couponing crazies that will share and mentor and suggest the great deal they found that week. I think that's why I write in this blog, just to feel like I am mentoring myself a little. I enjoy the social media couponing blogs and Facebook deal pages I hop on a few times a day, as in an odd way they feel kinda feel like they're talking to me to keep me going. 

Im open to suggestions and thoughts of how you staying in the "saving mindset" too. There's lots of ways and certainly every person is different, so feel free to share!

"Extreme Cheapskates" and what to take away from the show

My roommate and I have been entertained (and horrified) by the show Extreme Cheapskates. I don't think any other show as of late has made us groan out "No, no, don't" and even cover our eyes so much (when these crazy people dumpster dive for food. Yuck!)

But, there are some good things to take away from the show as well. Simple things really. They won't save you millions, but every penny can help. I've tried to make a small list below. 

- the toilet bowl and brick trick. Okay this one is in every show and it does make me curious to try it. Basically people put one or two bricks in the back of their toilet bowl and the act of water displacement means the toilet doesn't need as much water to reach the top, and to re-flush. This one will be worth a try I think!

- take out containers as Tupperware. I think this appeared in someone's "how to be a bachelor" blog post, but I am in love with Boston Pizzas takeout containers. Seriously, they are better than most of the other containers I have (and we have A LOT of containers). Every time I go to Boston Pizza, I'll save a small portion of my meal to take home. Usually what I get are these awesome microwaveable plastic containers we use until they are falling apart (a small collection pictured here)

- "samples" of jams, peanut butters and syrup. This is probably in bad taste but I totally do it too: asking for an extra container of the tiny syrup and taking it home, or taking one of each of the flavored jam/peanut butter when they bring it out with your toast. They've been great when I don't feel like the huge Costco-sized raspberry jam we buy for cheap, and will do one breakfast no problem. 

- conserving water in teeth brushing and showers. Okay, so I'm not going to tell you to only shower at the gym once a week, but using some water saving tips from the crazy people are actually pretty good. Shut the water off while brushing your teeth (between the spitting), or while lathering up your body in suds. It's better for the environment too. 

- invest in penny-saving light bulbs and shower heads. These exist, and should help save pennies on your bills. Plus a few times a year the energy star people put out high value coupons that can make the light bulbs free.

-repurpose where you can. All cheapskates do this, and for most things I approve. I have a friend who all through school used cleaned milk bags with the top cut off as ziplock bags in her lunches. Here, we wash and reuse ziplock and plastic cutlery as many times as we can. Old tshirts become great rags and those fuzzy socks with a hole in them can become a good Swiffer pad. Lots of uses for old things (just take a look on Pinterest!)

- turn off the light when not in use. Im still bad for this but if the light doesn't need to be on, turn it off. There's also the theory that things still suck energy even when they're turned off if they're still plugged in. Thinking about it, does the microwave really need to tell the world there are 3 seconds left on the clock during the 8 hours we're at work? Most cheapskates will have everything except their fridge on power bars that they unplug when they leave. 

- half price food. Okay, first, do not dumpster dive for food. Omg yuck! Also, don't ask for other people's leftovers, that's also just wrong. However, they do have a god tip if you are shopping for an immediate meal (tonight's dinner for example), it would be all right to buy food at the grocery store from the discount racks. Stores will mark down fruits, veggies, bread, cheese, meat, etc if it is almost near the expiration. If you are immediately going to eat it that night, I don't see anything wrong with saving the few dollars and buying it for half price. We have also bought meat and bread for half price and thrown it in the freezer to use the next week. 

- thrift stores and pawn shops can be your friends. If you need something, start here. Then check the garage sales one weekend. Then go to the department store. I'm willing to bet that most of the time you'll find what you're looking for at a great price in one of the first two places you look. 

- buy the discount brand. Couponers will say this too, you pay a high price for name brand. If peanut butter is peanut butter, no matter the label, then go for whatever is cheapest on the shelf. We've become accustomed to paying more for the fancy label from the companies with the commercials, but think about it, they need to get more money out of you to pay for those commercials right?

- if your friends and family have skills, ask to use them. Weddings are a good example. Numerous budget-conscious blogs for weddings say to ask your family and friends to provide services at the wedding in lieu of gifts. Maybe you already have a DJ, graphic designer, and cake maker, you just need to ask. Unlike extreme cheapskates though, I would send a thank you gift basket or something. 

