There were a lot of great deals this week and I managed to snag only a few but saved a lot in the process. Shoppers Drug Mart advertised the 473ml bottles of Listerine Whitening Mouthwash for $4.99 and right beside they had a coupon for $5 off the purchase price. While Shoppers does not allow overages on coupons, they reduced the purchase by $4.99 and I paid only $0.65 in taxes. As you can see from the photo below, I bought 2 bottles. However, it was limit 1 coupon per person, so I brought my spouse with me.

I price matched Arm & Hammer Baking Soda for $0.63 at Walmart using the Giant Tiger sales flyer. These are needed each month for the refrigerator and freezer to deodorize, so it's a good item to stock up on, a little bit anyways.

I also needed some shower cleaner, so I checked my coupon stash and found a BOGO for Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foamer. While the product was not on sale, 2 bottles for $3.89 was fairly reasonable.

There was one last price match at Walmart for Neilson Chocolate Milk at $3.99 for 4L. This was matched to Zehrs sales flyer ending today. The last 4L that I purchased was not on sale and I paid $7.99 without a coupon. That's a $4 savings to me and I think I did pretty good buying 2 x 4L bags. The expiry date is 2 weeks away, giving us plenty of time to drink 8L. (I don't personally do this, but some people freeze milk and chocolate milk when they find a good deal).

Join the Coupon Clipping in Canada Group on Facebook

This group covers couponing in Canada, where to find coupons, using coupons and so much more!

One the biggest ways to save aside being frugal and using coupons, is to take advantage of sales that happen at set times of the year. For example, this week has been Black Friday everywhere! The official day being tomorrow, November 25, 2011.

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Merchants offer big discounts to encourage customers to shop at their stores.

Then the grand finale to the US Thanksgiving shopping weekend is Cyber Monday where you can get huge discounts shopping online! The official day for 2011 is Monday, November 28th.

What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday immediately following Black Friday, created by companies to persuade people to shop online. Look for e-codes or coupon codes to discount your purchases. Some e-retailers will automatically apply the discount without needing a coupon code. Be certain to read the terms and conditions of the sales discounts.

Click Here to View Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals in Canada

Frugal Meal on A Budget for Less Than $4

It's been a little while since I last posted because I can't seem to stay motivated once the cold weather hits! My spouse suggested that I do some cooking (that's not my job usually, I'm more the desserts creator). Tonight I challenged myself to make a balanced meal for 2 for less than $5!

Since becoming a member of Freebies Deals And Rewards I have learned many tips and tricks to reduce my overall expenses and one that I will forever cherish is buying meat from my local butcher instead of the grocery store.

I spend an average of $1.50 per pound to $2 per pound for my meats which really helps stretch a buck! Today I thawed a single chicken breast portion to make a sitr fry dinner which was $1.65.

And I was a little strapped for time, so I used a frozen stir fry mix called Zen Garden by Europe's Best. The bag cost $2.99 after a coupon and I used 1/3 of the bag, making the cost roughly $1 for this meal.

 

I decided to make a side of long grain and wild rice blend as well. It is the Sensations brand found at Sobeys stores. The bag was $3.99 but there's a lot of servings in this bag. From past experience, we can get eight 2 person servings, which works out to $0.50 per 2 person meal!

 

I used some seasonings and spices such as curry, vegetable seasoning, salt, soya sauce and saffron, which works out to only pennies for the entire dish! The final meal cost me only $3.15 (plus the spices and drinks). We had Nestea Iced Tea from a canister of powder mix that I bought for $1.99 on sale with a coupon. Since we can get 104 glasses from a canister, it's only about $0.02 per glass. We each had a glass with dinner making the meal less than $3.25 all in all!

I could have made it slightly cheaper by visiting a local farmer's market and buying fresh vegetables, preparing them for stir frying and freezing them for when I wish to make a stir fried dinner. I'm so happy that I was able to beat my self-challenge of dinner for under $5 and you can too! And think, you could go eat at McDonald's for $17! No thank you!

For more meal ideas, visit the Cuisine Forum at Freebies Deals And Rewards.

Make Your Own Christmas Crackers and Save Money

Save money this year and make your own Christmas crackers. Stretch your dollar even further plus be kind to our environment and reuse the Christmas crackers year after year!

