FREEBIE FRIDAY

For the first time that I have ever seen, one of our local stores is offering doubling on coupons for Friday and Saturday only so last night I went through my coupons, printed out the probiotic vitamin one from the website and this is what I bought....for a grand total of 5.00....not quite free however I got 31.99 off in coupons today so I am very happy!

FREE AND ALMOST FREE, A GOOD SHOPPING WEEK!

Those who know me know my favorite word when shopping is "free". In Canada we have a little something called "the scanning code of practise". If an item scans at a price other than the marked or labeled price, the first 10.00 of the product price is free. If the item is under 10.00 the item is free, if it is over 10.00 you get 10.00 off....I love the scanning code of practise but you have to be on your toes because most places will not give it unless you insist despite the signage on their tills etc. Wal-Mart is a place with frequent price errors and they will fight you every inch of the way to get out of allowing you to use the scanning code of practise (Queensborough Wal-Mart specifically), Well I was in Wal-Mart yesterday and the bacon scanned wrong..4.42 and the shelf marking was 3.97. After much back and forth and their clerk saying this wasn't the product etc, I finally went and got the shelf tag that clearly said Maple Leaf sliced bacon on it. The supervisor was going to correct the price and then I pointed out the big notice on their counter stating the scan of practise rules. She begrudgingly put it through as free. It is a bit of a hassle but worth it in the end. So...free bacon....  I should note here that not all stores are members of the scanning code of practise and it is a voluntary agency so the stores do not have to belong if they choose not too. Safeway, London Drugs, IGA, Shoppers Drug Mart, Costco and Wal-Mart are some of the stores that honor it. For a full list you would have to use Google and it will come up.

Now, as bad as Wal-Mart is at trying to argue you out of the code, Safeway is probably the best store around for knowing the rules and using them properly without any fight, argument etc. I love Safeway for this reason. Today I bought this meat for the carnivores in this house. Note the original price is over 30.00 but they have a sale! It was supposed to be 18.82 when you use your Safeway club card. Around here any time is grill time even if the temperature outdoors is in the minus degrees.  I used the self check out and noted the club card price that came off was only a dollar something so I asked the lady who supervises the self checkouts for help. She made several phone calls to the meat department and talked to the customer service counter and then arrived back and said "I am only charging you 8.82 for this as it scanned wrong"...oh my big score. Now I hadn't even thought about the scanning code of practise for some reason in this case so having her automatically take off 10.00 from the sticker price was awesome, thank you Safeway, this is why I love to shop with you!

One more interesting thing I found out at Safeway today is that in the meat department, on top of the counter where their butcher shop is, they have an assortment of spices and marinades, teryaki, steak sauce, all kinds of really great stuff and it is FREE....you just have to ask a clerk and they will package up whatever you want from their selection....they will even put your meat in a marinade for you....that is pretty cool!! I came home with teryaki marinade and powered steak spice.....can't wait to try them out!

OK, now the item below was not free however it was close. Multibionta is a new vitamin out and it contains probiotics. It contains a complete multi vitamin and essential minerals as well. Recently I was invited to join a BZZZZ campaign to try these vitamins out. I haven't received my free ones from BZZZZ yet but ran across a coupon online for 10.00 off on these vitamins and they sound so intriguing I decided to buy a package. Safeway had them on sale for 11. 49 if you use your club card so using the 10.00 off coupon I bought them for about 1.49....not quite free but pretty darned close! I have heard some really good things about them so am looking forward to seeing if they are as good as they sound! I will do another post for BZZZ agent in the near future when the product arrives from them!  If you are interested in becoming a BZZZ agent and receiving invitations to receive and review products, go and join up, they are a leading word of mouth company and the products they send out are great! http://www.bzzagent.com/

DAKOTAH'S BIRTHDAY

On Feb. 6 Dakotah turned 7...gosh the time has gone by quickly....she is so tall and is missing so many teeth now. She had two birthday parties this year because her birthday fell on Superbowl Sunday. On that day a family birthday was had at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Langley. Then this past Sunday she had her party with her friends and they all had a great time. Happy Birthday Dakotah!

 Can you tell she is mortified?  The waitresses singing Happy Birthday was not something she was happy to have happen!

 Jaime and the cake, their Mom spent most of the night before making this lovely cake for her.

                                                            The birthday girl herself.

                                             Some of the family

                                         some of the kids at the children's party

                                         Jaime at the cookie making station

                                                   One of the crafts they made was this guitar, the theme was rock stars. We helped the kids glue the strings on them with the glue gun but they choose the colors of string and decorated the rest how they wanted. Jaime loved his!

 This is one of Dakotah's oldest and dearest friends. She has known her since she was about 2. We met Ani and her mom at a playschool group and her mom and I used to sit side by side and hold the girls on our knees and do crafts with them. It was great fun. Despite the fact they go to different schools and live in different areas, they have a very strong bond still. Baby Kalani and his favorite activity(the balloons) is in the foreground.

 This was a store bought cake, there just was not enough time to organize and gather everything needed for the party for her mother to do another homemade one. this one was good too! Everyone had a lovely time and next it will be time for Jaime's, it has been hard for him to have to wait through Kalani's and now Dakotah's birthday, his turn next!

THE OLYMPICS ONE YEAR LATER.....

February 12 marks the one year anniversary of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Many events are planned downtown Vancouver to celebrate the anniversary, however the monsoon like rains we have been having all winter are back again so it may be a damp party. Tonight we were at the mall and in The Bay which was the official store for all things Olympic during the games and although the design has been changed slightly, they are still selling some of the best sellers. I don't like the new red mittens as much as the official Olympic ones however they are still being sold and donating funds to Canadian Athletes so it is for a good cause. The little one laying accross the shelf below is my grandson, he couldn't resist the shelf, it was just his size!