UsedEverywhere.com

Top 10: Workout Gear

Sure, bathing suit season is over, but health is a year-round thing, people! Turns out you can get pretty much everything you need to get lean and mean on your local Used site (I’ll pretend to be surprised if you do too)!

1. Sneakers, and fancy pink ones at that! The treadmill won’t know what hit it.

2. Nothing like a yoga mat in a bright colour to get your up for that early morning class! Coffee is also helpful, though less colourful (usually).

3. Hate the gym? If you’d rather get teeth pulled than hang out in a weight room (or “the body shop” as they call it at my gym – clever), maybe a pair of at home dumbbells is more your speed. Perhaps this is why there are commercials, for workout breaks?

4. Being cold and wet to and from your workout destination? That’s just silly. Keep warm and stylish in an awesome jacket pre and post-workout.

5. Maybe I’m biased because I’d love a pair of these, but nothing ruins a workout faster than wet feet. Keep those toes work-out ready in some rainboots.

6. Water bottle? Check. Towel? Sneakers? Check. Lock for locker? Check. Gym pass? Check. This gym bag will fit everything you need and then some.

7. Hitting the pool? Keep your wet bathing suit away from the other contents of your bag with this nifty little contraption. Sure, a plastic bag will work as well as this wet bathing suit pouch but it’s a) cuter and b) better for the environment. Win-win!

8. As they say, timing is everything. Keep track of yours with an athletic watch.

9. Nothing sucks more than a heavy, sweat-soaked cotton t-shirt weighing you down. A workout tank like this one with that magical “sweat wicking technology”  lets you move and keeps you… less sweaty.

10. The wonders of technology: with this little gadget your iPod can tell you how your run is going. Sport kit, brilliant!

Who Wants Free Diapers???

Retail Value: $320. I paid only $9 for all this!

Free diapers? Now I thought that title might get your attention…And this is not just a ploy to get to you read my blog either, it’s the truth! I have a confession to make…my name is Carly Russell-Huntley and I am an extreme couponer (“Hi Carly” is what you would all reply if we were in a support group right now.)  It has become quite an addiction over the past few months, but I believe a healthy one as it allows me to get hundreds of dollars worth of household items for FREE!

I’m sure most of you have heard of or watched the show on TLC called “Extreme Couponing” where people in the USA can go to a grocery store and walk out with thousands of dollars worth of groceries for free by simply by using coupons. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but Canada has different rules for coupons. So,unfortunately, we’re not able to go this “extreme”, but we can still get lots of stuff free or extremely cheap by using coupons. My motto nowadays is, “If I can’t get it cheaper, I won’t buy it!”

I started couponing five months ago while on maternity leave waiting for my son to arrive. Since then I have managed to stockpile enough diapers to last us until he is two years old and the most I ever paid for a bag is $5 (that felt very expensive to me as I had gotten almost all of them for free!)

My diaper stockpile. Isn't it beautiful???

The most common reaction I get from people when I tell them I coupon is that they would love to learn but they just don’t have time (particularly moms.) This is totally untrue. Once you know the basics on how to plan and organize your coupons, you literally only need a couple hours a week. You’ll be amazed at how much money you can save for such little time!

My friends have been begging me to teach them how to do this so I thought I’d answer some of their questions here:

Question #1: How do I start couponing?

I learned how to coupon from internet sites. My two favourite ones are www.smartcanucks.ca  and www.mrsjanuary.com  (She is my idol!) Both sites offer information about latest freebies or coupons are out there as well as frugal tips to save you money on a daily basis. I suggest going to Mrs. January’s site first and clicking on the “Start Here” tab. You’ll find all sorts of articles on different ways of couponing in Canada. Also I recommend signing up for Mrs. January’s daily email as this will update you on all the cool free stuff you can get each day so you don’t have to remember to check the site.

Question #2: Where do I find coupons?

Coupons are literally everywhere once you know where to look. One of the most popular ways toget them is to order them on coupon web pages. You simply click on the coupons you want and they will mail them to you.  The best sites for this are www.save.ca , www.websaver.ca and www.brandsaver.ca. Check these sites often as there are always new coupons to order. There are also tons of coupons you can print off on the internet and companies are always giving coupons away when you “like” them on Facebook (they also give away free stuff this way so I recommend checking out www.smartcanucks.ca first thing in the morning to find out about these offers as they usually go quick!) And of course there are lots of coupons up for grabs at local grocery stores.  Next time you go shopping, just be aware and look for them and you’ll be amazed at how many you can find.

