We do love a good freebie and what better way to start the long weekend than with a round up of some of the great free stuff we've found this week on our FREEBIE FRIDAY listing? All we can say is, TGIFF - Thank Goodness it's Freebie Friday!

• Crystal Light - FREE Sample ("like" their Facebook page to receive your 4 samples from their 18 flavours)
• Always & Tampax - FREE Samples (fill out the online form to receive your freebie)
• Emergen-C - FREE Sample (fill out the form to receive yours)
• Superstore / Extra Foods (West) - Tax FREE Days (not exactly a freebie, but Tax Free qualifies as a great deal to us!)
• Kellogs Hunny Nut All-Bran Bar - FREE Sample (fill out form to receive yours)
• Pottery Barn Canada - FREE Batman Story Time & Celebration

Have a happy and safe long weekend and remember, one good deal always deserves another ... if you know of a great freebie or deal send us a quick note so we can share the mother of a deal loving!

The back-to-school sales are still happening, including this great offer from Canadian online retailer Purl Mama & Baby for 20% off all back-to-school essentials, including; backpacks, lunchboxes, clothes and more. Check their back-to-school section for all the great items. Use coupon code: cool4school at the checkout.

If you own a Visa card, before you head out on your next shopping trip, or book your next vacation, check the visaperks.ca website. There are some great savings to be had with coupon vouchers for in-store use and coupon codes for online shopping. Some good deal examples we found include; $50 off each nights stay at participating Fairmont hotels, Canadian Family 1 year subscription for only $10 (70% savings), $10 off $50 at Gap stores, and buy one, get one FREE waffle cones at Baskin Robins. Definitely worth a quick search of their site for these savings!

Home Depot in Canada has great one day deals on this long weekend. Some that stood out to us include; Saturday only - bonded leather club chair $99 (reg. $199), propane patio heater $99 and Sunday only - Vigoro Fall Turf fertilizer $7.49 (reg. $14.99), 49¢ per square foot of 12x12 Sanibel ceramic tile. For complete list of savings check here.

To celebrate back-to-school week, Mother of a Deal is giving away a terrific prize pack to one of our newsletter subscribers from Easy Daysies. This company was recently featured in Parents Canada magazine's "Need it, Want it, Gotta Have it" article. Find out what "it" is and all the other juicy details in this week's newsletters (sign up now and enter Thrilling Thursday as your referral) and on Mother of a Deal's Facebook page.

Mother of a Deal loves Gail Vaz-Oxlade's passionate approach to helping others save money. And she's an expert - with 11 books, hundreds of articles, three prime time television shows and expertise working with Canada's leading financial services companies to help educate employees and clients - you could say she knows a thing or two about saving money! When she listed Mother of a Deal as one of her favourite sites today, we were thrilled. We hope you have a look around and sign-up for our twice weekly newsletter and enjoy our deals, give-aways, money-saving tips, freebies and more. Can't find something or have a recommendation? We'd like to hear from you. Thanks for visiting and happy deal hunting! 

Superstore and Extra Foods have pretty low prices to begin with on toys, household goods and clothing and on September 4th & 5th the deals get better with their TAX FREE days (from open until closing). This would be a great time to grab any household electronics you've been eying up!

On now, until September 30th, join the irewards program at Chapters / Indigo and use this 20% off your entire purchase coupon (in-store). If you're an avid reader the irewards card seems like a decent deal, you get it for $25 and immediately begin saving 40% off all bestsellers, 10% off all other books and 5% off your online purchases. For a limited time, they will also give you a coupon booklet worth $25 when you purchase or renew your card. Have you joined this program? Leave a comment below and let us know if you've found it to be a worthwhile savings. Thanks Nancy for forwarding this deal to us!

This long weekend, September 3rd - 6th, Banana Republic Canada is having an in-store "win your salary" contest and each non-winning game card will give you either 15%, 25% or 50% off your entire purchase (valid September 3rd-6th). Winning a year's salary would be great (it's a minimum of $50,000 so no worries for all us stay-at-home moms, they actually have placed a bit of value on our efforts!), but with the 15% - 50% off it's really a win/win either way. Check here for store locator.

Bluenotes Canada has a FREE shipping offer on right now until September 6th, 2010. Another deal they've got going is buy one, get one 50% off on jeans and hoodies for girls and guys. If you have tweens or teens in the house this might be a great back-to-school shopping trip (minus the trip to the mall!).