~Fountain Tire Coupons~

I received in the mail this week a set of coupons from Fountain Tire. One was for $25 off any mechanical or tire service and there was another for a friend worth $15 off. Since I am needing a wheel alignment it was a very timely coupon to come to my house! A wheel alignment is around $100 so it will be a nice 25% savings. These mailings come out frequently throughout the year and are sometimes for $$ off and sometimes for bonus airmiles.

I have had great luck with the service at my Fountain Tire, they always impress me! I purchased new all season tires last year and have enjoyed a few flat repairs and a recent tire rotation all for free with my purchase! Not to mention that I get airmiles with every purchase.

I plan on getting winter tires this year and asked when was the best time to buy them and the owner told me that they go on special around the end of September through November. So if you are needing new tires, consider Fountain Tire, hopefully you get the same great service that I do!

~Coupons and More!~

Well sorry folks, July got away from me and I elected to spend it outside with my family enjoying the sunshine. I live in far northern Alberta so warm sunshine only comes a few days a year and I want to enjoy it while it lasts!!!

So I'm back and have some quick little updates for this blog. While I was on hiatus from blogging London Drugs went and started an online weekly coupon distribution. You simply go to their site www.londondrugs.com and click on the link for coupon offers at the bottom of the page or follow this link: Coupon Offers Simply print off and gather up other coupons to stack and you are on your way to some serious savings!

This weeks best deal that I can see is on the Kashi granola bars. If you have any FPCs from Kashi from their promotion earlier in the year you can stack them with their own coupon and get three boxes of granola bars for free! (Well taxes of course)

My personal London Drugs best this week was on Herbal Essences Shampoo. I stacked 3 FPCs, 5 B1G1s plus a few $1 and $0.50 off with their in store promotion of buy any three Herbal Essences products receive a free styling product. I walked out of the store with 15 Herbal Essences Shampoo/Conditioners, 2 Hairsprays, and 3 bottles of Mousse for $13.41. Needless to say our hygienic needs will be met for the next little while!!!

I also picked up 2 cases of Pampers this weekend and paid $17.83 instead of over $80.00!!! Plus I'll pick up $2 in Futura UPCs and 14 Gifts to Grow codes which equate to around $2 in Futura transfer. Not too shabby if I say so!

Upcoming posts on Save a Loonie: Fun Summer Treats for kids, Cheap Entertainment, Home Decorating on a Budget and more money saving tips!!! Stay tuned!

~Upcoming Coupon Inserts, Etc~

Dust off your shoes to head out and pick up this weekends paper...there is a P&G Insert scheduled to be out in major newspapers this Saturday, June 6th. In addition there is a Shop & Save Insert scheduled in the same paper.

P&G will have their online system up and running again, enabling you to order the same coupons to be mailed to your home address. It also seems that they will have the P&G Sampler program open again. The date on the website says June 6th as well. Go here: P & G Sampler Program to sign up and select your freebies! Just saw that it is up and running on July 1st!!!



This is a great program and they've run it a few times now. There are always a great variety of products available and you complete a small survey and they give you the products to choose from.

~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!

~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!

~Brandsaver Coupons~

Just wanted to drop a quick post with some details I found out about the upcoming Brandsaver coupons that will be released this upcoming weekend. Brandsaver as you'll remember is a coupon site for Proctor & Gamble coupons. So many of them we use in every day life!!!

On Canadian Coupons Exchange a very helpful member posted the coupons that we can expect to find in them this weekend. I thought it may be helpful information if you are planning a shopping trip this week. It may be worth holding off for a day or two until they are out and then combining them of course with the first Tuesday of the month discounts that will be offered on the 7th of April! If you can get the flyer version on Friday, head out to Shoppers Drug Mart and stock up on Liquid Downy softener, it's on sale this week in my area for $3.99! Bounce is as well for that matter!

Here is the list that she provided! Thanks to Brenda for this info!!!

