Cure those Sunday blues with 25% off your entire purchase at Old Navy (excluding active and uniforms which have their own promos) today only. To take advantage, enter ONFLASH25 when shopping online or print this coupon to save in store.
Click here to shop online or find a store
When we tried the cash jar method, it was something that both of us agreed to and were pretty careful about making sure the budget would work, but this was not the case with all of my ideas for saving and paying off our debts.
No money management idea will work if your whole family are not onboard with the idea. Meal planning gets ruined by a child crying for pizza, your cash jars go out the window when someone comes home with a large purchase not discussed beforehand, someone goes to the bar after work and your entertainment budget for the month and more is gone. For me, our biggest issue was getting the small spending under control, the coffees and donuts and grabbing a sandwich for $7 in Toronto because you didn’t make a lunch. Once those were under control, we looked for ways to cut our budget further to pay off debts quicker and save more.
That was when I started couponing, and when we had the most issues with family disagreements over budgeting. Although he seemed to be onboard with the cash jar idea from the start, deep down he felt like a child waiting for Monday for a new allowance when he knew money was sitting in our accounts. He liked the idea of saving money more than actually doing it. Couponing just pushed him over the edge. He thought, like many, that people would think we were poor and look badly on us because of it, he was embarrassed standing in line with a coupon.
So we came to an agreement, our budget was already where we wanted it to be, we were paying down debts, saving and the majority of the time, staying within our jar amounts (with some borrowing from other jars) but he wanted that freedom we had before – so we agreed to a non jar allowance on top of the money we had allotted to ‘everything else’ as a personal allowance of 20% of whatever we saved or earned extra. As many on the SmartCanucks’ forums know, I have a nail polish addiction – that ‘reward’ money pays for those ‘wants’ that I don’t need. So if I want to buy that extra $10 nail polish, I need to find $50 in savings from our budget or earn an extra $50 that month and he gets a matching $10 too. The other 60% gets divided between savings and debt. He was soon offering to work on Saturday or asking why don’t I have a coupon for an item when it went directly into his pocket.
For others, the hardest is giving up a certain name brand, especially for kids. One week it is Quaker granola bars because they were on sale, the next it is store brand, one week iogo yogurt, the next Astro. You have all seen the kid crying in the grocery store because it has to be a certain kind, but giving in will not help you long term. If your children are old enough, explain that their allowance or hockey equipment comes from the savings. Give them some reward for helping you in your goals.
Meal planning works well, especially if you have a treat day, as they can look at the plan on the fridge and know they can have that pizza tomorrow. It is not just a no.
A friend pays her daughter $1/week on top of her allowance to help clip and sort her coupons and look through the flyers and match them up with her (and her younger brother’s) favourites. Her daughter is learning from a young age how to budget and about earning money (I think she gets more excited than me about the flyers being early). She has a folder with their favourite items and how much she will pay for them. Once the proper grocery list is done, they are given $10 to spend on treats from that price sheet. If they can find them in the flyers, they can have them. She updates this monthly or so according to coupons she has so they just need to look at the flyer price and she worries about the coupons. If they don’t spend it all, it goes into a ‘fun jar’ and they use it for movies and towards their next Disney vacation – something they never could have afforded several years ago before saving and couponing. Then if she does have to take them to the grocery store with her, ‘their job’ is to find their own items which distracts them from the usual ‘mommy I want this’ arguments.
“I realize this may not be for everyone, but after years of “helping” me grocery shop by throwing whatever they wanted in the cart, it is a happy medium. Amelia really does enjoy helping and is learning great tools for the future.”
Obviously this is not for everyone, but as she mentions, her children were used to the choice and choosing what they wanted at the grocery store – so if you are starting out in the same situation, it may help you ease your children into the couponing/saving lifestyle.
Yes, saving is not meant to be fun, but you will be more likely to stick to it if there is some reward at the end of it all (other than savings and paying off your debts). It is all about what reward works for you.
What advice do you give to those starting out on getting their families into the SmartCanucks lifestyle?
This blog is part of our New to SmartCanucks series, click here to read more blog posts in the series
Complete this form if you are a dog owner and Nutrience will send you a coupon good for up to $4 off Nutrience Original, $5 off Nutrience All Natural and $6 off Nutrience Holistic. Complete this form if you are a cat owner to receive a coupon good for up to $2 off Nutrience Original, $3 off Nutrience All Natural and $4 off Nutrience Holistic.
Save $5 on the purchase of Purina Pro Plan Shredded Blend with this hidden coupon available by mail through Save.ca. Click here to order yours!
Not many coupons available for gluten free products so is nice to see one that is not product specific. Their last Canadian one was just for Plentils. Save $1.50 on two Enjoy Life products when. Requires the smartsource printer to install.
