The art of couponing

Ahhhh, coupons. They've become quite trendy with the recent economic downturn. Suddenly, economizing has become tres chic. There was once a time when it was almost shameful to use coupons in the grocery line. Like, somehow it indicated extreme thrift or poverty. Not anymore! Coupons are an essential tool in the smart shoppers wallet. It's money that you keep instead of spend. What could be better than that! The whole idea behind couponing is to use coupons wisely, for things you would buy anyway. 

Some tips:

1. Use your coupons for items that are already on sale! This is a great strategy. It's not always possible to do this, but for certain items (e.g., diapers) that go on sale frequently, it's a must! For example, at the store where I usually buy my diapers, the retail price for a jumbo pack of Huggies is $21.99. Using my Huggies coupons (I almost always have $2.00 or $3.00 coupons at all times for these), that brings the price down to $18.99 or $19.99. However, at least once every 2-3 weeks, Huggies go on sale for $14.99. A huge difference in cost $12.99 vs. $19.99.

2. Keep your coupons organized! My friend Pamela bought me a mini-accordion file that fits nicely in my purse. So I have files set up for food, kids items, hair care products, cleaning products, etc. It makes it much easier to find what you need when you are at the store.

3. Share with your friends. My friend Pamela and I often take out our files, and exchange coupons. We give each other our duplicates, or the coupons we no longer need.

4. Grab 'em at the grocery store! Often, grocery stores will have a pad of coupons for a particular item attached to the shelf. If it's a product you already use, grab a bunch of coupons, and stash them for future use. 

Where to find coupons:

I have a number of sources for good coupons.
www.save.ca  One of the best sites for coupons in Canada. You choose what you want, and the coupons arrive in your mailbox 3-4 business days later. 
www.webSaver.ca  Also a good site, not as great a selection as the previous site, but they conveniently are mailed to your home within 3-4 business days. 
www.brandsaver.ca  This site, operated by Proctor and Gamble, has a great selection of coupons for personal care items and cleaning products. Similar to the previous sites, you select what you want, then they mail the coupons to your home within 3-4 business days. 


There are many other sites out there offering great savings on goods or services. Be a savvy shopper and grab your coupons. Keep your money!

needs vs. wants

I think of the biggest eye openers for me of this process is diffentiating between needs and wants. It is amazing what you think you "need". Then, adversity strikes, your income dries up, and you have to decide what is absolutely necessary. I should preface this by saying that not everyone scales back their spending when their income dries up. Some people live in patent denial, and rack up credit card debt, compounding their problems even more. However, in my case, I have gone into survival mode. When the paycheque is dropped into the bank, the bills get paid. If there isn't enough money to pay all the bills on time, then the sequence (in order of importance) is usually: mortgage, electricity, car payment, gas bill, credit card bills, phone/satellite/internet bill, then cell phone bills. A bit of money is always set aside for groceries/personal care items and gas for the car. And then usually that's about it. I almost never have anything left over for anything like clothes, entertainment and the like. I make sure the kids are fed, they have clothes that fit, buy diapers/formula and that's about it. My husband and I have wardrobes that are beginning to look worn out, but at the moment it's not a need. I get down at times, feeling sorry for myself, bemoaning my old raggedy clothes, but really it has to be put into perspective. One only needs to turn on the news and see the situation in countries like Haiti, and then your own life looks pretty darn comfortable in comparison. We really don't need anything that badly.

Peer pressure

I got invited to this show, which I felt compelled to attend. It was a Christmas gala, put on by a local merchant, meant to showcase this shop's merchandise for the holiday season. I was very hesitant to attend, partly because it was not really my thing (I'd rather be home with my kids after a long day of working) and partly because I am totally broke this week and have not an extra dime to spend on anything. You go to these types of events (females primarily get invited) and you spend some time doing some token socializing, eating hors d'oeuvres and the like. But the primary reason for the fete is to hock some products (Pampered Chef, Tupperware, Fantasia, Partylite and many others). Generally these products are not items you really need. You feel compelled to buy because others around you are. There is also the element of not wanting to offend the host, who likely has extended to you the invite. So peer pressure has really got you between a rock and a hard place. I held firm, I didn`t buy anything tonight, and I felt incredibly awkward about it.

