How I get my deals?

There are a lot of ways that I get good deals.

One is that I live in the US and we have way more coupons than up in Canada. Then, I am very aware of the different grocery stores in my area and what deals they have every week. I, for the most part, buy the produce that is on sale that week. We still get a variety because every week is usually different and my family eats a ton of fruit and vegetables. I then match the deals of the store to what coupons I have and voila...free stuff or cheap stuff.

For example:

A toothbrush is normally 1.99$ each (on average). But...routinely one of the local grocery stores will put them on sale for .99$ each. And then I will have a coupon for .50$ or .75$ off a toothbrush. Most of the grocery stores in my area double coupons up to a dollar. So a .25$ coupon is really .50$. A .50$ is really a $1 and a .75$ is really a $1. So that coupon that you think is only worth .50$ is really worth a dollar and I use it at the grocery store when the toothbrush is a dollar and that is how I get free stuff.

I am part of a coupon group which I never thought I would ever do and we meet once a week the day after the grocery deals come out. We go through the ads and figure out what is the best deals and what we have coupons for. Then we trade coupons. For ex: Some people are brand specific for toothpaste so they trade all their crest coupons to somebody who doesn't want colgate toothpaste. You end up getting more coupons for the same item. So instead of 1 toothpaste you might get 2 or 3 free ones.

I've been getting a bunch of stuff lately at Target. I'm not sure Canada even has Target yet let alone SuperTargets but Target allows you to match a Target coupon with a manufacturers coupon. (There a bunch of grocery stores here that allow you to do that). Here is an example of something I did at Target last week. A few weeks ago I was shopping at Target and with my receipt the cashier gave me a Target coupon for a buy 1 get 1 free Smuckers Ice Cream topping. I knew that I had some Smuckers coupons. So...the next time I went to Target I checked out how much their syrops were. I got the biggest kind and they were 2.26$ each. I grabbed a caramel and chocolate. At the register it came to 4.52$. I handed over my Target coupon which took off 2.26$. I then handed over 2 manufacturers coupons for $1 each. That makes my bill for caramel and chocolate syrop .26$ or 13 cents each.

It helps that I have friends that are into saving too. There is a new store that I just haven't had a chance to get to. A good friend is going today and is going to get me a box of peaches (.39/pound) and a box of pears (.33/pound) and grapes (.59/pound).

And that is how you get deals.