Love a good deal.........

I popped to the garden centre on Friday, as I knew they were having an end of season sale.  I picked up this puzzle at 50% off. 

I am struggling to read the signs on my cross stitch pattern, so I picked up this magnifying glass to see if that will help.

I bought three stems of these jingle bells before Christmas and I loved them on my tree.  So I picked up another 10 stems at 50% off

Now as an added bonus I have some garden centre points I had forgotten about, and so I got an added discount when I cashed in my points.  

I just read this book, got it at the auction house for $1,  It was really good and well worth reading.  You can read a preview here.

It was a good shopping trip!

All it cost out of pocket was $1.93

Like everyone I love a good deal  Puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day.  On Friday I popped to our local Zehrs grocery store.  I find grocery shopping a chore, as every week the prices just increase.  I had a deal where if I spent $75 I got back 7,500 points which is worth $7.50.  I thought I would take a look at the store and see if I could find some deals.  I struck the mother load of deals in my humble opinion!!

I ended up spending $81.93, but after I cashed in $80 worth of points, I paid $1.93 out of pocket.  There was a pile of meat reduced.  Got a chicken pot pie 50% off and some English muffins and hot dog buns also 50% off

I got 1,800 points when I spent a certain amount on margarine, so stocked up on Becel, which was on sale.

Eggs were on sale for $2.99 per dozen, best price I have seen in a while.

I like to have a couple of cans of tomato and mushroom soup in the pantry to add into recipes.  Had no rice, so bought a package which will last us a few months.

I ended up cashing in 80k in points, but received 10,100 points from shopping today.

Everything I bought was things we needed.

I ended up with 5 meals of sausages, 2 meals worth of ground beef.  One meal of chicken and two meals with the chicken pot pie.

Zehrs is an expensive store normally, but I did super good this shopping trip.  We'll be eating the chicken pie over the weekend, with salad and potato salad that needs using up.

Do you enjoy grocery shopping?

Deal!

I need glasses for reading and the computer etc.  I can see perfectly fine long distance.  However I am fed up with taking them on and off constantly while I am out.  Plus I need sunglasses all through the year whenever the sun is shining.

So I had my eye's tested last week and decided to get glasses with progressive lens and transistion lenses so that I will wear them all the time.  I go to the optical store in our grocery store that is a store where you earn Presidents Choice (PC) Points.  They are a Canadian thing and you can cash in your points for products.

When I went, there was a buy one pair of glasses get one free.  So I ordered two pairs.  One which is the exact same as my old pair, the other pair is what I thought was black but could be a very dark blue?

So each pair of glasses were $559 a pair; but I got one pair for free.

Now that in itself is a good deal, but they also had a special on for every $100 spent I got 40k in points.  So I ended up getting a total of 245k in points which is worth $245 of free product.  

One place I can spend them is at Shopper's Drug Mart.  This past weekend they had bonus redemption of points and my 200k in points would have been worth $300 in free products.  I didn't cash them, as there was nothing I really needed, though did think about getting the Google Video Door Bell which I would have got for free with the points.

It was the luck of the draw that I got all these things as it wasn't planned.  I had booked my eye exam last November, and January was the earliest I could get in.  So I was super pleased with this.

I plan on donating my old glasses to a charity.

Oh I got myself a new glasses case while in the UK.  It's a Hannah Dale, Wrendale design.  I love her work.

Made out like a bandit..........

I have discovered a new to me fabric store.  It's called Hummingbird Sewing in Barrie, Ontario.  To save me travelling to drop off my quilt, when I wanted it sewn, Rose uses this store as a drop off and pick up point.  I signed up for their newsletter and emails, and got an email to let me know that on Wednesday they had a couple of special deals.  The zippers were buy one get one free and ten packages of buttons for $10.  There wasn't a great selection of zippers, but did pick up four for the price of two for my stash and get ten packages of buttons, as they are always handy to have on hand.

This is what I go for $10:

I was so pleased with what I chose, as they will be good for both knitting and sewing.  Not sure if you can see the prices, but the package with three buttons on them is normally $7 each package.  They are so pretty.  Not sure what I'll do with the spiders, probably something Halloween themed!

I had to go to Barrie for a couple of other things, so it was worthwhile me stopping by to pick these up.

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends south of the border, hope you have a lovely day!

Haven't done a grocery shopping post in ages...

so took photos etc., of this week's for you.

First up Zehrs:

4 litres 1% milk: $3.97
3 x 2 litres icecream @ 99 cents each, a one day special
2 x Astro yogurt @ $1.99 each
Huge bag of frozen peas (can't remember size) $4.49

Total: $15.41

Then onto Giant Tiger:

2 x Parchment Paper @ $1.98 each
3 x 72 bags PG Tips Tea @ $2.00 each (SUPER PRICE!!)