Also I’m sure you’ve heard of collective buying sites which offer  all kinds of products, often at half price. There are now dozens of other companies in each city across Canada offering these deals which are a great way to save money on places and services you already spend money on. For instance, UsedVictoria just started offering a daily deal (www.deals.usedvictoria.com) and their first one was a grocery gift card valued at $20 which you could buy for $10! That’s literally cutting your grocery bill in half before even using a coupon!

Question #3:  I would love to start couponing but I’m embarrassed to go to the store with a ton of coupons and hold up lines at the cashier...

This was one of my biggest fears when I started but there are definitely ways to make your trips to the store as stress free and pleasant as possible. First, come prepared!  Make a detailed list of what products you are purchasing with coupons and organize your coupons in order of what you are going to ring through first. The more organized you are, the quicker the transaction and the happier the cashier will be to ring you through. Second, if you have a bunch of coupons, purchase your order at customer service instead of through the cashiers. That way you are not holding up a bunch of people, plus the cashiers at customer service are generally more knowledgeable about processing coupons.

Question #4: How do I get free diapers?

Baby products companies give the impression they want to give their stuff away for free as they are always sending you coupons for their products.  Sign up for their programs online and they will send you coupons in the mail. Pampers and Huggies are always offering coupons as well as formula companies like Similac and Enfamil.

Also, get your friends and families to sign up so they can pass on these coupons to you!  There are some grocery stores (Save-on-Foods and London Drugs in Victoria) that offer “stacking” which means you can use more than one coupon (they all have be different ones though) on one product. You can save up several diaper coupons and then wait for the diapers to go on sale and use them all on one pack of diapers and hopefully get them free!  Just be aware of the rules written on each coupon. If it says “cannot be combined with any other offer” you can’t use
this coupon to stack. I find the coupons you receive directly from the manufacturer usually do not state this (Huggies coupons do not have this restriction).

It may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but trust me, after you do it a couple of times, it will all make sense and you will feel fabulous saving all that cash. And as I’m constantly learning new things about couponing, I thought it might be helpful to post a new tip each week at the end of my blog so watch out for this next week. Happy couponing!

UsedBlog Watches: How to Open a Door

via Dangerous Minds (click on the cc for English subtitles)

UsedEverywhere Reusable Bags: New & Improved!

old bag vs new bag

This just in! Well, actually THESE just in! Fancy new UsedEverywhere cloth reusable bags arrived in our Victoria office today! 34,000 fancy, new reusable cloth bags, on 9 pallets carried to the second floor by your very own UsedEverywhere team in one hour, to be exact!

boxes and boxes and...

...and boxes and Alexa!

What’s that? You want a bag? And so you should have one! Fire us an email and we’ll  hook you up!

I know I'm going to sound like an old lady but…

I recently took my daughter to the Store Which Shall Not be Named to look for Halloween costumes.

We got off to a rocky start because I was already feeling negative about the whole thing. Halloween is one of those holidays that has been totally hijacked by big business. When I was a kid it was really bare bones (ha, no pun intended), and you know what, I think it was more fun that way. The only decoration we had was a jack o’lantern, the candies I brought home were pretty basic (and there were often peanuts and apples mixed in there too), and our costumes were almost entirely home-made or assembled out of old stuff we found in the back of our closets.

Here’s me, as a cat:

I think it’s the costumes that depress me the most. As Sarah and I wandered around the Store Which Shall Not be Named I bubbled with frustration. I’m attending a costume party this year and I have nothing to wear, and judging by what’s out there right now it seems as though my choices are limited to (a) things that are overly sexified (sexy viking, sexy barmaid, sexy vampire, sexy nurse, sexy teacher, sexy superhero, sexy She-Ra and Edward Scissorhands … the list goes on!) or (b) totally ridiculous and embarrassing. Is there not something in between?

