The 52nd Grammy Awards

Did anyone catch the Grammy Awards? I was watching it on and off while cleaning up the house. There were some big wins for big artists, notably Beyonce, snagging a record six Grammys. Taylor Swift netted four, while my other faves, BEP and Lady Gaga won 3 and 2 respectively. I was happy some of my favorite artists got to perform (Pink, The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, and my sister's fave, Taylor Swift)! I like how all the artists sang mash-ups of their songs. The show was fun to watch, I hope you saw it! If not, then there is always next year!

SheKnows Points and Prizes

SheKnows Points and Prizes is a site where you find words and enter them in to get points. I have been collecting points for a while now, saving up for something big. Words are everywhere, plus you can find some on sites too where people share the words they find. You can only enter 5 words per hour, and the points per word ranes from 10 to 450 each. They have some pretty cool prizes, from baby items to CDs and DVDs to prepaid Visa cards to a Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit! It's really easy to rack up points as long as you remember to put in your words. I'm trying to save up for a Wii lol. This site also has a ton of contests you can enter, and coupons and such. It's a great site to spend some time on, you never know what you might win!

National FREE Hockey Card Day!!

Today is National Free Hockey Card Day! Once a year, participating retailers give out a pack of Upper Deck hockey card free of charge! It's great for collectors, or even non collectors because who can pass up free?? I love collecting cards myself, so I'm all set to get this freebie. I missed it last year because I had school, but now I have nothing, so off I go!

There are 15 cards to collect, with each pack containing 5 cards. Bring your family and friends so you can get the whole set! This is only happening in Canada, and you can get your free pack of cards at Toys R Us, Jean Coutu, London Drugs, Rexall and PharmaPlus. For more information, go here.

The Black Eyed Peas Tickets - FREE!!!

I WON, I WON!!! I entered 100 times to win a pair of tickets to The Black Eyed Peas concert in April and today I got a call that said my tickets were ready to be picked up! I was totally surprised, because I didn't even know I won (but apparently, it was way back in December!). EEEEE, so excited! The tickets are okay (I think??). Side of the arena (I hope it's not TOO to the side). It's in the balcony though. I haven't really been to that many concerts, so I don't really know the seating arrangements. But free concert, so WHO CARES! :D

I always hear about people winning like $22,000 worth of prizes each year, and I'm just flabbergasted! How do they do it?! So I resolved to start entering more contests everyday! It's my goal to win a grand prize, like a car or $10,000 or something equally as cool LOL.

I'll let you know what else I win this year ;) hahaha!

Check ticketmaster to get your own tickets to the BEP concert!

Better Off Ted

I've been trying to catch up on TV shows lately, starting with Better Off Ted. I'm on season two now and just watched 2 episodes last night. It's such a funny and quirky show, I love it! It stars Jay Harrington as Ted, the research of Research and Development at Veridian Dynamics. Portia De Rossi plays Ted's Boss, Veronica, who is crazy and efficient and doesn't bother with anything nonsense. Ted is trying to survive in this company with no ethics while trying to raise his seven year old daughter Rose. Anyways, it's a really good show! I'm going to watch a few more eps now lol.

The Girls - Book Review

I finished reading The Girls by Lori Lansens. I received it as a freebie but it turned out to be a pretty good book anyway. It's about craniopagus twins, Rose and Ruby Darlen, and their life growing up in Ontario. Rose is diagnosed with an aneurysm, and she starts writing an autobiography. Lansens does an excellent job of narrating the girls' stories, with such good details. Soon I kept wondering if this was even a fiction novel (it is) because it's so beautifully written.

Gorging on movies

I've been keeping up my movie watching in the past few days, trying to watch at least one movie a day. I watched:

Four Christmases with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with Jennifer Garner and Matthew McConaughey
Made of Honor with Patrick Dempsey
Just Friends with Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart
National Treasure with Nicolas Cage

I have to say, most of the movies were ho-hum or just plain sucked, but I really enjoyed National Treasure! Such a good movie. I really like the sequel to it too, National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets. It's kind of like the Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones franchises. If you are fans of those movies, you'll like National Treasure. It's a pretty old movie by now, so it should be on sale for pretty cheap (I know Walmart had it for about $10-15 during the last boxing day).