- free entertainment. I would suggest taking some time and figuring out what is free in your area. Usually there are farms and museums and stuff that are free to visit. There are also free events in various cities, lakes and beaches and such too. Could your family go to a petting zoo and only spend $5 total instead of $20 each at the movies? There is lots that is free and fun if you look. 

And the last one I do,

- look for spare change! How silly does this sound, but no really! I keep my eyes open at all times for a wayward nickle or quarter in daily life. Yes I'm the one that will poke my finger into the coin return slots at vending machines and phone boots, just in case. When I was a kid, I could usually find the value of my admission price to Wonderland by the end of the day at the park (and now that isn't exactly just a few pennies)!  A lot of the cheapskates will suggest checking your vaccuum before dumping it, the machines at the laundromat, and the area near phone boots for money that was lost and forgotten. 

As always, love hearing your other ideas!

Work Perks

I joke all the time that you should never pay full price for anything, but it's true!  Work discounts can usually offer great deals on random things that you might not instantly think to get discounts on. Travel components, shopping items, phone plans and more.. It never hurts to ask what your company can do for you!

Using work perks, not just for discounts on what your company actually sells, all adds up. Even if you are in some select stores, sometimes just asking "is there a corporate discount?" or "do you do any deals for people working for this or that company?" will work and get you a free cookie, 10% off, or more. My favorite way of wording a discount question is using "family and friends of.."

**It is very important to note that for anything below, always ask and do it properly through/with work, not just taking something or charging back to the company. This is a no-brainer, but just in case... thought to mention it. 

Personally, I've used the "proximity" question at stores (I work across the street, any discount for me if I buy food here from you?) a few times, as well as a few offers from company offered programs. I've also looked into travel help at my work (do we have a corporate discount for flights or car rentals?), which our receptionist was happy to give me.

Some thoughts:

Company-offered/paid into programs, like Perkopolis or WorkPerks/Venngo. I've used Perkopolis to look up goods coupons for online shopping, theme park tickets, hotels, car rentals and more. They also have other deals like house cleaning and services, flower delivery, etc. 

Cell phone plans. Sometimes work will have connections and can get you a good plan rate to reference. 

Flights, hotels and car rentals. My company has a discount on a couple select airlines and as an employee, I can just call, reference our corporate referral code and get a discounts on my personal travel. I know a couple people in our company has also utilized codes like this for personal vacation trips. Your company might have the same, so it can't hurt to ask. 

Supplies, like for office and home. A lot of the time companies will have order lines or discount cards that can be used at stores like Staples or for shipping items. We have discount cards for employees to use at Staples, shipping companies (like UPS), as well as at a couple technology sites through our IT department. 

Whatever your company sells or supplies (dog food from a pet store, shoes from a footwear brand, groceries from a supermarket, etc). This can also extend into the vendors your company may use, which I've done before too, by just asking if they would extend a deal to you because you work for one of their "partners". 

Food. My company once got a message from Swiss chalet that someone responded to, and now we get continuous coupon emails from them, customized "just for us". This is also the best category I've had luck on asking the "proximity" question on. 

Shameless Job-title use if you can. If you are police, fire, government or more, you could always ask if there is a discount for you and your line of work. Be proud of what you do :) 

Finally... Just Ask!

Where to find coupons?

Okay, so this post will be edited a million times as I go along, remembering where I gather all my savings from.

On product - these are usually cereal boxes, cases of pop, cleaning supplies, and starter kits. I always check the packaging in store before I buy, seeing if there are any different boxes that might have a contest or coupon inside the box, or a swing tag or stuck on coupon on the outside. Always worth a look. 

Bottom of receipts - I've noticed this happening more and more. Sub shops and Petsmart have been best examples of this I've seen, usually offering a deal if you come back in a certain time period. Also, check the back/bottom of your receipts for the "fill out our survey and get.." offers for freebies (like Subway gives a free cookie for doing theirs). 

Free sample requests and emailing - so this'll be a separate blog post but request any free samples you can, which usually come with coupons attached, and also join samplesource for quarterly sample boxes in a couple clicks. Even just writing to a company telling them you like their product and do they have any samples/coupons they can send, usually they will (like Chapmans ice cream will send a free product coupon once a year if you ask).