Total after taxes etc: $10.45

Sobey's next:

Cereal: $3.00
Just over 2 pounds ground/minced beef:  $8.18
2 cauliflowers and 1 bunch broccoli 3 for $5.00 (actually charged $5.01) ANOTHER GREAT DEAL

Total: $16.19

Finally Wal-Mart

Highliner Salmon: $7.97 (price matched with No Frills)

1 lb Strawberries: $1.47 (price matched with No Frills)

Package coleslaw mix: $1.47

Bunch green/salad onions: 67 cents

1 x potato chips (crisps): 97 cents

1 x loaf bread: $2.28

1 x wholewheat baguette: $1.17

Total including 13 cents tax on potato chips: $16.13

Total spent: $58.20

As Canada does not have pennies in their currency we round up or down, so that's why when you add the four totals up it comes to $58.18, but I ended up paying $58.20.

So far this month I have spent $186.60, with only $3.25 in coupons used.  I don't count price matching as then it gets too complicated and too much work for me!!

As you can see there are no cleaning, paper or personal hygiene items in this week's shop.  I will probably pick up a couple of other items through the week, for example eggs, but otherwise that should be it.

I did discover a couple of things while out.  As the price of beef is high I see they have brought out a ground beef/pork mixture now.  Still pricey if you ask me.  Some bags of milk come in 3 litre bags instead of the 4 litre; very sneaky!!  I see big bars of cheese that used to be 500 grams is now down to 450 grams.

I was out an hour and a half in total.  I did a round trip visiting all those stores.  I could have tried price matching everything at Wal-Mart but I find they pull items off the shelves that are on sale at other stores at much cheaper prices.

I had a bunch of broccoli left over from last week, so I baked a broccoli and cheese quiche in the toaster oven.  We had half of it with garden salad and french bread for supper:

I was talking to a friend and she told me about a yummy sounding broccoli and cauliflower salad that I may have to try.

Any good deals this week where you live?

Oh and I finally got around to cleaning out my coupon wallet, I really need to knuckle down using coupons.

Happy New Year - Welcome to 2012

Although the time this post was posted at 1am today, I wasn't up, I haven't seen a New Year in, in years now.

So on Friday I had to go into the city for an appointment and figured I would do some running around while there.  Dragged dh with me as he took Friday off.

One of the places I wanted to go was Sears.  I hadn't been in there in ages and it looked as though a tornado had blown through it, with empty shelves, things laying all over the place.  There had been a lot of good deals on earlier in the week so a staff member told me.

Anyhow I had a list of things I wanted to buy so off we went around the store.  I ended up with a new pillow and pillow case protector for dh.  Four pair of underwear for dh, 4 pairs of socks for me, a top for me and a three piece baby outfit and a one piece baby outfit (friend had a baby girl, Avery Elizabeth, super cute name I think) and including taxes I paid $115.47 for all of that.  I also had a coupon for $25 worth of Sears points when I spent $100.  The good news was we were given $100 in cash for Christmas, so all in all it technically only cost us just over $15 out of pocket.  I worked out that if I had paid full price for everything it would have cost us $197.21 (taxes included)

I bought a stainless steel kettle so I can heat water on top of the wood stove, should have been $30 I paid $19.99 plus taxes.  We had lunch out and paid for that with what was left on a gift card, plus gave the server $2 cash as part of her tip (the rest came off the gift card).  Filled in a survey online from the receipt from the restaurant and got a code for a free appetizer on our next visit, which happened to be last night.

Went to Shopper's to participate in the 20 x the points event (all recorded in my side bar) and ended up spending $51.98 after coupons and taxes.  Only used $4.00 in coupons, but better than nothing.  Stocked up on facial tissue (Kleenex), shampoo and conditioner for me and just general stuff.  Best deal a tube of toothpaste for 38 cents after the coupon.  By the way I bought a $50 gift card so I could get an extra 500 points.

Then popped into Zehrs and spent $28.34 and used $2.25 in coupons and saved $2.60 in store savings.  Although I haven't officially started my only spending $75 a week, I had hoped to do it this week.  Only I went over when I bought 8 long bread rolls for the price of 4, it wasn't on my list!!!  So all in all this week I spent $80.32 which is $5.32 over my ideal budget.  I used $6.25 in coupons.

I also went through my coupon binder last night and got rid of all the 2011 coupons, so no confusion when I go shopping next!!!