Olay Facial Moisturizer AND Olay Facial Cleanser 6.00
Olay Facial Moisturizer AND Olay Body Product 6.00
Olay Body Wash .75
Always pad or liner 1.00
Nice'n Easy hair colour 1.50
Venus Breeze Razor 4.00
Venus Breeze Disposable razor 2.50
Venus Embrace razor 4.00
Satin Care product 1.00
Venus any disposable razor 2.50
Pampers Baby Dry, Swaddlers or Cruisers 2.00
Pampers Easy Ups 3.00
Pampers Splashers 1.00
Pampers Wipes 60ct or larger 1.00
Pampers Underjams 3.00
Mach3 disposable razor 1.50
Gillette Series shave gel or foam 1.00
Gillette Fusion Razor 5.00
Gillette Fusion Hydragel or Hydrasmoothe 1.00
Duracell Coppertop batteries .60 off 1 pack
Duracell Coppertop batteries 2.00 off 2 packs(excludes regular packages, AA4,
AAA2, C2, D2 or 9V1)
Folgers Gourmet Selections product 283-340g 1.00
Folgers any product 642-920g .50
Swiffer Sweeper Starter Kit 2.50
Swiffer Refill: Dry, Wet, Duster or Wetjet 1.50
Tide any detergent 1.00
Tide TotalCare detergent 2.00
Tide to Go .50
Bounce Dryer Sheets .50
Ultra Downy Fabric Softener or Downy Sheets 1.00
Febreeze Allergen Reducer 1.00
Swiffer Dusters Kit 1.00
Febreeze Noticeables Starter Kit 3.00
Febreeze 800ml Fabric Refresher 1.00
Febreeze Candles 2.00
Febreeze Ar Effects 1.00
Iams Dry Dog Food 2.00
Iams Dry Cat Food 2.00
Buy 1 Cascade Powder or Gel and Get 1 Cascade ActionPacs bag FREE(tubs not
included)
Cascade any product .50
Dawn any product .50
Mr. Clean 2.00 off any 2 different products
Crest Pro Health Toothpaste .75
Crest Pro Health rinse 1.00
Oral-B Pro Health manual toothbrush 2.00
Crest Pro Health toothpaste, Crest Pro Health Rinse AND Oral-B Pro Health
toothbrush 5.00

Make sure to log online to get these coupons plus grab your local paper that comes with your flyers to get the coupons from it too! Get extras for those great trades and trains!!!

~Coupon Trains~

Today's post is brought to you by Deb, the moderator at Canadian Coupons Exchange. I chose to contact Deb and have her write how to do a coupon train as I have done many trains with her and find her to be most organized and efficient at them. She has helped me to save a lot of money by getting coupons not available in my area!


A way to save more is to trade coupons with other people, and/or join Coupon Trains. I'm happy to share what I know about trains and I hope it will help you to save alot of loonies!

First, as Wanda has said before, save all coupons you come across. Grab enough for yourself and a couple extras every time you see coupons in stores.

At Canadian Coupons Exchange we do alot of trains with our members. We have lots of trains that are for coupons, but some are for stickers and fun things too! It's like having frugal pen pals all across Canada! So hopefully my explanation makes it easy for you to understand and you'll sign up to be part of our wonderful group!

A train is where a conductor (person who is starting a train) makes a list of about 5people (passengers). The conductor prepares an envelope, which holds many various coupons. When you receive this envelope you may choose any of the coupons you can use, and then replace these coupons with other coupons. Always include the same amount (or more) that you have taken out.

Each envelope contains the coupons in the train as well as a passenger list with all the passengers contact info on it. So if you are passenger # 1, you will then need to send the envelope to passenger #2 whose address you will find on this list.
At the end, the train goes back home to the conductor.

Once you have mailed the train on to the next passenger you go online and post to the group and to the conductor the details of the train. So for example you would put information regarding how much you took out in value for yourself, how much was removed because they had expired, how much you added in value and then who you sent it to and when. You can watch the message board for a posting saying that a train is on it's way to you! It can actually be fun to save!


Thanks to Deb for this great information! I hope you all learned more ideas to save with coupons today. I just wanted to add that there are many other sites that host coupon trains, I get trains from a few. It can get hard to keep track of what is coming and going though so I would advise to start slow! I hope you'll log on to Save a Loonie again and read about the next topic: Points Programs 101!!! Plus what do you think of my new header? My hubby surprised me with it tonight! He's so handy!!!

~Where to Get Free Product Coupons~

A great deal of my savings comes from the use of free product coupons. I have a coupon holder that holds just FPCs! Often they have long expiry dates and so I've got some that I'm saving for a rainy day! Where do I get them all? I get asked that all the time!

