Save Money Grocery Shopping - Before Shopping, While Shopping and After Shopping

Before Shopping

1. Check your cupboards, fridge, freezer and pantry to verify what you already have. Avoid spending money now on things you don't need right now.
2. Look at the grocery store flyers for the store(s) you shop at.
3. Write a list ~ avoid impulsive buying. Take it with you while you shop and stick to it!
4. Bring your reusable grocery bags. Save $0.05 from each bag at GTA retailers plus some point programs will give you bonus points for using the eco-bag.
5. Have a bite to eat, it really is harder on your wallet if you're hungry while shopping.
6. Prepare your menu for the entire week using what you already have, and what's on sale in the flyer.
7. If you can grow it or make it yourself, you are bound to save money,
8. Make a price book for the items you regularly shop for. You can record the prices in an address book, spiral notebook, on index cards, a daytimer or whatever suits your preference. This is a powerful resource for shoppers to determine if an advertised special is truly a good deal or not.
9. Shop for items before they run out and buy when they are on special. If you wait until you are completely out, you must pay whatever price the stores are charging.
10. Avoid trips to the corner shops and convenience stores. They will quickly burn a hole in your pocket.
11. Early morning shoppers can often take advantage of price mark downs on bakery items, fruits and vegetables.

While Shopping

1. Take out your grocery list and stick to it!
2. Most bargains can be found on the higher and lower grocery shelves. The more expensive brands are usually stores at eye level in order to get your attention.
3. Stock up during sales! If you can afford to, you should stock up on non-perishable items and freezable items to save money overall.
4. Keep your eyes peeled for unadvertised specials.
5. Take coupons from displays if you are purchasing the products.
6. Try generic brands instead of name brands. Many are comparable to the brand names and most offer refund if not satisfied.
7. Check the reduced merchandise and day old breads for more savings.
8. If an advertised special is not available, ask for a rain check so you can still buy it at the advertised price when restocked. These usually expire in 2-4 weeks; be sure to check the expiry date.
9. Alternative protein sources, if you want to save money in the meat department are: cheese, poultry, eggs, peanut butter, dried peas, beans, and lentils.
10. Always check expiry dates on foods, especially dairy and meats.
11. Use store specific savings cards and/or reward cards.
12. Use free product coupons and cents off coupons to lower your bill.

After Shopping

1. If a product is spoiled or you forgot to check the expiry date, return it for a refund.
2. Check out the store flyer's and plan to shop where you will save the most money. Refer to your price book as a guide.
3. Mail off rebates for products purchased and get some of your money back!
4. Shop at bakery outlets and freeze the bread and buns you buy. They are usually cheaper than the supermarket plus breads are able to freeze and thaw well.
5. Learn the sales cycles of the stores you shop at.
6. Start a shopping pool with your family and neighbours for basic necessity items that are on sale. Whenever someone in the pool goes to a sale, they buy for the others in the pool. (Of course everybody in the shopping pool has to pay for their own items).

Find more valuable tips at the Source of information.

Canadian Birthday Freebies and Savings

Celebrating your birthday?

Well, make sure that you check out the great deals and freebies that are offered to Canadians celebrating their birthday! Some discounts are specific to your birthday, while others allow redemption in your birthday week or birthday month.

View a wide array of Canadian Birthday Freebies and Savings at the Freebies Deals And Rewards forums!

There's lots of FREE food and drink offers as well as many discounted meals deals! Celebrate on your own or with your friends, there's freebies and discounts for both.

If you sign up at your favourite stores, many offer gift cards and valuable birthday savings too! I wonder how many freebies a birthday girl or boy could rack up for their special day?

Some HOT offers include:

FREE bagels on your birthday at What a Bagel
Free Coldstone Creamery Ice Cream On Your Birthday!
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory free birthday chocolate bar
One FREE round of golf for your birthday
Free Drink at Starbucks on your Birthday
FREE burger on your birthday at Red Robin

The above is just a snippet of what you can get for FREE. Have a look in the Birthday Freebies forum for more GREAT birthday offers!

We hope that you have a HAPPY BIRHDAY and get lots of freebies and savings for your SPECIAL DAY!

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Live Debt Free and Save Your Money

There are so many ways to live a frugal lifestyle, stay debt free and save money along the way. Our members have been sharing tips at our forums, that they live by to help them achieve their financial saving goals.