Good Deal, allergies and other bits and bobs

There is a good deal going on at Sobey's (Ontario, not sure about the rest of the provinces?) when you buy $20 of the following products, you can send in for a $20 Sobey's gift card, page 9 from the flyer.

valid with purchase of any combination of the following participating products in one transaction for a total of $20 or more (before taxes) at participating Sobeys stores: Gatorade Perform® and G2 Perform™ Beverages, all Aquafina® bottled water and Aquafina Plus+ Vitamins™ vitamin enhanced waters*, Lipton® Iced Tea (excluding Brisk®) 12 x 355 mL and Dole Sparklers® 12 x 355 mL beverages. Participating products must be purchased between July 29th, 2011 and August 11th, 2011 and must be purchased in the same transaction to be eligible for the Gift Card offer.

I also took part in the Shopper's Drug Mart promotion on Saturday, when you spend $75 you got a $20 Petro Canada Gas Card.  That paid for half of filling my gas tanks for the lawn tractor.

On Sunday I got a lot of the grass cut.  Still have around a third of the field to do, hoping to get that done tonight.  However when I got back in around 8pm, I was ready to pull off my nose, so popped a couple Benadryll pills.  For those of you with allergies, should I continue with the pills until I stop cutting the grass, or should I just take them after I come in from cutting the grass.  I feel fine this morning, just tired, as the Benadryll makes me tired.

We were also hanging drywall (plasterboard) yesterday so that too was a dusty job, so maybe that contributed as well?

Got company coming for lunch today, so need to get going as I have a few things to prepare.  Nothing exciting, just a quiche, some scones, some muffins and a raspberry sour cream pie for dessert from this recipe.

Another tiring day............

on Friday.  I didn't do an awful lot but it tired me out again.  I have however made an appointment for the doctors for next Thursday as I am still coughing up a storm and I think that's what is tiring me out.

I did get the second coat of paint on the attic and it looks fine.  We have friends coming over for lunch today.  After they leave I want to pop to the paint store to buy paint for the attic walls so I can get on with that next.  Rona has a promo on that you get a gift card back for spending so much, so may as well take advantage of that.

Went into town to do grocery shopping.  If anyone shops at Loblaws or Supercentre or that chain of stores, they have a great promotion on where you buy $20 of Pepsi/Quaker/Tropicana products until May 19th and you can get $30 in PC gift cards back.  The $20 worth of purchases have to be on the one receipt, and the mail in form is in the store.  As we drink Tropicana juice and eat Quaker granola bars and cereal, this was an easy on for me.

I see the price of gas has dropped I got it for $1.319 a litre at the Canadian Tire gas bar; still cost me $60 to fill the car.  I use well over half a tank of gas going back and forward to work each week.

Got a busy couple of days ahead of me, so might not be around much.

Enjoy your weekend everyone...........

Some good deals.......

I had to go to Barrie on Friday as I sold the range hood/extractor fan that I had listed on Kijiji, no interest in my lights though :o( .  The woman that bought it lived in Orillia so I agreed to meet her half way in Barrie, as I had a couple of errands to run there.  Anyhow, very pleased got $25 for it which paid half of what it cost to fill my car with gas :o( 

I called in a the dreaded Wal-Mart while I was there as I had to get a new hairdryer, as mine went pop and sparks flew.  Turned out the wire broke and as I didn't want a perm decided to throw it out.  Paid a whopping $14 for a new one, as with the amount of hair I have it takes all of five minutes to dry. For those near the dreaded Wal-Mart they have all the Swiffer products on sale at a great price........

Called in at Michaels as dd wanted some more glass votive holders for the centre pieces for the wedding and had cleaned out her store.  Can't say anymore.......did use a 25% off coupon so saved a little money there.

On the way home I called in at Zehrs and I got some great deals.  How much do you think I paid for that little lot below?

Well if you guessed $38.08, then you are a mind reader and can you tell me the winning numbers of the lottery as well!!!!

I picked up:

1 x tub icecream $3.99
1 x 8 pack cheese strings $2.99, dh loves them
2 x cans peas @ 84 cents each
2 x chips/crisps, both dh and Molly love those......don't ask.....it's not me that feeds her them!
Deli meat for dh's sandwiches for a total of $5.35, luckily for me dh loves the cheap meat!!
1 x 8 pack hamburger buns $1.99
1 x loaf bread $1.99
1 x margarine $1.99
3 x Hair Dye @ $2.94 each, yes I am back to bloody well dying my hair again!  It was "suggested/mentioned" that maybe I should dye my hair for the wedding.......enough said
1 x 4 pack Olay soap $4.64
2 x 2 pack Olay soap @ $2.34 each
1 x fully cooked chicken @ $6.99 - 50% = $3.49 can't beat that price.
4 x Old Spice body wash @ $2.34 - 50% = $1.17 - $1.00 coupon = 17 cents

I had a pile of coupons which meant the hair dye came out to around $1.00 a box, and the 8 bars of soap cost around $3 for all 8 bars I think.  Couldn't get over the body wash price though, and am going to put it in ds birthday bag, along with the other body wash and deodarant I got him!!!  Don't worry his main gift is money.  However I did get him a gift certificate for two hours of bowling for 4 people through Wag-Jag and paid only $14 for that for him.

