How I (Try to) Save Money

Yes, this is a completely random post...but these are different ways that I try to keep our costs low and save money:

1.  Keep our Thermostat and Hot Water Tank Heat Low.  We have natural gas heating on our main floor, but electric heating in the basement and upstairs in the hallway/bedrooms.  The basement thermostats (one in each room) is completely off.  On our main floor, I drop the thermostat to 17C at night, and bring it up to 19C during the day.  If company is coming over, then we bring it up to 21C.  In our bedrooms, the thermostats are set to 15C (so they pretty much never go on).  Nathan's bedroom is the one exception...he has his room heated to 19C during the night.

2.  Online Clothes Shopping.  I have fallen in love with this.  I buy most of Matthew and Kayla's new clothes (the few they do get...see #3 and #5) from the clearance sections.  Combining an online clearance price (which is cheaper than an in-store clearance price) with whatever promotion they have going on makes for some great deals.  I will never pay for shipping, so I will only buy from Children's Place when they have a free shipping offer, and will always make sure that my Old Navy orders meet the $50 minimum in order to receive free shipping there.  I love that stores accept returns easily.  I've never had an issue making a return.  I've even started shopping for myself online.  Not that I ever buy clothes for myself...see #5.

3.  Facebook Swap Group(s).  LOVE these.  This is one way to pick up some great condition clothing for dirt cheap prices.  I pick up toys off of here too.  It's also been my tool for getting free formula samples (because I have to give Nathan one bottle of formula a day because I don't have quite enough milk for him).  Breastfeeding Moms graciously give away the free samples they receive in the mail, or I trade formula coupons for formula samples.  Nathan's not picky as to brand, so I take what I can get!

4.  Ebates.ca.  This is a fairly new discovery for me.  I saw a commercial for it and looked into it and love i!  It's great for online shoppers because you practically get paid to place an online order.  Rather than going straight to the company's website to shop, you go to ebates.ca first, find the company you want to shop at, and link to it through there.  You then get a percentage of your total order paid back to you.  I just received a cheque in the mail for $7.15.

5.  Hand-me-downs.  I buy my cousin's kids' clothes from her for Matthew, and I use hand-me-downs from Jon's niece Annika for Kayla.  I myself get hand-me-downs from Candice.  :)

6.  Me Cooking.  I'm a much simpler cook than Jon, resulting in fewer specialty groceries required.  The more often I cook (as much as I dislike it), the cheaper our grocery bill.  I've actually noticed a significant decrease in the amount we spend on groceries in a month (see #7) since Jon started working full-time with Surrey School District and doesn't have time to cook during the week.  I also try to cook one meal a week of boiled potatoes (free from Grandpa Vander Ende) and boiled vegetables (free from my parents).  The only cost for that meal is the meat I've chosen.  It's actually even one of Matthew and Kayla's favourite meals.  The more often I can use potatoes or vegetables, the better!

7.  Tracking our Spending.  Everything we purchase gets entered onto a spreadsheet and categorized so that I can see our monthly/yearly spending.  I don't operate on a budget, but this allows me to see how our expenses are each month and discuss it with Jon.

8.  Cloth Diapers.  Matthew, Kayla, and Nathan have all used the same batch of cloth diapers.  I have 7 newborn ones, and about 13 one-size-fits-all ones.  With only Nathan wearing them right now I have to wash them only every three days.  I only put Nathan in a disposable overnight, so I seldom have to buy diapers.

9.  Shopping at Superstore/Costco.  Not only do they have the cheapest prices (in my opinion), but when you shop at Superstore during one of their $250 weeks (when you spend $250 you get a $25 gift card) it's like receiving 10% off.  Not very often (i.e. seldom) can I spend a full $250 myself, so my Mom and I always spend $250 together, and then calculate the portion of the $25 gift card we each get.  I actually don't do much grocery shopping on a non-$250 week...I just pick up fresh fruit / milk to get me to the next $250 week.

10.  Generic / Bulk Buying.  I (almost) always buy the cheapest brand of each product.  Superstore is great because on the price tag is gives you the price-per-unit/weight, so it's easy to compare product sizes and brands against each other to see which is cheapest.  I (almost) always have everything in stock.  It's only happened a handful of times where I was mid-dinner and didn't have an ingredient I needed.

11.  Sale Shopping / Price Matching / Using Coupons.  I check the flyers each week to see what is on sale at each store and will also price match these to the same products in Superstore.

12.  Using my PC Financial Mastercard.  Every purchase I make that I charge to this credit card gives me PC Plus points which I can redeem at Superstore for dollars off of my bill.

13.  PC Plus.  Superstore now also offers PC Plus points on select products in their store.  Each week I compare the offers that my Mom, Jon, and myself have received to see which products will give me extra points to redeem (see #12).

14.  Tanking up at Superstore.  When you tank up at Superstore you get money back in the form of SuperBucks, which can be spent in the store on groceries.  Their gas price is the same (if not cheaper) than other gas stations in the area, PLUS you get the SuperBuck.  It also doesn't hurt to look at the gas pumps as you drive past on your way to do a grocery shop to see if anyone has left their SuperBuck.  Every little bit (even $0.29 like the one I found last week) helps.