Grocery game

[ibcnya]

Anyone here play the grocery game and how much do you really save? Or do you buy things you don't need just because you have a coupon?

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

[tjmomof4]

I've done the grocery game, with moderate success. It would work a lot better for me if my neighbors or someone would give me their newspaper coupons on Sundays. As it was, I couldn't ever stock up enough of each item to feed my bigger family. I did save some money, though. The biggest issue for me is the time. I just don't have the amount of time it took to go to all the stores (we live way out), and then to hassle with all the coupons once I was there. It would take hours and hours to get my shopping done.

Try couponmom.com for a free version of the same thing.

If I had fewer kids, ate more prepared/ready-to-eat food, and/or lived closer to grocery stores, it would definitely have been worth it.

[Kathleen in WI]

I saved a huge amount of money. Unfortunately, it seemed like after a while there were just no good sales. So it wasn't worth it to me to keep it going. However, their method of stocking up when something is on sale, and buying coupons for those items if you need to, really works. Even if you spend a few cents on the coupons, what you save far outweighs the cost in many cases.

Of course, having access to multiple Sunday papers helps too. We had a friend who knew the newspaper guy, so we got piles of coupons.

We were really stocked up on stuff from CVS and some from Walgreens. We did pretty well at the grocery store too, but as was mentioned, to really clean up you have to eat a lot of processed food. Not many coupons on fresh fruits, veggies and meats.

[Ravenlost]

I've never even heard of it. Thanks for the link.

[Pelenaka]

We spend under $250 on average per month for a family of 4 - DH who eats like a man, myself, and two teenage daughters. We eat meatless meals 1-2 times per week nothing extreme like tofu. Soda is a treat as is beer. We make our own wine & cordials. I bake our bread products from wheat that was bartered for. Yeah we're scratch heads.
The majority of the commerical products that we buy are store brands such as Aldis unless we find brand name on a clearence rack for pennies.
4 years ago I bought slightly over $1000 worth of name brand food (discounted 50% to 75%) when a local grocery store went belly up. Bought 250 lbs. of white rice, 100 lbs. of pizza flour, 6 cans of Calumet baking powder, & 3 lbs. of caraway seed for example. Basically food items that had long term shorage potential. Now that the majority of that food has been used I replace it with either homemade or store brand.
For us our huge grocery budget secret is are you ready for this ? Check behind you someone may be reading over your shoulder! K ...wait for it ... good old fashioned food preservation; canning, dehydrating, and freezing.
Oh wait the second half is to obtain free food or nearly free by growing, gleaning, bartering, or buying in bulk/clearence.
The 3rd and last method is coupon shopping for really great deals. An example is Domino sugar sale priced for $1.99/5 lbs. I'll check to see if I can score coupons online since this store double coupons. The only other item that has caught my attention is split chicken breasts for 99¢/lbs. I'll double check Aldis price on their frozen breasts but I'm sure that the mega chain store's sale is better.

~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/

[Veronica]

I have saved quite a bit with them. I use the lists for stocking up on things, and I haven't found other sites that have lists for Wegmans. However, I really like http://www.moneysavingmom.com also. That site lists the best deals for CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens as well as other coupons for restaurants, etc. Today we had free slurpees from 7-11 and I had a $2 off coupon on produce from Giant. I often get hear about free coffee from Borders, and other deals just from going on that site. So I use both.

Veronica

[Kathleen in WI]

In my opinion, the best use of programs like the Grocery Game are for stocking up on things like toiletries, heath/beauty items, first aid supplies, etc. You can really get some huge savings following the sales at CVS, using coupons,and the like. We once went out of CVS with a heaping cart for something like $2. The cashier thought it was very cool

We typically do well at CVS and the manager often teases us the he's "been robbed."

[ladycat]

The grocery game costs money. There are a number of sites that do the same thing for free.

[house06]

I did the grocery game for awhile and learned the basics which our own ladycat and others around the interest can show you. The main problem that I had was that the "deals" listed at Kroger my main store never matched the game list. So, now i just do it myself.

[Fla_Hammock_Gal]

Never heard of, will check it out later, thanks!

We don't buy something just because there is a coupon in the paper (I also subscribe online), I clip the coupons that I need, then mail the manufacturer's coupons not used to my sister in NC, and send the store coupons down to another sister in Homestead, who has a Publix too.

My sister in NC has gotten awesome with couponing. She can go to the store, fill up the cart with the stuff she needs, probably about $300.00 worth, and then hand over her coupons. Walks out the store with paying less than $50.00. But, she goes on double and triple couple days. Our stores don't have double, let alone triple off.

I also do rebates... and really wish that Publix would bring back S&H food stamps!