Haven't had time for gaming lately, with all the reading and movie watching, but I think I will open up Professor Layton soon. Also need to find a book to read, since I'm almost done reading The Girls.

Superpoints/Luckysearch - More FREE prizes and gift cards!

Here's another prize site, Superpoints. I just joined it recently, but you basically play the lucky button everyday to win points. You can also search and win, or invite friends, do surveys or complete offers. Every 500 points gets you a $5 Amazon gift card (though there are other prizes to redeem for as well). I just click the super lucky button everyday, and that's about it. It doesn't take very long, and it's a great addition to all the gift cards you can get from Swagbucks and Irazoo.

Yeehaw, more free Amazon gift cards!!

This month so far, I have redeemed for $20 in Amazon.ca gift cards from Swagbucks! Signing up is easy and you get 3 swagbucks right away if you use the link below. I have cashed out for a total of $55 in amazon.ca gift cards in just the past few months. There are other prizes as well, other gift cards, comics, wii consoles, PS3, nintendo DS, you name it! They offer a ton of prizes. All you have to do is search and you might be rewarded with points. The fastest way to earn though, is to enter a swagcode. There is a swagcode everyday, so they all add up, along with your bucks you get for searching.



Irazoo is another awesome search and earn site. Get 16 points for ever website you comment and rate, to a maximum of 300 points a day. That means it only takes 10 days to get a $5 Amazon.com gift card! I received another $15 Amazon gift card earlier this week, and redeemed for another! That brings my total up to $80 redeemed! Woot woot! If you live in the states, then you have access to the other prizes as well. Canadians can only get the Amazon gift card.



For both sites, I'm saving up my gift cards until I have like, $100 or something, so I can make a giant purchase! Now just need to decide what to buy...

Hercules The Legendary Journeys

Recently my sister and I started re-watching Hercules The Legendary Journeys. She bought it on ebay a few years ago and we haven't really looked at it. This series starring Kevin Sorbo as Hercules came out in 1995, after several movies in 1994. We used to watch it back then, and it was such a cool show. Now that I watch it again, there are so many cheesy effects and lame dialogue LOL, but that's okay, because it's still a pretty decent show. A little later, there was a spinoff, Xena Warrior Princess starring Lucy Lawless. My sister also bought that on ebay, but I think we're going to try and finish all six seasons of Hecules first! We have such a gigantic DVD collection - I'm trying to watch everything we've ever gotten at least once before buying anymore, but it's going to take a LONG time. I'm going to be on my death bed, just watch all the special features on all our DVDs, just you watch!

Movies, movies, movies!

I decided to take a break from reading yesterday (I'm finishing up The Girls by Lori Lansens) and watch some movies. I really wanted to watch The Time Traveler's Wife, but couldn't find it (it's not out on DVD until February), so I decided to watch something else with Rachel McAdams in it, and pulled out Wedding Crashers. I've watched it before, but man, it's so funny! Isla Fisher's character is SO crazy!! After that, I wanted to watch something Isla Fisher was in, so I watched Definitely, Maybe. Ryan Reynolds, Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and Abigail Breslin star in it. It was a pretty good movie, I guess. Okay so after that, I decided I wanted to watch something that Elizabeth Banks is in...So I found Zack and Miri Make a Porno to watch. It was funny I guess, in a sort of lots-of-sex-gags type of way. It had a cute ending though. :) Another night staying up till 4am. Ugh. Wonder what I should watch tonight? LOL.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Book Review

I finished another book in two days, The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a really good read, and so sad too! I'm sure a lot of you watched the movie version already, so you probably know what it's about. (I haven't seen it yet, though it does look really good!!). Henry has chronic displacement disorder and time travels involuntarily to the past or future. Clare is his wife/future wife who is always waiting for him. The story is full of longing and frustrations of their love story and I guarantee you won't be able to put it down until you've finished the book! I was staying up until 4am just to read this. Egads, I need to stop buying and borrowing books to read, otherwise I will never get any sleep!

