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moneysense.ca, 25/05/08
Our Top Ten Money Saving Ideas
I don’t think it is all that difficult to save money. You can find tons of money saving ideas in books and on the internet but the trick is figuring out which ones work for you. In my opinion, the best saving ideas are those that require a one-time effort and takes advantage of our inertia to save money on a regular basis. Here are some money saving ideas that work for our family in decreasing order of importance:
- We purchased a smaller home than what we could have easily afforded. If you purchase a home that costs $30,000 less than you could afford, you could save $1,500 per year in interest costs alone and many hundreds more on property taxes, maintenance, utilities etc.
- I manage our investment portfolios saving 1% to 2% in fees every year. If you have a $50K portfolio and learn to manage it on your own, you could save between $500 and $1,000 every year.
- We pay down our mortgage with any “surprise” cash such as a pay raise, bonuses, tax refunds and lottery winnings (just kidding!). If your mortgage balance is $20K less due to extra payments and you are paying 5% on the balance, you are saving $1,000 per year.
- I drive a 1992 Honda Accord and plan to drive it for a few more years. I purchased the car used and have driven it for close to 10 years now. I must be saving a ton of money just on depreciation as there is nothing left to depreciate. Annual Savings: Thousands of dollars every year.
- Eating out is really expensive and we try and keep it down to once every week. Yes, cooking and cleaning up takes time but not only does it save money, it is healthier as well. Cutting back even once every month can save at least $40.
- We save by using two pre-paid cell phones from Virgin Mobile. If you tend to use your cell phone sparingly, you could save about $20 per month for each phone in your household (for an even cheaper option, consider a phone from Petro Canada). While you have to buy the phone initially, you can make it back in a matter of months. Annual Savings: $480 per year.
- We mostly buy clothes for our kids at consignment or thrift stores. We found that buying new was wasteful because they grow out of it in a matter of months (sometimes even weeks if they are undergoing a growth spurt) and you can easily find clothes in excellent condition for small kids in such stores. Annual Savings: Hundreds of dollars.
- By opening a chequing account with President’s Choice Financial, we hardly pay any fees for banking. Annual Savings: $120 per year.
- We use a credit card that does not have an annual fee. In fact, using a Costco American Express Credit card, we get roughly 1.5% cash back on our spending and it easily covers the annual Costco membership. Annual Savings: $100+ per year.
- How much are you paying for your high-speed internet? An internet subscription with Bell or Rogers costs close to $50 per month. Check out the cheaper alternatives or simply call and ask for a discount with your current service provider. Annual Savings: $100 per year.
I’d love to hear money saving ideas that work for you.
moneysense.ca, 25/05/08
May not be practical for all, but if you can get by with no car, or one car, you are looking at saving $5k easily. We use Autoshare for the times we need one.
Great ideas. If you already live in a big house here’s another one.
Get a roommate. If you don’t desperately need that spare room, or better yet, if you have a basement, you can offset a huge portion of your mortgage/utilities/taxes.
Also, Neil, the autoshare is a good idea. My wife only rarely needs a car for her work, so why pay insurance etc. etc. all the time? Hardly anybody NEEDS to own two cars.
Some great tips. Getting rid of your car is a big one–we use a autosharing program and rent if we need to go out of town (maybe once a month plus a few weeks per year). We used to own a ’92 Accord as well, and we’re still saving thousands from when we sold it a couple years ago. We’re also shopping less (no impulse trips!), which doesn’t usually get factored into the cost of ownership, but has turned out to be big additional savings for us.
Good idea! But C.C, with your investment knowledge, I think you can loose it up and enjoy your life a bit more
The only question is on CostCo. I never understand why people like CostCo, even I have been in membership twice. The price is not cheaper, plus the categories of inventory are limited. I love Walmart way better. Any insight here?
In terms of Credit Card, I love 1) CIBC Dividend Card which has no annual fee and gives out decent cash rebate. You can get $100+ cash rebate every year easily on family expense. 2) Citi Drive Edge Golden Card, which offers 2% rebate, no deduction. The only catch is you can only use the rebate for car purchase — any car, new purchase, or 2nd hand purchase, or private transactions.
