Monday 9 May 2011

Our latest haul-May 9th


We forgot a 6 pack of flavoured water in the car for this pic!

This haul consisted of 40 boxes of Ziploc bags, 6 pack flavoured water, 6 pack of Scott towels, 3 bags of McCains fries, 16 Stayfree pads, box of Valley granola bars (10 count) and a box of All Bran bars (5)... for a grand total of $10.40. Retail Value: $140.00-savings of 93 percent!

Just a reminder that this is a real venture. We have put 14 boxes of bags and 2 pads in our donation box for this week.



Tylenol Coupon

Free Purex Coupon

http://www.freesample-purex.ca/freesample/

Just fill out the form!

Canadian Coupon & Freebies

https://www.facebook.com/CANQP?ref=ts&sk=info

Canadian Coupon & Freebies Facebook page

Health Products Coupons

http://www.livingwell.ca

There lots of health products on this site-Tylenol, Listerine, Nicoderm, etc.

SC Johnson Wax Coupons

http://www.rightathome.ca/

This is where we got the Ziploc coupon worth $4 that I was talking about earlier. The 'Right at Home' site has other Sc Johnson Wax product coupons (like Glade, etc)

Triscuit coupon!

Go to their Facebook page - click like and fill out a short form a get a coupon for Triscuit sent to you!

https://www.facebook.com/TriscuitCanada

Coupons!!!


Stacking Coupons in Canada

http://www.walletpop.ca/blog/2011/03/04/the-truth-about-coupon-stacking-in-canada/

Here is a link outlining some coupon stacking policies in Canada!

Canadian Coupon Links

Here ya go-some Canadian Couponing Links:

http://save.ca/
http://smartcanucks.ca/tag/canadian-coupons/
http://www.frugalshopper.ca/
http://www.flyerland.ca
http://www.grocerysavings.ca/couponsPromotions.asp
http://coupons.redflagdeals.com/

Another way to get coupons is to email the company directly-Lisa emailed Reckitt Benckiser and received a free coupon for any of their products-which translated into a $19.00 box of Finish Dishwasher Powerball for free!

Another way is to search out blogs like this one or forums to find some great deals!!!

Tips for finding coupons!

Ok this what you guys have been waiting for-tips for finding coupons. To be blunt there is no easy answer to where the coupons are online for Canada-type in Coupons Canada or Couponing Canada or Canadian Coupons into Google. I will provide some links, but sorry there is no magic cure to finding coupons-you have to search them out.

For even more tips-I recommend watching Extreme Couponing on the Learning Channel! Check your local listings. It gives you an idea of the potential savings and provides a good general overview of the whole process. Note: This is an American show-the rules are different- ie. you cannot stack coupons in most Canadian retail stores.

To begin with it is a very time consuming venture and it is not easy to find coupons in Canada. Lisa spends approx. 10-14 hours a week getting coupons on the internet and going through flyers. I help here go through flyers, as well, as it is very timely process.

Second of all you need a good printer as you will be printing a lot of coupons.


Thirdly make sure you getting Canadian and not American coupons.

Fourthly you need to make sure you have newspapers with flyers-you will need multiple papers.

Next you will need a car - you do have to go to multiple stores to generate savings!

Also you need to be able to organize well. Lisa has a binder and has to organize all of the coupons-you will need multiple binders by the end. You need to use hockey card pages and page dividers to separate all of the different coupons that you will need.

It does take time to search the savings and to actually shop-so you have to be good at budgeting time.

You do need to have a pair of kahunas to complete this. You may have multiple coupons for the cashier (who may not be pleased that you causing them extra work) or the shame of pushing a cart with 50 boxes of baggies through a busy store or go in for multiple trips to save even more money. Just remember these savings are paying for your dream vacation or helping you save money or even pay for your house faster.

Watch the cashier-they can make mistakes and really have a lot of coupons to deal with in the run of a week.

A new different email is a good decision-you do not want your work or personal email over-run with "junk mail". We use savingscratch@gmail.com for ours!

You may have to fill out a lot of forms-this is necessary to get coupons-you also have to send coupons to your house. Once you get going... you will never look at junk mail the same again.

Well there are some tips to get you going-links coming next!

Picture Proof

This is our latest haul-I will go into more detail to show you what we did. First off to let you know what we acquired:
  • 18 XL  Ziploc Sandwich Bags (30 count)
  • 2 Large Ziploc Freezer Bags (20 count)
  • 4 Stayfree Pads  (16 count)
  • Catelli Smart Pasta
  • 6 Pack Scott Paper Towel
  • Old El Paso Salsa
  • Old El Paso Soft Taco Kit
We paid: $7.63
Approx Value: $87.00

How did we do it???

So what you really want to know is how we did it. First off you need to know that we have been saving coupons for a little while now. Second off you need to realize that this takes time and energy to accomplish and third off you need to watch flyers/ your local store in great detail.

So you also may ask why do they need so many sandwich bags....the answer is because they paid for the rest of the stuff. We got them for free basically....yes I said free! Here is what we did:

We saw in the flyer that Walmart has Ziploc Sandwich bags on sale for $1.49. We had a coupon that was for $4.00 of any 2 Ziploc Bags. So after the math-we made $1.02 for every 2 boxes of bags we bought. We bought 18 boxes of bags so we made $9.18 in credit to buy other stuff.

We had a coupon for a free salsa if you buy an Old El Paso Soft Taco Kit. We also had a $2.00 off Scott Towels coupon and a $0.75 off of  Catelli Pasta.

The taco kit was $3.47 and the Salsa was free.
The pasta was $1.77 minus $0.75 = $1.02
The towels were $6.97 minus $2.00 = $4.97
We also bought 2 boxes of freezer bags at $3.17 each minus $4.00

Our total: $2.44 plus $4.79 tax (you pay tax on the whole total unless it says free on the coupon)
We pay: $7.23

The Stayfree Pads were at Shoppers Drugmart on sale in the flyer for $1.99. We had multiple $1.99 coupons for the pads. We had to pay $0.40 tax.

The real or normal retail value of these products is around $87.00. After using flyers, coupons and some fancy math we only paid around 7% for the stuff.

As for having all these bags that we won't use-they will be donated to the local food bank who says they can use stuff like that or just about anything!

Happy Savings!

Welcome to Saving Scratch!

Hi this is our blog dedicated to saving money by couponing in Canada. It is still a fairly new craze-but it actually works. You can save 70% to 90% if you are dedicated and observant. So we thought we would share our experiences and coupons to help you save your hard earned dough, which is important in these times of economic recession.

We are still fairly new to extreme couponing-but we are doing well at it and have got it down to almost a science. So read our tips etc. and don't be afraid to share your thoughts or ideas and of course coupons. (we are still learning too). The more people doing this will send a message to corporations that it is a viable marketing tool in Canada and they will hopefully make couponing easier in Canada!

Additionally-we may add other tips to saving money-because it takes every strategy when it comes to saving money. This may be thrift shop, garage sales or any other idea to save scratch!


And last, but not least, you will save money and acquire product with couponing. Remember to share the savings. There are people who are a lot less fortunate that you in the community-share the wealth and donate to the local food bank or non-profit outreach group. It feels good and helps people!

Happy Savings,
David and Lisa