May Long Weekend

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. It was very much deserved in this household!

We didn't do a whole lot of couponing this weekend, which brings me to this next part.   Just because you have coupons, doesn't mean you NEED to spend money. The whole point of couponing is to SAVE.  I will be the first to admit that sometimes I get caught up in shopping and the thrill of finding a great deal.  Well not every week will you find awesome deals.  If you have been doing this for a while you should have a stock pile of essentials to hold you a week or two, so you can watch the coupons and matching them with upcoming flyer deals.  You may only find 1 or 2 good deals or you may not find any.  We shop at 7 different stores on a weekly basis.  If I don't see a good deal that week, I don't buy. I have enough stores to hold me so I am not desperate to spend on "not so good prices".  This is a job. It takes time to go through the flyers, and matching coupons, and checking up on the price matching as well. 

Give yourself a budget.  Start with $500/month and work your way down to $200.  This will take a lot practice and patience.  As time goes on you will get really good at it, and you will be amazed at how much you will save.  Eventually you will want to try and save more and more each month.

You need to watch your meat deals.  We have a tough time finding good deals in this department.   I will admit that we did get a good one at save-on-foods where it was B1G1.  So 2 birds for $9 which worked out to $4.50 each. Pretty good deal, as we get 2 meals and sandwich's out of  each.  This is far and few between.  Now from past experience it doesn't pay to buy meat that is really cheap as the quality can be terrible.  I have bought new zealand meat which is tougher than leather unless you marinate it for 2 days.  Try keeping a log of what meat prices are from week to week.  I was told once by an older friend that any meat under $5/lb is a good deal.  Well she was right to a point, but I can usually find a better deal if I wait it out and buy alot to hold me until the next good deal.  Sometimes you need to buy in bigger packages to save lots.  That's where all those ziplock bags we got on sale will come in handy!!!!!  Yeah it takes work to make smaller packages, but its so worth it, and it only takes a few extra minutes.

We will try and watch the meat deals and post as soon as we can so you too can take advantage.

Happy couponing!!