CentsAble Solutions

09/05/2026

🇨🇦 Happy Labour Day Weekend, everyone! 🇨🇦

Whether you're spending the weekend relaxing, enjoying time with family and friends, tackling that never-ending to-do list, sneaking in one last summer adventure, or hunting down some great deals...

I hope you're having a wonderful, safe, and CentsAble weekend!

Enjoy every minute — because summer weekends are numbered and, judging by the stores, Christmas has apparently been waiting impatiently in the parking lot since July.

Can we please survive Labour Day before Mariah Carey is officially thawed out? 😂

What are you up to this Labour Day weekend?

09/03/2026

WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER! 🍂🍎📚

Ah yes…that weird little in-between season where summer isn’t technically over, but school is back in session! 😅
September means routines are back, lunches need to be packed, and grocery bills suddenly have a whole new category: “What can I put in the lunchbox?” 🎒💸

It’s Thursday, which means new flyers are here! Time to check your loyalty offers, make your list and stock up on the deals that will help get us through the back-to-school chaos. 🛒💰

🛒 FOOD BASICS

🔥 STOCK-UP ITEMS
• Christie Crackers — $1.98 🍘
• Selections Butter — $4.98 🧈
• Potatoes, 10 lb — $1.88 🥔 🔥
• Cashmere Toilet Paper — $5.98 🧻
• Pepsi or Coke, 6 × 710 mL — $2.98 with Moi card (limit 8) 🥤
• Campbell’s Soup — $0.88 🥫 🔥
• Maple Leaf Flakes of Ham — $1.88
• Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream — $6.99 🍦
• Club House Gravy — $0.99 🔥

🛒 INDEPENDENT

• PC Burgers — $6.99 member pricing 🍔
• Schneiders Pepperettes — $6.00
• Promise Gluten-Free Items — $7.00

🛒 METRO

• Grapes — $2.49/lb 🍇
• Broccoli Crowns — $1.99 🥦

🛒 NO FRILLS
🔥 SCHOOL LUNCH + STOCK-UP PICKS

• Tuna — $1.00 🐟 — great for sandwiches and wraps
• Clark Beans — $1.00 🫘 🔥
• Chocolate Milk, 750 mL — $1.00 🥛
• Watermelon — $3.44 🍉 — an easy lunchbox fruit!

🎒 SEPTEMBER SCHOOL-LUNCH STAPLES TO WATCH FOR
Keep an eye out for good prices on:
🥪 Bread, wraps and bagels
🧀 Cheese and cheese strings
🍎 Apples, bananas and other easy grab-and-go fruit
🥕 Baby carrots and cucumbers
🍘 Crackers and lunchbox snacks
🥣 Yogurt and pudding cups
🥜 Peanut-free snack options
🧃 Juice boxes and drinkable yogurt
🍗 Deli meat and sandwich fillings
🥫 Tuna and other easy lunch proteins
🍫 Granola bars and snack bars

📌 THURSDAY REMINDERS:

✔️ New flyers start today!
✔️ Load your loyalty offers before shopping
✔️ Check points, coupons and cashback apps
✔️ Watch for quantity limits on the best deals
✔️ Stock up on non-perishables when prices are low
✔️ Start thinking about easy school lunches now — future-you will thank you! 😂
✔️ Always check your pantry and freezer before shopping!

September is chaotic enough…let’s at least save some money on groceries while we’re surviving it! 💰🛒

What school-lunch staples are you watching for this month? And what deals are you stocking up on this week? 👇

08/30/2026

🌶️ MY JAR OF PEPPERIKA 🌶️

Look at all that beautiful, spicy YUMMINESS! 😍

This is my homemade pepperika — basically every pepper from the garden that might otherwise go to waste gets dehydrated, ground up and tossed into the jar.
And yes, I purposely leave it a little chunkier.
Because I enjoy living dangerously.

You never quite know what you’re going to get in the next bite…
🌶️ Is it jalapeño?
🔥 Is it habanero?
🍬 Maybe you’ll get a little sweet pepper surprise?

WHO KNOWS?! 😂

That’s half the fun!
A little sprinkle in sauces, soups, casseroles, marinades…pretty much anywhere that needs a little garden attitude.

And the best part?

Something that could have ended up in the compost is now sitting in a jar waiting to make dinner interesting.
Waste not. Want not. Spice accordingly. 🌶️🤣

08/29/2026

🍂 THE CALENDAR MAY NOT SAY FALL YET…BUT THE KIDS GOING BACK TO SCHOOL HAVE CLEARLY NOT RECEIVED THAT MEMO.

And here we go…
Backpacks. ✏️
Lunches. 🥪
School supplies. 🎒
New shoes because apparently feet grow whenever it’s most inconvenient. 👟
Activities. Fees. Fundraisers. More fees. And probably something that requires a poster board at 9:47 p.m. 🤦‍♀️
And just when you think you’ve survived September…

🎃 HELLO, HALLOWEEN!
And then, because life apparently enjoys financial violence…

🎄MERRY CHRISTMAS🎄

Yep. Once September hits, we have basically entered the Four-Month Financial Gauntlet™.
Christmas is coming whether your bank account likes it or not.

Your credit card has been warned.
Your wallet is already hiding.
And somewhere, a store is putting Christmas decorations on the shelf while you’re still trying to remember where you put the sunscreen. 😂

So tell me…
What is going to be your BIGGEST challenge as we head into the final four months of 2026?
💰 Keeping the grocery budget under control?
🎒 Back-to-school expenses?
🎃 Halloween spending?
🎄 Christmas without completely nuking the budget?
📅 Finding the time to do ALL THE THINGS?
💳 Or just making it to January with your finances, sanity and marriage still intact? 😂

👇 WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST FINANCIAL NEMESIS FOR THE REST OF 2026?

