December Challenge: Organizing a Kitchen Cupboard

My Kitchen cupboards are generally pretty organised, there was one however that was a complete disaster. Our problem is that we saved way too many disposable containers, they come in handy when packing snacks for our kids, but we had about 20 too many.

Here is the before:

...and the after:

Ahhhh much better!

Boxing Day....Sales?

I was so excited about boxing day today that I woke up at 4:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I have been planning this day for the past month and set aside a good chunk of money to get things for my family and I. The stores in the mall opened up at 8am, so I made sure to get us all there by 7:45am, Old Navy was giving away a Kodak underwater camera to the first chunk of customers and I wanted one. When we got to Old Navy at 7:45am the doors were already open and a good amount of people were already in there shopping. Turns out this was the only store in the mall that opened up at 6am, we missed the camera giveaway but we did get two free fleece blanks which came in handy when my oldest daughter and I fell asleep on the couch later in the day.

The deals in Old Navy were OK, we found even better deals online the previous day though. Many of the stores seemed to have the same sales that they did before Christmas, and for some things like Pot of Gold chocolate I could have gotten it cheaper with a coupon (now expired) two weeks or so ago. The only other store I picked up anything from was La Senza, their panties seem to only have a lifespan of one year, so I desperately needed some new ones, I don't know if I'm just being cheap, but I think the 9 for $30 I paid was a little too much for a "sale".

This boxing day was officially a let down for us, we picked up very few clothing items for the kids and only one or two things from our long list of things we needed for our home. I wonder how well other people did today with the sales and if they fared better than we did. I'm hoping that the upcoming January sidewalk sales will be better, I remember last year we really cleaned up, it was great.

How We Save and Spend

According to the banks Canada is on the cusp of going through another recession, according to the government we aren't. I have to say right now I agree with the banks, it's not hard to see that our economy could be doing much better and that good well paying jobs are hard to come by, families are struggling with low paying jobs and higher prices at the grocery store. Corporations and government are pushing us to buy to get the economy going, but our pennies here and there are nothing compared to the reckless government spending that needs to stop to really make the difference.

Oops I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, this post isn't about the government, it's about surviving and thriving during a possible recession. My husband and I use to be poor, so poor that we couldn't afford to buy cheese for the first two years of our marriage and had to be really creative when planning a date. Those were hard times, and I honestly think we suffered way more financially then we really had to, although there are more ways to save money now than ever before. I could talk all day about how to save money and live a better life, but for the sake of putting my thoughts into one entry I'll just list off a few things.

1) Use Coupons! These things are everywhere (especially for you Americans). You can find coupons in newspapers, order them online and have them mailed to your door, print them out from your computer, call up your favourite company rave about their products and see if they will send you coupons....etc. Coupons are no longer just for food and deodorant, you can get coupons for museums, attractions, oil changes and the list goes on. Using coupons was our first step in saving money, over time it really makes a difference.

2) Getting Cheap Clothing - For our children there are a few different things we do to save money on clothing. We go to thrift stores, kids swap meets which for us seems to give us more for a lot less than the thrift store, and  also garage sales for used clothing. If we need something that we weren't able to find second hand or just want to buy a few new items for the kids we go to Gymboree when they are having one of their many sales (their quality is amazing, almost guaranteeing it will be passed down from oldest to youngest), Old Navy and GAP clearance sections and every other store on boxing day. My husband and I don't go through clothes nearly as fast as two toddlers, but we have the same shopping habits when it comes to buying clothes (generally), we just do it less frequently.

3) Saving Money at the Grocery Store - Besides using coupons there are other ways to get a deal at the grocery store. Many times food that is about to expire either that day or the next has a 30-50% off sticker on it. If you have a freezer (which I highly recommend and many times can be obtained free from craigslist) you can throw so many things in it. Milk freezes well, so does cheese, butter, bread.....etc, there is no reason to pay full price for these things all the time. Ask the manager or supervisor when your grocery store does their markdowns so you can be there to catch the good stuff (assuming you're like me and don't have a paying job).