I put all of my home office equipment on a timer so that it shuts off between midnight and 8am – Annual savings depends on how much power you are drawing but I save about $25 a year. I also unplug my water heater and turn off everything in my home office when I leave for a trip or weekend. I cycle everywhere and only use my 21 year old car when I really have to. When it conks out I am going to use Autoshare or Zipcar. As for Costco I do shop there and use the Costco Amex card and do find the prices way cheaper than other places on almost everything.
I save a bit of money every month by doing little things like buying a discounted monthly transit pass through my employer and maintaining the minimum balance on my bank account to waive the monthly fee. I also try to avoid lengthy long distance calls on my mobile phone and talk to my family on Skype instead. I also force myself to save by having my contributions to my firm’s group RRSP deducted off my pay or moved from my bank account regularly via a pre-authorised contribution plan, thus preventing me from spending the funds.
Also, I’m not sure if I’m really saving much doing this, but I purchase discounted home insurance through a deal my university’s alumni association has with an insurance company.
Saving on the biggest expenses (house, car) is smart. Lots of people look at their pre-qualified limit for a house and see that as their target figure. But there’s no reason to do that unless you live somewhere like Vancouver where house prices are very high. We bought a house that was less than half the amount we qualified for, and we’re very happy with it (we plan to stay in this house for the rest of our lives).
If you’re renting and saving up for a downpayment on a house, you can save big there too if you’re willing to make compromises and live in a not-so-great place for a few years. We spent five years in an apartment that was wedged between the train tracks and the city dump in a commerical/industrial zone, but we paid only $550/month for three bedrooms and we had a balcony that looked out over our neighbours’ gardens. Our landlord agreed to not raise the rent if we shoveled his walkway and driveway, and we shoveled our neighbour’s walkway as well in exchange for veggies from her garden in summer. In five years we saved enough for a 20 percent downpayment on our house plus I was able to buy our car with cash.
Get new release DVDs, books and CDs from the library – you can get yourself in queue on-line and the library lets you know when sometime comes in. You have several days before you have to do the pick-up. It’s wonderful!!
I’ve been using PC financial for banking for a long time as well, I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t. The condo I purchased is also well below my approved rate. I actually don’t know how I got approved so high, I’d have no money left if I took it.
Great post CC. We both had frugality in mind this morning. I can’t believe you drive a 1992 Honda Accord! I guess its’ true when they say that Honda’s never die.
The big stuff is worth more in absolute terms, but I’m always amazed how much you save by cutting back on smaller stuff. To that end, reducing or eliminating eating outside the house is huge. Those nice meals out are enjoyable but I always look at the credit card statement a few weeks later and just shake my head, thinking of how many nice meals i could have made myself at home for that money.
Neil, Cash Canuck, Riffraff: Cars are such a huge money pit. We used to manage with one car (the Accord) but after the kids were born, we really need two cars to avoid horrible commute times. Also, we stagger our day so that I drop off the kids in the morning and my wife picks them up in the evening.
Jennie: I’m mostly indexed now and I hardly even look at our portfolio these days. It is such a time and money saver to learn the basics of investing.
Re: Costco, it depends on what you buy. We buy diapers, groceries (milk, butter etc.) and their prices are cheaper than the places we frequent. You are right that they may not have the best prices on everything but overall, I’m happy with my Costco membership (Maybe an idea for a post?).
Leon: That’s a wonderful idea putting office equipment on a timer. I’ll try that as well.
Robillard: The amazing thing is that we just get used to what we have. By automatically taking out money before we even see it, we get accustomed to living on less and saving the rest.
brad: Houses are another huge money pit, the work and money to maintain seems almost endless.
Jo: Good point. And (at least with the Ottawa Library), you can put a “wait” on the queue until you are ready to read the book. I haven’t had much success with DVDs though. They skip or sometimes an hour or so into the movie, just when you are at the edge of the seat, don’t play at all. Bummer!
zeromoney: Yep, PC Financial rocks.
FT: Knock on wood, but the Accord may not last longer than 2 or 3 years. It isn’t the engine or the transmission or anything major. With our harsh winters, I don’t think the body is going to last very long.
The few times I’ve been to Costco, I’ve not seen better prices than Stupidstore. Well, some higher, some lower.
For sure, the biggest thing to save money on is housing. Lower property taxes, lower heating bills, lower condo fees (for condominiums) and less interest paid on the mortgage.
