~Ebay Your Unused Favorite Coupons!~

Are you feeling a bit of a pinch in your luxury spending? Need a few bucks to buy bread etc? Or just want the thrill of making money from thin air?

If this is you then ebay is your friend! For pennies you have access to mass marketing, a proven method, safe selling environment, lots of competition, millions of customers! No where else can you set up shop in a matter of a few minutes and have access to all that for the pittance of fees that ebay charges!

I use ebay to sell off coupons that I come across that I know will be favorites for someone but not neccesarily me. It takes only a few minutes to list them and if you set your price right you sit back and wait 4-7 days and make a little cash. Now if you are like me you just re-use that money to purchase 'wants' on ebay like games, books, more coupons... But by selling your coupons on ebay you are pulling money from thin air! Of course you can sell many other things on Ebay but people rarely think of coupons!

Ebay has special policies in place as well to help you recoup the cost of an unsold item. So you want to learn about all those types of tricks! Take out an "Ebay for Dummies" from the library and read up on how to be a saavy ebay seller!

I hope you've picked up a few pointers on making some free cash from your coupons! Happy Ebaying!

~How to Save on Food: Part 1~

In most households the part of the family budget that can go way out of control is the food budget. Many factors play into your food budget and so therefore give many areas where you can improve. One area that most people know of but aren't sure how to get started in is eating at home. While it is nice to have a dinner out once and a while, it should be a treat, not a necessity because of poor planning.

Eating out at restaurants adds up so fast and before you know it you have spent more on a few meals out then you would on a whole months worth of groceries! Do I know what I'm talking about? You bet! My husband and I ate out a lot before we had our son. I happen to know that we used to spend over $600 a month on eating out plus another $300-$300 on groceries. FOR TWO OF US!!! As soon as we found out that we were expecting we knew we had to change our ways in order to be successful.

The first thing I did was to go through my pantry, freezer, fridge and cook books and identify favorite recipes and the ingredients they require. I then made a 'pantry list' of items that I use often so that I could watch for deals and make sure that I have them on hand. I keep a running list of items to watch for one sale with my grocery list whenever I go to the store.

Next I started to meal plan. If you want a great resource for meal planning visit Cooking for the Rushed and pick a book of Sandi Richards to take out from your library and check out her great tips for planning ahead.

I plan out our meals based on my work schedule. I work shift work so some nights I'm only home for an hour to eat and run back to work. So I plan meals that I can do in my slow cooker or that only require a little finish up by myself or my husband.

I usually plan my meals on the weekend and then make a grocery list based on what I need to fill in the ingredients that are missing. It is usually only fresh items as I try to keep everything else on hand and purchase when they are on sale.

I have a magnetic meal planner that stays on the fridge and helps us to keep ahead of it.

So far using this system we have cut back our dining out to around a $150 a month and our grocery bill is between $200-$350 a month. We chose to eat out about once every two weeks and for lunch on Fridays. We are happy, losing weight and saving money...a win-win situation!

Stay tuned for more tips on saving money on food!

~Random Weekly Post~

Did you get your paper this weekend? Inside you will find an insert from Smart Source with some coupons that you may find useful! If they are not, hang on to them and trade them for something you can use!

Also, my favorite savings site, Smart Canucks, is doing contests and giving away a $10 Gift Card Daily! All you need to do is to visit their main blog page and see what they are looking for that day and maybe YOU will be one of the luck winners!!!

I'm planning a few more posts in the next few days with some helpful information and fresh new things to read about...I've had a sick baby for the last few weeks and this blog has had to take a back seat to that!

So stay tuned, maybe you will learn something new!

~Free Gifts to Grow Code!~

Happy Mothers Day to all my blog readers! If you are a Mom like me, you know what hard work we put into our families and lives...there should be a whole week of showing how much we are appreciated if you ask me!

Anyhow, I digress...the nice folks at Pampers want to thank us for being fabulous Moms too! They've added a new bonus point code that we can use to get one point!

So here it is:

HAPPYMOTHERSDAY

Perfect!

Enjoy and have a fabulous day...I'm off to enjoy my favorite hobby ~ Scrapbooking!

~Great Freebies Alert!~

I think summer is finally here, don't know about you all! So this time of year I yearn for a garden of my own...someday! I like flipping through gardening magazines but I don't buy them because I don't have a garden and that is kind of pointless, know what I mean?

So I was happy when I received an email from Dare Foods today offering me a free issue of Canadian Gardening Click on the link for your free issue!

Also found tonight was a great new promotion from Maple Leaf foods. Thanks to the ladies on Canadian Coupons Exchange for this link: Free Eggs and an Egg Poacher!!! You simply send in the mail in form with your proof of purchase and UPC from any Maple Leaf Fully cooked sausages and you get a voucher for free eggs and a microwaveable egg poacher. Sounds like breakfast to me!

~Great Deal Alert!~

Just checked out the Safeway Flyer for this week online at www.safeway.ca and saw that Tide laundry detergent is on for Buy One Get One Free. If you use 2 - $1 off coupons you could get both for a great price. I don't really know what the price of one is at Safeway but even at $9.99 regular, you would be paying $7.99 for two, which is a decent price for Tide. Plus if you combine it with the 10% off on Tuesday you'll possibly save another $1.98! (This depends if Safeway will take 10% off the free Tide, if not then it would be another 10% off the price of one before the coupons) *I hope this isn't confusing, LOL, it would be easier to explain if I knew the price of one Tide at Safeway!*

Another great deal for us Westerners is at Save-On Foods this week. They have Campbells cases of soup (mushroom, chicken noodle, vegetable and tomato) for $4.98. If you have any $1.00 off any campbells coupon that makes it a great deal at $3.98 for 12 cans! That's $0.33 a can!

So plan your trip out to pick up a few staples this week and save! Don't forget to use your FPC couposn at Safeway for a sweet bonus this week!

~New Companies to Write!~

I just wanted to post that I wrote to Fresh Express salads and told them how much I loved their products and they sent me 5 - $1 off coupons! Now I usually don't buy packaged salads because they are pretty pricey but with this coupon and a sale you can't do wrong! I use mine to get fresh spinach when on sale as we eat alot of spinach in our house! So check out your local grocery store and see if they carry Fresh Express!

I also get some coupons mailed out from Dare for their Bear Paw cookies. I got cents off coupons but my sister got a FPC in the mail from them! So shoot them a letter and see what you get!

Finally, Blue Diamond Almonds mailed out some coupons per my request. I will be honest they weren't fantastic coupons, $0.30 off two cans of almonds, but if you get any other coupons and stack them at London Drugs it is helpful! They have no expiry date on them so you can hang on to them until you get coupons to stack!

~It's Friday!~

Head on over to Smart Canucks to see the upcoming flyer specials and plan your grocery trip for the week!

Don't forget, Tuesday is 10% off at Safeway and 15% off at Save-on Foods also. I try to do my big monthly catch up trip at Safeway for their best deals on the first Tuesday of every month. If you didn't know it already if you use your FPC coupons on Safeways 10% off Tuesday they deduct the 10% off the value of the FPC as well. So you get a bonus 10% on top of your free product.

Hope you catch some great deals this weekend!