I often hear that Shoppers Drug Mart is too expensive to shop at, even when you include Optimum points into the pricing, but 20x points days are the way to save and dlee cleaned up at the most recent 20x day.

Forum member dlee bought $54 worth of stuff (see the regular points, that is a great way to know if you have spent enough or if something was not valid for points, it needs to be 500+ for promos where you need to spend $50).  She then brought down her total with coupons, a promo card from a previous week (if you redeemed your points in the West, you got $15-30 back on a promo card).  dlee is lucky, my store will not enter FPCs as 2001 for promo days, but many stores will.

Click here to see what she bought and how she brought down her total to less than $50 and see the receipt to show that you really do get points when you use coupons to bring the total under $50

We all go through this at the end of the month, the “Oh no look at this great coupon I never used” and run to the nearest store to redeem.  Koolaid is obviously more organized than me, as she redeemed her expiring coupons last weekend, combining her coupons with bonus Airmiles deals at Metro.

Koolaid bought a few items without coupons *shock* but her total for this haul came to $14.79 including taxes.  She redeemed 95 Airmiles for $10 (you get 25 Airmiles back when you redeem) plus earned 10 Airmiles on items bought.  A great way to combine ways to save to bring down your total.

Koolaid also scored a free fridge so she can stock up on more items!

Click here to read Koolaid’s brag to see the full breakdown of her purchases.

Have you used up your March expiries yet? Only a few days to go and the most stores are closed Friday & Sunday for Easter.

Forum member Cocottee00 saw a tornado of activity around the laundry detergent at Maxi and found Gain detergent had been marked down from $3.98 (a decent price if you have run out, but nothing special for a SmartCanuck member) with a pink sticker making it just 1.99.

Cocottee00 bought 23 bottles and used coupons to save $2.50 when you buy two Gain and a $1 off Gain to save even more.  Laundry detergent for $1.16 with taxes included – I would have turned into a tornado of activity too!

Click here to read her full brag.

Did you know you can get paid if we feature your brag on the blog? Click here to find out how.

What has been your best “pink sticker” find (or whatever colour stickers your store uses for in-store specials)?

One of the questions we get a lot on SmartCanucks is how to reduce your out of pocket costs to earn bonus points.  Unlike many stores, Shoppers Drug Mart do not allow free product coupons (FPCs) as part of your total for Optimum events, but you can use regular coupons.  CouponDawn spent only $58.03 after tax and coupons for an event where you have to spend $75 to earn bonus points.

Dawn also bought a gift card before spending so she could earn an extra  500 Optimum points.  Click here to see how Dawn got $87 worth of items (before tax) for $58 (after tax) and earned 20,990 Optimum points (worth $44 on a bonus redemption like they are holding this Friday if you redeem at the highest redemption level).

So for those who question how you can spend $75 at Shoppers Drug Mart for a promotion, you don’t have to, you can spend less and still get your points.

Forum member beetwelve combined all the discounts she could to get this haul for free.

3 x Seventh Generation Dish Detergent, Finish Quantum 20 ct., 2 x Greenworks Toilet Bowl Cleaner, Majesta 4 ct. TP ($29.58)
– $2.08 sale (25% off Finish Quantum)
– $15.00 Canadian Tire Scratch’n’Save cards (3 x $5)
– $8.00 in manufacturer’s coupons
– $0.10 Canadian Tire money earned from these transactions
= $4.40
– $1.50 from Checkout 51 (Finish Quantum)
= $2.90
– Paid for using Canadian Tire Money on the Card
= $0 OOP

By combining the Canadian Tire promotion, coupons, Checkout 51 rebates and CT Money earned on previous purchases – all of this for free.  Click here for the full breakdown of the purchases.

Mandy403 took advantage of a deal at Safeway where you get 100 Airmiles for buying Kellogg’s cereals at Safeway.

She used free product coupons (FPCs) from a facebook promotion to get them free.  Each box of cereal also has a coupon PIN on it for a free breakfast product (orange juice, yogurt, coffee etc) so on top of getting 100 Airmiles (over $10 if you redeem your Airmiles in-store for cash), she will also get six free breakfast items.  Using coupons for items with bonus points are a great way to spend less while making more in points.

Mandy also won a contest from Nutella and got a PC/Loblaws gift card as a prize.  She used that to buy other groceries.  Click here to check out the details

I know it pains me to pay full price for anything, but sometimes there are things you just need.  Forum member ChantelKiss has come up with a great way around this – she budgets $10 a week for full price items (and she treated herself to snacks with them too).

Most of ChantelKiss’ shopping was done with price matching and coupons, but I think giving yourself a budget for full priced items is a great idea, especially if some in your family are not completely on board with your money saving ideas.

Click here to view her brag and find out how she saved over $63 on this shopping haul (and check out her snazzy coupon binder & tracking sheet!).

Do you give yourself a full price budget?

Forum member Frugal Lisa price-matched groceries at Real Canadian SuperStore to combine store coupons, manufacturer coupons and price matching in one shop to save her around $50 on the items shown above.

