New Year: New Resolutions?

 

I hadn't intended to make any New Year's Resolutions, but how can I resist?  The New Year always feels like the best time to take a challenge in hand and declare war.  According to a survey I found somewhere on the net (so it's completely scientific-y, by gosh!) here are the TOP TEN resolutions:

1. Stop smoking  

2. Get Fit 

3. Lose Weight

4. Enjoy Life More  

5. Quit Drinking  

6. Get Organized  

7. Learn Something New  

8. Get Out of Debt  

9. Spend more time with the Family  

10. Help Others

If you've learned anything about me....you know for sure I'm CHEAP!!!  Not thrifty, not frugal, just plain cheap.  Something I started a few months ago was to start using store coupons, and I'm always quite tickled when I get a particularly amazing bargain.  Of course, I limit my coupon use to items we actually USE in this house, and always try to maximize my savings by waiting until the items are on sale if possible. 

But, if you'll scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll see I've added a ticker to my blog, and challenged myself to use $1000 worth of coupons this year.  That's a pretty stiff challenge, but I'm going to include the redemption of Canadian Tire money and Shopper's Drug Mart Optimum points.

 

I also do my best to optimize my CT money and Optimum points by buying my gas at Canadian Tire, paying cash, and using a coupon to get bonus CT money (usually amounts to somewhere between $1.40 to $2.00 a week) and do my shopping a SDM on bonus points day.

So, how am I doing so far?  Well, you'll see I'm up to $12 and it's only the 2nd day of the year.  I went to SDM this morning, and collected 30,000 points (it's 20x the points day) and used $12 in coupons.  See, Kleenex products (click the link to learn everything you wanted to know about the history of Kleenex!) were 40% off, and I had a handful of Buy 2, save $1 coupons.  I used 9 of those coupons, buying 18 boxes of Kleenex tissue for $.99 each -- 18 boxes of tissue for $8.82. 

Where did I get the Kleenex coupons?  They were right on the shelf at the store!

Lever 2000 soap is usually priced at $5.69 for four 89g bars.  But this week, it's on sale for $1.69, and I had a $1 off coupon, so I bought three packages: $2.07 for 12 bars of name brand soap (roughly 17¢ a bar). The coupons were on the shelf in the store a few months back, and I helped myself to a few, and put them in my stash.

You'll have to forgive the length of this blog post, and that the following information is probably only going to be useful for Canadian readers.

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  SmartCanucks : I subscribe to this blog to learn about the best deals, and occasionally check out the forum to see what bargains other shoppers are getting, and find the links to PRINTABLE coupons.
  
  
  
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  Save.ca : Pick the coupons you want, and they will be mailed to you in a few days.
  
  
  
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  GoCoupons.ca : Pick the coupons you want, and they will be mailed to you in a few days.