Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Last of the pumpkins...

My 12 year old grew a garden this year and produced, lots of cherry tomatoes, zukes, lettuce, beets and PUMPKINS! She grew 6 and was very proud of them and two were still decorating our hallway. So now they are in my oven baking and will be turned into pumpkin loaves. I make them with chocolate chips and walnuts, 6 at a time! Batch baking saves energy, time and clean-up. Three will be for immediate use and 3 for the freezer.

Lunch is black bean soup and dinner will be Fajitas with spanish rice and corn on the side.

Today will be a no spend day.
I have been running around turning off lights all morning, and keep giving my "green" lecture to the kids. It will sink in some day...

#1-Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum Points

If you have a SDM near you, I am going to tell you about one of my number one budget helpers. Shopper Drug Mart Optimum points. By maximizing your points by shopping on bonus days your points can quickly add up to 75,000 points. With 75,000 points you can cash in and go shopping for $150 FOR FREE!!! And if you cash in your points on bonus weekends those 75,000 points can be worth $200 in the east and $170 in the west.

But before you think there is nothing you need at SDM, check out their dairy department. Their milk, cheese and egg prices are often better than the grocery store and there food specials can be outstanding.

This Sat., Jan 2 has 20 times bonus on a $50 min. purchase that is 10,000 points and up..
So I will be doing a stock up on Grocery items etc. this Sat. at SDM

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A New Year and a New Challenge

I have meant to blog for quite sometime, but kept coming up with excuses.
Lack of time being number one.
But I also know that blogging can equal accountability. It can help me attain my goals and focus on my challenges and so I decided that 2010 will be the beginning of my life as a blogger.

A little background. I am an older mom of 3 children 18, 15, and 12. All have challenges. One has a severe peanut allergy. One has colobomas in both eyes and is visually impaired. My youngest has type 1 diabetes. My time and our money is stretched to the max raising these amazing young people and so I have developed some frugal strategies along the way.

I have worked hard to cut down our grocery budget, and have challenged myself to keep the groceries down to $25 per person per week. That would mean $125 per week for our family of 5. That is CANADIAN!

I have found many wonderful bloggers that have managed to cut down their groceries to less but they are in the US and I watch a little enviously at all the deals they have there. Coupon doubling, rebates, countless freebies.... This helps them to cut down their groceries to amazingly low amounts. But I kept thinking, what about me? What about us? Canadians deserve deals too!

So that is what this blog will be about. How a Canadian can trim their budget and save money on groceries and help to keep ourselves in the black and out of the red.

I will post deals, how much I spend, menus some recipes and more. That way I can share with anyone else who would like to cut down expenses too. Stay tuned.