And if housing is thought of as a forced savings plan (rather than an investment), then smaller is also better. In the event of a downturn, your actual dollar drop will be much less (if the %-age is the same), and in the event of a huge run up in prices, you wouldn’t be complaining anyways.
I am going to switch to the prepaid phone soon. Might try MDJ’s trick and call Telus with the ‘is that the best you can do?’ line…
We purchased a smaller house in our neighbourhood, within walking distance of work and the grocery store. It has a basement apartment as well. We have installed a heat pump instead of a furnace and A/C. Much of the year we heat the house with waste heat from appliances, by leaving the heat at a low temperature from 9:30 pm until 4:00 pm. Except on the coldest of days, the house stays above 14 degrees without any heating. We then warm the house for our evening occupancy.
$10/ mo for cell phone. We share it.
We try to limit our trips, though living in a rural area, this is difficult at times. We keep our vehicles for 10+ years.
Vacation tends to be travel to spend time with family & friends, rather than having a summer cottage or traveling to exotic destinations.
I can purchase gas for $0.90 / litre just now if I travel 10 km out of my way.
DAvid
Since everyone’s individual and/or family lifestyle is different, I think the best way to target savings to try and track where everything is getting spent. From there, a simple budget could be used to keep discretionary spending down. Budget creator from “Til debt do us part”
http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/articles_f/article31-2.htm
Also, when you do decide to buy something ask yourself: Is this something I need or I want?
PC Financial does indeed rock – 8 years and counting. I am always amazed at the loyalty and fervent word-of-mouth campaigns among the faithful followers.
Price of milk at Shopper’s Drug Mart is 3.99 always (2.99 sometimes), and usually 4.59 everywhere else. Sales on eggs and butter quite often as well.
Paying down the mortgage with additional cash is my second priority after 18% RRSP’s. I struggle with whether mortgage paydown should come first, with expectations of reduced stock market returns and increased interest rates over the next decade, and pretty nifty guaranteed tax-adjusted return on mortgage paydown. Ah well, do one or the other, and it will all work out.
Limit eating out – expensive and unhealthy. One needs to celebrate sometimes though.
Reduce recurring monthly bills – we switched to lite internet and basic cable, and save $500/year. Phone is on YAK LD, should save $200/year. I know there are cheaper alternatives, but we would see only modest improvements with our limited LD use.
Hoping to drive my current cars for a long time to come…buy cars with good fuel economy.
Good day everyone, loving the comments!
About every three years or so I’ve boughten a car for 1000$-2000$ including taxes and certification. I’m 26 and I’m hoping to keep doing this indefinetely as I believe it will save me big $$.
I just switched over to telus. They offered me the 45 plan for a year for free with a 40% discount for the year after. On top of that they are giving me 400$ credit because I was with rogers before. Ask for the 400$ as they only offer 200$, I said you want my business I want a 400$ credit, she talked to her supervisor and they agreed.
I have just purchased my first home. As I’m in the Airforce, the military pays all my closing costs and a portion of my CMHC fees (3400$ of the 5500$). I’ve only been able to save 5% but I’m hoping to have more for the next posting as I build equity into the home. When I move again they pay my moving fees including the real estate fees. BIG SAVINGS!! All I had to come up with was the just over 8k for the downpayment. Oh and for those interested in the military, it’s awesome!
As for investing I plan on starting to invest, haven’t yet. Honestly I’ve finally started to become financially savvy. Went bankrupt 6years ago. Big lessons were learned. Trying to get a cashback card and I can’t
Hopefully in the near future I’ll be able to. (Any help on this would be great)
Join a loyalty program, PC has their own, Petro, Air miles who cares what program. Join them all if you don’t mind carrying all the cards around. In the end you end up with free gift cards… in turn it’s free money for the inconvience of carrying it in your wallet/purse.
For the youngens out there, party at home. This is my biggest savings tip. At 5$ a beer/8ball your getting ripped off. Buy a deck of cards or even rock band. It’s expensive but at 100$ a weekend you’ll save yourself a tonne of money over a year. If you need to goto the bar always have a DD which saves you cab fare.
Take care,
Rob
I could go on for hours about Costco, and I likely will at some point on my blog. The real kicker that people who aren’t regular visitors don’t realize is that their products are ‘THE BEST’. Every product Costco sells is the BEST. You can not find inferior products there no matter what you buy from socks, to meat, to bicycles, to toilet paper their products are of the utmost quality.