Here's a compiled list of suggestions to live debt free and save your money:

- use rewards credit cards for purchases and pay the card balance off immediately
- use natural homemade cleaning products
- save a percentage of your daily cash allowance for future endeavours
- budget and track your spending, learn where you spend excessively and make necessary changes
- buy only things you need, forget about the luxury "want" items
- refill your printer ink cartridges rather than buying new
- car pool to work or take the bus, get rid of your car (may not be possible for rural residents)
- use free long distance services which may have a short ad to listen to prior to call routing
- send e-cards rather than sending paper cards
- collect cans and bottles with refunds and make 1 or 2 trips to refund each year (or as necessary)


There's also a 7 Baby Steps Program to Being Debt Free that was found on Dave Ramsey's site:

Baby Step 1 - Build an emergency fund starting with just $1000. This is for those unexpected events in life that you can’t plan for: the loss of a job, an unexpected pregnancy, a faulty car transmission, and the list goes on and on. It’s not a matter of if these events will happen; it’s simply a matter of when they will happen. 

Baby Step 2 - Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball. List your debts, excluding the house, in order. The smallest balance should be your number one priority. Don’t worry about interest rates unless two debts have similar payoffs. If that’s the case, then list the higher interest rate debt first.

Baby Step 3 - Build up 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings. Once you've completed the first two baby steps, you will have built serious momentum. But don’t start throwing all your “extra” money into investments quite yet. It’s time to build your full emergency fund.

Baby Step 4 - Invest 15% of household income into Retirement Savings. When you reach this step, you’ll have no payments—except the house—and a fully funded emergency fund. Now it’s time to get serious about building wealth.

Baby Step 5 - Saving for children's college or university education. By this point, you should have already started Baby Step 4—investing 15% of your income—before saving for college. Whether you are saving for you or your child to go to college, you need to start now.

Baby Step 6 - Pay off your home early. Now it’s time to begin paying down all of your extra money toward the mortgage. You are getting closer to realizing the dream of a life with no house payments.

Baby Step 7 - Build wealth and give! Leave an inheritance for future generations, and bless others now with your excess. It's really the only way to live!  

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Are you paying too much? Do you know about the Scanner Price Accuracy Voluntary Code -- Code of practice?

Are you aware of the Scanning Code of Practice for Scanner Price Accuracy? If you don't know about this, then you may be paying too much for some of your store purchases.

Key Features of the Code

The Item Free Scanner Policy – The Retailers’ Promise of Price Accuracy.

If the scanned price of a non-price ticketed item is higher than the shelf price or any other displayed price, the customer is entitled to receive the item free, up to a $10 maximum. When the item has a price tagged, the lowest price applies. When identical items are incorrectly priced, the second one will be sold at the correct price.

What does the Code cover?

The Code covers all scanned merchandise at participating retail outlets where this sign is displayed at the store entrance or checkout.

Scanning Code of Practice

If the scanned price of a non-price item is higher than the shelf price or any other displayed price, the customer is entitled to receive the first item free, up to a $10 maximum. If a Code of Practice problem cannot be resolved at the store level, please call 1-866-499-4599 to register your complaint.

What is a non-price ticketed item?

A non-price ticketed item is any bar coded merchandise that does not have a price affixed to the merchandise.

What happens if two or more identical non-price ticketed items are incorrectly scanned?

Customers are entitled to the first item free (up to a maximum of $10) and the subsequent item(s) at the correct price.

How can I claim my refund?

Cashiers are authorized to implement the Item Free Scanner Policy.
If you are not satisfied with the cashier’s decision, you may speak to the store manager or supervisor.
If you are still dissatisfied with the outcome, you may register a complaint with the Scanner Price Accuracy Committee, by calling 1-866-499-4599 (toll free).
Your complaints and concerns will be addressed with the retailer, and you will be notified of the outcome.

Where can I get more information about the Code?

You may obtain a copy of the Code from the Competition Bureau’s web site at http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/.

You may also visit the web sites of the participating retail associations at:

• Retail Council of Canada
  http://www.retailcouncil.org/
• Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores
  http://www.cacds.com/
• Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers
  http://www.cfig.ca/
• Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors
  http://www.ccgd.ca/

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Save Money While Shopping

Saving money while shopping is becoming a wider utilized trend. It's not a bad thing to try and save a buck these days. A person's pride is getting in the way less and less when it comes to using money saving techniques.