SUPPLIES:
Toilet rolls or paper towel rolls - cut to desired size
Scraps of Christmas fabric
1 1/2 to 2" spools of ribbon
1/4" spools of ribbon
Christmas Cracker Snaps
Tissue paper to make paper hats - if desired
Jokes or sayings for inside Christmas Cracker
Small chocolates
Small gifts or prizes

INSTRUCTIONS:
Cut pieces of fabric approximately 7" x 11" using pinking shears, if available. If you use bigger rolls for the base of your Christmas crackers, roll the tube in the fabric before cutting, gather up one end to determine approximately how much fabric should be left to wrap ribbon around it. For a tube that is 4" long, I have a 3 1/2" overlap at each end. You also need to allow about 1 1/2" of the circumference of the tube for over lapping. (if you have a sewing machine, you can do a narrow zigzag around the edges of the cut fabric)

Mark the centre of the tube and the centre of the fabric

Using your glue gun, run a bead of glue the length of your tube near your centre mark. Match up the centre of the fabric to the centre of the tube and press the fabric lengthwise into the bead of glue.

Roll the fabric around your tube and run another bead of glue on the tube and press the fabric into the glue so your tube is now completely wrapped in your Christmas fabric.

Take your wide ribbon, run a bead of glue at the end, centre it on the tube and press, bring the ribbon around, so it overlaps about 3/4". Cut and fold the raw edge under, run another bead of glue on the ribbon and place it carefully over where the ribbon started.

The length of thin ribbon you use to wrap the ends of your crackers, will depend on how big you want your bow to be. Before cutting off strips of ribbon, pull off about 2 feet so you have lots to work with (don't cut it) Now gather in one end of your Christmas cracker, wrap your ribbon around it, tie it and make a bow. When you are satisfied with how it looks and how much you want on the tails, mark it, then undo your bow so you can measure how much you used. You will now know how much to cut each ribbon, without wasting any. If you are going to reuse your Christmas crackers each year, you can put a small bit of glue in the centre of the ribbon, and glue it to the cracker where you will be gathering it in. That way you will always have the ribbons attached to the crackers.

While paper hats are always included in the Christmas crackers, I find most people don't wear them as they never fit and they are just added to the mounting pile of trash, therefore I don't bother with them. However if you do want to make them, take one sheet of tissue paper and fold length wise. Measure an adults head then divide by 2 and add about 1" so you can glue the edges together.

ie: if the head you measure was 24" you will need to cut your folded paper 13" (remember it's folded lengthwise)so you have 2 pieces that are each 13". Run a glue stick about 1/2" at each end of one sheet and stick them together. Draw 3 peaks in the folded edge, cut and you have your paper hat that should be 24".

What you decide to put into your Christmas crackers is up to you. I save chocolates from Halloween, but you could buy more expensive chocolates to use. Instead of the really cheap trinkets that are included in the store bought Christmas crackers, you could buy things to personalize them.

For young boys, you could use hotwheels. (These are often on sale) For girls, there are barretts, lip gloss, small gel pens. Often they have great stickers that are themed that both boys or girls would like. If someone collected angels, you may find a small angel that would be perfect or for someone who likes to sew, perhaps a fancy thimble. I don't think you can go wrong with Scratch tickets as everyone of all ages seems to like them.

If you have certain colours that you use in decorating your home, you could buy fabric for your Christmas crackers to complement your colour themes.

You could use the Christmas Cracker as the wrapping for a special gift for someone. Make a really fancy Christmas Cracker and it could hold a bracelet, necklace or watch for instance.

Of course you need to include a joke or inspirational saying. I used a search engine and typed in "Funny Christmas Riddles and Jokes" and found lots to choose from.
I have bought the Christmas Cracker Snaps at Michaels in the past, but you could also using search engine to see if you can find a distributor.

STORAGE:

If you plan on re-using your Christmas crackers, find a box that is big enough to store them in. I use discarded Christmas wrap, and stuff the tubes so they don't get flattened.

For more frugal Christmas decorating ideas, visit my Angel Decorations project and my Handmade Greeting Cards project.

Shopping Without Spending The Money!!

I like to shop online but I don't like to put out the cash to do it! Most of you would be thinking that I can't purchase then, right? Wrong! I shop without spending money out of my own pocket! How?