4) Vacations - I love vacations, although who doesn't?! Since we are not rolling in cash we have to be very careful with what we do on our vacations. As it stands now, if we want to go on a vacation every year it means no flying. Plane tickets, airport tax and little things like taxis and buses from spot to spot is just beyond our budget right now, so we do road trips. We save for each vacation starting a year in advance, we may not know where we will be going or for how long, but getting away from it all is incentive enough. All of our coins, well I should be saying my coins since my husband only uses his credit card go in a "vacation" jar, so does the money from bottle returns, any mail in rebates or things we sell on craigslist or at a swap meet. When our kids get a  little older I'd like to take them to Disney Land, I don't know if our financial situation will improve or God forbid get worse so I'm saving now, not in the way of money, but in airmiles. Airmiles is a great rewards program, it's free to join and lately more and more stores are apart of the airmiles program including Toys r Us and Michaels.

I have a lot more to talk about when it comes to saving money, so stay tuned :-).

Recipe: Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

I found this recipe in an issue of  "Today's Parent", I made it for my daughter's second birthday a while back and she loved it, it was literally all over her face.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 Cup boiling water

1 1/2 Cup all purpose flour 

1 Cup white sugar

2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 Large bag of "Rolo" chocolate or something similar

Icing

3 tbsp Butter at room temperature

1 3/4 Cup icing sugar

1/4 Unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tbsp milk

1 tbsp Vanilla

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, whisk cocoa with boiling water until no lumps remain.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour with sugar, baking powder with salt.

Whisk oil into slightly cooled cocoa mixture, then whisk in eggs and vanilla. 

Stir in flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be very thick.

Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups. 

Bake until batter is barely set, approx 8-10 minutes.

Remove partially baked cupcakes and push pieces of  chocolate into the center. 

Bake for another 8-10 minutes, then set on cooling rack. 

For the icing beat butter in a large bowl.

Whisk icing sugar with cocoa to remove lumps. 

Beat into butter, alternating with milk. 

Beat in vanilla until icing is smooth. 

Enjoy!!

Today's Income

Today I had an etsy sale. Wahooo. It was a small sale, but a sale is a sale and I'm happy people are buying my stuff. The item(s) bought were a set of four polymer clay mushroom charms for $2.60. A thank you goes out to the buyer in Texas.

Today's Income

I've decided that anytime I make money from home I'm going to keep a record of it, no matter how small the number. Today I sold a stroller weather shield on craigslist for $10. It was actually the one thing I was expecting not to sell, but hey I'm not complaining. As a family we've decided that any craigslist sales along with bottle returns and things that my husband sells to his friends are going straight to our "summer savings account", so that we can have a little freedom when choosing our family vacation.

*To add to today's total, my husband sold $84 worth of stuff to some people he knows, one of whom owns a working farm, he has happily agreed to barter our items for his fresh produce, this will really come in handy in the summer!*

Making Money When You Don't Have a Job

So how do people make money while being a stay at home parent? I've been doing a few things, and I'm sure I could be doing more, slowly but surely it'll happen. Since October I've opened up my own etsy shop, selling kids/ kid inspired jewelry. By no means is business booming, but it gives me a great feeling that a few people are interested in things I'm making, it's also a few extra dollars that I wouldn't have had otherwise. 

This month I've been selling things on craigslist and my husband has been selling some things to a group of friends he sees once a week. Craigslist has been OK, although I will admit it can be a huge hassle with people saying they are interested in somethings and then not following through or dealing with people who are a little ummm....blank among other things. Thankfully though, my husband helps me out with craigslist selling and in less than two weeks we've made $100 selling to three different people. As for selling things to his friends, today was the first time he did it and was able to make $50. Selling things to friends might just be a one time thing, or possibly a once in a while thing, we'll see but at least I can say we made some cash and people are interested. 

I'm looking into ways to make more money, my husband works, but I don't and I miss getting a regular pay cheque. Selling things here and there has been great for this months challenge of organising, but I need something that I can count on more than craigslist and also something that makes more money than etsy, yet still allows me to be at home with our two toddlers. Suggestions are always welcome.

Lifetime Supply of Scrubbing Bubbles

...well, if not a lifetime supply at least a few years, because umm *cough cough* I may have more than this in my cleaning closet.

I bought this in one shopping trip yesterday at....yup you guessed it London Drugs. I love this store. After using $80.00 in coupons I paid just the tax which was $9.51, still cheaper then what just one of these cleaners costs before tax. 

For anyone out there that might find this blog and stacks at London Drugs I got this deal by using 2 x "$5 off Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean", one coupon was from an October Smartsource flyer and the other coupon was found in my townhouse complex mail room a couple weeks ago. 