I have put the Wag-Jag link on the bottom of the blog as I have to say that there are some great deals on there, and for a lot of good things. 

Busy night at The Acreage - bit of a funny story coming up!!

What next you ask!!!  So on Sunday night we go to bed.........don't worry its not an x-rated tale!!!  Just as we're falling asleep, Molly starts to growl and bark; frightening the living daylights out of us.  Anyway we settle her down and have no idea what was wrong as we couldn't hear anything.

Dh gets up at 12.45am to go to the bathroom, and Molly bounds out of her bed all ready to go.  So I figure she must want out for a pee.  She goes downstairs and stops half way down and is really interested in something on the stairs.  She is poking at it and shaking her head.  I peek over the stairs to see what she was doing and it was a BAT on the stairs.

So now not only is Molly bounding about because of the bat, so am I, as I am not happy about a bat being in the house.  Now dh isn't keen on removing wildlife from the house, so I generally do it.  However, he knew by the tone of my voice I wasn't happy.  So he went and got a dust pan and brush and opened the front down and got it on the dust pan and threw it outside, where it flew away.  It took me ages to get back to sleep.

Now I have a couple of nagging questions.  Like where did it come from?  Why was it lying on the stairs?  Are there any more in the house? 

Then when I got up I discovered two more mice in the traps.......like what the heck...where on earth are they coming from this time?  When I went to throw out the ashes the wind blew back towards me, and I got covered in ashes {{{SIGH}}}

Keeping with the wildlife theme, someone sent me this last week:
http://video.telegraph.co.uk/services/player/bcpid1529569286?bctid=5524339001

Just discovered that Molly like carrots, is that a normal thing for dogs???

Had allergy testing done on Monday and it turns out I am not allergic to the normal things, which is good.  However the doctor has no idea what I could be allergic too and suggested I talk to the local agricultural society to see what is in bloom at the end of June through July, as he thinks it is a crop of some sort that's causing my allergies.

For those of you who live in Canada here is a tip to get more Shopper's Drug Mart points.  Whenever you go to shop at Shopper's Drug Mart, figure out what you have spent.  Then buy a Shopper's Drug Mart gift card.  When doing that, give them your Shopper's Drug Mart card, as you get points for buying the gift card.  Then, buy your items and use the gift card to pay for the items, and again hand in your card, as you will get points again.  For example, you buy a $25 gift card, so you get 250 points for that.  You buy $25 worth of stuff (before taxes) and pay for it with your gift card, and again you will get another 250 points for that.  So all in all you got 500 points for buying $25 worth of stuff.

In Ontario Shopper's Drug Mart is one of the cheapest places to buy 4 litre bags of milk.  Eggs are on sale regularly there, as low as $1.29 per dozen.  Their cheese is one of the best out there and there is a coupon for Armstrong Cheese, see here.  In general Shopper's Drug Mart prices can be more expensive, but if you buy the specials and use coupons, you can get good deals there.  Plus you get the points which you can redeem.  I will try and remember to let you know when there are good deals on at Shopper's so you too can take advantage of it.

Last day of November already and a good deal.......

I can't be the only one who thinks this year has just flown by, am I?  Not sure if it's because I am getting older but I am finding time just flying by.  One minute it's the beginning of 2009, now we are on the countdown to 2010.


As most of you know we adopted Molly from the Toronto Humane Society back in August.  Unfortunately the Toronto Humane Society has been in the news this past couple of weeks, and not for the right reasons.  Please read this story (warning if you click on the photos on that page they are very graphic) and this one to let me know what you think.  Thankfully for what we can gather Molly was only in there for a few days.  It breaks your heart though knowing that some of these animals have been suffering.


I had a couple of good shopping days this weekend, as Shopper's Drug Mart was having a bonus redemption weekend.  I cashed in my points and was able to get $500 worth of product free. All I did was pay the taxes which came to less than $65.  So I was able to get some more Christmas presents, and stock up on a few items.  I now have only 8,500 points left, so I will continue to built those up over the next few months.  I think I have got either $700 or $900 worth of free stuff from Shopper's Drug Mart points this year!!


Now for the good deal, there is a coupon for $5 off no minimum purchase from Chapters from November 29th to December 1st, see here  I have to go out on Monday reasonably close to a Chapters, so I will be stocking up on a number of items.  By the way on that page there is a photo of a throw they are selling.   I bought one of those on the weekend for us, and it is just gorgeous and so soft, and well worth the money.


