Free magazine subscriptions!

Catteli pasta is offering free magazine subscriptions when you supply 6 UPC codes for Catteli pasta products.  If you buy their pasta anyway, this is a great deal.  Your magazine choices include Style at Home, Elle, and Homemakers magazine.  The best part is that the magazines will likely arrive at your door encased in plastic and full of coupons.  There are lots of free coupons inside Homemakers magazine to begin with, so this is a great money making treat.

If you want to register, go to Catteli pasta’s website here and don’t forget to register for the free trip to Venice!

Be sure to use the pasta coupons that can be found on save.ca or in store.

Gail’s contest: update

Gail Vaz-Oxlade posted the results of her giveaway today .  Unfortunately, I didn’t win the planner, but I just want to thank everyone who voted for me.  I appreciate your votes and all the kind notes you left on Gail’s site.  You’re the best!

Follow up: Homemade Christmas gift

Since everyone was so helpful in providing suggestions on how to make homemade Christmas gifts, I thought I would follow up by revealing what I chose to make, and what I received.

I made my sister a magnetic meal planner.  It was laminated so that she could plan her meals for the week using a dry erase pen.  It also had a section titled “shopping list” so that she can record the groceries she needs to buy as the week goes on.

I also made a set of Archie Comic refrigerator magnets – and, unbelievably, she made me the same thing! (Must be a twin thing.)

I also gave my sister some instant homemade hot chocolate powder, the kind that was featured here.

My sister and I gave joined forces to make gifts for my parents. Collectively, we made candied peanuts, salty & sweet almonds, trail mix, muesli, mulling spices, infused tea and white & dark chocolate peppermint almond bark, among other things.

My sister gave me a set of homemade placemats.  Each one is a collage on poster-board and each one has its own theme – travel, nature, music and food.  She had them laminated to keep them clean.  She also made a set of map coasters.

My mom surprised me with a set of 9 homemade soups, each individually packaged in its own tupperware container.  Each soup was healthy and delicious, and extremely convenient. Even though we were busy packing after Christmas and had very little food in the fridge, we had something healthy to eat, and didn’t have to rely on fast food entirely. It was great!

I loved hearing about everyone’s homemade gifts – especially Catherine’s story which nearly brought tears to my eyes! 

Gone couponing

Where is your favourite place to shop? 

I am amazed in the difference in prices between stores.  In fact if you want to trim your food budget back, switching to low-budget stores like Food Basics and Price Chopper can make a big difference.

Of course, not everyone has access to their store of choice, depending where you live and whether or not you have access to a vehicle, but if you do have the option, I highly recommend shopping around.  Some of the more expensive stores like Loblaws feature a few excellent deals, but if you’re going to stray off your list or go for a big “stock up” then a cheaper store will be your best bet.

Yesterday we had an excellent shopping experience at Food Basics.  We filled our cart for $130 and got some great deals. I used the following coupons:

$2 off Kellogs cereal (used two of them) – on sale for $2.49 – final price $1.49 each

$1 off Sunlight concentrated liquid laundry detergent (32 loads) – on sale for $6.99 – final price $5.99 each

75¢ off High Liner fish fillets (Salmon was on sale for $3.99 but I bought Haddock at $4.99 – final price $4.24)

50¢ off Naturegg Omega 3 eggs

$1 off Pataks (used two of them)

$1 off Catelli whole wheat pasta (when you buy two)

$1 off Purina cat food

50¢ off Yves Ground Round

50¢ off Rosenberg blue cheese

40¢ off Carr’s crackers

50¢ off Source yogurt

Total coupon value: $12.15

The cashier did not mind all the coupons at all and was incredibly friendly, reminiscing about the time her husband was on worker’s comp and became a coupon expert himself.