There are many ways to reduce the prices you pay for goods and services. Here's some suggestions that we found at our forum:

• price match and/or ad match 
• use coupons
• mail in rebates
• use reward cards
• join store mailing lists for promotions
• shop off season and stock up
• ask for a discount on last item floor displays
• student discounts
• senior discounts
• group discounts
• barter prices (in market setting)
• watch out for clearance sales, manager specials and closing down sales
• shop in the discontinued merchandise
• check clearance bins
• ask for flaw discounts
• liquidation and close-out sales are a good way to save
• check listings on sites like Craigslist, Kijiji, etc
• attend auctions and estate sales 

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Canadians Never Pay Full Price For Your Purchases Again!!

NEVER pay FULL price again!! Here's 20 tips for saving on each purchase:1. Mom always said that it doesn't hurt to ask; so ask for a discount on the items you're purchasing. You can usually get a 10% discount at most places just by asking for it.

2. Join loyalty clubs for all of the stores you shop at. This will give you access to discounts, free offers, gifts and more.

3. Use COUPONS! You can get coupons for everything from clothing to fast food to fancy food to groceries to fuel to automotives, pharmacy products and virtually all other products in between. Join mailing lists either by mail or online for your favourite products to get possible savings. Check to see if the store offers stacking or doubling or coupons.

4. Shop at consignment shops, estate sales, yard sales, garage sales, online auctions like ebay, liquidation outlets and live auctions. It's essential that you know your pricing to make sure that you are in fact getting a savings!

5. Buy shelf models or floor models and ask for a "no box" discount or a "display" discount.

6. Watch for and ask for your senior discount, employee discount, affiliation discount, child or school-age discounts, military discounts, etc.

7. Join group buying sites which service the area where you live and work. Such as Groupon, Living Social, TeamBuy, Push A Deal, Project Pink and more.

8. Buy floor models and ask for knick and dent discounts. Often the store manager will offer from 10 to 20% discount off the displayed price.

9. Shop at the warehouse and outlet stores for your favourite retailers to save even more money. There are a range of factory outlets including clothing, food, toys, etc. In the Greater Toronto area, you can find Mattel Toys, Maple Lodge Farms, Mr. Christies, Molinaro's, Lindt and others.

10.  Always check the discount bins or clearance section in stores. Often the packages have been opened but everything is intact or it might be the end of the season and the stores need the room for the next big promotion; so you can usually get some terrific deals.

11.  Price matching or ad matching can reduce the amount you pay for an item too. Check if the stores you shop at offer such a policy and actively look for better prices to save more money.

12. Use a SPC card either the regular student or the VIP card to get discounts at many stores.

13. Take advantage of mail-in rebates. BUT, we would highly suggest that you do it IMMEDIATELY when you get home, so you don't forget. It's a good idea to keep a booklet of stamps at home for these types of offers.

14. If you live in Toronto, there's a discount card for GREEN shoppers! It's called Live Green Toronto.
Join the growing number of shoppers who choose to support green-committed businesses in Toronto. Show your card at participating businesses to receive special offers and discounts.

15. Join survey groups which pay in loyalty rewards. Harris Poll pays in Aeroplan Miles, Web Perspectives pays in Air Miles and Asking Canadians pays in HBC Reward Points. Once you accumulate enough ponts, you can cash out for gift cards, reducing the overall amount of money that you dish out of your pocket.

16. Look for discounted gift cards on www.cardswap.ca and save up to 40% on Canadian gift cards. Some offer smaller discounts but it's often enough savings to cover most of the taxes.

17. Shop at Thrift stores and second hand stores as well as consignment shop. There are many great deals for a fraction of the retail price of brand new merchandise.

18. Use free long distance services where you may just listen to an ad first to save money talking on the phone. There are several free apps to save money on your smartphone too!
19. Check out price comparison websites prior to shopping to find the cheapest prices at different retail stores.

20. Use a beauty school to have facials, manicures and pedicures. The cost is significantly less than going to a parlor. You could also check hairdressing schools for cheap haircuts, food preparation colleges for cheaper restaurant meals, massage therapy schools for discounted massages, dental schools for a student cleaning for less money and there may be others that haven't come to mind.

Creative Canadians are always coming up with new ways to get discounts on their purchases. If you have a tip that isn't here, we'd love to hear from you!

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