Store tear pads - many grocery stores have tear pads in the aisles for new products and such. My favourite store for tear pads is Zehrs, as they have two big coupon boards when you first walk in, which saves all the wandering aisles. Mind you, I don't really shop at Zehrs as they won't price match, but they'll be my first stop to grab a bunch of coupons before I head off to a different store. 

Coupon websites - another blog post to come for this, but for example websaver and save.ca have coupons and there a so so many brand websites that host "secret coupons" through them. Make an account, click on the coupons you want, then press print. 

"Brand" websites - again, there's a list of these but I use P&G Everyday and Walmart online who host coupons to print. 

Mail to home sites - these are becoming a little more scarce, but there is a few sites that will still mail you physical coupons if you request. Websaver has just switched their mail to home program, which I'll review when I get my first bundle from them. 

Home mailers - these come in your newspapers and are popular for their free product mail-in rebates, buy one get one deals and fast food booklets of coupons. These are great to gather from friends and family who don't coupon, and can help start your mini-stockpile. 

Email subscriptions - everybody and their mother offer email subscriptions, so it's knowing which ones to join. I've joined a tonne under my non-primary email to see who sends coupons, and I'll try to do a post to update who I've found and liked. I also suggest you sign up for freebie notification subscriptions, like freebiefrenzy, which helps easily keep you on top of free samples and offers. 

Free magazines - Walmart one is the first one I can think of, but there are free recipe books, calendars for food and etc that you can pick up in stores for free. Usually, vendors have a bunch of coupons inside. 

Step 2, App's that give cash-back

So your binder is organized and you are ready to go.. But first, lemme take a detour..

On my iphone I have 6 money saving apps that are easy and actually work. I've tried to think about how these apps actually make any money on their end, but the opportunity here for everyday people like us to save a couple bucks a trip is offered, and you bet I'm taking it!

The idea behind these apps is to influence your purchases to try a certain brand or item. You go shopping, come home, open the app, and submit photos of your receipt to redeem offers like "Get .25 when you buy milk" or "Get 1.00 when you buy any 2 Febreeze scented sprays". Click on the things you bought in that trip, hit send, and wait for the approvals. All of these apps will send you a cheque when you reach a certain amount in your account, and I recently received my first $20 cheque from one of these apps. Easy, quick, and another few cents saved. 

Oh, and the apps will give you the credit no matter what you paid for the item. As long as the item is easily identified on your receipt, you will get the credit. This means you could use a coupon on the item in store, then come home and redeem it on the app (maybe making the item free). 

What I use, in order of preference :

Checkout 51 - good combination of generic items (buy any milk, bread, apples) with brand names we actually want to buy from. Large selection, and this changes every single week. They've also started bonus offers recently, where buy a couple of specially flagged items and get bonus credit back. This is who I got my first cheque from.

Zweet - again, lots of generic items and brand items. Weekly turnover of offers. Difference here is you also get Zweet points for purchases too, which after 650 points you can redeem as charity donations, gift cards and such. 

Snap (by Groupon) - same as the two above, except I find their deals run out quickly. Any generic deal is gone the same day, and what is left is sometimes not a favourite brand. You can also only redeem some offers once (like milk), like, ever, but they usually have high value credit backs for the items that are there. 

Save.ca - this app isn't the best to be honest, but every once in a while they get a couple good items on it. I believe they say their offers change weekly, but you can probably check it once a month as 75% of the deals stay the same. For sure, the website version of the this site is better for printing coupons!

CartSmart - same as save.ca. Okay for some offers, not so great for most.

Changio - this is an interesting app that does points instead of money, but for everywhere including groceries, fast food, department stores and restaurants. It also has a "scan" feature that awards points without having to buy the item (like scan this product's barcode in the store and get 5 points). I've just found this app and it will take me a long while to get up to the redemption point, but you need 2000 points to basically redeem anything. It's a great app if you are going to that place anyways (restaurants and fast food are my major go-to's), but I wouldn't structure my buying plan based on it. 

So those are the "redeeming" apps I've been using. On top of those cash-back apps, I also have a couple other apps that are geat:

Flipp - so my half hour of research a week is basically on this app. There is an awesome "search" function that will search for a keyword amongst all active flyers in your area. So you need a bathroom cleaner this week, and you have a coupon for Lysol?.. Plug "Lysol" into the search area and it'll show you results of that search (where it's on sale), what flyer they're in and more. It even allows you to "clip" the offer to a shopping list, which I use religiously for price matching (freshCo and Walmart both will price match based on digital flyers). Great app, highly recommend. 