Click here to print your coupon
Visit Softlips on Facebook for a printable coupon for $1 off any Softlips product. The coupon expires January 31st.
Clorox are offering a printable coupon for $5 off a Brita Water Pitcher. If printed today, it expires March 8th.
Click here to print your coupon
The January sales are starting now the Boxing Day sales are ending. Here is a round up of shoe and clothes store sales this weekend.
It is as simple as don’t spend more than you earn, right? Sure, but you could still be living paycheque to paycheque. When we first tried the Gail Vaz-Oxlade method of budgeting using cash jars/envelopes, we were badly overspending. We were all too fond of putting it on our credit card and worrying about it later. I remember filling out the form on her website and wondering what we were spending another $1000 a month on – now we know exactly where we spend our money so if we do need to cut back, we know where we can cut first.
Expenses: Gail Vaz-Oxlade recommends that of your total income, 35% goes to housing, 15% to transportation, 25% on “life” (everything from groceries, pets, kids etc), 15% to debt and 10% to savings. If you walk most places or have no debt, obviously these will change – but savings in your budget should go to savings, not just be spent because you have it.
Budget what you can afford to spend based on your income (budget worksheet here). You will be amazed how much you need to spend compared to how much you actually do spend. If you have no idea what you spend on “life”, spend January following the tips on SmartCanucks and tracking your spending then fill in the budget sheet.
Once you have your numbers, setup your jars or envelopes. You will need
You will have a monthly allowance that goes into each of those jars, you can add a percentage of the budget weekly, bi-weekly or monthly – however you get paid. Remember that some money in the jar is for costs that month and some are meant to accumulate. Keep the money from each jar in that jar for upcoming expenses. If you run out of grocery money, cut the entertainment or an optional ‘everything else’ expense for that week and use it for food – but make sure it is coming from optional spending, not accumulated surplus for say a dentist visit or oil change.
Keep a notebook and track all spending, then enter it into your tracking sheets, which are as simple as this:
Get a receipt for everything, even that coffee from Tim Hortons to remind you of what you are spending. I put my receipts in my jars until the end of the week so we both can see where money is being spent, and so we can make sure it gets tracked.
Most importantly, give yourself some non tracking allowance for each week, it doesn’t have to be big but the freedom will help you stay on track with the other jars. If it fits in the other jars, use that money but if you want something frivolous, use the allowance.
You will be amazed how much you save living just on the money in those envelopes, set up a high interest savings account and put a portion of your newly unspent money towards savings, another portion in a curveball/rainy day fund and use the rest to pay down your debts.
If you are reading this because you have debts, start by calling them – ignoring the calls will not help. Tell them that you now have say $100 per month in your budget for them, ask if they can lower your interest rate to help you pay it off. Try going to the bank to consolidate the debts with one payment with a lower interest rate. If that doesn’t work – start with the largest interest rate, its costing you more in the long term. Pay the minimum on the others and pay down what is costing you the most. For some people, this may be a really annoying debt collector, but not your biggest bill – but if it is getting you down and costing you emotionally, pay it first.
Let us know how you are doing using this system
This blog is part of our New to SmartCanucks series, click here to read more blog posts in the series
Burnbrae Farms (the makers of Egg Creations) are promising a giveaway of 650 coupons tomorrow evening to celebrate a year on facebook. You can also enter their contest to win a $50 prize pack. It is not clear if this is first come first served or a contest for the coupons.
Click here to visit their facebook page
This promotion is actually a chance to win these mitts (and bigger prizes) but many members are saying that they won today. There is a limited number available so try for yours soon.
Thanks sdddmd for a UPC: 058496812324
Enter here for your chance to win
Cineplex are offering Family Favourites movies on Saturday mornings at 11 for just $2.50/person.
Click here for more information
Burnbrae held their giveaway early, but if you missed it, they have 5000 coupons for buy one get one free on Egg Creations available on Facebook.
This is not a renewed coupon from the last one, so if you got one recently you can get another and you do not need to add extra coupons to your save.ca basket to checkout with this coupon.
Click here to get this coupon
Update: Fans, we are planning another giveaway this evening (650 coupons) for those who didn’t get a coupon this afternoon. (Limit of one per day.)
A new printable coupon for $1 off the purchase of Arctic Gardens frozen vegetables is available through the Canadian Living website. Click here to print yours. The coupon will appear on the right hand side of the page, under “Connect With Us.”
Oddduck has done her usual amazing job of compiling the best baby deals around from the flyers this week.
View the list of deals on diapers, baby food and more for the week of Jan 4-10 here
Hot Canada Deals
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