The coupon issue

(Québec and coupons: a love story since forever)

Today, me, Math an my in-laws went to a welcome party for "nouveaux arrivants au Lac-St-Jean". It's a happy hour with wine, fingerfood and the mayor of all the districts around the area, to welcome people from another countries who came to settle here. They do it once a year and they invite all the new families from the past year. The party is organized by Portes Ouvertes sur le Lac, an organization that helps new immigrants to find a house, work, school for the kids and even a translator, if needed. We had a total of 10 families - with me and Math counting as a family. The funny story I have to tell you is about the "Coupons book".

I'm going to open a parenthesis here to explain something: first thing you have to learn about the quebecers is they are crazy for coupons. They are not big spenders but they like a good special, like a hobbit likes food. It just comes together. And they like to talk about the specials and how much they paid for something (a hot subject for them). For the quebecers, taking care of your money is an important part of their life - absolutely different from Brazil, where the word "discounts" means "you-are-not-wealthy-enough-for-it-so-don't-buy-it".

So, as soon as I arrived, my mother-in-law came home with a big white plastic bag.

- What is this? - I asked in French

- This is a discount bag. You gonna get one of these every week in your mail box.

Imagine my face when I discovered I'm gonna have a big bag of papers in my mail box, every week, even if I never asked for one. It's like something that just happens in your life and you have to accept it. I was pretty sure I'll never use any of these coupons, because I would never have the time to check all of them. Everything changes and here I am, checking the discounts, until it becomes a kind of habit: the plastic bag arrives and you know it's time to go to the supermarket (we do the big groceries once a week).

So, resistent as I am, once again I react a little suspicious when Math arrived home, asking me to subscribe at Portes Ouvertes, to have access of the "Coupons book".

- What is this? - I asked in French

- This is a discount book, with all kinds of discounts everywhere in town. 

When I get the book in my hands, I understood why it was so precious. They gave you more or less $1000 in coupons to spend in every possible way - grocery stores, special cheese shops and even ski classes for free. They gave only one for each new family and only during this special gathering with Portes ouvertes sur le lac.

Even if I still have the brazilian suspicious girl living inside of me, now I'm starting to get really addicted to find good discounts - and tell everyone about it.

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If you want to know more about the Portes Ouvertes Sur le Lac and their amazing work: Portes Ouvertes Sur le Lac

If you want to know what is a Publisac and the kind of discounts you can find in it: Publisac.ca

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I barely arrived and next edition of the newspapers will have my photo, shaking hands with the mayor of the city. :)

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There's so many things happening at the same time, it is difficult to put everything updated here in the blog. I was kind of expecting this before I started but I never imagined how my life would change in such a short time.