Price-matching can take time, you need to make sure the items are the exact matches (size, type, country of origin for fruit and vegetables), but as you can see below, it can be well worth it and save you time going to various stores. (more…)

Forum member skmommy regularly checks her local stores for clearance specials.  While stores have different ways of marking these deals, from pink stickers to boxes of random items at the same price or just a surprise at the cash – it pays to check.

These cans of Enfamil A+ are regularly $31.99, but because they expire at the end of April, had $15 worth of Manager Special coupons stuck on them.  She combined that with a $8 coupon sent from the manufacturer and saved $23 on each can.  She spent under $27 on all three cans, less than the price one would cost.

Watch out for store special stickers if you are doing a promotion with a minimum spend requirement, they often do reduce your total so do not count towards points etc but you can find some great deals, I often check nearby stores when I am early for a meeting or waiting for a GO Train and have found some terrific deals.

Click here to read skmommy’s full brag

Forum member tccl21 does recycle bin walks.  One of her finds was a cereal box with the $5 Gas Card form still attached.  The promotion must have been very popular this year, as Kellogg’s ran out of gas cards and sent tccl21 five coupons for a free product.  She used these to buy five boxes of Rice Krispies Squares which were donated to a local school for snacks.

It is always a good idea to send away for stuff on packaging or even enter contests where you are not the biggest fan of the prize.  The can always be donated and there may be a coupon for participating.  Several companies have tried to ‘make good’ on running out of prizes with FPCs lately, Mars recently sent me five FPCs instead of a pair of Team Canada mittens when they had a glitch in their contest.

Check out the full details of tccl21’s brag here and don’t forget, you can enter your brag and get a $5 gift card if it is featured on the blog!

As we say a fond (or not that fond) farewell to Zellers, many SmartCanucks members have been taking advantage of the great store closing deals.

When mine closed there were people fighting over a sweater, items everywhere, people grabbing random stuff, open boxes, stuff missing from packaging etc but if you were willing to take the time and duck when needed, there were some great deals.

Patty Smyth got everything pictured above for just $192.10, a savings of over $900 off the original prices.  The Kitchenaid cookware was just $45!  It usually pays to find out when stores are closing and visit – and to listen to staff for deals.  As Patty found out from an announcement, items were a further 50% of the clearance price but it was not advertised in store, she may not have bought some of the items without the extra 50% off.

Click here to read Patty’s full brag.

Did you know you can get paid if we feature your brag on the blog?  Check out the details here.

While we all try to reduce our grocery bill, I am sure most of us spend more than we would like to.  $avvy$hopper earns extra money in her spare time on ClixSense which she puts towards her groceries.  There are lots of sites where you can make an extra few dollars a month, through surveys, watching videos, special offers, tasks and more.  We have a thread for the most reliable ones in this SC forum.  Try a few and see what works for you.  I personally make over $25 a month on swagbucks which I cash out for paypal and can use for anything I want.

Click here to read $avvy$hopper’s brag where she got all of the food above (and a KitKat for her special little helper) for $13.11 and had cashed out her online earnings for around the same.

Did you know you can get paid if we feature your brag on the blog?  Check out the details here.

Not all of us like couponing, you run into cashier issues, need to find the coupons you will use and not be brand loyal.  But you don’t need to use coupons to save lots.  Forum member peachykeen2007 posted a brag where she did not use any coupons, but bought almost $90 worth of clothes for under $25 at Zellers during their final closing sale.

Then she went on to 20x day at Shoppers Drug Mart and bought $56+ tax of Physician’s Formula products at 30% off.  She used 6 prepaid Mastercards that you could get from cereal boxes last year to bring down her out of pocket cost to 33.79 including taxes.  Peachykeen2007 will get $33 back in mail-in-rebates from Physician’s Formula (details for the rebate can be found on packaging) and received 10.400 Optimum points (worth $10 at the lowest redemption level of 8000 for $10 but worth over $21 on a weekend like this one where 95k points gets you $200).  SCers know the best way to redeem is at the highest levels, so when she redeems her points, she will have been paid to buy makeup!

Mail in Rebates are a great way to boost your Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum points on 20x days without spending much in the long term.

Click here to read Peachykeen2007’s brag.

Did you know you can get paid if we feature your brag on the blog?  Check out the details here.

Unlike the rest of Canada, the Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) is compulsory for Quebec stores and does include sticker prices.  Forum member couponmummy took advantage of this recently at Bureau en Gros, where she got this Blackberry Charging Pod for free when it was advertised at the clearance price of $9.97 (reg $34.97) and rang in at $12.07.

As many of you are aware, you get the item free up to $10 but they need to reduce the price of the item to the advertised price first.  So couponmummy got this item for free – even better, SCOP reduces the taxes to $0 also!

If you are not familiar with SCOP, check out our blog about it here and click here to read couponmummy’s brag.

Did you know you can get paid if we feature your brag on the blog? Click here to read more.