Post #43 What Good Will and $31 Can Do

Let’s face it, what was a blog about me saving 90% on steaks and imported cheese (those were the days!) has turned into me trying to figure out how I can game the system and donate as much to charity as I can.

I have been REALLY bad at posting lately. I have been lazy, and just dumped short posts to Facebook, rather than writing here…That being said, this is my 43rd post in 42 weeks of writing the blog, so not too bad.

In late September I shook down a bunch of Shopper’s Drug Marts that had coffee that was about to expire…I don’t mean “shook down” in the sense of collecting protection money, but rather “shook down” in the sense of went in and offered to relieve them of expiring product for a price suitable to my liking…This is what I ended up buying:

 (click to enlarge)

What you are seeing is 15 bags of Starbucks coffee and 29 bags of Ethical bean. In total I bought 27 bags of Starbucks and 29 bags of Ethical bean. I paid $47 for the 29 bags of Ethical Bean (normally $493) and $62 for the 27 bags of Starbucks coffee (normally $324). $109 for $817 worth of coffee BOOM! – SAVINGS! Best part is, each bag of Starbucks came with a coupon for a free $2 cup of coffee … BOOM! – SAVINGS! (To be honest, this post is so BOOM! – SAVINGS! I should just be putting the expression between every word…)

Since I now had 2.5 years worth of coffee (drinking coffee every day, as much as I can) I decided to share with friends…Some was used as gifts, but most of it was sold. The deal was people had to pay me what I paid for the coffee ($2 for the Starbucks, or $1 for the Ethical bean (ain’t nobody got time for rounding)) at a minimum, anything they gave me above that was going to buy stuff for the Youville Centre, or some other charity (I think it will all end up at the Youville Centre).

One friend, Pam, really stepped up. She and a co-worker bought 7 bags of Starbucks and gave me $45 for them, still a great deal for them (plus they get the $2 cup of coffee coupon), but more importantly it gave me $31 of “play” money to buy more stuff for charity…Today I found more stuff…

For $31 I bought the following:

(click to enlarge and who the frig needs so many pairs of scissors? I didn’t even get those discount, I bet)

What you are seeing is:

5 Sassy Twist & Turn rattles normally $8
3 Sassy Spin Shine rattles normally $8
1 Sassy Flip and Grip rattle normally $5
1 Sassy Pelican Net and Friends normally $8
5 boxes PC organic cereal normally $5
3 2-packs Life brand sippy bottles normally $12
1 2-pack Life brand bendy straw bottles normally $12
1 Platex Twist n Click snacker  normally $6
2 Life brand Twist n Click snackers normally $5
2 Life brand feeding bowls normally $5
2 2-pack Life brand first feeding bowls normally $5
1 4-pack Life brand Use n Toss Bowls normally $5

Just under $200 worth of stuff that I bought for $31!

Thanks Pam! 

Also a few weeks ago I bought approximately 1,800 tampons. Why? Because they averaged out to $0.10 per tampon which is pretty darn cheap! I didn’t do this one alone…A big thanks to Holly, Kristin (who I met through Mondayswithmacphotography <- this is a link, but it doesn’t look like one!) and Jen!

If you want to see how far I can stretch your charity donation just drop me a line and we can arrange something…

So far my person best is stretching $150 that someone gave me into $1178! BOOM! – SAVINGS!