Also, anyone who claims any other store is cheaper is usually really just not doing the math, or they are comparing a ‘BEST’ product to a ‘GOOD’ or ‘BETTER’ product.
GIV: Good point. It’s important to save on both the big ticket items and the small expenses. After all, a small leak can sink a mighty ship.
noblelea: It’s worth a try. I avoid monthly plans because our cell phone use is occasional and I hate those network access charges.
David: That’s interesting how you heat your home. What’s required to capture heat from appliances? I always thought it goofy to heat the house, cool the food in a fridge and then heat the butter inside the fridge in some models.
Jon: I’m a huge believer in tracking expenses as well. Just take the largest variable expense, look to reduce it and keep moving down the list.
Ben: I’m pretty sure milk isn’t that cheap at our local Shopper’s. Though, I know colleagues who buy milk at a different store and report similar low prices. It’s a close call between mortgage paydown and RRSP. Tough to say which is better.
Rob: Good tips. Thanks.
MG: I’m a huge Costco fan. If you add in the savings from the coupons, their prices are really really good.
Good points in the post and the comments. I’ll give Costco the thumbsup. Our typical shopping day includes Costco and Superstore, as they are in close proximity. Costco has way better produce and meats, and does have all of those name brand products at the best prices.
That being said, sometimes I don’t care for the name brand and Superstore has a cheaper version or a bulk product.
Cars are the worst money pits, but can be difficult to give up depending on your circumstances. We recently went from 2 old cars to 1 new compact, and haven’t looked back.
Canadian Capitalist asked: “That’s interesting how you heat your home. What’s required to capture heat from appliances? “
Unless it is windy, the waste heat from hot water tank, freezer, refrigerator, TV, computer, etc., keeps our house above 12 or 14 degrees C overnight, even at -5C. We heat the house to a comfortable temperature for the late afternoon & evening, while we occupy it. We do not warm the whole house in the morning while we have shower, etc, rather we simply heat the bathroom only. During April and May, and again in September & October there is enough heat from the sun that we do not heat the house at all. On those warm spring or fall days, we open the clerestory windows on the north side to cool the house, exhausting heat and drawing in cool air by convection.
During the heat of summer, we try to avoid running the A/C until late in the day — largely to cool the bedrooms for sleeping. The cat can hide in the basement if he finds it too warm! Once again, the natural ventilation provided by the north windows, and the trees to the west usually help cool the house before the sun sets.
DAvid
I know I’ll get in trouble for this but here’s another money saving idea….adopt a vegetarian diet, good for the body, good for the planet, and you save $$$.
Free banking is important. Negotiate this every time and ask for it, and if they say NO, then go to PC Financial and laugh all the way to the bank.
Library is the best place to get first run stuff for free too (good point there).
I am so cheap I have my wife cut my hair!
–C8j
A friend of mine quit using PC Financial because he needed a loan and PC Financial had a cumbersome, convoluted process for verifying his ID. He went to a regular bank’s branch, switched his accounts and got his loan the next day.
Speaking of annoying bank stories, another friend of mine (who is a recent immigrant) unknowlingly racked up piles of service charges by effectively using her savings account as a chequing account. By speaking to the branch manager in person, she was able to have the charges reversed and learned how to better manage her monthly transactions in the process. She wasn’t happy about it though.
I’m not advocating for service charges on bank accounts, but that money does pay for tellers and branches. Sometimes there are things that are just easier to do in person.
Banking: the time and trouble to disentangle our life from Scotia isn’t worth the savings for me, but (not publicized) keeping $10k in a MoneyMaster nullifies transaction fees for it and primary chequing and visa accounts.
Cell Phone: I bought a great $50 Nokia with Bell prepaid with auto top-ups that expired every 60 days (about $13/mo.) A kindly support person later told me to top up manually on the expiration day and the dollars would accumulate – now have over $150 in prepaid dollars. When the phone dies I’ll switch to Virgin, as I think you can buy a $100 lasting a year.
Sympatico: the new Total is costing me $40/mo on a $10 discount the sales rep gave me when I said I didn’t need their security service. Which brings up last / best tip:
Haggle: too many hurried or painfully polite consumers never test the discretion that “meatware” sales reps are given, when ordering merchandise – it’s one of the ways online ordering can be a price trap – on my January Dell computer buy I paid $200 less for a much better machine and warranty than obtainable from the online order form, dealing with a friendly high-spirited Bangalore call centre guy who had “room to move.” Had a similar experience getting an “expired” online price ordering my daughters laptop a year ago, so go in with the attitude it’s a Casbah.
