TD Insurance is giving away gas money, too!!

I just read about this on one of the Canadian freebie forums:

Request a quote on your home or auto insurance
and get a FREE $25 Petro-Canada gift card.
Allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.
Limited time offer. Valid from Feb 23 to May 31.
1-866-845-1292 or
HatTrick.TDInsurance.com

More free gas?!? And this one you can even do online, so you don't have to speak to a pesky sales person, which is great for anti-socialites like myself! Amazing!

RBC Insurance is giving away Esso GCs again!

Remember when I was bragging about how I snagged a $25 Esso gift card from RBC Insurance a little while back? Well, guess what! Yesterday I received a letter from RBC Insurance saying that if I call them to receive either a home or auto quote, they will send me a $10 Esso gift card! I think it's a little strange that they would send me such a letter (personally addressed to me and everything), considering that I already got an auto quote from them and I'm assuming they remember that or else they wouldn't have had my information on file, but free money is free money. So I'll be calling them tomorrow to get a home quote, following which I can expect to get my $10 Esso gift card in the next 12 weeks. :)

If you are like me and can't pass up a deal like this, here's the relevant info so you can get your very own $10 Esso gift card. Basically, all you need to do is call 1-866-808-3272 by June 30, 2009 and get either a home or auto insurance quote. I would recommend getting the auto quote, since it tends to be quicker. Enjoy your free gas! :D

Coupons, coupons everywhere!

So, I open my mailbox today, fervently sift through all the junk in it and then I see it... an envelope from Pita Break! This has got to be something good! I rip open the envelope and sure enough, in it I find a $5 off coupon for any 2 Pita Break products. Considering most of their pre-packaged pita products usually sell for under $2.50 at No Frills, this means that I am getting two of them for free! Yeah!

Ask any hard-core frugalite and they will tell you that there is nothing more essential to saving money than using coupons. It was not so long ago that I used to shop around based solely on deals advertised in local flyers, oblivious to the fact that I could be saving tons more by using the coupons that are available from so many different sources nowadays.

I still remember the days when I was a wee little munchkin and my mom used to clip coupons out of the grocery flyer. I wasn't too sure what the point was, but I loved playing with scissors at the time, so I was more than happy to help out. While still fun, clipping coupons out of flyers is no longer the only option thanks to the wonder of the internet. Nowadays coupons can be ordered online and subsequently received by mail, they can be printed directly off of certain websites, they are often included in separate inserts in local newspapers, they can be found in stacks hanging on the shelves in grocery stores, they can be traded with other coupon aficionados who hang around "deals" forums, "virtual" coupons can be applied directly to online purchases during the checkout process... the possibilities are endless.

My personal coupon stash has gotten quite massive lately, which has prompted me to start trading the coupons I don't need with other coupon fanatics who send me the coupons that I desperately long for. I have also joined a number of coupon trains which involve the mailing of an envelope full of coupons among a handful of individuals; each person takes out coupons useful to them and puts in coupons that they are not using. Once again, there are many websites out there that facilitate this process, but my favourite one is www.pricenetwork.ca which is a forum containing up-to-date information on freebies, deals and (of course) coupons, including coupon trading and trains initiated by the site's members, as well as tips on matching coupons with current sales at various store chains.

Some of the most popular ways to obtain valuable coupons are save.ca, Smart Source and Shop'n'Save. The first option, save.ca, is a Canadian website that lists dozens of manufacturer coupons and allows members to select the coupons they need, which are subsequently printed and mailed to the recipient free of charge. Every once in a while, you may stumble upon a coupon that allows you to obtain a certain item for free. One such example is the "$2 off Satin Care" coupon currently listed on save.ca. As you may or may not know, Satin Care shaving gel often goes on sale for just under $2 at various stores, such as Shoppers Drug Mart and Walmart, so if you use the coupon, you end up getting the gel for free!

Smart Source and Shop'n'Save are coupon flyers that can be found at regular intervals in local papers such as the Toronto Star, as well as in some free community papers, such as the Ajax News Advertiser which I receive. Keep an eye out for them, as they often include FPCs (free product coupons), "buy one, get one free" coupons and other valuable offers. For instance, the latest issue of Smart Source which came out last week contained a mail-in rebate for Pledge Multi-Surface spray, a FPC for Glade Sense & Spray refills and a FPC for Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel. It was like Christmas in March! :) The distribution schedule for these flyer inserts for the remainder of 2009 is attached below for your convenience.

Smart Source

April 18, 2009
May 16, 2009
June 20, 2009
July 11, 2009
August 1,2009
August 22, 2009
September 26, 2009
October 17, 2009
November 7, 2009
December 5, 2009

Shop & Save

May 2,2009
June 6, 2009
July 4, 2009
August 15, 2009
September 5, 2009
September 26, 2009
October 31, 2009
November 21, 2009

Oh and in case you want to get your own $5 coupon for Pita Break, head on over to their website and sign up for their Coupon Club! They claim that they send these coupons out to their members automatically every 6 months. How amazing is that? Bon appétit! :)

Who wants to be a spy?