I participate in a number of online sites where I earn rewards and turn them into gift cards! Which ones pay me the most? Let's take a look:

1. Swagbucks - A search and win site to earn points and exchange them for prizes, I redeem for Amazon.ca or for PayPal. Either one feeds my desire to shop online. For more information, click here. If you haven't joined, click here to get started. My redemption table shows 61 prizes of $5 which is $325 for past 2 years which averages around $162 per year. Not bad for using a search engine. There are other ways to earn points too, but I only utilize searches, referrals and Swagcodes to earn my rewards.
2. Superpoints - A referral based point system which has been quite lucrative since my join date of May 2011. I've earned $100 in just 6 months of using Superpoints. They have a prize wheel, email points and surveys if you climb the membership ranks (by having friends join). I find the best way to get friends to join is to share my wins at Twitter and Facebook. Plus some forums allow you to put a referral link in your signature. This is how I found Superpoints. If you'd like an invitation to join, please leave a comment with your email if you wish, or you could leave a comment on FDR's Facebook page for an invite.
3. Web Perspectives - A survey site that pays various rewards including Chapters Indigo, PayPal, Cineplex and Air Miles Reward Miles (which can be redeemed for gift cards). The amount of money that I earn each year is roughly $100 dependng on the number of surveys I receive and qualify for. Click here to join Web Persepctives.
4. Asking Canadians - A site where you earn HBC Reward Points or Aeroplan Reward Miles for completing surveys. These reward points can be exchanged into gift cards for my shopping habit. This is the program which pays me the least but it's still worth the HBC Rewards that I get. I average around $40 each year that I've been a member. Join Asking Canadians today!

I've tried just about every site there is to check the validity and the earning potential. Many I opt out of after earning my first reward because there is too much time invested for such small payouts. This will vary from person to person due to differences in demographics. There are many more survey sites that pay well and can be viewed at FDR's Paid Survey's Forum. Plus there are other prizes sites that may be more successful for others, which can also be viewed at FDR's Prize Programs forum.

If you have any questions about these programs, leave me a comment and I'll reply back!

Angel Decorations Made Using Wall Paper

Completed angels: The first angel has wings that are pleated. The second angel has a heart for wings.

SUPPLIES:
BODY - Wall paper - 3" x 12"
WINGS - Wall Paper - 1- 4" x 8" strip for Heart Wings OR
1 strip - 4" x 6" for Pleated Wings
Pre-gathered lace - 4"
Ribbon - 2 - 12" thin pieces
Wooden Bead - 1 x 1" with flat bottom(for head)
Small amount of curly hair
4" strand of beads for Angel with pleated wings
Small piece of foiled covered wire for halo
Glue Gun
Fine Tipped Black Felt Pen (to make face)
Q-tip to apply blush to cheeks (optional)

To make an Angel with heart shaped wings, you will need to fold the 4" x 8" strip of wallpaper in half, so you have a 4" square. Glue it together and after it has dried cut a heart that measures approximately 4" across and 3 1/2" in depth.

Pleat the 3" x 12" piece of wallpaper so it has an accordion effect. Crease each pleat really well. The straight edge needs to be at the back at the beginning and end of pleating, so you may find you need to trim a piece off. You can either use white craft glue, placing a small amount on each side of the pleat, then secure with a Bulldog clip until it dries, or use a glue gun dabbing the folds front and back - secure for a couple of minutes until set. If you are using Pleated Wing, after pleating, you will need to use a small dab of glue in the centre of each pleat. Once dried the wings should fan out at each end.



If you are using the Heart for your wings, take the piece of gathered lace and glue around the top of the pleated wallpaper. Then using a glue gun, run a bead of hot glue down the centre of the heart and glue at the back of the pleated section as shown.

For Angel with pleated wings, using your glue gun, run a bead along to top of the pleated body and press the centre of the pleated wings into the glue.
For either Angel use your glue gun and glue the flat end of the wooden ball, then press it firm onto the centre of the Pleated wings as shown, or press it onto the gathered lace of the Angel with the heart wings.
Using your felt pen make a face on the angel, if desired. Take your q-tip, put some blush on the end then rub it in circles under the eye area, for highlighted cheeks. Take your curly hair twisting it tightly then put some glue on the underside and glue to the top of the wooden bead. Take a thin piece of ribbon or gold thread, knot it and glue into the centre of the hair area, so you will be able to hang your angel. With the piece of foil covered wire, make a loop and twist it to form a ring. Run a bead of glue on one edge of the ring and stick it on the hair to form a halo. Glue beads and/or ribbon under the Angel's head and you are finished.

TIP: I used fancy paper scissors to create a fancy edge at the bottom of my angels, before I pleated them.

These are simple and inexpensive decorations which can be assembled for pennies to use for the upcoming holiday season. They make great tree ornaments or they can even be used as package decorations! Check with your local wallpaper store to find discontinued wallpaper books that are given away for free! They are absolutely essential to making crafts for next to nothing! Happy crafting!