It’s even harder to dress tweens and avoid making them look like sexy little witches and cheerleaders. Whatever happened to Halloween being about scary stuff? Gah. I guess sex sells, but I can’t help but he disappointed.

UsedBlog Thanksgiving: Justine's Honey Glazed Carrots

tasty carrots from Whole Foods

Thanksgiving is a time for counting blessings, being thankful and swapping recipes. Every year, I like to try to add a little something new to my Thanksgiving menu. Even if it’s just a new way of preparing yams (affectionately and not so affectionately called “yam mush” in my house) or a crazy turkey brining method, I’m game. I especially like to prepare other people’s family favourites. And so, in the spirit of adventure and seasonal recipe swapping, we here at the UsedEverywhere blog will be sharing our family recipes! Fun!

Last week you read about Carly’s carbolicious side dish recipe for Schwartzie Potatoes (she had me at “Schwartzie”), and today we’re talking carrots. Justine’s lovely, honey glazed carrots, to be exact. With every great family recipe, comes a great story. Here’s Justine’s:

“I married into a big family. Like, my husband’s the oldest of eight. Plus foster kids. And both sets of Grandparents live nearby, as well as some aunts and uncles and cousins. So when it comes to Thanksgiving everyone’s already got their specialties. Sooo… one time I got asked to bring a vegetable. They didn’t need me to bring a vegetable – it was more to let me feel included. But I decided I was going to bring the best darn vegetable I could. So if you’re looking for a vegetable dish that can stand out amongst the stars of the show (turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing) this one’s for you. It’s a lovely balance between savoury and sweet and is a lovely companion to the usual fare.”

HONEY-GLAZED CARROTS

-2 bunches of small, slender carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise (this is the prettiest choice, but if you can’t find these, cut some large carrots in long diagonal slices instead)

-3 Tbsp butter

-2 Tbsp white onion, minced fine

-2 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only

-coarse salt and black pepper, to taste

-1/2 tsp of lemon juice

-2 Tbsp honey
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Begin melting butter in medium sized roasting pan over medium heat.

2. Add the carrots, onion and thyme leaves and toss to coat with the butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast, stirring occasionally, for 15-25 minutes or until the carrots and shallots are tender.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and return to the stove over a medium heat. Drizzle the honey and lemon juice over the carrots and gently toss to coat. Season to taste with more salt and freshly ground black pepper, if necessary.

 
Thanks, Justine! I think we can all agree that the only thing better than carrots are carrots slathered in butter and honey! If you have any family recipes to share, we’d love to hear from you! You know what to do…

The Deal on UsedVictoria.com: SOLD OUT

Thanks to everyone for making our first-ever deal a sold-out success! Sure, things were pretty bumpy heading out of the gate (all the love took our servers by surprise), but thanks to our stellar web development team and your patience we were able to get things up and running pretty quickly-ish!

We’d also like to extend a big thanks to Thrifty Foods for being our first deal. As if we all needed another reason to love Thrifty Foods! For those of you who managed to get that $20 Smile card for $10 — way to go! Lucky! For those of you who didn’t, try not to to be too bummed — there are more great deals in the works. In fact, there’s another great deal tomorrow at 9AM. Be sure to visit UsedVictoria.com first thing tomorrow!

The Deal on UsedVictoria.com

Check out the The Deal countdown on UsedVictoria.com!

Hey UsedVictoria.com users, you asked for it, you got it! On Monday, October 3rd at 9 AM, UsedVictoria.com is launching a deal site called (appropriately) “The Deal”.

Yeah, yeah, we know – ANOTHER deal site. But “The Deal” is different! First, it’s us. You know us! We’re local and we love local business. That’s why, we charge a very reasonable flat rate for local businesses interested in offering you a deal. Unlike that other big-green-monster-of-a-deal-site-that-shall-not-be-named, we aren’t in it for a cash grab. This is good news for smaller, boutique businesses looking to get involved. And good news for you as a consumer who wants to support the businesses in your community.

We won’t spam you! Skip the daily delete. We give you the gift of autonomy! When you feel like saving a ridiculous amount of money, you visit the site. Simple.