I finally have my appointment at the Allergists on Monday afternoon, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say.

Look what I made on Sunday and other stuff..........

Quite proud of what I did and it cost me less than $7 to make.

I started out with a bucket, bought some foil wrapping paper, $1 from the dollar store, and wrapped the bucket in that. Added some stones to the bucket to weigh it down. Cut a circle of Styrofoam we had in the house, and inserted that in the top of the bucket. Cut some greenery from the garden, stuck that in the bucket, added the candy canes, $1 each from the dollar store (they're plastic and reusable). Added a couple of branches and hung the red Christmas balls from them, again $1 for all six. Stuck a big bow on the front of the bucket, another $1.

Wrapped an old brick, and empty Kleenex box, and the box the red ball decorations came in to make them look like presents. The little bows on top of the presents, were on the candy canes. I did weigh down the empty boxes. This way if someone wants to "take" the presents they can!! Then I set it all up on the deck by the front door. Its all waterproof, so should stand up to nasty weather.

Talking of the weather, I was talking to the vet's assistant on Monday and she was telling me I could go and pick up the crazy pink pills, as the latest set of pills are useless. They look like red jelly beans and are as effective as red jelly beans!! Anyhow, we were having a "discussion," which translates as me arguing with her over the amount of pills they were giving me, approx. 40 days??? Anyhow, she says that by then we'll see how Molly is "when the snow flies" and its colder.

Now I had never heard of that expression, "when the snow flies." I suppose its better than saying if ****ing well snowing again.........right? By the way you can add whatever word takes your fancy where I have inserted the **** It turns out that "when the snow flies," it's a time between Fall and Winter, when the snow just starts to fall. Not sure if that is just a local expression, or a Canadian/American expression. I know I have never heard that expression in Britain.

I must say though the weather continues to be glorious at the moment, and I think my mail lady was saying we're in for another good week? As I said to her, I wouldn't care if it didn't snow at all this year or next!!!

I have a "sitemeter" on this blog and find the whole thing fascinating. People search for the craziest things, but I am a numbers person, I just love looking at the numbers, and all the other stats on there. I love the graphs and the pie charts. I find it interesting that Saturday is my quietest day for visitors on my blog. Thursday's are generally the busiest, that's because I do a regular post and a Skywatch post as well. I find those photo meme's attract a lot of people. Mind you those people don't write as much on those type of posts, as people do on a regular post I find. I could do a whole post on the ins and outs of the stats from my blog but don't want to bore you!!

Finally DEAL ALERT for the Canadian's and American's!!! From now until December 31st, 2010, if you order $39 or more worth of books from Bookcloseouts.com you get free shipping. I have ordered from these guys a few times and am very, very happy with the service etc. There is a great selection of books at super low prices.

"Dove in the Window."

That's the name of that quilt block. It's the first one in my block of a month club. I love the colour's, black and white, with a touch of red. When we meet again in November, we get the pattern for the next block, the material requirement for the sashings/inner borders, and another free fat quarter. I am going to do my sashings in two colours. The bottom and right hand side in black, and the top and left hand side in a grey. I haven't bought either material yet.
I am even considering doing a second quilt with the same blocks, as I am enjoying doing different blocks. It was grey and overcast all day on Thursday, so it was hard to get a good photo.
I did manage to get out on the lawn tractor and "mulch" the leaves on Thursday. There are still some more leaves to drop off the trees, but the majority are off the trees.
My dad was up on Thursday doing some jobs in the attic for us again, he is such a good help. Its already feeling warmer up there. Dh has got a bit of insulation installed, but still has a ways to go. I'm not sure if I told you, but Home Hardware has a special deal on at the moment, if you buy $150 worth of insulation you can send away for a $25 Home Hardware gift card, so of course we took advantage of that deal.
Another good deal for the Canadians is when you buy two Glade products you can send in for a $5 Presidents Choice gift card, to find out more click on this link
The following qualifies:
The Scented oil candle holders and the candle refills
Plug in's including refills
Candles in the the glass jars
The Fragrance Collection (what ever they are?)
Also you can put all 8 forms in one envelope. I personally would staple each receipt and the two upc's to each seperate form you fill out.
Details - max 8 per household purchase both at the same time between sept 21/09 and jan 31/10**
Buy any 2 Glade products and Receive a $5 PC gift card through mail in rebate*
To be eligible both glade products must be purchased at the same time.** with proof of purchase from a participating store where President's Choce products are sold
Participating stores are Atlantic Superstore, Extra Foods, Fortinos, Independent, Loblaw Superstore, Loblaw Great Food, Loblaws, Maxi, Maxi and Cie, No Frills, Provigo, RCSS, SaveEasy, Valumart, Zehrs, Zehrs Great food and participating supermarkets in Newfoundland and Labrador where PC products are sold.
1. Purchase any 2 glade Air care products at the same time
2. Mail original certificate AND 2 original Glade Air care products pop original UPC barcode cut out from each product package and original sales receipt from a participating store between Sept 21/09 and Jan 31/10 with 2 products circled both products must appear on one sales receipt
Received no later than Feb 28/10 6-8 weeks for delivery

New to me quilting technique and a deal alert......