First place to look is in coupon inserts in your local paper. These inserts come out at random times of the year according to a schedule. There are two main ones that are listed on that schedule: Smartsource and Shop & Save. These inserts are usually found in your major city papers or the one that all your other flyers come in. It is worth it to pick up the paper on the weekend these come out! Coupon distribution varies across Canada so not every region receives the same coupons. There is also another insert that comes out in papers called the P&G Brandsaver. The Brandsaver coupons can also be selected online and are distributed by save.ca. Brandsaver doesn't tend to distribute FPCs but I have gotten BOGO offers from them. You can however find FPCs on Save.ca quite often. If you are surfing online they sometimes have banners for their current save.ca offers posted on different search engines. That is often how you can discover them! There is always of course the thread on Smart Canucks that I refer to all the time! They keep this thread up to date with current save.ca offers!

Second place to find them is on products. Cereal boxes often have them but they can be found on many products. You just need to keep your eyes out! Of course don't purchase the product if you don't need it unless the value of the product less coupons and the FPCS on it makes it free. In that case you can donate it to your local food bank!

Another place I get many is from trades! Many members on Smart Canucks put together bundles of FPCs and trade for gift certificates or other FPCs. I often get huge bundles of these by redeeming airmiles for GCs and then trading them for the FPCs that I can use.

On Ebay you can find sellers that are listing FPCs! I know you're thinking "Why would I pay for a FPC???" Doesn't make sense does it?!? Well sometimes it works out. For instance, I've purchased Source and minigo yogurt FPCs in bundles of 4-10 per at the cost of one yogurt. So I've gotten one less free, not a biggie to me. But I use mystery shopping payment money, or money I've earned by selling items myself on ebay to pay for them. I've never taken money from my bank account to buy coupons. It's always been 'extra' money!

Join companies mailing list or clubs! I've received Always pads or Tampons FPC, LaCoupe shampoo, Nestle Tollhouse chips, Kashi Cereal FPC. Also many will send out cents off coupons when you sign up! Sometimes these are one time offers so watch the forum at Smart Canucks for announcements!

Finally, and this is a little known fact, is to write companies and ask! Yup! if you shoot off a nice compliment letter that says something like: My family loves your (insert product name) and we use it all the time! I would love if you could share any coupons that you may have so that we can try other products you offer and continue to enjoy the ones we love! I use different variations of this kind of letter and write to companies via their online contact form and I've had a lot of luck. Companies that send FPCs include: Pinnacle Foods (Duncan Hines, Vlasic Pickles, Hungry Mans, Aunt Jemima Breakfast products) Cloverleaf (Tuna, Salmon, plus cents off coupons), SC Johnson (Saran, Ziploc ,other brands), Colgate/Palmolive ( will mail out $5-$10 off coupon), Clorox, Fleishmans Yeast, Johnson & Johnson (Replacement coupon for Parents Pack). Other companies replace their products if you have a legitamite concern with one you have purchased but most companies will mail something out even if it is only cents off coupons if you compliment.

It is trial and error but please don't abuse the good nature of these companies and only request one for yourself!

Happy hunting for FPCs! I hope you enjoy many savings with these tips! In the future I will post any particularily good FPCs that I come across and share with you all how I got them! Coupon Trains is next on the blog in a guest post from Deb, the moderator over at Canadian Coupons Exchange Yahoo group! I'm a member there and can't say enough about what a great group of people there are on there! There is a link on my sidebar to join up and be a part of the group! Looking forward to hearing any of your tips on getting FPCs! Drop me a comment and share with other readers!

~Coupon Trading~

Like baseball cards coupons are traded all over Canada! Women and men who are saavy savers know that sharing with one another helps everyone! Coupon Trading is exactly what is sounds like, trading coupons with another person. I personally love this because I like to organize my savings with the use of multiples of one coupon. Sometimes I can't get enough of it to satisfy my use so I trade for them. For example: Nabob Coffee $2 off coupons. They started off with an expiry of Dec 31, 2008, then July 2009, now there are some for Dec 31, 2009. So I've been stocking up on the ones for the later expiry so that I have lots of time to use them. I wait till there is a good sale on the coffee then stock up. I currently have around 15 cans of coffee in my cupboard.

Anyhow, I digress, how do you do it you may ask? Well I do most of my trades through Smart Canucks. They have it set up there where you can list what coupons you want to trade under your profile and then people can either search you through a great search page they have or by clicking on your profile. (Here is a link to the Trading Page) There is also a forum on the message board where members post trades that they are looking for and offering. To negotiate a trade the typical protocol is to send the other member a private message through the message system with what you are looking for and ask what they want for it. They will respond and you negotiate what you find a fair deal. Whichever person is new to trading usually has to send their letter first and once the other person receives it they will mail yours out. So you would mail out the other persons coupons or whatever you are trading and would receive yours a bit later. They have a feedback system that works similar to ebay where you can describe how that person was to trade with. I like this system so far I've had no problems with any trades through there.

