Deal or No Deal?

So I've been focusing a lot on budgeting lately.  I really really want us to get out of debt - I'm old and need to save for my retirement ya know?!

I've been watching Extreme Couponing lately.  Canada is awesome for all the obvious reasons, but I gotta say the States have us on this!  One woman went to Safeway and bought over $1800.00 worth of groceries, when all her coupons were applied she paid $103.00.  How is this possible?  Well, in the States they have "Double Coupon" days.  If you have a coupon for $2.00 off of something then you get $4.00 off.  Now here's the catch:  if the item only cost $3.00 to begin with you get it for free AND you get to take the leftover $1.00 and put it towards your bill!!  Unfortunately this just doesn't happen in Canada.  I don't know if it's against the law or retailers are just smarter here, either way it kinda sucks for us.

Well instead of being sad about it I decided to at least do what I can.  So I studied all the flyers for all the grocery stores in Airdrie and made columns in a notebook comparing the prices of all our usual staples.  I also checked the cost of items at Costco to see if buying the big bulk items is really worth it.  I ended up going to 3 stores to get our groceries this week, but I have to drive past all these places on a daily basis so the whole "you gotta take your gas into account" argument doesn't apply.

I figured I could share some of the deals I found on my hunt:

DEALS

Kinder Surprise Maxi $8.99 at NoFrills

NO DEAL: $10.00 at Shoppers!!  Don't fall for the convenience of a Shopper's on every corner!

DEAL

4L Purex laundry soap $6.97 at No Frills in this weeks flyer

*We couldn't find any HE bottles of this, so may not be a deal for you front-loaders.

NO DEAL: Sunlight laundry soap 4L on sale at SuperStore for $9.97

6 pack SpongeTowels (yes I know this is a 4 pack in the pic) for $6.97 at No Frills

NO DEAL: No Name brand paper-towels Phil bought last week.  The two-ply towels would come apart into two tiny one-ply towels when you ripped them off the roll.  The wouldn't soak up anything!  Sometimes paying more is worth it people!

Other Deals vs. No Deals

• 1 lb chocolate bunny: Wal-Mart $1.98 vs. No Frills $3.00
• grapes Superstore $1.27/lb vs. Wal-Mart $1.47/lb
• KD Wal-Mart $0.77 vs. No Frills $1.57
• Quaker Instant Oatmeal SuperStore $1.98 vs. Wal-Mart $2.47



AND THIS JUST IN:

Spend $250.00 at SuperStore and get a free turkey

*The above news flash provided by Mr. Cheap AKA Phil....