Lottery ticket

My friend Dana, after reading my last post,  sent me a birthday card with a lottery ticket in it (Cash for Life). Thanks Dane! Unfortunately, I did not win $1000 a week for life (or any other prize), so back to the tough stuff. But it was a nice thought! In one of the financial blogs I read, someone wrote ``a lottery ticket is not a financial plan`. True enough.

Needed: lottery ticket, preferably a winner.

I went to the bank yesterday, to speak with a personal banker about my current situation. I was positively terrified. I am carrying around this burden with me, and there is an incredible amount of shame attached to it. As she kept asking me to "show her the numbers", I felt a mixture of fear and relief. It was somewhat nice to be able to unburden myself of all these numbers and see them on paper, but I was scared of what this woman would think of me, and my situation.

So she crunches some numbers, and looks at me soberly, and says, "You need to win the lottery."

No, really. That was seriously what she said. I was like, "Oh, crap, it really is that bad".

Alright, so yes, it is what it is. A bad place to be. But also confirmation that YES I am indeed at the bottom. I have to take a deep breath each day, and try to remain focused on what I need to do, however impossible the task may seem.

The critical time

There comes a time in everyone's life where one crucial decision causes a cascade of intended and unintended consequences. Our decision to build our home was one such decision. It was my husband's dream, something he had always envisioned doing. In fact, he had helped his best friend build his own dream home, so it was a plan that seemed certain to come to fruition.

The temptation here is to share every last gory detail of our home building odyssey. However, I should condense it down to the essential points. We bought a piece of land for more than we should have paid. We decided to build a house without a general contractor (i.e., my husband did the contracting) thinking that we could have the home we wanted for much less than we would normally have paid otherwise. Along the way, we hit many, many roadblocks. Costs spiralled out of control, money slid through our fingers, and long story short, we have a (mostly) finished house which is beautiful, but has drained us financially.

So what to do? The housing marketing takes a dive. Suddenly, we are "upside down", so even if we could sell our home (which we definitely don't want to do) we would not be able to recoup our costs, much less make a profit.

We're here, in this big, beautiful home, and commited to making it work. However, the flip side of this is that we're house poor. Which is essentially how I got to where I am now, and why I am consumed with trying to find my way out of this pit of debt and getting my head above water so we can actually enjoy our lives, instead of trying to make our paycheques last until the end of the month.

Thanksgiving 2010

I said that I would finish my story, how I got to this place. So, backtrack to the years 2000-2002 and I am making pretty decent coin, saving a bit, bought a condo, and then the bills started to climb. The savings remained steady at about $600/monthly. But, I also got a home equity line of credit to cope with all the expenses of owning a condo that wasn't new. So I had a couple credit cards, a line of credit, student loan debt, and a mortgage. Not earth shattering stuff, but a fair amount of debt to be sure.

In 2003, I met my significant other. Ours was a long distance courtship, so we travelled a fair bit (i.e. air travel) to see each other, and also racked up some big phone bills. By 2005, we married, and then the bills (and debt) really started to climb. We still had to cope with travel costs (travelling by air to visit families in another country). Then, right after getting married, I got pregnant with my first child. An expected pregnancy, but we were delighted to be having a child. However, I had not saved even one penny towards a maternity leave. During my pregnancy, I was faced with my spouse still living in another country (immigration issues not ironed out), caring for my dying mother, and finally the death of my beloved mother in my 7th month of the pregnancy. It is not surprising that I did not save any money during this time. My attention was completely focused on survival (my baby's, my mother).

My son was born in 2006, and my goal was to stay home with him for 6 months. My employer provided me with 17 weeks maternity benefits, during which I would collect 75% of my previous years' wages. I also could collect unemployment insurance during this time. However, all these benefits were deferred, meaning it took almost 2 months after the birth before I could start collecting. In the meantime, I still had to figure out how to pay the mortgage, utilities, student loan, property taxes, car insurance etc. Hence, the line of credit started to get used once again.

This is still not the whole story. I thought I could compose it more quickly than this, but I guess it's more complicated than I first thought.

More to follow on another day.

Happy thanksgiving. I am blessed and thankful for my wonderful family, my home ($$$) and my job that I still have, and my friends. Despite my mountain of debt, there are still lots of blessings in my life.