Now I know I don't need anything else to do, but I was intrigued by this and Catherine is always doing such lovely work, so I wanted to give it a try, plus I can do this on a night when I watch tv.

It's called English Paper Piecing and I decided to use 3/4 inch hexangonals. This is what I have done so far. I have not removed the freezer paper yet.



I found the tutorial on how to do this over at Sew Many Ways and it was super simple to follow.

This week at No Frills they have pork loin pieces on for 99 cents a pound. I picked up a piece for $5, and cut two pieces off and stuffed them with a packet of Stove Top stuffing and cooked one and put one in the freezer. It was so good. I also cut up four chops and put them in the freezer.

This is how it looked when cooked. I had some leftover cauliflower with cheese sauce from earlier in the week. I made the apple sauce and roasted the potatoes with herbs, garlic, olive oil and red onions. I am looking forward to stuffed roast pork and apple sauce sandwiches with the leftovers.

I was like a kid in a candy store in the fabric store...

and here is what I bought......



This photo shows the two Clover Yo-Yo makers, the scissors and the small off-cuts. I saw a project somewhere that makes butterflies out of heart shaped yo-yo's, now I have to find it!!!



These are the pink fabrics:



These are the yellow fabrics:



These are the neutrals:



These are the other colours:



These are the flannels:



These are the fat quarter packs:



These are the individual fat quarters:



All in all I am a happy camper and can't wait to get started on my projects.

**Update, I have finished washing and ironing all that "bloody" fabric including all those sodding fat quarters (a piece of material generally 18" x 21"). The only good thing to come out of it all, is that I had a facial at the same time with the steam from the iron!!** (sorry about the language......I have a sodding headache as well now)

"DEAL ALERT" for all you quilters out there.

I went to a new quilting store today called Sew Sisters for the rest of today and tomorrow, there is 25% off all material and 10% of notions, both in store and ON-LINE. There are a lot of fabrics at $4.99 per yard, then an extra 25% off of that. I picked up 52 fat quarters, 32.5 metres of fabric, another 1.35 metres of offcuts, a pair of embroidery scissors, two heart shaped clover Yo-Yo makers all for $282.09.

That means I am stocked for this year on material....it's truly worthwhile taking a look!!!!

I will post photos later in the week..............

{{{{{SIGH}}}}}

First I have to say I am totally fed up with my Christmas tree. We bought the new one, this one, that is pre-lit as I hate stringing lights on a tree. The tree is super heavy and it took all my strength to lift the sections. I couldn't get the base into the tree stand, dh ended up getting it in, but it was so stiff. I then arranged all the branches, that took forever. Switched it on and the bottom row of lights doesn't work :0( By this time I was fed up and will have to try tomorrow to figure out what is wrong. I don't know what is wrong but I just don't have the patience this year for all this........

Here is a photo of the tree, the decorations on the tree (click on the photo to see) are Lindt Chocolate treee decorations. I buy a couple of packets of them each year. My nana always used to have chocolate decorations on the tree when we were children. I should add, I will be decorating the tree this week, the chocolate ornaments were laying around, so just wanted to get them up out of the way.



There is a referral event going on at Shopper's Drug Mart, so wanted to go in and get some things. However I also had some good bonus points coupons I wanted to use. Plus, when you spent $100 you got two movie tickets for free. So me and the kids decided ds would go with me and buy dh MarioKart for Wii for Christmas, as it was something he wanted? They were going to buy their grandparents a digital photo frame and they this one on sale (page 30 on the Christmas gift guide)

So on Friday I checked out my local store to see if they had these two items, and they had the Wii item, but not the photo frame. So I called another store close to us, and they said they had both items. So me and ds go to this store and before I get the rest of my shopping I ask them to get those two items for us. After much searching they could only find the photo frame not the Wii item.

So the cashier suggested we buy the photo frame there, take it to the other store, return it and then buy it at the other store again with the Wii item, so we could get all the bonus points and movie tickets. I had to spend $150 to get 15,000 bonus points, so that is why I needed to buy everything together.

So off we trot to the store closest to our home, we get everything we want. Return the photo frame, re-buy it, get the Wii item, and everything else I needed. I then check to bill as she was giving ds the two free movie tickets, only to discover the bread I had bought, had rang in at the wrong price, so she had to return those then ring them back in and I got one loaf of bread for free.

