While you can get everything from Proctor & Gamble coupons, Kohls coupons, Gillette coupons, and every type of product you can imagine – what is tough to find if you don’t have great timing are Vacation deals.

That’s quite a pre-amble for simply letting you know about a site called SaveOnResorts.com.

This site offers ridiculously low priced stays at some great locations – in exchange for one thing. 90 minutes of your time (and your ability to say “No”.) Yep, it’s a time-share presentations, and yep, they’re going to try to sell you on the idea, and nope, I haven’t bought one.

My experience with SaveOnResorts.com was nothing short of extraordinary… seriously.

I was a bit skeptical of the deal – it was $139 USD for two nights.. BUT included the following:

• $100 Visa Gift Card
• FREE Morning Breakfast each Day
• Use of Hotel Amenities and Services
• FREE Shuttle Service To and From Las Vegas Airport
• Hotel Taxes and Parking Included

I figured at worst – we’d be out the $139 and have to find a hotel while we were down there – but we also knew that it was likely legit – since we did have to do something for them, the 90 minute resort ‘preview’ which was scheduled for 1:30pm on the middle day of our stay.

So fast forward to our arrival at the Embassy Suites.. a non-gaming establishment in Vegas. We were treated like royalty at the front desk, any of our questions answered, plus they let us know about the breakfasts and ‘ambassador hours’ that night where you can come down into the restaurant area and have a few complimentary drinks and just socialize with other guests and some managers of the hotel. We took advantage of this twice and both times really enjoyed ourselves.. munchies included.. yumm!!

It became apparent that where we were staying, had nothing to do with the time-share presentation and that it’s possible they had no idea we were doing it. A kitchenette in our room, free wired Internet, and overall just a beautiful stay was definitely the highlight of our entire trip to Vegas.

The resort preview was a 15 minute drive (at least) outside of the Vegas strip.. kind of a pain, but whatever, once we got there.. we were told they had a shuttle and would have picked us up.. (whoops), but they refunded us the money we spent on the cab! We then had some food and waited while the ‘preview agent’ got ready to try to sell us on the idea of the time-share.

They did a good job in selling it, no.. I didn’t bite (although Liz thought we were crazy not to) – but truthfully if you do vacation and travel every year – a time-share is likely the way to go. Unfortunately for us, we don’t know when/where we’re gonna be able to do that – so it’s not for us. After going through the first agent, second agent, and then the manager.. they let us go get our $100 VISA gift card and dropped us off to enjoy the rest of the day in Vegas.

Yes.. so the stay in the Embassy Suites for 2 nights.. 2 breakfasts.. drinks in the evenings… and shuttles not only to/from the Strip, but to the Airport as well as a custom trip out to the Outlet Mall!! Cost us $39.. ($139 less the $100 VISA card).. plus tips of course.. (and we tipped them well.. why not??)

So.. summary.. saveonresorts.com is legit.. and we had a great time. If you can handle the ‘preview’ and meet the requirements.. I highly recommend and we’d do it again.. check it out, it’s got a HUGE list of spots to vacation.. unfortunately, the deal we had is no longer on there I don’t believe.

PS: they also sent a follow up email to me to fill out a survey.. once I did.. I get $40 off my NEXT vacation sweet.

What would you say if I told you that you could get a full lunch meal, delivered anywhere downtown, and a huge menu to choose from.. for $5 taxes in? Seriously.. hell you can’t even get a cup of coffee for that anymore (at some locations.. sorry Starbucks).

Its’ true, and it’s almost to good to be so! RealMeals.ca has been going since 1998 – and I tell you – I can see why!

Real Meals is an Island company specializing in delivering delicious gourmet meals to the people of Charlottetown. We use fresh, locally grown produce and the finest ingredients to create delectable meals that you can heat in your oven or microwave.

Ok.. you can go to their website if you want to check it out.. but on both occasions which I’ve stayed in town for lunch for one reason or another.. the meals were delivered shortly after 9AM, and there was plenty to eat when it came to lunch time.

How does it work? Glad you asked! You have to order the day before prior to 5pm. But big deal.. plan ahead and save $$! You go to their website and order via the web page – and they also have daily specials and deals if you’re tired of thier pretty lengthy regular menu. They will deliver it the next morning.. pay them at the door.. (cash only I’m assuming)… I don’t believe you can do over-the-phone ordering (hell they’d need a mobile cell booster to keep up with the demand I would imagine) – so just go to the site and order.

I’ve had the Beef Pasta Casserole as well as the Lasagna with Salad and both were delicious and plentiful. Well worth the ridiculously low price of $5 delivery and taxes included! Anyhow, check them out..

You see, we don’t own a garage.. so our ‘mud room’ downstairs houses my hockey gear, my work bench, all of our shoes, the furnace, the oil tank *sigh* – no wonder it’s never clean. One of the biggest problems however, is just keeping the every day ‘clutter’ out of the way – keys, dog leashes, mail, wallets, etc..

Does this not solve that problem or what?

Now I’m not going out to purchase a bunch of paint cans for hanging up on my wall – however I do have some, and could just use a metal punch then drill a hole to mount it to a stud on the wall.

Personally however, I’d rather have something different than a big paint can coming from the wall, so I’ll be keeping that in mind when I go searching for shelving. This could serve as a cool coat rack and shelving unit it one! Yep, now I’m starting to think.

Read about how to create the High Functioning Coat Hooks at Instructables.

Without further ado.. here’s the ultimate do it yourself food hack… the Big Mac!

The Burger Lab: Building a Better Big Mac (from seriouseats.com)

Honestly I didn’t mind Zellers as I found them to be extremely inexpensive as compared to the likes of even Walmart, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t need an upgrade. Pretty exciting actually to have another big store in Charlottetown.