This weekend I got to have a nice dinner at a pub with my husband. Not only was the $70 meal free, but I also received a $10 fee and got to play a spy while having dinner. I did have to submit a relatively straightforward report the next day, so it wasn't exactly "free", but for the amount of work (and fun) involved, I'd say it was a pretty sweet deal.

There are a lot of Mystery Shopping companies out there. You need to watch out, because some of them have questionable business practices, such as demanding payment for signing up to be a Mystery Shopper or failing to remunerate their Mystery Shoppers for completed assignments.

I personally have worked for a couple of such companies and have found SQM to be the most reliable one out there. This company accepts free Mystery Shopper applications on their website and has a myriad of different assignments scattered throughout North America and even a few assignments in Asia. The types of assignments available range from oil changes to restaurant evaluations to hotel stays. Lately they've even made it possible to evaluate certain Via Rail and Air Canada trips while receiving a substantial discount for the travel involved.

Do you think you have what it takes to be a spy? Why not sign up and find out! Plus, the cash you'll save from getting meals and services for free doesn't hurt, either. Nope, it doesn't hurt at all. :)

It feels good to be a winner

So, I'm sitting at home yesterday playing with my little boy (did I mention that I love being on mat leave?) when the doorbell rings and wouldn't you know it, it's one of my favourite people, the UPS guy! And he's got a big box in his hands! Oh, the suspense... I sign for it quickly, rip it open and am delighted to find the prize from my latest contest win - a Deluxe Brita Pitcher, 4 Brita filters, Josh Dorfman's book The Lazy Environmentalist, The Biggest Loser Cookbook and a little card informing me that my free one-year subscription to Prevention magazine will begin soon. Not bad for a secondary prize!

I'm generally not a very lucky person and don't enter nearly as many contests as some people I know, so I can't say that this type of event is an everyday occurrence. However, when it does happen it sure makes my day! Another prize that I won recently consisted of 52 "free product" coupons for any Ocean Spray item from the Win a Year's Supply of Ocean Spray contest, where a new winner is drawn every week. That was such an awesome surprise, especially since I love cranberry juice!

Entering contests online is fun and takes only a few minutes a day, not to mention that it is free. It sure beats playing the lottery, don't you think? :) The prizes are numerous and vary from a few dollars worth of merchandise to thousands and in some cases millions of dollars. Free trips are commonly awarded, as well. Best of all, there are many websites out there whose members hunt for and list current contests open to Canadians, which makes the process of finding contests incredibly easy for those of us who don't have hours to spend every day searching for these things. My favourite site for contests (as well as freebies, deals and coupons) is www.pricenetwork.ca. Additionally, you can visit Emily's Blog where she lists tons of blog contests open to Canadians on a daily basis.

Here are a couple of good ongoing contests to get you started:

Win a Year's Supply of Ocean Spray
Weekly Vacation Giveaway from tripcentral.ca

Have a snack!

Feeling hungry? Want a free snack? No problem! Head on over to the Kashi site where you can sign up to receive a free box of Kashi granola bars! And as an added bonus, if you don't like them, the nerdy guy on the site claims that he will eat a cardboard box! What could be more fun than that?

I have received these in the past and to be honest I did find the texture a little cardboard-like, so for now I am sticking with my Quaker Chewy bars. However, other people have told me that they do enjoy these supposedly healthy Kashi granola bars, so I'm sure it's a matter of personal taste. Plus, it doesn't cost you anything, so get your butt over there and order some!

Another day, another freebie

What's the best kind of freebie? Free cash, of course! What's the next best thing? A free gift card. That's the kind of freebie I received in my mailbox today. And all I had to do for it was sell my soul to the devil. :) Well, not quite.

You see, a lot of large companies nowadays will go to great lengths to earn new business. And one of the most affluent and competitive types of business out there is the insurance industry. It is no wonder then that every once in a while different insurance companies offer bonuses to potential new clients for requesting a policy quote.

That's what happened in this case. In early January I received an ad from RBC Insurance informing me that I will receive a $25 Esso gift card if I request an auto insurance quote from them either by phone or in person at one of their branches. To the untrained eye, this leaflet looked like just another piece of junk mail. But not to a professional frugalite! Picking gems out of junk mail is part of the art of saving. So I figured, what have I got to lose? A few minutes of my time, plus you never know, perhaps I'll get a quote that is lower than what I'm paying for insurance right now and I'll become a happy RBC Insurance customer. As it turned out, the quote I was offered was significantly higher than my current premium. However, the process was quite painless and the phone call only took about five minutes. And now, two months later I am the happy recipient of a $25 Esso gift card! Gotta love those insurance companies and their promotions!

Other bonuses I have received for requesting quotes from insurance companies in the past include a nice first aid kit from the TD Canada Trust and PC points worth a few bucks from PC Financial Insurance. While there are no current promotions of this type that I am aware of, as soon as another one comes up I will be sure to post about it here, so stay tuned. Until then, keep an eye on your mailboxes because you never know when an awesome deal will pop up disguised as a pesky piece of toilet paper alternative!