I have also done trades through the Canadian Coupons Exchange Group (link on sidebar) and had great success. Please be sure to read through each sites individual rules and respect other peoples private information.

There are other websites out there that you can do trades on and I have no personal experience with them as I have chosen to limit my use to only a couple because of time. I would like to make a list of these other sites though so if anyone has experience with them please leave me a message and I will post it on here for everyone!

So now you know why I've told you to save every coupon you come across...your trash is someone elses' treasure! I keep all the coupons I plan on trading organized in envelopes by type: Food, Baby, Personal Care... I am debating on organizing them by expiry date as it seems as though it may be easier to maintain. I will update you once I get a system that seems to be working. Feel free to drop me any suggestions! I would love to post pictures of how someone else does it!

You can get unique coupons through this method because some areas do not get all coupons that are available. I know in my area I don't get half the coupons that are out there. I like to search the trading page at Smart Canucks for coupons for products I regularily use by typing in a search for the product. You never know if someone has a unique coupon you've never heard of! Or possibly a FPC (free product coupon)!

Traders use alot of unique acronyms on the forum that can take time to decipher. Some of the regular ones you will come across are:

LF: Looking For
FT: For Trade
FPC: Free product coupon
WUB: When you buy
BOGO/B1G1: Buy one get one (usually followed by free or $ off)
SDM: Shoppers Drug Mart Points
GTG: Gifts to Grow Points
GC: Gift Certificate

Coming up on Save a Loonie: Where to get Free Product Coupons? Points Programs Explained, Mystery Shopping, Coupon Trains (by a guest blogger!), Freebies...keep posted that is in no particular order!!!

~Organize Your Coupons~

The biggest key to being efficient to using coupons is being organized. Simply put, if you have to fumble with them at the cash desk while there are three people in line and a cashier glaring at you, you won't want to do it. Some people use envelopes, some use accordian folders, I use a mini photo album. I spent $2.06 and bought this small photo album at Walmart:



I sorted the pages into categories that I liked and used a black jiffy marker to write them on the page:

Cereals, Snacks, Meat, Dairy, Fresh Foods, Canned goods, Soups, Baby Pampers & Wipes, Baby Foods, Baby Toiletries, Cleaning...etc

This is what mine looks like:



There were more pages then I had categories for so I thought I would take it a step forward and put in pages for individual stores. When I sit down for the week and plan out our meals I make a grocery list at the same time using the sale flyers. Then I pull out the coupons I'll be using for that store and put it in their page so that when I go shopping there I have them at my fingertips. Here is a picture of them:



Then because I'm an organizing freak, I put in pages for my grocery list and to do list. This way I can set my photo book open on top of my purse and see my grocery list without having to keep track of a piece of paper. This way, it stays in place and you don't have to search for it!



For my last page I have a page for coupons to be used today. I put my coupons there if I need them for any store other then the ones I have specified. So another words, if I'm going to Safeway I will put my coupons for that store in the page for Safeway but if I'm going to Giant Tiger or say McDonalds and have a coupon I'll be using I put them in the last page.



My book is bursting at the seams so I started another photo album where I keep just my FPCs (Free Product Coupons)or higher value coupons.

So this my method of organization and it works well for me. Let me know how you keep yours organized.

~Maximize Your Loonie!~

How do you stretch your loonie to it's fullest potential? Think of those areas in your life that are the easiest in which to over spend. For most of us, it's on food and entertainment. You can use simple strategies to maximize how much you get from your money. First thing I will tackle today is by using coupons.

As discussed in yesterdays' post you want to collect every coupon you can, stock up on the ones you will use and not use them just because you have them.

The simplest way to maximize your loonie is by using coupons in conjunciton with sales at your local stores. Every week I go through the flyers and make a list of where I can shop for the best price on items I need with the coupons I have. Once you do this for a while you will learn that stores go through a cycle with products of when they go on sale. Once you learn this cylce you stock up.