December Challenge: Organising the Bathroom Cupboard

Today I got to organising the bathroom cupboard, I was shocked at how many things I had in there that were useless. Empty spray bottles, too many cleaning buckets and my husband's broken electric razor. It all had to go.

Before:

After:

November Challenge: Days 27, 28, 29 and 30 and Results!

Phew that was a long title.

Nov 27th:
$ 11.50 - Kids swap meet
$ 11.79 - London Drugs (used $55 in coupons)

Nov 28th:
$ 11.45 - London Drugs (used $63.46 in coupons)
$ .50 - Coffee
$ 44.45 - Grocery

Nov 29th:
$ 23.43 - Fruit and veg
$ 8.30 - Grocery

Nov 30th:
$ 19.31 - London Drugs (used $91.46 in coupons)
$ 4.72 - Chips
$ 17.29 - London Drugs (used $65.47 in coupons)

This past month I challenged my family and I to only spend $2300 on everything for the month of November, well sadly we spent more then $2300.  With the car having issues, a holiday and my youngest daughter turning two, I don't think we did too bad, we spent $ 2430.14 this month.

December's challenge is an organising challenge, and I've already gotten started.

November Challenge: Day 23, 24, 25 and 26

Nov 23rd:
$ 16.57 Kids play center
$36.68 Sushi

Nov 24th:

NO SPEND DAY!!!!!!!!!!

Nov 25th:
$ 3.81 Mc Donalds
$ 10.00 Burger King
$ 15.87 London Drugs (used $85.99 in coupons)

Below is a picture of my shopping trip at London Drugs. This store allows multiple coupons for one product, there are certain rules and restrictions, but it works for me :).

Nov 26th:
$ 11.56 Grocery
$ 30.02 Gas
$ 2.36 Chips
$ 13.20 London Drugs (used $69.23 in coupons)

November Challenge: Day 19, 20, 21, 22

Eeep I've been so bad with this blog, haven't been writing in it simply because I haven't felt motivated to do so. So about my spending, it's been good and bad, lets get started:

Day 19:

$ 15.83 - Grocery

$ 11.51 - Fruit and veg

$ 83.00 - Shoppers Drug Mart, this shopping trip was a mix of kids medicine, $1 4 packs of soap, $2.00 face wash and food. We attained enough points to get about $20 off our next shopping trip, however we will be banking these points for even more savings. 

Day 20: 

$ 36.68 - Sushi

Day 21: 

No Spend Day!!!!!

Day 22: 

$ 2.00 - Chocolate for my birthday girl's cupcakes

$ 13.72 - Toys R Us ( Amazing deals here! I was able to get 10 hot wheels, 2 stainless steel spoon and fork sets with Toy Story and Princess characters on them and a  25 cent pack of birthday candles. As a bonus I got 5 airmiles yeaaa :-) )
$ 69.00 - Oil Change

Tomorrow we might be heading over to Chuck E Cheese's, we have a $26 coupon which includes a large pizza, 4 drinks and 20 tokens. There is no admission fee, and I think this price is fair for the four of us, I will of course be bringing along extra food for us to eat elsewhere. 

November Challenge: Day 18

My husband went to the mechanic today and all I can say is thank God, fixing the car wasn't an expensive repair, although it was sure an inconvenience. Turns out there was something wrong with the electrical board and since my husband knows the mechanic and paid in cash, it only cost us $200 plus $10 in doughnuts and coffee from Tim Horton's. Here's today's spending:

$ 200.00 - Car repair

$ 10.00 - Tim Horton's 

$ 5.00 - Burger King

November Challenge: Day 16 and 17

Ha, can you believe it after all that has broken down lately, our car, our wonderful 1997 Chevrolet van is ill. It came out of nowhere, she just won't start. We depend on our car pretty heavily; to take our daughter to preschool, to take my husband to work and to go to various places to get great deals. I'm so sad, I know it's dumb to love a thing, but this car has such great memories, we took our first family road trips in this car....hmmfff. God willing she won't be too expensive to fix.

