Bookmark These Websites!!!

Nothing helps a busy mom out like a list of time and money-saving websites! Here's a great one for planning your shopping trips -

www.smartcanucks.ca

On it, you can get a list of all the current flyers for all the grocery/department stores in your city, as well as links for free samples, and current coupons. The entire website is point and click, very easy to use, and some other benefits are -
- by checking all the flyers at once, you can find the best sale prices on products you need and plan to stop at multiple stores in the same area in one trip, saving you time and gas.
- if you can combine coupons you have with items already on sale in the flyer you can get them for dirt cheap or even free.
- there are forums to post in where you can get a heads up about the latest deals.

If you're a coupon user, another great website is -

www.save.ca

and

www.brandsaver.ca

You'll see these websites referenced frequently on smartcanucks.ca. Just check off the coupons you want, enter your address, and they'll be mailed to you within a week!

Just today I used the coupons for Gillette Satin Care and Gillette Series shave gel. My local Wal-Mart had them on sale for $1.96, so combined with $1 off coupons I got them for .96¢ each. Zellers advertised Charmin (30 'big' rolls = 45 regular rolls) for $8.97, which works out to be even cheaper than the store brand I usually buy, plus I had an extra .50¢ off coupon for extra savings. They also had super-great but usually super-pricy Bounty Paper Towels (12 pack) on for $9.97 in the flyer, combined with another .50¢ off coupon.

***Of course, it's hardly a Recessionista skill to buy something (especially a pricy name-brand product) just because it's on sale or because you have a coupon. But, if it's a product your family uses anyway, it doesn't hurt to have the coupons on hand for if it goes on for a good sale price.

Typically the prices for store-brand products (No Name/Presidents Choice products at No Frills/Independent Grocer or Great Value/Equate Products at Wal-Mart, for example) are cheaper than the prices for name-brand products, but watch the flyers and compare your prices! Some sale prices for name-brand products are better than the regular price for store-brand products, even if it isn't advertised in the flyer. And if you can find it on clearance, even better! My local Wal-Mart has apparently stopped carrying Anti-Dandruff Herbal Essences, so it was on for $1 and I just happened to have a .50¢ off coupon for any Herbal Essences product.