Lockerz

Lockerz is another points and prizes site that I am a part of. All you need to do is log in everyday and answer a daily question to get points. Then once in a while, there is a redemption period, where you can get all sorts of cool electronics or experiences, like video games (wii, ds, ps3, xbox, etc), game consoles (wii, ps3, xbox), ipods, cameras, paypal money, amazon gift cards and so on. I know some people have gotten prizes from this site, but I haven't myself because I was a little too slow last redemption. If you need an invite, message me your email and I will send you an invite asap!

Another Sale, Another Price Match, Another Coupon Used, Another Deal!

As I mentioned earlier this week, Zellers has a sale starting today (not a great one, but one I've been waiting for) on a few Nintendo DS games, the are all $5 off the regular price:




Brain Age 2 - Reg 19.99, Sale 14.99
Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Reg 29.99, Sale 24.99
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - Reg 34.99, Sale 29.99
Fossil Fighters - Reg 34.99, Sale 29.99
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - Reg 39.99, Sale 34.99

I was looking for Professor Layton and the Curious Village to be FINALLY advertised in print, because for some reason, Best Buy and Future Shop sells it for more at $34.99 (while Zellers and Superstore has it for $29.99) and I wanted to price match to get an additional 50cents off (if advertised at $29.99). Lucky me, it was discounted even more, so when I price matched it, the 10% difference was $1! I went to Best Buy because I collect Reward Zone Points, and had no trouble price matching. This was my bill:

Best Buy Regular Price: $34.99
Price Match Zellers: $24.99
- 10% Price Difference: $23.99
- $5 Nintendo Coupon: $18.99

SWEET! After tax it came to $21.27, which I paid with a gift card I had. After I play the game, I will post up a review about it. Now is a great chance to buy Zelda because I have never seen it on sale before (it just came out recently. If you price match, you can get it for $34.49. And if you have a $5 or $10 Nintendo coupon, you can get it for even less! Happy gaming, everyone!

Pirate Latitudes - Book Review

I finished reading Michael Crichton's latest (and last) novel, Pirate Latitudes last night. As usual, it was an excellent read. Crichton is my favorite author, and with good reason! All his novels are exciting and gripping, with interesting topics. Pirate Latitudes is about a group of men who go on a privateering expedition (not pirates!) to capture the treasure from Mantanceros. Of there, there is a lot of fighting, ship wrecks, and treasures.

Crichton passed away last November from cancer, and Pirate Latitudes was found as a complete manuscript by one of his assistants. How sad that this is his last book ever! I have read and bought almost all of his books (I think I am missing one, two now that this is out) because he is just THAT good a writer. Go order your copy today, you won't regret it!

FREE prizes, FREE Amazon gift cards!

Sign up for Swagbucks! It's easy to do and you get 3 swagbucks right away if you use the link below. I have cashed out for two $5 amazon.ca gift cards this month, for a total of $45 amazon.ca gift cards. There are other prizes as well, other gift cards, comics, wii consoles, PS3, nintendo DS, you name it! They offer a ton of prizes. All you have to do is search and you might be rewarded with points. The fastest way to earn though, is to enter a swagcode. Usually there is one a day!



Irazoo is another awesome search and earn site. Get 16 points for ever website you comment and rate, to a maximum of 300 points a day. That means it only takes 10 days to get a $5 Amazon.com gift card! I just got enough points to cash out for another $15 gift card! Woot woot! If you live in the states, then you have access to the other prizes as well. Canadians can only get the Amazon gift card.

Price Matching

Many store price match other stores advertised prices. This is an excellent way to save travelling time (and gas money) between stores and still getting the best deal on things. It's quite easy to price match. All you have to do is bring in a printed flyer (the ones delivered to your house, or found in stores) and ask the cashier to price match it. Make sure you get the correct item though, as there will most likely be specific sizes or upc codes printed on the flyer. Some stores I can think of the price match are Zellers, Walmart, London Drugs and Superstore. Remember you can still use your coupons when you price match! Also, Zellers will still apply the SPC discount on a price matched product, and take your coupon on top of it (great for the items you don't have coupons for, or only 1 coupon).