There were tons of great coupons in the store and on the products themselves, so remember to keep an eye out for coupons at the store.  I found:

50¢ off Source yogurt

75¢ off select Kellogs cereals

50¢ off Motts Fruit sensations

$1 off Kleenex

$1 off Catteli whole wheat pasta (when you buy two)

$1 off Blue water fish (when you buy two)

50¢ off Yves Ground Round

$1 off Whole Grain Brown Minute Rice

75¢ off Lactancia margarine

I also got a bunch of coupons with my NaturaEggs:

$1 off Ocean Spray

$1 off Mazola no stick cooking spray

50¢ Astro Zero Yogurt

75¢ off Lactancia Olivina Margarine

$1 off Splenda

$1 off Maxwell House coffee

It also came with a free sample of Splenda

The Beatrice milk I bought came with coupons too – including two coupons for $1 off Beatrice milk, 2 $1 off coupons for Astro yogurt and $1 off Black Diamond shredded cheese and $1 off Smart Cheese strings.

The Dempsters bread we bought also came with a special offer: collect 10 UPCs and get a Hamilton Beach Sandwich Grill.

Have you been using coupons lately? Please share any great coupon findings!

PS: Question: I am considering adding a Grocery Round-Up feature where I compare prices in flyers and point out the best deals.  Anyone interested in this?

Garlic: a poor man’s wonderfood

Hi everyone! Sorry about the few and far between number of blog posts. We moved this weekend and are just getting settled in. Although life is far from routine yet, I am back in the saddle and ready to start my daily blogging.

I have a cold coming on so I thought today I would blog about a cheap way to prevent and battle the common cold: raw garlic.

Garlic is a great natural remedy and be consumed in the most delicious ways.

A few weeks ago, I was sadly reading a blog where the women chatted about chewing on a raw garlic clove in order to ward off their cold viruses.  Eating plain, raw garlic cloves? I can think of few things more repulsive than that.  Especially when the opportunities are endless when it comes to eating this little wonderfood raw.

Try adding it to guacamole – it’s a very cheap little dish to make, especially when avocados are in season – or add it to homemade hummus.  Hummus is a great snack to make; it’s dirt cheap, it lasts for a long time in the fridge, it’s very healthy, and it’s delicious. 

You can also add raw garlic to pasta.  During the stretch where tried to eat up the food in my fridge, freezer and pantry, I found it convenient to make a little homemade pasta sauce out of just olive oil, garlic and salt.  Of course, using up the leftover goat cheese made it an extra tasty dish.  You don’t even need a can of tomatoes.

Gail’s contest

Hi everyone! Gail’s got a contest on her site right now – the person to generate the most traffic to her site will win one of her Life Planners.

If I win, I will be giving the Life Planner away as a prize to a contest on my own site, so you will have another chance to win!

If you wish to vote for me, please vote for Saver Queen on Gail’s recent post here by posting a comment.  I need at least 20 to enter.

Thanks! Love ya!

A few deals to say “happy new year!”

We are only one day away from our move now.  Josh and I are both feeling excited but also sad to leave our pleasant home in the Beach. We are also pretty scared about all the changes that lay ahead.

However, I thought I’d post a few good deals and tips that have been assimilating in my mind during my relative hiatus from blogging:

- If you got a Starbucks gift card this holiday, be sure to hang on to it, even after you use it up.  Use the number on the card to get two hours of free wi-fi every day at Starbucks.

- Price Chopper had Ristorante and Casa di Mama frozen pizzas on for $2.77 this week; if you saved your $1.50/2 coupons from previous boxes, this works out to just $2.02 a pizza.  They also had some other great deals on, such as 1 litre containers of coffee cream for $1.99

- Loblaws had a sale this week on Entertaining Ritz crackers at 2 for $4 – but we had two coupons for $1 off each, making them only 99 cents!

- West Jet has sales on from Toronto to Orlando this month – from as low as $19 a trip.  I can’t wait to take a closer look at these, since my sister and I are planning a trip to DisneyWorld soon.

- I am excited to announce that Proctor and Gamble will be having it’s brandsaver coupons (over $90 in value) ready for order on January 17th. I can’t wait to request these coupons – they are the best!  Head to brandsaver.ca to order yours.

- Save.ca has some new coupons up, including $1 off Catelli whole grain pasta – this is a great one because they are often on sale for as low as $1.39, which means you can get this delicious and very healthy pasta at only 39 cents a box; there are also coupons for cereal, including $1.50 off All-Bran, $1 off Pampers wipes and Buy one Get one Free Olay Facial Cleanser. It’s a great time to stock up on new coupons – most of my coupons expired on December 31.

Hope you enjoy these deals!  Happy New Year everyone!