What should have taken us 45 minutes, took us an hour and a half. Dh thought we had got lost!!! However, when all the bonus points are awarded I should have another 40,000 points from today's shopping and that translates to $100 worth of free product. Plus dh got two free movie tickets, worth $20+ and between us we spent under $200.

At the moment there is a neat promotion going on at Mark's Work Wearhouse. They have a coupon click on this link where if you get $10 off and all you have to do is spend $10+. Now there is a list of exclusions a mile long, but as long as you spend it on clothes you are good. This is a badly thought out promotion, but you really can clean up here. So we pop into Marks Work Wearhouse today, and I send ds through the check out with a nice polo shirt for my dad, that was originally $39.99, marked down to $14.99, with the $10 off coupon, we ended up paying just over $5 for it. I found a fleece sweater for dh that would be ideal for work. It was marked at $9.99, I asked her to mark it up to $10, which she did and I walked out with that sweater for free!!!

Needless to say I will be going back there. I went to the store in Georgetown the other day, before the list of exclusions was enforced and got two chapsticks and a pair of earplugs, and I paid something like 40 cents for them all.

We were out on Friday night at dh's works Christmas party, so I am pooped, that's why I am sighing, I'm tired!!!

More deals and some ideas for stocking stuffers....

*****AN APOLOGY FOR NOT COMMENTING ON YOUR COMMENTS OR VISITING YOUR BLOGS, BEEN HAVING A COUPLE OF BUSY DAYS WITH RUNNING AROUND.......******

ALSO NOTHING TO REPORT ON RE: THE HOUSE, VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH IT ALL!


I went grocery shopping today and one of the places I went was the dreaded Wal-Mart. Now I will say I call it "the dreaded Wal-Mart" as the Wal-Mart near me employs employees who leave their common sense at home. Now as I had a few coupons and my Wal-Mart, just can't get their heads around coupons, I decided it was easier going to the Wal-Mart by my dad's and visit him and my step-mother while there.

Below is what I bought, and it cost me just over $17 for that little lot and I am going to get $20 back in Wal-Mart gift cards.



So how did I do that you ask. Well first of all, look at the Glade Candles, do you see a sticker on them that says $5? If you can find the Glade products with the $5 stickers on them, what that means is that if you mail in the UPC on them, plus the $5 sticker and your sales receipt, they will mail you a $5 Wal-Mart gift card back. The candles were $2.97 + taxes for each one, plus I had two buy on get one free coupons. There is a limit of 8 redemption's on this promotion. So if you buy 8 candles at $2.97 each that is going to cost you $23.76 + taxes in Ontario's case 13% = $26.85, + the cost of a stamp 55 cents for a total of $27.40, and you will get $40 back in Wal-Mart gift cards. You will also have 8 nice candles that would make ideal teachers gifts, stocking stuffer or a just because gift, or even just keep them for yourself.

Now the other deal on there is the Tylenol. Here is a link to a $3 off coupon. I bought the 24 packs of Tylenol at Wal-Mart for $3.37 a pack. You have to pay taxes on the whole $3.37 which is 44 cents, + the 37 cents after they have taken the coupon off, for a total of 81 cents a pack. If you can find them cheaper, then you get them cheaper. Now would be the time to stock up on this sort of thing. Here is a thread on Frugal Shopper with all sorts of other good deals and links to coupons for the Canadians. The $10 off Oil of Olay coupon is a good one to have!!

I got a box in the mail today and it contained this:



I got all of this as I am taking part in a Bzz Agent promotion for Fruits and Passion. I think this is a campaign for both Canada and the States, and have to say I was totally impressed with what I got in the box, which included $75 worth of gift certificates for the store. I also know Bzz Agent is in Britain as well, no idea though about Australia or other parts of the world. I have had some really neat things from them, and all you have to do is tell people about the products and write a couple of reports on the Bzz site to tell them what was said and how people reacted, how simple is that? I know I will be using some of my gift cards to buy a couple more presents for Christmas. I do know that you guys in the States get a lot more offers and often better than us in Canada.

Another way of getting stocking stuffer etc, is by joining Points and Prizes You have to find words and input them into the site, which in turn gives you more points, which you can cash in for prizes. I have just cashed in my points for a dvd, for someones stocking, and I cashed in before that for a book. I joined in May so it doesn't take too long to accumulate the points. This is just for the States and Canada. If you do decide to join send me a comment with your email address in it (I won't publish it), as I will give you some tips on where to find more words etc.

Another couple of things, create an account at the online Wal-Mart photo centre and you can get 50 free prints, see here . Also when you spend $50 on certain products see this link you will recive a $20 Wal-Mart gift card.

