Videos

• What to do With Free Items From Couponing: New Video

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  What to do With Free Items From Couponing

  
  If you are reading this via RSS, go here to watch the video.

  Wondering what to do with your free items from couponing? Let me share share this tip…

  There are so many things you can get for free with coupons (or you can get them very, very cheap). In the end, you may wind up with quite a few free items that you can’t possibly use before they go bad.

  So, what do you do with all of those free items?

  What most people would tell you, is to simply not buy so many, but there are some items out there that you can actually get paid to purchase, when you combine the sale prices with coupons and/or mail-in rebate offers.

  Why wouldn’t you “buy” something, if in fact the store/manufacturer were going to pay you to take them home?

  If you don’t use those items that you get for free, or you end up getting more than you can use, I recommend donating as much as you possibly can.

  There are sure to be many food banks and shelters in your area and I can almost guarantee that they are struggling to find donations. Find those locations, figure out what they are in desperate need of and if you can, donate those items.

  This is a much better thing to do with your free (or very, very cheap) stuff than just letting it sit in your stockpile and go bad.

  You should definetely give not only to food banks and shelters, but to friends and family members as well.

  Being able to donate is one of the best things about couponing.

  Up until recently, I was never able to financially donate to charities, so donating stockpile items was a great way for me to use my couponing habit for good, and to pay it forward.

  If you have lots of extras in your stockpile, I encourage you to do the same.

  How often do you donate items from your stockpile?

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• 3 Small Expenses to Cut From Your Budget: New Video

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  Today I wanted to share with you 3 small expenses that you can easily cut from your monthly budget to save some serious cash.

  There are some things included in your monthly budget that you have no control over. These are things like your mortgage, heat & hydro, car payment, insurance – you can’t do much about those.

  However, there are some small things that you can cut from your budget that save you quite a bit of money over the long term.

  1. Bank Fees

  You should not be paying bank fees if you don’t have to, and right now, you don’t have to. There are some banks out there that actually offer free chequing and savings accounts for nothing. You pay $0.

  The 2 banks that come to mind right away are PC Financial and ING Direct.

  Switch over from your regular bank and you’re going to save anywhere from $5-$30 a month on monthly bank fees alone.

  2. Convenience Items

  What I mean by convenience items is things like shredded cheese, pre-cut garlic, pre-cut fruit. You will find these in almost any grocery store and they are almost always double what you would pay for the regular item yourself.

  Do a little bit of extra work yourself and cut up your fruit and vegetables, grate your own cheese, cut up your garlic – and you’re going to save yourself good money by avoiding those convenience items at the store.

  By “convenience items”, I also mean frozen meals and (most) frozen meats. You can get these items fresh (or the ingredients fresh), and they are always going to be cheaper. Unless, of course, you can find a great clearance or sale.

  3. Books, Movies, CDs

  These are 3 items that you can find at your local library, and you can get them for free. You don’t need to pay for them.

  All you have to do is go to the library, browse around, find what you want, check out, and bring those items back on time (keep track of these items to avoid late fees).

  If you really don’t have the time to go to the library to browse around, and you already know what you want to read/watch/listen to, go to your library’s website to reserve those items. When they are available, you will be contacted and you can then go and pick them up.

  Those are 3 things that you can easily cut from your budget to save some money every month.

  I encourage you to try cutting at least 1 of them and see if it works for you.

  What small expenses have you cut from your budget?

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• Shopping at Walmart: New Video (May 19, 2012)

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  Here’s a video of me at Walmart, showing the best deals I picked up today.

  If you’re reading this via RSS, you can view the video here.

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• What To Do With Extra Coupons: New Video

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  What To Do With Extra Coupons

  I just wanted to give you a little tip on what you can do with all of those extra coupons that you are holding on to but have no use for.

  You can trade them with others, or here is something else you can do:

  Become a coupon fairy.

  If you’re not familiar with the term “coupon fairy”, let me explain. Basically a coupon fairy is someone that takes all of their extra coupons and they walk up and down all the aisles of their local stores, leaving coupons on the shelves for other people to find and use.

  Let’s say you have a coupon for Depends diapers and you don’t need that product. Walk down the aisle that carries those Depends diapers and leave the Depends coupons right in front of the product.

  Now, the next person who goes to purchase those diapers will see those coupons and will be able to use them on their purchase (a purchase they were going to make anyway).

  I definitely encourage this. I think it’s a great way to pay it forward with your couponing habits.

  Of course, you could always pick up items yourself and donate them, but if you don’t have time for that, I suggest being a coupon fairy at least once.

  A lot of people who do decide to do this actually bring their coupons out right around when they’re going to expire, just so that they don’t have to throw them out. This is what I usually do as well.

  Please consider giving this a try. If you have coupons that are about to expire, or you just have a bunch of coupons that you don’t need, being them with you on your next shopping trip and leave them behind for other shoppers.

  Have you ever been a coupon fairy?

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• Stockpile Organizing: 3 Easy Ways to Stay Organized (New Video)

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  I often get asked how I organize my stockpile, so today I’m going to show you 3 things that I do to keep my stockpile organized at all times.

  Bins/Baskets

  The number one thing that I recommend when starting a stockpile is to use bins whenever possible.

  I always recommend using bins, because they will help you to keep your smaller items contained and not falling all over your shelves.

  To save money, use the bins you already have on hand. This could be a plastic bin from the dollar store that you already have, or small cardboard boxes.

  Categories

  Tip #2 is to have categories. These are very important when you’re stockpiling.

