Hello! I've been an admirer of the site for a long time!

[mrsmac]

Hello!

I've been an admirer of the site for some time now. I have couponed on and off for about 2 years. I got a job with more hours over the last year and haven't had the same amount of time to focus on couponing. We bought a house 2 months ago and now it seems like all these extra payments that we weren't expecting to happen for a while, have now happened. So that has put an extra crunch on us. My fiancé is getting a 3rd job to help us catch up and I am trying to do everything I can at home to save us money, hence my return to couponing. I am looking forward to getting so extra support for my couponing! Any tips or advice that anyone could give me would be great!

[walkonby]

welcome back to the world of potential savings mrsmac. I say first of all if you have not done it, sign up for all the coupon sites,
( save.ca, websaver, brandsaver, Gocoupons) Price match as much as you can, to save on gas and multiple trips. Those freebies you see members post on sc, they are " live " most times when people are at work, and I often miss out, but if you are near a computer and can get some free samples it helps a bit. ( can be time consuming, so decide if you have that time to spend online)
Being organized by planning your menus ( meals ) is truly the best way to save, because you shop with the list in hand and are not tempted to grab this and that. ( I do not always do that....bad walkonby! lol)

Best of luck!!

[mrsmac]

Thanks! I am on all those sites! Does go coupons still have coupons on it? I know I got quite a few yogurt coupons from there and I remember checking back one time and they didn't have much on there anymore.

Do you have any tips on Price Matching? I have only done it once for Kool-Aid Jammers and it took a long time. I did end up saving alot but is there something that you do to make the process go smoother?

[Shelley17]

Welcome Mrsmac!! I too checked out this website for a long time before I joined, don't know what took me so long LOL!!
I try to be organized at the checkout when price matching by grouping together all the items by flyer so the cashier looks at one flyer at a time.
When I am in line waiting to check out, as soon as people come behind me I politely tell them I have coupons and will be price matching so it might take a while. That way they have the choice to move to another line right away and don't grumble (which makes me rush and make mistakes or miss the cashier's mistakes).
I have learned from some SC'ers that they shop the same stores often so get to know which cashiers are good and calm with price matching, so they try to pick those ones. A cashier who feels uncertain or anxious about price matching often can be very slow or very negative, I don't want to feel happy about saving only to feel down about the checkout experience!
Last week I did my first price matching at Canadian Tire and learned they do this only at the Customer Service desk, not at the cashiers. It was a little slow as she had to make a pen and paper entry into a log book to track what was being price matched, but she was cheerful and was quick on the cash register. They give back Canadian Tire money for 10% of the difference between their price and the other store's price, that's why I did my matching there and not at Walmart.
I have a small dollarama notebook I bought and I track all my coupons, price matches and SCOP's in it (some SC'ers use spreadsheets, I am not that tekky yet LOL) so I can easily add up my savings as the year goes on. This encourages me to continue to coupon and price match.

Good luck with your saving and learning more about how to save more!
This site has saved me big bucks, and I pass on tips and coupons to coworkers who are now saving too. The ones who aren't using coupons are happy to pass on their SmartSource and Red Plum inserts to me on a regular basis, so it is win-win for me!

[tommygunn]

Welcome to the board!

[frankienitka]

Welcome.

You got great advise already. Mine would be to be on this site as much as you can. Go to all categories, brag, flyers , SDM and so on. This will let you know what deals are out there but also what you may have missed. Don't be afraid to ask a question, you'll find amazingly kind and patient people here. You'll learn tons, I sure did. Stockpile what you can but do not feel bad if your not getting as much as others may. They've been at it for years. And lastly, don't compare your savings to others, whatever you saved is more money in your pockets.

[lindsbeth112984]

Welcome!

[YOU AND ME]

Welcome mrsmac

[UCCMM]

Hi I'm from Edmonton!

[redhdlois]

Hello & welcome !!

My two cents!! I see that you are in Edmonton; so not sure if you are aware of coupon stacking or not.....but Save On Foods, Price Smart and London Drugs allow it (i.e. use of more than one (different) coupon per item).....which means you can get items for cheap or free.....it saves a lot of money.