Electronic stores like Best Buy and Future Shop also price match. They also beat the advertised price by 10% of the difference. I have gotten some amazing deals by price matching here, because sometimes big chain grocery stores (Walmart, Superstore) have some awesome sales on games and movies, while Best Buy/Future Shop sells for outrageous prices. Then that makes the 10% price difference anywhere from $1 to $4.xx! That's some great additional savings! I'm going to price match a game from Zellers later this week!

Mario Kart

I know this is an older game, but I'm going to write about it anyway! Earlier last year, Superstore had an amazing sale on Mario Kart for the Wii. It was half price! This is one of those ridiculously expensive Wii games ($59.99 regular), so of course, I jumped at the chance to get it! I took the flyer to Best Buy and price matched it, getting another $3 off because of their extra 10% of the difference price matching policy (I love Best Buy!). I ended up getting it for $26.99 (they wouldn't take my $10 Nintendo coupon - I think they were so shocked at the low price!). Since then, my sister has been playing it tons (she loves the game) and I have tried it out. I found it really fun to play, especially if you are playing with other people. It'd definitely a good party game! There are different options, such as playing with a kart or a bike, and many different race tracks. Wait till the next sale or cash in your gift cards you got for Christmas and go pick up your own copy!

Pink Stickers = Good Deal!

Superstore recently started to have more pink stickered items in their stores a few months ago. What are pink stickers? They are usually for 25% to 50% off an item that is on clearance. There are to be some really good deals to be found though, you just need to keep an eye out! There are some household items that they just want clear out, or the product is in a tattered box but the item is totally fine.

For food items, there are usually some good deals, depending on what you  need. The best one I can think of are bananas. Superstore often has a paperbag full of bananas that are 50% off. It's a pretty hefty bag, and there is absolutly nothing wrong with the bananas at all! I picked up a bag yesterday, and just a few of them had some "scars" from shipping, I guess. But the inside was perfect. Not all of the bananas in the bag were even fully ripe yet! Often the bananas they put on discount are getting ripe, which would be perfect for those who cook with bananas (banana bread, anyone?).

Other items that can be found areother fruits and vegetables. Now you have to be careful about these - not all of them are good buys. Take a look at them - do they look edible? I have seen bags of peppers that would be an excellent deal if you were to use them within the next day or two for cooking. Apples are often pretty good deals too, if you are going to cook them or use them to make juice right away. There are other things such as veggies that can be good (I've gotten some lettuce that was still good) or bad (lots of the veggies were wilted or brown).

Over in the bakery section, there are often bread and dinner rolls that are 50% off. You can eat some, and freeze some. Bread freezes well and you can always use it to make stuffing for turkeys (where you need stale bread anyway!) or other cooking needs. Sometimes pies and cakes are on clearance too. If you are looking for cheap dessert to eat that very night, check the clearance rack for goodies! I picked up a 4 slice pack of chocolate truffle raspberry torte cake at half price yesterday - it made a delicious dessert for my family!

So, keep your eyes peeled when you are shopping at Superstore next! You never know what perfectly good treasures or goodies you might find that have a pink sticker on it!

Wii Fit Plus - Game Review

I redeemed my Shoppers Optimum Points on a Wii Fit earlier this year and have been using it on and off (because my mum hogs it every night!). Recently I picked up a copy of Wii Fit Plus to try out the new games. I finally opened it today!

There are new yoga and strength excercises, as well as new games. You can also customize your own workout, and it tells you how many calories you burned after each exercise. I played a few of the new games, but I found that they were more for the fun factor instead of working out/sweating. The old games and exercises from the original Wii Fit is still available, but for those people who own the original and is trying to decide if they should shell out the money to buy the Wii Fit Plus software, I suggest you don't if you're looking for an exercise game, but do if you just want to play new fun games.