DAvid: I guess you’re saying that a programmable thermostat helps to avoid unnecessarily heating the home. I’d second that. We do the same thing, heating the home in the morning and evenings only. We also hardly run the A/C, turning it on for the really hot and muggy days for an hour or two in the evening.
KS: Becoming a vegetarian is a lifestyle change that may be hard to make. We are vegetarians but having been brought up that way it isn’t too difficult to maintain it.
Big Cajun: I draw the line at cutting hair. I used to cut my kids’ hair when they were very young but now I just pay someone to do it. I’d rather not deal with the mess at home after a haircut.
Robillard: I keep a bank account on a pay-as-you-go basis at a big bank. I think they offer a few free transactions every month and we are almost always within that limit due to the PC account.
Albin: The unused credit rolls over at Virgin Mobile as well as long as you top up before the expiry date. When our current phone dies, I’ll look into Petro-Canada Mobile. Their pre-paid credits last much longer. It’s amazing how many places offer discounts if you simply ask for it. It just doesn’t hurt to ask, eh?
Another thing I do is use only rechargeable batteries. I used a power meter to determine how much it cost to recharge 4 AA batteries and it was just pennies, compared to ($5 or more for non-rechargeable). Also, I bring my own bags everywhere and a few retailers are now giving you a small rebate (a few cents but it adds up) for not needing a bag. I also put all paper that is blank on one side (from the mail, paper I already used, etc) through the laser printer again on the blank side. I haven’t bought new blank paper in ages as I use so little of it. I know this all sounds so ‘crunchy-granola’ but all these little things add up and once you’ve done it for a while it’s second nature. Plus, it creates way less waste (meaning I can use the small garbage bin from the City of Toronto, giving me a $20 credit per year).
I’ll just put this out there as another way to save money, even though it is a bit iffy.
Download stuff for free on bit torrent. The best site is http://www.thepiratebay.org and http://www.youtorrent.com is also really good.
Instead of paying for cable service, download the couple shows you actually like. We watch are Lost & Family Guy, hard to justify full cable for that.
Instead of going to the movies, or having to go rent & return DVDs, download them overnight.
Ido f you rent a kid’s movie that they will want to watch over and over then use DVD Shrink to make a copy.
The same is true for downloading music, audiobooks, and software applications.
I know it might not be right, but it’s an individual choice. In our case we mostly do this because if we didn’t we wouldn’t buy it otherwise, so it’s fairly victim-less.
Paying off the mortgage is key in my opinion.
I have my 25year mortgage down to 13 now. (Been living in it for almost 5 years) An extra $100 each payment will not effect your bottom line, especially when its automatic. I consider it the same as paying yourself first. $100 extra in a savings account adds up and looks “pretty” after a certain time period, but I treat my mortgage as a game. I love seeing how much I can knock off the principal each month. My goal is to have it paid off in 7 years. Looking forward to the extra cash flow each month
I would say there are three themes here and you must manage them all at the same time. 1. Deciding what you need to spend money on (cars, etc.); 2. Figuring out how to save money on the things you must consume consume or buy (energy, clothes, transportation, shelter, etc); and 3. Deciding where the highest benefit is of your excess cash flow (mortgage, etc.)
I mostly bought things second hand (furniture, electronics, cars etc), the savings are just out of this world. We furnish our entire house with second hand stuff that we found on local websites, the guests who came over to our place for a visit wouldn’t know the difference!
We also save on the tax as well.
Before I buy something, I figure if it’s something that I need or I want and will almost always go with the former.
[...] Capitalist and his spouse seem to have things sorted out. He is happy to drive a 1992 Honda Accord even though they could easily afford something more impressive. I’m happy to do it in a 1998 [...]
I know this is not new, but I save by drying our clothes on wooden racks and on sunny days, on our deck, even in late winter, they smell great, and my dryer is not eating up the hydro. It is a bit more work but very satisfying. thanks.
I cut my own hair with a $30 hairshaver. I save $250 a year, so $2500 over 10 years. I’m getting better at it.
I’ve just sold my car, which saves me $300 a month in insurance, gas, parking, and repairs.
