Before beginning, I have a disclaimer. There are families in Squamish who are struggling. Struggling to buy a loaf of bread or pint of milk – that kind of struggling. But that’s not our situation, and our recently adopted prudent lifestyle (though necessary) leaves me feeling all tangled up with frugal fraud guilt and the smug, thrifty satisfaction of stretching out every last penny.
What triggered this new lifestyle was an increase in rent.
Actually, that’s not entirely the full story. When our landlady announced she was selling our place (for which I bear no grudges – I’d probably sell, too, in this hot market), the grim reality was finding a new place to rent in a town where competition is so fierce that potential tenants would mow down their granny for a shoebox that wasn’t too overpriced.
Add to this the time crunch: Our second child is due in three months and we needed somewhere, fast.
Through a mix of serendipity and cheek (I stuck a note on the door while the owner was away, begging her to rent it to us), we found a lovely place – an identical townhouse in the same complex. We have a wonderful new landlady, remain close to our neighbours, and it’s barely a few doors down. It’s perfect.
But it’s $700 a month more.
Not that we’re being fleeced. That’s just the going rate and I feel fortunate to be only paying that much and even more fortunate that we were chosen as the new tenants.
So I’m thankful and happy. Really I am. But the additional rent will be a significant dent in our family budget.
In the beginning, I felt panicked. Could we really afford to stay in Squamish? What could we cut back? And how would we afford a second baby?
Stuck not knowing what to do, I reached out to Squamish Moms on Facebook for frugal living advice, and it came in droves. We clearly weren’t experiencing this alone.
When I met with two of these hard-working, devoted moms, they graciously shared their time, tips and tricks, and I’ve been following their example for two weeks, which sort of goes as follows:
On Thursday, collect all the flyers for stores in town (note that Nester’s deals don’t kick in until Sunday – the others start Friday or Saturday).
Review them Friday evening and plan the weekly shop while checking out sites such as checkout51.com and snap.groupon.com to see which items will give me a further rebate after scanning in my receipt (so far the rebate racks up to $5.50).
At this point, with all the willpower in the world, comes a hoard of coupons which I will review to secure a further discount on any products featured in the flyers. However, trying to print them on a frustratingly inconsistent printer and organize them efficiently without losing my mind is proving more trying than a toddler, but I’m going to stick with it and embrace the learning, knowing it will get easier over time.
And then I’ll be that women in the lineup before you in the supermarket taking forever to purchase groceries because of all her maddening coupons.
But money-saving success has come already courtesy of Shoppers Drug Mart which was offering a bonus 18,500 points for spending $75 the other weekend. Having intentionally diverted my shopping there, I walked away having spent just over $76 but saved nearly $45, and earned plenty of points to boot, which I’ll trade in once I’ve collected the maximum level (when they’re worth the most).
Am I saving money overall? I think so. I tell myself I must be. I’m tracking my spending and if I don’t run out of paycheque before I run out of month, then I’ll know the hours invested in trying to save (because it can be quite a time sink) were worth it.
In the meantime, I’m off to channel my inner wartime housewife, attempt to make simple yet delicious meals from store cupboard staples, and track down the recipe for my Great Grandma’s steamed ginger sponge made during rationing times that seemingly used little to no eggs, flour or fat (and likely no ginger either!).