  Categories to consider:
  - Health & Beauty
  - Food
  - Household
  - Kids/Baby
  - Laundry

  Setting up categories is really going to help you to find things when needed, which will prevent your items from expiring before you actually find them.

  Donation Station

  My final tip is to have a donation station. This is just an area in your stockpile (or even another area of your home) where you keep all of the items you plan to donate.

  Keep it all in one area, so that once that area is full you’ll know it’s time to take it to be donated.

  Those are my tips for organizing your stockpile.

  There are many ways to keep things organized, so do what works best for you. The important thing is to store your items in a way where you are able to use them before they expire.

  Do you have any tips for organizing your stockpile?

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• Save Money on Produce at the Grocery Store

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  I just wanted to give you a few quick tips for saving money on produce at the grocery store.

  Only Purchase Sale Items

  My number one money saving tip when it comes to produce, is to only buy sale items.

  Take a look at your store’s sale flyer every single week and only purchase the items that are on sale. This is going to save you an incredible amount of money, as opposed to just going out and buying whatever you feel like at full price.

  Always look at the sale prices and only purchase what is on sale that week.

  

  Check the Clearance Rack

  You also want to check out the clearance racks at your local grocery store. These are racks full of produce that may not look very nice, but is still perfectly edible.

  The reason that stores mark this produce down is because some people seem to think they need to have the most beautiful piece of produce, and a little ding here or ding there makes the item garbage – and this is simply not true.

  So check out your clearance racks and you’ll often find bananas, peppers, oranges, apples – that kind of thing.

  You can take these items that may not look very pretty, and cook (apples = apple sauce) or freeze (chopped peppers, bananas) them. Or you could eat them right away, of course.

  I find that the discount is often 30%-50% off regular price for these clearance items, so this is another great way to save money on produce.

  Buy in Bulk & Freeze

  My final tip for saving money on produce at the grocery store is to buy in bulk and freeze.

  What I mean by this is to take your sale items (buy as many as you can afford if the deal is really good), bring them home, cook or chop them, and then throw them in the freezer.

  This will ensure you have lots of produce for a long time, as long as you are consistently adding to your stockpile when more great sales come along.

  Saving money on produce is as easy as saving money on the rest of your groceries. It just takes discipline.

  The main thing is to get used to only making meals that consist of sale items.

  I also suggest downloading our FREE in season produce guide, so you know when to expect certain items on sale.

  How do you save money on produce?

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• Couponing Etiquette: Things to Remember (New Video!)

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  Couponing Etiquette

  Do you use coupons? If so, pay attention. Today I’m going to explain a little bit about couponing etiquette.

  I’ve received a lot of questions about this over the last few weeks, so I wanted to give you something to think about.

  When it comes to couponing etiquette, theres a few things that you should know (and this is not just for couponing in Canada, but anywhere that coupons are used).

  Do Not Photocopy Coupons

  One of the things that you should avoid is photocopying coupons.

  Photocopying coupons is illegal and is not the same as printing coupons from your computer.

  Never do this – no matter how good the coupon may be. It’s not worth it, and it’s not right.

  Do Not Take Full Tear Pads

  Another thing that I always tell people to avoid is taking full tear pads of coupons.

  When you’re shopping at the store and you find tear pad coupons, please don’t take the entire tear pad. Always leave coupons behind for others.

  If there’s only one coupon left, that’s a different story. However, if it’s a full tear pad of coupons, take a couple (whatever you think you’ll be able to use), but don’t take more than 5-10 (10 being the maximum).

  Taking any more than that is going to prevent other people from getting coupons as well.

  Also, keep in mind that you should only take the maximum amount of coupons if you are certain you are going to use them all. Otherwise, just take 1-3.

  Be Kind to Your Cashier

  Another couponing etiquette tip that I wanted to share is to be nice to your cashier.

  When you get up to the register to pay for your groceries with coupons, you’re often going to encounter cashiers that either don’t understand how to use coupons or who don’t like people that use coupons (because it creates more work for them).

  The only thing you can do in this situation is to be kind to your cashier.

  I know it’s difficult sometimes, but the best thing to do is just be polite. This will usually help you more than if you’re angry and getting very defensive.

  Those are my tips for couponing etiquette. I want to encourage people to use coupons, but to use them the right way.

  When we all use coupons properly, we are less likely to run into issues when we try to redeem them.

  Are there any couponing etiquette tips you want to add to this list?

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• How I Organize Travel Size Items: New Video

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  Today I wanted to show you how I organize all of my travel size items.

  These are items that I get for free or close to it when I pair them with my coupons at the store (I seem to collect quite a few). I also receive many free samples in the mail, which are usually travel size.

  This is how I keep them organized:

  1. I weed through the items and get rid of the ones that I don’t want or need (and likely only “purchased” because they were free), and then I put all of the extra overflow into our stockpile in the basement.

  What’s left goes into this one bin, which sits in our linen closet.

  Having this basket, organized, prevents us from having to go all the way down to the basement to get a new item when we run out of something.

  2. I have containers/baskets inside my basket to corral those really small items, such as shampoo sample packets.

  I also keep the following items in our basket:

  - Hair Spray
  - Body Wash
  - Toothpaste
  - Shaving Cream/Gel
  - Lotion
  - Deodorant
  - Mouthwash
  - Hand Sanitizer
  - Facial Cleanser

  It’s so much easier to have this one basket with ready to use items in our linen closet, as opposed to having them in a jumbled mess in the basement.

  How do you organize your travel size items? Please share in the comments.

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