Back to the challenge! Yesterday's spending is as follows:
$ 7.08 x 6 tins of pringles (used $3.00 in coupons)
$ .99 Clearance dessert
$ 85.00 Gas (ha ha jokes on us)

This afternoon, before the car died, we headed over to Old Navy to use our "save $10 when you spend $20" coupons, my husband had one as well as myself. I picked up somethings for my kids from the clearance section which also had an extra 30% off the last ticketed price, while my husband was able to find himself a nice sweater for work. Today we spent:
$ 1.67 Muffin and tea at Mc Donald's
$ 15.64 Husband's sweater
$ 11.85 Kids clothing

Cute stuff, almost wish they had these in my size.

November Challenge: Day 15

Here we are half way through the month, and I'm feeling like this challenge is under control. Two days ago I mentioned that we still had to pay for our daughter's preschool, well thank God, we were approved for a subsidy that will cover all but $8 of the monthly cost. We will also be reimbursed for September and October, this little bit of unexpected extra money is going straight to the bank!

Today's spending was great, we headed off to Whole Foods to use one of the two vouchers we purchased. The total bill came to $21.15, but I only spent $11.15 in total thanks to livingsocial, and since the $10.00 was already calculated on November 9th, I only spent $1.15 today. Wahoo.

November Challenge: Day 14

This past week my camera died, less than 2 months after purchasing it. Turns out there is something wrong with the sensor and it was putting a black mark on the top 20% of my photos. I am very disappointed it's my youngest's second birthday on the 23rd and although I do have another camera, it's really not that good, as you can see from my recent photos. My Nikon 5100 was sent in on Friday and won't be fixed and shipped back to me for at least a month and that's if everything goes well. My juicer also died this week, it happened yesterday and the motor is gone. We bought this juicer in the summer at a garage sale for $10 new in package (so it seemed) and I only used it a handful of times with all the intention in the world of using it more often, now that can never happen and now I don't have the extra cash to buy another one. Boo hoo. On a happier note, spending was good and coupons were used, here's how we did:

$ 7.08 Six tubes of pringles (used $3.00 in coupons)

$ .99  Eight lemons in the clearance isle

 

November Challenge: Day 12 and 13

Day 12 of this challenge was another no spend day, wahoo! Today, day 13 is as follows:
$22.59 - Groceries
$16.22 - Fruit and veg market
$0.96 - Pantene shampoo and conditioner

The shampoo and conditioner were a result of coupon stacking at London Drugs, I had wanted to get a few other things, but unfortunately they were out. Normally I wouldn't head over to London Drugs for just two items.

I think so far this month is going pretty decent so far. However, I do still have my youngest daughter's birthday on the 23rd, my oldest daughter needs this month's preschool paid for and it looks like our car needs an oil change. I'm a little nervous about how it will all work out.

Recipe: Best Pizza Dough I've Ever Made

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup flax seed
• 1/5 cup ground chia 
• 2 heaping tablespoons thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar, flax seeds, ground chia, thyme and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface (I greased the pan with olive oil) . Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Pre bake dough (as shown in picture below) for 5-8 minutes then cover with your favourite sauce and toppings and bake in oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. 

This recipe made about two medium sized pizzas, the thinner the dough, the better. This pizza was incredible and it had nothing to do with the toppings. 

Enjoy!!

November Challenge: Day 11

I'm very proud of my husband and oldest daughter who spent the day out together, but spent nothing. Kudos to them. I, on the other hand bought a fish burger combo at Burger King. My addiction to fish burger Friday is unruly and even now I could go for another one. Sigh.

Today's total spending:
$5.00 - Burger King

November Challenge: Day 10

Today was a no spend day....ahh it feels good.

November Challenge: Day 9

Today I was so excited, I thought I was going to come here and announce that today was a no spend day, well it wasn't. It would have been a no spent day, DH and I said no to take out even though we were craving it, but then I saw the Whole Foods deal I posted about below. I love Whole Foods, we shop there as a treat when the HST rebate comes around or occasionally when we buy a few bulk items, making sure to keep the bill under or around $20. If anyone wants to grab this deal while it's still on, you've got two days to do it, sign up here for living social and here for the link to the Whole Foods voucher.

So after all that talk my total spent today was:
$20 - Two Whole Foods vouchers

Whole Foods: Pay $10 for a $20 Voucher Worth of Food...

....or just about anything else you like to buy at Whole Foods. Here in our home we try to incorporate as many organic products as possible, however it can be expensive. This coupon will most likely be used towards buying things from the bulk section like organic quinoa, unbleached flour, flax seeds and organic rolled oats.