Coupon Savings in 2009

I started couponing in the summer of 2008, just tentatively at first, because I wasn't sure the stores would accept them (the free product coupons). I started getting into the swing of things by the fall, and by the end of the year, used at least $500-700 in coupons in just a few months! So I decided I would keep track of the amount of coupons I used in 2009. I inputted most of the things I bought, but there were definitely things I forgot to write down.

I used over $6772 worth of coupons in 2009.

That's not including the $660 of free stuff I got from Shoppers Drug Mart points redemptions (3x $170, 1x $150), the mail in rebates I sent in (about $45), Canadian Tire money I used, and the multiple gift cards to stores I got from trading my coupons or in-store offers (about $130), or the things I got free due to the SCOP. And that's not counting the true savings I got because I price-matched from another store flyer or waited for a sale, or there was some crazy blowout closing sale, or used my SPC discount.

So for about $8400 worth of things (at sale price! AND including 12% tax), I'd say my out of pocket expense was less than $800. That's not even 10% of what the items cost (darn those pesky taxes!). Plus I have my own little stockpile of household, cleaning and personal hygiene items that I won't have to buy for the next while (and pay full price for!) and can "shop" in my own home.Shampoo, face wash, soap, toilet paper, household cleaners, razors, shave gel, granola bars, soup, you name it, I got it!

This year, I'm going to try and calculate my "true" savings, comparing the regular store price with the sale price with coupons. I'm hoping to save at least a few thousand again. Sales have been pretty bad the last 4 or 5 months, and I hope it doesn't continue in 2010.

For those interested in couponing, keep reading my blog, as I will be posting more about coupons and savings in the future!

Shopping again!

I went shopping again today, armed with my flyers to price match and my envelope full of coupons. I stumbled on a Christmas items clearance section, where I was looking at gift baskets (marked down to $0.25!!) and some lady sees me looking at them and snatches a bunch up! I managed to get a few still, thank goodness. I make a lot of gift baskets during the holidays and I can't pass up such an excellent deal! Here's what I picked up today after all the price matching and coupons:

6x Dole Pineapple Juice - $0.24 ea + $0.09 deposit & enviro fee
6x Glad Cling Wrap - $0.03 for all
8x Catelli Pasta - $0
8x Christmas Baskets - $0.25 ea (clearance)
1x Gift Card Holder - $0.25 (clearance)
1x Lindt Chocolate Star - $0.25 (clearance)
1x Christmas Pet Outfit - $0.50 (clearance)

All for a grand total of $6!! That's some excellent savings, if I do say so myself! It would only cost $5.70 after I bring the juice boxes back for deposit. There were many more interesting clearance items, such as lightbulbs ($0.15), wall decorations ($0.25), big bows ($0.25), fake ice/snow ($0.75), xmas catnip toys ($0.25), xmas dog toys ($0.50), dog outfits ($0.50) and some other stuff I don't remember.

Earlier in the week, I picked up 12x Dole Juice, 8x Catelli Pasta and a bottle of Cetaphil lotion for $9.02 minus a $5 gift card I had. Woot woot! I'm stocking up on pasta when it's on sale (hello, free!) and before the HST kicks in!

I hope you were able to find some great deals using coupons and price matching, or find some more excellent Christmas clearance items!

Do you want FREE amazon gift cards and other prizes?

Sign up for Swagbucks! It's easy to do and you get 3 swagbucks right away if you use the link below. I'm thisclose to my next $5 amazon.ca gift card! So far I have cashed out for $40 amazon.ca gift cards. There are other prizes as well, other gift cards, comics, wii consoles, PS3, nintendo DS, you name it! They offer a ton of prizes. All you have to do is search and you might be rewarded with points. The fastest way to earn though, is to enter a swagcode. Usually there is one a day!



Irazoo is another awesome search and earn site. Get 16 points for ever website you comment and rate, to a maximum of 300 points a day. That means it only takes 10 days to get a $5 Amazon.com gift card! Woot woot! If you live in the states, then you have access to the other prizes as well. Canadians can only get the Amazon gift card.

Clearance on Christmas Items - Even more discounts now!