Check out your credit cards, loan and line of credit statements. See how much you pay in disability or/and life insurance. Did you even know you had them???
Biggest way to save is take a list where ever you go. I think I wasted money when I would get side tracked and became an impulse buyer. I don’t go to Costco anymore because I would buy things I didn’t really need or quantities that were too large and went bad. Walmart is a hot zone too if you dont’ have a list. I don’t overstock my cupboards, I keep a list on the fridge. We make a meal plan and buy for the week at one place. I try to buy fresh and focus on small portions. We all tend to over eat. We have half a chicken breast rather than a whole one each. Left overs are tomorrow’s meal. One night a week we make pizza and we have a breakfast for dinner night. We roast chicken and then make soup out of the left overs. Get rid of your phone extras, call waiting, call display and call answer. Nothing is more freeing to not have a dozen messages waiting for you when you get home. I have voicemail at work so I do not miss it. For telemarketers, we just say no and hang up, who needs call display? For Christmas and back to school, I take inventory first and then again shop with a list. This year, I will only be buying paper for back to school, the kids don’t need anything else. I also stopped wasting money on cosmetics and drug store items. No more miracle creams or lotions. I stick to the basics in cosmetics and clothes that are neutral and go from one season to another with only a need to change jewelry, purse and shoes. It is not huge but it works.
Moneygardener:
Comparing the best to the good is one thing.
But half the time these “best” brands are simply the most famous. They are more expensive because they have huge marketing bills – not because they are of better quality.
For example, there is no real difference between Coke and the cheaper store brands except the Coke has to charge more to cover its advertising. Coke = 1.29 per 2L, PC Cola = 0.79 per 2L. Neither have any redeeming health benefits, Both are just empty calories but I’ll choose PC any day for the price difference. They pretty much taste the same.
Paying down the mortgage with additional cash is my second priority after 18% RRSP’s. I struggle with whether mortgage paydown should come first, with expectations of reduced stock market returns and increased interest rates over the next decade, and pretty nifty guaranteed tax-adjusted return on mortgage paydown. Ah well, do one or the other, and it will all work out.
I’m glad to see there are so many people here who support PC Financial! ING Direct is another great bank. If you sign up for an automatic savings plan, the money can be withdrawn from your account on your payday so that you don’t see or miss the money. Using this method, I save at LEAST 35% of my net pay (I rent and have no debt).
Living below your means – taking TTC instead of owning a car, renting or buying a smaller place, and limiting meals outside the home – are huge contributors to how much money you can save.
I live in a small one bedroom apartment with my boyfriend, and it includes utilities, internet, cable, and laundry – any comparable apartments in our area go for at least $150 more per month, so we save a lot each month on that. We also gave up our car (a 1997 Honda Civic) when me moved, and it cost at least $300/month for insurance, gas, parking, and maintenance. For food, we look through the flyers for the deals and try to do the bulk of the shopping at No Frills and Price Chopper, which is considerably cheaper than Sobeys, Loblaws, and Metro.
Finally, keeping track of where the money goes is very useful in finding out where you can afford to cut back. We created an excel spreadsheet and save our receipts so we can input our cash/debit/credit purchases easily. Saving on living expenses, food, and transportation (and tracking it!) has helped us put away a considerable amount of money over the past year that we just used towards the purchase of a condo.
I have implemented many of your ideas already and i just found your site. Have you ever considered couponing? I don’t spend more then $1 a bottle for laundry soap, free shampoo, conditioner, body washes, makeup ect. (no noname products in my house and i pay pennies on the dollar) in some cases we get a coupon for over the value of the product and then the overage gets applied to the order… at some stores not all.
On top of the couponing, I drive a used car, have a room mate, pay cash, get the internet deals every year, have a budget i try and come in under, we rarely eat out, my daughter uses the library (she reads 3 books a day and is 16), i am starting a money diary so i can see what is spent where. I am not rich and i don’t have money in the bank, I do however have everything we need and a budget that was ready for a sudden change of me being off work for illness.
We live with better products and comfortably with coupons. $150 a month is our grocery budget including all costs of food, cleaning, body, laundry, dog food and so much more. There are 2 of us plus one big dog and the 16 year old can EAT lol, before coupons that may have possibly fed one of us. However i must say, couponing does take a time commitment and considerable effort.