Click here to purchase your $20 Whole Foods Voucher for only $10.

November Challenge: Day 8

Today is the third day of Eid and with the $2300 monthly budget in mind, my family happily skipped the restaurant today. We did however make a trip to the bakery, still much cheaper than going to a sushi restaurant....and then DH went to Timmy's for coffee with a friend. Here's today's totals:

$8.00 - Bakery 

$14.99 - Basmati rice

$4.48 - Kids chop sticks
$75.02 - Gas
$3.00 - Tom Hortons

So my family and I are currently addicted to sushi, I know it's terrible because spending money at any restaurant is a bad habit to get into. We go for all you can eat or get takeout about 2-3 times a month normally, so I wanted to get my kids their own chop sticks, they are only 2 and 3 years old and I thought it would be so cute seeing them learn how to hold and use them while they eat. 

Aren't these the cutest things?

This Is Why I Love My Husband

....well just one of the reasons. He brings me coupons!! Over the past two days he's brought me home endless amounts of brand saver and smart source. What more could a cheap person who loves to shop want?! I'm so excited, I can see many fun days at London Drugs ahead of me.

November Challenge: Day 6 and 7

Yesterday my family and I spent money on sushi (this is a favourite for us) as well as some money on food that was cooked up for some guests that we had over today. Here are yesterday's totals:
$34.06 Grocery
$2.00 Parking
$30.80 Sushi

I am proud to announce that today we spent nothing, not a penny, not bad considering today was day two of Eid.

November Challenge: Day 5

Here is today's spending:
$43.23 Cable/Internet
$7.20 Subway
$29.25 Grocery
$2.88 Scrubbing Bubbles Daily Shower Power Sprayer


The Scrubbing Bubbles is a repeat from yesterday, I bought three again from London Drugs and stacked $23.97 in coupons paying only $2.88 in taxes for all three, the lady adjusted the coupons this time that's why I paid three cents more this time around, it's not a typo. 


Just a warning to you and to my wallet, tomorrow marks the beginning of four days of holidays. Ahh, but my spending shouldn't be that bad, I buy our kids gifts year round when they are on sale or new in package from a garage sale or swap meet. This year my youngest is getting a Mr Potato Head we found at an outlet store for $5 while on vacation this summer and my oldest is getting a Toy Story doodle board and book that we found brand new at a swap meet for $6. Both of our kids will also get goody bags filled with the clearance Halloween candy that I bought this week, as well as a good condition play kitchen that we found by the recycling, we have cleaned it thoroughly and I know that I know they will enjoy it. 


Bracing for tomorrow :P. 

November Challenge: Day 4

Today's Spending was alright, not too bad and I got a great deal on Scrubbing Bubbles, thanks to stacking coupons at London Drugs again, very happy that I only paid the taxes.

$2.85 Scrubbing Bubbles Daily Shower Power Sprayer
$5.00 Burger King (Me)
$2.50 Skytrain 
$2.50 Pizza (Husband)

Recipe: Apple Cranberry Crumb Pie

Ingredients

Topping

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Filling

• 3 large Granny Smith apples (or simular), peeled, cored, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
• 2 cups whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 3/4 cup sugar
• *For the bottom part of the pie I purchased 9-inch deep-dish frozen pie shell.*

Directions

For filling stir together apples, cranberry sauce, and sugar and pour into pie shell. 

For the topping mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until all ingredients become crumbly and sprinkle on top of filling. Bake @ 400 F for about 40 minutes or until filling starts bubbling up to the top. 

Enjoy!

November Challenge: Day 3

Today's expenses are as follows:

$10.95 Bank Fees
$8.00 Chicken and Beef
$12.90 Fruit and Veg
$5.79 1L Olive Oil
$2.95 Scrubbing Bubbles Daily Shower Power Sprayer 



My husband did the shopping today, he did well but I would have skipped the meat because we have some in the freezer already. If it were me shopping I probably would have replaced the meat with clearance Halloween candy, so I guess in the end he did better than I would have. The one thing that needs to change here is the bank fee, it seems way too high, this fee is the same every month, I don't even know the amount of transactions we are allowed every month at this rate but I'm thinking we do about 10 withdrawals or transfers a month and that includes writing cheques. One more thing I have to mention is that the Scrubbing Bubbles cleaner was bought at London Drugs and was on sale for $7.99, I was able to use $6.00 in coupons and then the rest was tax. This purchase honestly was not a need but a want, it also comes with two AA batteries so that is my justification and I'm sticking to it.

