Freebie Roundup 2019

We had a lovely relaxing(other than the cooking) Christmas and visit with my Stepson who has now flown back to Edmonton.  A friend who thought she previously had plans ended up coming for Christmas dinner as I had issued an open invite two months ago and she asked on the 23rd if she could still come.  Of course!  I could have fed 10 people let alone five of us including Mom and my friend.  Now all the leftovers have been eaten tucked away or thrown out (very little, food waste is something I am still trying to combat and some of this was an item that got tucked in the back of the fridge and froze unexpectedly).
All the decorations remain up until January 1 - then all are put away and the house is given a good scrub.  I would put them away sooner but hubby has always wanted them up until New Years Day so we choose that day to take them down.

I figured now is a good time to analyze our freebies and rebates from 2019.  It was a challenging year pay-wise as our company saw 65% lower billings than last year.  2020 looks to be much better but this year, every freebie helped our bottom line.



My Freebies

$150.00  PC Pts
$  27.53  Store Coupons
$    5.49  Quality Foods Free Groceries
$110.00  Amazon GCs from Swagbucks
$      .92  SCOP Freebies  (oranges)
$  53.23  Ebates
$  10.00  London Drugs Extras
$  22.60  Checkout 51
$  10.00  Starbucks $10 GC from thankyou after telling of an error on website
$ 590.10 Airmiles (free flights)
$  10.00  Pet Store Card redemption
$    3.75  Tim Hortons Rewards
$  90.36  Co-op rebate (Gasoline)
$125.86 Costco Rebate Nov

$1209.84 Hubby's Freebies $1551.65  RBC Avion CC rewards (free flights) $    51.29  National Car Rental Free Day $    25.00  Best Western Rewards (GC for restaurant) $    53.00  Holiday Inn partial free night $1680.94 Grand Total $2890.78!!! If we didn't travel our freebies would look much lower - but we do and thankfully with careful recording of expiration dates we try and maximize our freebies every year before they expire.  I do this with a spreadsheet with our membership numbers and expiration dates and try and update it at least every couple of months. A grand total of $2890.78.  As you can see, I use very few coupons.  We simply don't get that many in Canada for things I normally buy, most are on nonfood products or items that are so processed I don't want to bring them home.  I only record them as freebies once we actually redeem them.  This means that I already have a good stash of grocery points and Swagbucks (referral link if you want to join)  for next years redemption.  This year I used my grocery points for free groceries as I went along, unlike last year when I saved them for Christmas.  That helped but I was still way over my year-end grocery budget.  I intend to do the same this year.  Hubby traveled way less this year so we ended up with far fewer travel freebies than most years.  We ended up with 5 free airline tickets this year, 2 to Mexico, 2 to Edmonton and 1 from Edmonton for my Stepson to fly in for Christmas.  FYI to anyone who needs to fly at Christmas time - book in June or you may not see a decent rate or be able to use points. Today we are painting the entrance hallway.  After today, we only have 4 more walls to paint.  Hopefully by the end of January we will have gotten it all done.  It sure looks nice.  We have saved thousands by doing it ourself.  Likely when it is complete it will have cost less than $1000 to do the entire open concept area.  Our house sure has gotten a facelift with new carpets, paint and bedroom furniture.  We also totally organized our closets and created a lot more storage space.  I am so glad that instead of moving we decided to stay and do the difficult upgrades.  It still doesn't give us another room on the house but we've made it work and it was so nice to hear this week hubby say how glad he was we are staying since he is the one who wanted to sell the house.  We took money from our savingss to do it but at total cost of $15000 for everything we did this year it was worth it and far less than moving/paying realtor costs/buying a different house then fixing that one to our taste. In 2020 after completing the painting we intend to have a brick patio extension laid in the back yard.  We also will need to buy some more furniture for back there and that is in the budget.  I hate going out for New Years Eve so we are staying in.  We invited the lady across the street to come for nibbles and wine but that's it - very quiet.  She is the one who had the open house on Christmas Eve.  She lost her husband a few years ago so these kind of times are hard for her. 0I won't be posting before the new year so see you in 2020 - may it be the best one ever!