Because around here, we're going to talk about it, laugh about it, and try like hell not to let it bankrupt us.

08/27/2026

Friends…I need to confess something. 😂

Today, I went grocery shopping with Mr. CentsAble.

We had a list.

We did NOT have a plan.
And apparently, there is a BIG difference between those two things.

Let’s just say today’s grocery trip was anything but CentsAble.

Never again.

Here are a few things I learned today:

🛒 1. Don’t blindly trust the flyer apps.
Flipp, Reddit and the store’s online flyer don’t always match up.
Metro seems to be particularly guilty of this — at least in my experience.

For example, today Kawartha Dairy ice cream was showing at $7.49 with a Moi card, and there were supposed to be coupons available.
So naturally, I loaded my coupons.

Except…

There was no coupon.

And this isn’t the first time I’ve had something like this happen.

So now I’m adding another step to my grocery routine:

Check the actual deal before counting it as a deal.

🛒 2. I found SO many in-store deals that weren’t in the flyer.

Every store I went into had something I would have completely missed if I had simply made my list from the flyer and stuck to it.

Which got me thinking...How much money are we missing because we only shop the flyer?

And honestly, that might be something worth paying more attention to.

Today was a good reminder that being CentsAble isn’t just about finding the advertised sale.

It’s about:
✔️ Knowing your prices
✔️ Having a plan
✔️ Checking the actual store
✔️ Looking for unadvertised deals
✔️ Checking your coupons
✔️ And knowing when to say “Nope, that’s not a deal.”

Because sometimes the best deal isn't the one screaming at you from the flyer.

Next grocery trip, I’m bringing the list AND the plan.

Mr. CentsAble may also be getting a pre-shopping briefing. 🤣

Have you found an amazing in-store deal that wasn’t advertised in the flyer?

I want to hear about it! 👇

08/27/2026

Good morning,
Its Thursday and the beginning of another flyer week. Here are my top stock up picks this week.

🚨 MY PICKS FOR THE BEST STOCK-UPS

🥇 Campbell's soup — $0.97 Walmart
🥈 Heinz Beans/Alphagetti — $0.98 Food Basics
🥉 18 eggs — $4.98 + 125 Moi points at Metro
🏅 Butter — $4.99 FreshCo
🏅 4L milk — $4.98 Food Basics

08/27/2026

Oh this is a sweet deal...stock up!

Palmolive on sale $1.75 👉 But Pc members load your offers and get this item for $ 1 😃

08/26/2026

Continuing this week with a few more recipes from the pantry!

This one is Chicken & Stuffing Bake — simple, comforting, inexpensive and made almost entirely from shelf-stable ingredients.

Ingredient - Cost Breakdown
• 1 can chicken — $4.79
• 1 box Stove Top stuffing mix — $2.69
• 1 can cream of chicken soup — $2.49
• 1 can mixed vegetables — $1.49
• 1½ cups water or broth — $0.00–$0.25 depending on what you use

💰 Estimated total: $11.46–$11.71

🍽️ 4 servings = approximately $2.87–$2.93 per serving!

👩‍🍳 How to Make It
Put chicken and vegetables into a casserole dish.
Mix the cream of chicken soup with ½ cup water and pour over the chicken mixture.
Prepare the stuffing with the remaining liquid and spread it over the top.
Bake at 375°F for about 30 minutes, until hot and bubbly and the stuffing is golden.

And there you have it — a cozy dinner for about $3 a plate.

This is exactly why I love pantry cooking. You don't need a complicated recipe or a grocery cart full of ingredients to put dinner on the table.

**Prices are estimated using current Ontario grocery pricing (Food Basics) and can vary by store, brand and sales. Buying ingredients on sale can bring the cost down even further.**

08/25/2026

Anyone else have dietary restrictions that make life just a little more interesting? 😂

Have you ever been told, “If it tastes good, you can’t have it”?

Because apparently my taste buds and my body are in a toxic relationship. 🙄🤣

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been experimenting with ingredients like Greek yogurt, egg whites and quinoa. And let me tell you…getting recipes just right is a process.

There have been some questionable meals. Some “well, that’s technically edible” moments. And at least one occasion where I seriously questioned my life choices. 😂

BUT…you know what?
It’s actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
I’m almost…borderline…not quite there yet…possibly considering liking it. 😂 And that feels like a pretty big win.

Who else is out here trying to make “healthy” taste like something other than sadness on a plate? 😆👇

08/25/2026

🎄🚨 FRIENDLY or ANNOYING CHRISTMAS REMINDER 🚨🎄

It’s August.
It’s hot (mostly).
It’s basically still summer.
AND CHRISTMAS IS ONLY 4 MONTHS AWAY. 🎅🏻😈

You heard me.

That means you have approximately 120 days to:
🎁 Buy/make gifts
💰 Find the deals
🧦 Pretend you’re going to be organized this year
🍪 Figure out what the hell you’re making
🎄 Dig through the storage room for decorations
😱 Panic
🛒 And then buy the things you swore you were “waiting for a sale” on.

So go ahead…keep scrolling. 😂

But when December hits and you’re standing in Walmart at 9:47 PM on December 23rd wondering why you didn’t start earlier…

DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU. 😏

🎄 CHRISTMAS IS COMING.

You’re welcome.
And yes…I’ll be reminding you again. 😈🎅🏻