How I do this efficiently is I have a pantry list of items that I keep in my purse notebook. These are items that either I am running low on or we use frequently enough that I could purchase extra if it were a good deal. I hardly ever run out of anything using this method because I always buy when it is on a good sale. Once I have enough of it I remove it from my list. One thing I stock up on is Tide. I use Tide to wash my clothes. Expensive some might argue, why not use no name brand. I could but I like Tide. So I maximize my loonie by waiting until Tide goes on sale and collecting coupons to use and then stocking up. By doing this I haven't paid over $2.99 for a 32 load jug of Tide in 6 months. I do the same with Bounce, and Downy.

Many people use a price book to track the prices at different stores during different seasons. I do this to a lesser extent, tracking the sale prices and location for key items I buy. After some time you will know the prices. A simple search on the internet will find you resources of information in regards to times of the year when items are on sale.

My next post will cover the organization of coupons. Check back for those details in a few days!

~Coupons - Love em or Hate em!~

I have long held a love/hate relationship with coupons. In my early years out of college I would clip the occasional coupon and it would languish in the bottom of my purse until one day I would go surfing for a piece of paper to write something on and it would come out in a crumpled mess. They never got used. Back then, they cost ME money. You see, if you spend TIME clipping coupons but never use them it costs you. It's simple, your time is valuable.

Now that I'm a mother and a wife and living in a slow, scary economic time I've learned to LOVE the coupon. I've learned ways in which to efficiently and effectively use them.

Here in Canada we don't have the benefit of all the coupon websites and offers that they have in the United States, but they are getting better. Manufacturers' use coupons to gain the consumer. They start out with an aggressive coupon to get you to buy their product. Once that coupon expires the company will often offer another one, but for less off. Sometimes it's half, sometimes less. I assume it depends on how well the product is doing on the market. Sometimes a company uses coupons to improve their image. For example: Maple Leaf foods this year had a recall on thousands of food items; they now have a fairly aggressive coupon strategy out to recapture the average consumer confidence.

Now that you understand why we have coupons let's get down to the dos and don't of coupons!

Do...stock up on as many of a coupon that you can use before their expiry. For example, there is a specific type of cream that I like for my coffee. They have a coupon that expires March 31. So when I first discovered this coupon I collected enough of them to last me until expiry. To do this I figured out how many of the item I would be using in say a week, in this case it was 1 per week. Then I figured out how many weeks were left before the expiry. I got enough of them to cover each week up to the date of expiry plus a couple of extra. My cream, you see, has a couple of week expiry date on it so I can buy a few towards the end of March and they will still be good for a few weeks.

Don't...buy something just because you have a coupon. If you don't use it or if it isn't something you NEED, don't buy it. Just because you have a coupon and it will cost you less is not a good reason to buy it. The only time I veto this rule is if it makes the item FREE. In which case you can either keep it for yourself or donate it to a shelter or food bank.

Do...keep yourself organized Set up a specific day of the week to organize, clip and sort your coupons. Also create a method for organizing them. I personally use mini photo albums that I purchased from Walmart for $2 for mine. I have 2 that I use. I will cover exactly how I organize mine in a later post. Keep all your items necessary in the same area. Some people like to highlight the expiry date on their coupons. I sort my coupons right then and there into what I'll use and what I can get rid of.

Do pick up every coupon you see in the store, whether you will use it or not. Why you might ask? Especially when I said, don't use a coupon just because you have it?!? Well you will need to have extra coupons to use in trades and trains. I will cover these in another post as well! Just keep em, and organize them!

Do...buy on sale with coupons. In order to effectively coupon you need to be a smart shopper. Combining sales and club card discounts with your coupons is the way to go. I will have another post going over this in the future.

Do...take your coupons EVERYWHERE you go. Yes, everywhere. You will never know when you need one. You don't have to use them every time but if you are somewhere and you see something that is on a great sale and you have a coupon for it, it makes sense to have them with you.

Don't be embarrassed or ashamed to use coupons. Every dollar you save counts. I use a simple excel spreadsheet to keep track of my savings. When I see the total add up I know why I do it. If you have a cashier being rude or otherwise making you feel uncomfortable for using coupons just tell them like it is. It is your money and your time. They are being paid for their time to be there serving you and the company will be reimbursed from the manufacturer. Just remember YOUR personal reasons for using that coupon. It's no one else's business. Nope, not even that guy in line behind you rolling his eyes!

So that is the basics of coupons. There is lots more to cover! In tomorrows post I will discuss how to use a coupon to it's maximum potential!