November Challenge: Day 2

Today I had only one thing in mind when it came to spending money, and that was discount candy and chocolate. Shoppers Drug Mart has 50% off all their Halloween candy while London Drugs has at least 50% off, but their selection is a little slim, at least it was at my London Drugs. Today's total spending was solely on chocolate and candy which came to $22.46.

These should last until boxing day when I plan on buying even more 50% off holiday candy. Yumm. 

November Challenge: Spend Only $2300 on Everything!

Today marks the first day of my spend only $2300 on everything challenge. This month I've challenged my family to only spend $2300 on everything we need including rent, heat/hydro, gas, food, phone...well you get the idea, $2300 on everything.

I just started keeping track of our expenses this September so I only have two months of totals, but it gives a general idea of how we spend our money. For the month of September our total spent was $4168.27, $388.33 was on groceries, $177.43 was on takeout and $266.70 was on gas. As for October we spent $3119.64, $459.09 was on groceries, $170.98 was on takeout and $170.04 was on gas. As you can guess spending only $2300 is a lofty goal for our family of four, especially considering our rent is $1100, but as you can see we are up to the challenge.

Spending Day 1:
$1100.00 - Rent
$30.00 - Gas
$8.08 -4L Milk and a dozen eggs
$3.98 - Two boxes of cookies

Brandsampler Freebies

I love brandsampler, I was really hoping there would be crest white strips in this brandsampler, but sadly not. C'est la vie, I still love getting things for free. Here's what I got in my brandsampler, what did you get in yours?

London Drugs Shopping

London Drugs is the only store in Canada where you can stack coupons, meaning you can use more than one coupon per product purchased. There has been some new fine print on some coupons lately that does not allow this coupon stacking, particularly many of the P&G Brandsaver coupons. It may be a little more difficult to get things for just the taxes, but it's still possible to get some great deals.

2 x Charmin toilet paper 2/$10 - $8 in coupons = $2.00
2 x Old Spice body wash $5.98 - $5.98 in coupons = FREE
1 x Iams cat food $9.98 - $9.00 in coupons = .98

Total paid including taxes was $6.03

Old Navy Clearance Section Deals

Old Navy is having a great sale right now where they are adding 50% off all clearance merchandise. If you decide to shop this sale, just a heads up you can combine it with the 25% off coupon that you can find here, just to let you know though tomorrow is the last day you can use it and since I don't have any readers right now, I might just be talking to myself :P. Here's my deals:

I bought four shirts for my daughters, a pair of pants for my husband and a skirt for myself. With the sale and the coupon I spent only $19.94 including HST. It's hard to believe that the original price for everything added up to over $130, boggles the mind honestly.

How Do You Save and Spend?

Most of us never think about how we spend our money until financial situations change and force us to start thinking about these things. Saving money has always been something I've tried doing, even when my husband was out of work for six months and my pitiful job at Starbucks was the only source of income, I still tried to save money, but sometimes it was just in vain. We were struggling financially on and off for the first two years of our marriage  and at that time I had no clue about coupons and my only way of actively getting a good deal was to go to the dollar store for toiletries, take home food from work that would have gone in the bin anyways and have one bus pass for both my husband and myself. I couldn't imagine what life would have been like had we had kids, those were hard times, some interesting memories, but not ones that babies and kids should have to go through. Since we had our first daughter in 2008 we've been using coupons, using double or triple coupons on one product at London Drugs (the only place you can "coupon stack" in Canada), shopping the sales, somewhat maintaining a small stockpile, heading to the clearance sections first, shopping out of season, and saving for yearly cheap vacations 10 -12 months in advance.

As cheap as our family has been and as money conscientious as we are, we have never budgeted. When we save for a vacation for example, we use the money we've saved, but we don't just count on that money alone, we add to it if need be, and there has always been a need. When it comes to food, again we don't budget. Instead, we rely on sales, coupons and the 50% off clearance section for some things, I have to stress the word some. I have a page called challenges up top and for the month of November I'm challenging my family to only spend $2300 on everything including rent, bills, food.....everything. If you think you can do it, I challenge you too.