All can be revealed now.....

Back in September when we were on vacation I did this post I said I got a really good deal but couldn't tell you what it was.

Well it was a Coach Purse for dd birthday. She is mad about purses/handbags, and couldn't afford to buy a Coach brand one. I will say her reaction to opening the box and finding the purse was exactly as I imagined. She was thrilled, and we were thrilled that she was so happy. Here are some photos of the purse. It was probably last years stock, but I bought what I think is a classic style, that she will be able to use for years.







We went to the Elephant and Castle for lunch, it's a British style pub, which serves British food, and it was pretty good. Both kids had bangers and mash, me and dd boyfriend had roast beef and Yorkshires and dh had steak sandwich and chips.

We then walked to a Timothy's coffee shop for a coffee and we relaxed in the comfy chairs for ages, just catching up.

We took the subway both to and from the restaurant, and it was dh's first time on the subway. Its not something I would like to do everyday, but it makes a change and as dd says it's not like through the week, when you are all crammed together like sardines in a can.

We then went to Ikea to pick up a couple of things. All in all it was a great day. Dd birthday by the way is on Monday, however everyone is at work, so we celebrated it today.

What I was up to today.......

A day in the life of that British Woman.......you'll be yawning by the end of this post!!

Got up and threw one load of laundry in the washer. Had breakfast, had a shower, cleaned the bathroom's, then threw another load of laundry in the washer. Hung out the first load, had to put my jacket on as it was nippy cold outside. While the second load was washing I called Rogers to take advantage of a free offer they were having. Until some time in November you can get the HD speciality package for free for three months, so asked to be signed up for that.

I then emailed Bath and Body Works to find out why we can't use/get access to the coupons that they give to customers in the States. Haven't heard back from them yet.

By this time the second load of laundry was ready to hang outside. Between me and you, I think my neighbours popped their laundry in with my pile to be washed, as I nearly ran out of pegs today.

I then trot out to do some errands. The pants we ordered from Marks Work Wearhouse last week, see this post, Purolator had tried to deliver, and we weren't in? So I had to go and pick them up at Purolator itself. We would have never been in, as they had the wrong house number, and that neighbour isn't my biggest fan at the moment, as I have complained about their illegal basement apartment!!!

I call in at Pharma Plus to take advantage of the $5 coupon, see this post, only to be told they had pulled the deal, no surprise there, as it was badly thought out. However I managed to get the manager to let me use one of the $5 coupons ;-) I then popped into Shopper's Drug Mart, A & P and Fortino's on the way home.

This is what I bought when I was out today. All that in the photo cost me $30.05, and I had coupon savings of $33.84. I will say that the two big bags of candy and the box of candy cost me nearly $27, however there is enough there for 100 kids at Halloween. So the rest of the stuff cost me less than $3, I had a number of free product coupons.



I put the shopping away and then ran the hoover over the house, I have to look as though I have done something around the house today...LOL I windexed the patio doors AGAIN, I swear its a full time cleaning them, as everytime it rains its filthy again. Plus we have 8 foot wide patio doors, so they are huge amount of glass.

By this time it was lunchtime, so I had the soup you see in the photo (bottom left). It was good, and for the Canadians there is a free product coupon if you click this link

Are you still awake? After lunch all that washing was dry and ready to iron. I double checked to make sure it was all our washing and not some of my neighbours, and sure enough its all our clothes. Mind you I haven't done a load of coloured since last week, so that's maybe why I had such a lot of washing today. Took me nearly an hour to do all the ironing.

After that I decide to go for a walk as I wanted to take a few photos. So off I go and as I am taking my photo's a young man passes. With the baggy pants and hoodie, your typical young man, who could possibly mug you. However not this man, he had an interest in photography and was a joy to talk to and very informative. You know that saying "never judge a book by it's cover," that was the case with this young man. It was a pleasure talking to him. Then three older men cyclists passed and shouted over at me, if it was a Kodak moment, which made me smile. then the batteries went flat on my camera...@##!@#! and other words like that. So I walked home.

I will show you photos in a later post. I came home had a coffee, and then went into the garden to pick some tomatoes, and this is what I saw:



I have to say this butterfly was not at all interested in me as I took photos of it. I will post more photos later in the week. I don't think I have ever been as close to a butterfly before.

I then prepped supper, pork cutlets, baked potatoes and Caesar salad. After supper I watched the news, and my two soaps, Coronation Street and Eastenders, and had my second shower of the day (I HAVE too have two showers a day). Watched tv some more and surfed the net, and we were in bed by just after 9pm, I am up usually by around 6am, and dh is up by 4.30am.

Do I lead an exciting life or what!!!!