Most places still have leftover Christmas and holiday items that are being continuosly marked down. There are still some treasures to be found, depending on what you need or use! Be a savvy shopper and buy things now to save later! I hit up Walmart today and most Christmas items were 50%-75% off. There are a few things you should buy now to save yourself a load of money later on. I'll list some things I saw at Walmart today, as well as some other stores:

- Tissue paper: Everyone needs this to wrap gifts year round, they were $0.24
- Christmas Cards: Why pay full price for nice cards when you can pay 1/4 of the price! All xmas cards were marked down 75% off. This is cheaper than buying them at the dollar store!
- Chocolate: Whether you want to eat it or save it as gifts later, chocolate is now uber cheap. It's slim pickings so late in game, but there were still some good deals to be found: Hershey's Bliss $1 (Reg $4.xx), Pot of Gold individual gift box $1 (Reg $5.50), Candy Cane Chocolate Bark ($1), Candy gift set $2 (Reg $12.95)
- Gift Sets: Gift sets are usually 50% off after Christmas. This is an excellent time to stock up on hygiene products - shampoos, facial scrubs, body lotions etc. The sets are already a decent deal when the manufacture packaged it together, but with an additional 50% off, it makes it a steal! Some lucky people also have coupons for the sets, which make them completely free! Whether you are using the items for yourself, or saving it for gifts throughout the year, gift sets are an excellent investment. Most of the items won't go bad if you want to save it as 2010 Christmas gifts, though do watch out that things like body/face lotion might spoil. There is usually an expiry date written somewhere. Shampoo and things like that won't expire.
- Wrapping Paper: This is a big one! Definitely wait until wrapping paper is discounted before you stock up for the next Christmas! Now is a great time to buy them from store as they are usually heavily discounted (usually 60 to 75% off)
- Gift Tags: Again, something you need for Christmas anyways, why not get them while on clearance?
- Christmas Decorations: If you like getting new decorations, now is a great time to get the super cheap
- Fake Christmas Trees: There usually are quite expensive, about $80 or more. Now you can pick one up for about $20!

Of course there are tons more things to be found in store. Each store will still have their own holiday clearance section (Walmart, Superstore, Zellers, etc.) so go check out yours!

The Sims 3 - Game Review

I received a copy of  The Sims 3 PC game from my friend for Christmas and started playing it a couple of days ago. If you are a fan of the original Sims games (either The Sims or The Sims 2, then you will enjoy this one! It has much better graphics than the previous ones, and has a nice soundtrack. There are some new additions to the game, including new personality traits (I chose frugal coupon clipper, LMAO!), more challenges and opportunities for your sim, and being able to share Sims videos online. Of course, there are many cheats you can use to make your game play more fun. I always like to use the money one so that I can build and furnish my sim's house without worrying about money. The cheat is Ctrl + Shift + C and you type in motherlode. Other cheats can be found online, just google them. It's such an addicting game, so make sure you set aside a few hours the first time you play!

Free Cereal, Free Board Games, Free Nintendo Games!

Today and tomorrow only, Zellers has Corn Pops, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops and All-Bran cereals all on sale for only $2. Some people have $2 off any Kelloggs products, making them FREE! Remember to use your Student Discount Card for an additional 10% off (you'd be getting paid $0.20 to take the cereal home!). Corn Pops is the only one that will have the $10 boardgames coupons (see previous post) or the Nintendo game coupon ($5, $10 or $500). The other cereals only have the coupons on the larger boxes.

I picked up 3 boxes of Corn Pops myself, 2 with the Nintendo coupon (only $5) and one with the $10 game coupon! I see a lot of free board games and free/cheap Nintendo games for me in the future ;) I was lucky enough to have the $2 coupon and SPC discount, so my bill was -$0.60. I also got a bag of sidewalk salt to bring my total back to the positive. Hurry and get your cereal now! It's a good deal even if you don't have coupons or SPC discounts, especially if you can find the ones with the coupons on them!

A Start of a New Decade!

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a great night (hopefully not too hung over!), celebrating with family and friends. We all have a fresh start for the new year and new decade, so let's make it a good one!