I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I used to do this when I lived in the States 15 or so years ago. On Saturday mornings my housemates and I would would spread out all the flyers and write our shopping lists. This ended as soon as I returned to Europe, but now I've caught myself doing the same thing again. The only difference is that now I'm looking at the flyers online. And yes, I shall then go to the different shops and buy my groceries. Sad, I know.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I keep telling my OH we should take more notice of them all when they are in the local rag etc but we never seem to and still in UK mode of just binning them.

Never knew their were some online too.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

They say that recognising the problem is the first step on the road to recovery...

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Thought this was a going to be a hockey thread...and a funny one at that...

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Iced or fielded hockey?

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Never use flyers, infact they just piss me off as they send hundreds of them in a package with a local paper that is about 4 pages long. Talk about save the damn trees :frown: I put them straight into recycling where they can be more useful.

I don't have the time or inclination to shop in about 10 different shops to use them anyway and would rather pay more and go to just 1 shop.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Iced :boxing:

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

• Flick through Sobeys and Superstore flyers (or whatever the 'rival stores are) noting what is significantly cheapest at which store on the two lists. This is not a religious comparison item by item, just an idea of what prices normally are and observing which of the stores are offering products at between half and two-thirds their normal price - 10 minutes.

• Decide which store looks to have the best prices and go there; perhaps buying extra of things attractively priced so you don't pay full price the following week.

• One store only, saving about 20-25% overall (not just a few things) for looking at two flyers for 10 minutes.

Additionally, and this depends on location of the relevant stores (in our case rival stores are close to each other)

• Visit both stores (on the same trip if poss) buying the best deals in both places.

It does not take twice as long. All it involves is getting your usual groceries and buying the half a dozen items that are cheaper in one store and calling in at the other one to get the half a dozen things they have for less.

Instead of, say, one hour shopping in one store you spend 50 minutes in one (because you don't have to spend time looking at stuff you know you won't be buying there) and then it's 20 minutes getting the stuff in the other store.

• You have a list, you know what to get and where it is so it dosn't take long.

Job done and a saving of 30-40% on your costs. For 10 minutes on the flyers and 10 minutes extra store time.

If the stores are so situated that you cannot combine then make do with your 25% for your 10 minutes.

But maybe you're not out only once a week and the other store can be called in on your way home from work or other excursion.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I'm flyer obsessed but for price matching. Just show the flyer of a rival store to the checkout girl and they will automatically reduce the price to match.

I shop at no frills, but last week one rival had pop at 2.88 for 12, food basics had strawberry for $1 lb. There's usually 4 or 5 items I would regularly buy. Just show the flyer and price is matched and I only have to shop at my usual store :-).

Saved at least $10 on an $80 shop every time.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

+1 Yay for that!

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Oh, I didn't know that, thanks. Do they price match in every store?

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Ooh, maybe it's an ontario thing?

Have a look on the flyers, they usually say.
Here walmart and no frills and food basics I think price match. Not sure about loblaws, I never go in!

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I only have Urban Fare, Shoppers Drug Mart and Safeway near me. Will check these.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I don't bother with flyers personally, easier just to check Redflag deals where other people have done the dirty work.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

The children have a flyer route. If the flyers don't get delivered by the time due on a Tuesday and Thursday some customers will ring up and complain to the flyer company. They must be retired or nutters....... or both.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Or someone who wants to save a third off their shopping bill.

I don't get it.

This place is full of threads where people complain about the cost of cheese and chicken, car insurance, mailing costs, renewing passports and god knows what else - even to the extent of going across the border to save a few dollars.

Yet come the chance of cutting a couple of hundred bucks off the monthly grocery bill (freeing extra cash for cheese and chicken), they chuck it away.

:confused:

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I've now managed to whittle my flyers down to about three or four key ones and I now spend my Thursday night scanning through to see what stuff I usually buy is on special. As someone else said, you pretty much get the same groceries every week and after doing this for a while I know which products I buy often go on sale and reasonably frequently so I get a couple extra e.g. Nappies, baby formula, etc for the supply cupboard, when they are cheaper. A five buck saving on a tin of formula is quite significant when they go through one and half tins a week!

It's surprising the difference in price between some supermarkets for some products.

Flyerland.ca is quite a good site that links to a lot of the flyers.

Also, our local Safeway and Sobeys have a customer appreciation night the first Tuesday of the month where they give you 10% off your shopping bill, which isn't to be sniffed at.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I look online for codes. They are so easy to find. One of my fave stores over here is Bath and Body Works and they always have flyers.

Old Navy always have ones and you can share them too. One of my girlfriends here is the Coupon Queen. I went shopping with her to Old Navy and she handed her phone to me so they could scan the coupon. I got 20% off the sale price. Then I handed the phone back to her and she used it. We were blatant and Old Navy didn't even bat an eyelid.