With rumors of a Costco, a bigger Walmart and other large brand name stores – it really would start to get to the point where we didn’t need to go shopping off Island! Sweet!

Doesn’t it seem like just yesterday when we had to travel off-Island to get anything good? Cans of Pop or Beer, Bulk items or any sort, hell even the meds to get those blackheads on nose taken care of.

As someone that doesn’t drive up University Avenue that often, I’m often amazed at the fact that I will actually drive up and see entire buildings that weren’t there the last time I drove downtown that route.. where the heck did that Speedy-Oil-Change place come from anyhow??

So.. it appears that Spring has finally arrived weather-wise and as much as I love the warmer weather, it depresses me somewhat to realize that I have to do a SHITLOAD of cleaning in and around the house. My lawn is as long as I can ever remember, there are winter clothes all of the place, a complete room of old urban clothes and stuff we don’t use and have to get rid of, the hockey gear needs to be packed away (but not too deep as some summer hockey may be in the works), and the golf clubs put out somewhere. Jeez do I ever need a garage.

Anyhow would like to post some cool links which I came across.. enjoy!

• Chow.com teaches us how to make our own veggie chips.. YUM!!
• This is very useful, apartmenttherapy.com is giving us the lowdown on buying plants that don’t die easily.. (Liz??)
• And how about this instructable on how to make your own homemade soft soap?

Some good reading there for sure..

I didn’t realize however that No Frills was part of the Superstore but it makes perfect sense since we don’t have a Superstore in Stratford, but do have a Sobeys… and well, you know wherever there’s a Sobeys, the Superstore isn’t too far away!

I did find it interesting however that the stores seem to compete with one another on certain items.. take the following example from their website of this weeks’ flyer:

So how does this make sense? save more than $1 if you simply cross the bridge and shop at the store in God’s country… I mean.. Stratford.

It’s the same company, different store.. even their websites are almost identical (see below). I don’t know how many management jobs are being used to create these sales but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

I think instead of going through those damn flyers we get every week – I may just start making a grocery list and browsing through the flyers online to save time and money – here’s the list I have for the local ones (let me know if I miss any):

Atlantic Superstore
Sobeys
Co-op
No Frills

By the way.. one of the best laid out sites for the local flyer deals is Flyerland.ca – seems great to me, bookmarked!

While it’s pretty well known that you can great deals on all kinds of different things to make you look your best such as dress shirts, pants, shoes, even surfing clothes if that’s what you’re into down south.. what I didn’t realize was how much difference there was on produce and grocery items.

Perhaps it’s just the fact that I never went to a grocery store in the states.. but I thought it would be fun to list a few things that I noticed.

Strawberries.. here the small little basket we buy when they’re in season you can get for what.. $2.99 maybe on sale, $3.99 regular? There.. you can get a basket at least 4 times the size for $5… and I’m talking at LEAST 4 times the size.. could be 6 of those baskets worth. This is what I seen first, then I started noticing other things..

Watermelon, a full watermelon for $3.50.. I have no idea what they cost here.. but I know it’s a LOT more than that!

Corn on the cob – my Mom purchased 5 stalks for $1.00… even in season we’re lucky to get 6 for $2!

Tomatoes.. a basket of about 6 huge tomatoes for $2…. *sigh* I wish!

Potatos (go figure), Lettuce.. both $1 for a standard bag or bunch.. everything seemed to be $1 for things we pay $3+ here..

Now I know that they have to ship it here and blah blah blah.. but give me a break! We are getting RIPPED off.. I seriously got upset at the prices. How do people NOT eat healthy down there? It’s so inexpensive!!

I’ve had lots of reading material which I DO hope to be able to conquer while I’m south so I thought it may be a good idea to keep you guys in the loop with some of the more interesting articles I’ve found, so here goes:

Extreme Couponing – I did not know that Walmart accepted multiple coupons.. this is huge for me… I’ve heard about this before as I know London Drugs is famous for allowing this type of thing (coupon stacking). Basically you can use multiple coupons coming from different coupons and stack them up to save big. Everything from food to appliances such as a humidifier, if you have a coupon for $0.50, then another for $1.00 off the same item.. add them together and get the item while it’s on sale – you can save a ton! Such as this lady who just bought $1100 worth of groceries for $40.

The Best Financial Products for Canadians – Well worth a read by Million Dollar Journey, looking for the best personal banking? trading platform? All for Canadians.. nice post!

Those Email Disclaimers mean f-all – from the Economist, basically.. and I didn’t know this, but those email disclaimers that start with “this email was intended…. blah blah”..yah.. means nothing.

How about making your own Vanilla Pudding mix! – you know I haven’t tried many of my great recipes that I’ve posted here, and I think that’s gotta change! Baileys, too late for snow ice cream, but Baileys, and this, and Baileys.. yumm. (not to mention home made blizzards)

They claim the factors for the increase are:

• Cost of sugar has increased 40%
• Cost of wheat has DOUBLED in the last year
• Wholesale coffee prices have DOUBLED in the last year

For you math addicts out there, at $1.72 for a timmies-a-day habit is going to cost you $48.16 a month if you had one every day, which is $577.92 a year. Or how about this… give up coffee when you’re at the age of 30 and save that $577.92 for 5 years, at 10% if you left it for 30 years.. you’d have $43,438.71. Or how about if you kept putting that $577.92 and that’s all you invested for 30 years.. at 10% a year how does $108,023.22 sound to you?

There are a lot of things that you could do with an extra $48 a month, the one that I just thought of recently was to install one of those smart home systems to monitor my house while I’m not around, or heck I could plunk it down on my phone bill, put that money towards a fill up of my car, enjoy a nice dinner out.. lots of things..

I’m glad I brew my own.. that’s all I’m going to say on that one.