PC Plus - if you shop at any of the stores that accept this points program, then you need the app to "load offers to the card". Basically, it'll award you extra points for select purchases, which you can redeem later at checkout for cash (I think it's in $5 increments). Sobeys and a couple other stores have similar rewards cards, which take no time to sign up for and to beep through at checkout. It all adds up!

Hope that covers all the digital pieces. Even if you don't do the physical couponing, these apps are a nearly effortless way to get a couple bucks back on everyday purchases.  

Getting started - the coupon binder

So my god-send in couponing has been my binder. Yes, I might look like a total dork wandering the aisles with a big green binder, but after trial and error this has been my absolute best tool.

I start here, before even telling you where the physical coupons are, because this is for sure the thing that makes my couponing easy. I love using the line "oh, I have a coupon for that!", and knowing exactly where to go to get it. No more digging in the abyss of a purse or searching through an accordion mass of coupons while standing at the cashier. 

My binder is a holdover from school and from my Pokemon card collecting days. It's an inch thick, with as many pages as I could scrounge up of those 9-pocket hockey card plastic pages. Garage sales are great for these card sheets, but I've seen them on sale at places like Staples and Walmart too. Binders are cheap at a dollar store or again during school start up time in stores. 

I did buy and try an accordion binder, but found that I would need to file through every coupon in a section to find the one I wanted. I tried the envelope organizational method too, but it was the same idea. Try a couple yourself, but I personally love seeing all my coupons at a glance. 

Then, organize. I use a page (or 2) per section of the grocery store: food, snacks, dairy, cleaning, scents, pet etc. If you shop at one store the most, organize the coupons based on the aisles then. What this does is allow you to not plan as much, and if a great sale is on the shelf, you can quickly flip in your book to see if you have a coupon for it too (essentially doubling the deal). This makes it so my quick trip for milk ends up being an hour long "start the carrrrr!" success story because of a few great deals I found, haha!

Another thing to note with this binder.. Take it with you! Always. Leave it in the trunk of your car, as I'm always out and about and realizing I have a coupon for something somewhere I didn't plan on going to. It's heartbreaking to know there's a stack of fast food coupons sitting on your dining room table when you have that McDonalds craving at lunch! I understand if you don't have a car this might be a little impractical, but they do make mini binders with these same sheets too!  :P

I guess if you want to be technical, other tools you need are a pair of scissors, a smartphone or tablet (I have iPhone and iPad), and a computer with printer. This is the arsenal I have (along with a couple other bonuses I'll talk about) to save money easily. 

About Me

Hello all!  I've been asked how I get the deals I get and save the money I have, so I thought I'd start an easy blog about it.

I'm in my mid twenties, with a house, a car and 2 wonderful dogs. I don't make a lot of money, so I try to stretch it out as much as possible. I have multiple savings accounts (everyone who can do it should go get a high interest account), take advantage of work perks, and I coupon! I joke that I won't pay full price for anything, and if the coupons are there to use by the manufacturers, why not use them?

Everyone has seen the American couponing shows.. If only it was that easy here in Canada! To any newbie couponer, please note that our coupons and stores don't allow for stacking like in the states (using multiple coupons per product) which makes it nearly impossible to get the same impressive hauls here. And all of these people have entire rooms dedicated to their stockpile.. Which might not be practical if you are in an apartment or tiny house like mine. 

Stockpiling is a brilliant way to do things when you get them for a great price, but I have the smallest house ever and the only thing I actually stockpile is paper cleaning products (they fit in a small corner of my pantry). 

Plus if I were to buy 20 cans of soup, I would never be able to use them all before the expiry, right? I wanted to save money on my everyday purchases, what I needed to buy one or two of, but was a little overwhelmed in the beginning thinking about how much work couponing seemed.. After all, those people on tv spend a week planning their grocery trips, after spending hours on cutting and organizing their coupons!

Friends, you can make your own sale every grocery trip, without that drama! I spend maybe an hour a week actually doing any research or cutting or organizing for a trip, and on average I will end up with a couple totally free products and nearly every item on sale in each trip. I don't find it hard or tedious, and if a bit of planning means I save more than $20 on every trip of $60, I'm good with that!

Couponing for the everyday person is easy and possible, and I'm hoping my quick posts can show that to anyone hoping to save a bit of money. Consider me the beginners guide to easy couponing haha!