I was in there a couple of days ago and they had the fleeces for kids for $4.57 (they are nice too) and I also used a 20% off voucher. Practically giving them away they are! :)

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

There is a tv program called "Extreme Coupon-ing" which shows obsessive coupon-ers in the US that can somehow save 80-90-99% on their shopping bill. They can reduce a bill of $800 to say $12. I know it sounds impossible (someone told me this and I had to see the program to believe it) but somehow they manage to combine discounts and get shopping for free.

They usually have a stockpile of $5-10,000 of multiple goods (eg. 50 bottles of salad dressing) in their basement, probably half of which they won't use, and run their lives around the coupon-ing.

No idea how it works.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Well, its not possible to do it in Canada (surprise!) :sneaky:

http://www.moneysavingmomcanada.com/...ssible-in.html

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

We tend to get flyers fairly irregularly (rural area) but you seem to be able to check most stores online. My wife tends to peruse them more than me but I know food basics has one. Sobeys seem to have theirs on the homepage of the site. Metro has one too.

Pretty sure they all do to be honest!

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Good link! Even with the different retail / supply chain in the US, it still amazes me that this kind of discounting can happen.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I'm with you Bristol, in your earlier post you summed my actions up to a T, I only bother with the Atlantic SS and the Sobeys flyers but I do buy extra if they have something on a special, and it does save me considerably.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I wondered what all the fuss was about the stack of flyers every Thursday when I first arrived.....I'm diving in too now

We usually use Walmart which ad matches so look at all the usual suspects flyers; Superstore, Shoppers Drugmart, Food Basics, Sobeys etc but get all our shopping in one store. Even did that on some xmas pressies too even when Staples ran out of the GPS on offer Walmart price matched the ad.

There are items that are considerably cheaper in the US (you didn't mention the wine and beer :D )and today we did our shopping there whilst there killing several other birds with the one trip. Parcel posting, clothes shopping (choice where we live is "limited" shall we say but we were spoiled living only 15 mins from Bluewater in the UK!). 6% sales tax in Michigan vs 13% HST in Ontario (not on food I know) but when you're doing up your house even Lowes is trawled before the US trip. As with anything though its all in the planning and research.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Isn't it a bit of an economical own goal to shop over the border? What effect does this have on border towns when mostb of the money is spent in another country?

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Sobeys is a weird one for me, as its expensive compared to Superstore and Walmart for most things, but their flyer deals seem to be brilliant!

for example, last week they had a flat (oh check me, 24 cans) of Pepsi, for something ridiculous like $5, when regularly a box of 12 is $4.50ish

but compare that to 2l bottles of Pepsi, which Walmart sell for $1.60 and Sobeys have at $2.69...

Sobeys never have queues though :lol:

i mostly watch Liquor Depot's flyer though, to see which crap beer is on special, as i refuse to pay $50 for 24 cans, and it seems to alternate week to week as to which pisswater is down to $27.99 for 24

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

I love flyers
last time i was in the UK I bought a log maker
I now mulch down all those pesky flyers and compact them into a log.
dry them out over the summe and hey presto free heat for my log burner then I can warm myself with lashings of ginger beer !!!!!

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Yep, often the case (not that I think Walmart is cheap for food - but then it's not the full grocery section yet).

Last week I bought 5 large chicken breasts on special in Sobeys for just over $13. This week Superstore offer price was 4 of them for over $20.

I love getting the still fresh half price loaves in Superstore.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Some may disagree with me here, but unless you live right near the border and there is no lineup at the crossing itself and no bridge toll then the economics of it don't work out.

For me, it is 45 minutes to the border, then about $3 each way on a bridge toll (Prescott-Ogdensburg) and then you have the shopping delights of Ogdensburg:thumbsup:

As well, just spending an hour or two in the US allows basically no legal duty free exemption (I may stand to be corrected in terms of food and some other items...but clothing, furniture, building supplies, tobacco, alcohol etc do not count in this).

Sure gas and dodgy cigarettes are cheaper, but northern NY state is not a shopping mecca.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

It doesn't do it for me but people make monthly trips. Daft buggers

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

My wife has started doing this - much to my embarrassment! ;)

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

No need to be embarrassed on this in Canada, it's seen as sensible as ordering a doggy bag. When in Rome...

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

In Canada we have clothes/shoes choice of a small Sears, Walmart or Superstore and a few small speciality shops.

Any store that wants the business need to look at what they offer and their pricing compared to the competition - Canadian or US. I'm sure they don't lose any sleep when they are charging Brits of thousands of $'s in insurance premiums or failing to pass on part of the savings they're making when importing goods with the strength of the CAD.

We don't go every week but when we do we make the most of it. If there's an opportunity to save a few hundred dollars and have a much wider selection of goods to buy then I'll make the trip and I won't feel guilty for doing so.

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

Wow I didn't know it was just Brits getting fleeced :blink:

Re: I've become flyer obsessed!
 

My Sobeys and Superstore are practically opposite each other, so I check the flyers and buy in both. Most of the time I only pay full price for about 30% of my shopping :)