But really, the most important thing is that we’re going to be offering killer deals. In fact, the first deal on Monday is soooo good… I’m tempted to tell you what it is ahead of time… Okay, twist my arm – [spoiler alert] it’s a $20 Thrifty Foods Smile Card for $10! You pay $10 for $20 worth of products available at any Thrifty Foods location! Come on. That’s pretty sweet.

Right, so now that you know what The Deal is, you better make sure you set your alarm clocks for Monday morning. The deal starts at 9 AM sharp and it will sell out fast!

We can’t give away the URL just yet, but come Monday morning you can get there via UsedVictoria.com. (see the awesome screen capture above)

Not in Victoria? Want “The Deal” in your town? Let us know!

Hey, I'm a Giant!

Have you seen this floating around the blogosphere?

A few of the big time design/renovation/DIY bloggers are teaming up to put on the “I’m A Giant Challenge” – a challenge to design your own dollhouse top to bottom!  How fun!  And boy, could you splurge on some really great wallpaper if you only need 1 square foot of it…

The challenge is being hosted by the hilarious and awesome Emily Henderson from HGTV USA’s “Secrets fr0m a Stylist”.  And I’m very excited to see what she, and the other bloggers come up with!

Emily's Dream House

It’s a challenge I’d love to participate in if I had any spare moment to do anything with my hands other than rock a baby.  And if I knew it wouldn’t be used as a garage for Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train.  Ah well… maybe when my kids are a bit bigger (and less likely to put all the furniture in their mouths) I’ll embark on such a project with them!

But I’ve actually did help create a dollhouse few years ago to teach a series for our church kids’ club.  We were telling the story of “The Hiding Place” – and the house is an essential detail to the story.

Our dollhouse model of the 'Beje' - the "Hiding Place" house

Our dollhouse-sized model was built by the talented Mr. Ranson – a man who helps with the kids clubs at our church year after year.  He even taught the kids how to do woodcrafts for many years.

It’s a copy of the Beje – the house that Hollander Corrie ten Boom lived in when she and her family hid Jews from the Nazis during World War II.  It’s a crooked old house, with mismatched floor plan, a watch and clock shop out front, and a secret room built into the wall of Corrie’s bedroom.

The misaligned floors from the new house being added onto the old house

The watch shop at the front of the house with photographs of the real Beje and owner Casper ten Boom

Corrie's bedroom with the closet door that opens into the secret room

I painted each of the rooms and printed out tiny clocks and family photographs to hang on the walls, but had no time or resources to hunt down any furniture.  But I recently spotted a few dollhouse furniture items on UsedRegina that may work!  The seller even has items like a piano and a grandfather clock, which would fit so well with the story.  My fingers are crossed that the furniture will fit.  (I’ll let you know if I end up getting it!)

But back to the challenge, a used dollhouse would be a great starting point if you wanted to get involved, don’t you think?  Who knows what kind of treasures could abound?  Here are a few things I found:

If you're really crafty, this adorable Victorian dollhouse kit from UsedRegina be lovely!

Or if you're not crafty - or you're lazy - and you live in Sault Ste Marie you could buy this one!

Some would consider this move in ready, others might want to call in the decorator... Either way, this house on UsedVictoria is AH-mazing!

This big, beautiful two-story on UsedCowichan looks like it's still in need of reno's - perfect for the challenge, and ripe with design possibilities!

This well-priced vintage tin house on UsedEdmonton is worth checking out! (What toy manufacturer these days could ever get away with mounting a gun over the fireplace...)

And look at all of this beautiful miniature furniture! (Or maybe it's regular-sized furniture beside giant bottles of dish soap and sunscreen... hmmm...)

And how ridiculously groovy is this party pad on UsedOttawa?

And this is only a tiny (pun intended) smattering of the dollhouses out there on UsedEverywhere (possibly about to be renamed UsedDollhouses.com).  And don’t worry, if you’re looking for one that real children can actually play with (you know, the hearty, plastic, washable, Fisher Price kind) there are lots of those too!

New Used Viewer Android App!

Hot off the presses! Download our new Used Viewer app for Android! View ads on your favorite UsedEverywhere sites right from your Android device. The UsedEverywhere Ad Viewer allows you to browse online classifieds quickly and efficiently without having to zoom and scroll constantly. Sweet! Now go find your iPhone friends and tell them to stop feeling so superior already.

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