The Great Grocery Game Experiment

I've been hearing about the Grocery Game for awhile now. At first I thought it was a game show like Supermarket Sweep. Remember that show? I just loved watching the people racing around the stores piling expensive things in their cart and solving peanut butter related riddles.

But after asking a few questions and utilizing my brain (read: Google) I discovered that the Grocery Game is a coupon/sale tracking program.

Eh...not for me. First of all, I shop cheap (say that five times fast!). Really, I stalk the clearance sales, we don't do name brand stuff, and we go without luxuries (who needs that silly old TP anyway?). So when I checked out the message boards on the Grocery Game website, I was still skeptical. Most of the coupons and sales were on name brand items, and some of the boasted savings just didn't seem, well, believable.

But it was only a dollar for a four week trial so I decided to grudgingly fork over a buck (I'm serious, I really am that cheap!) and try it out.

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How it Works:

You get a list of stores in your area (drug stores and grocery stores). Each week you receive a list of all of the sales in the stores, both advertised and unadvertised. Teri (the creator) matches up the store sales, the store coupons (which you can get in weekly fliers) and manufacturer's coupons (which you can find in the Sunday paper, or through coupon clipping services).

What you have to do:

When you get your Sunday paper, clip the heck out of the coupons. You can also buy extra papers, or beg some off of your neighbors/friends. Print out your Grocery Game list, organize your coupons for the trip, and head to the store. After you have picked out your items, hand your cashier your coupons, pay and leave. Simple as pie, right? (Mmmm....pie!)

Why it's so fantabulous:

Without the grocery game, you go to the store and find a store brand toothpaste on clearance for 94 cents. That's a fantastic deal, so you snatch it up!

Now, with the grocery game, Teri already knows that toothpaste is going on clearance, AND she knows that there is a $1 coupon in your Sunday paper. So you get a tube for free. BUT...then you ask for your neighbor's and your grandma's coupon inserts and get THREE free tubes of toothpaste so you can stockpile for the next few months.

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So, after reading the rules and going through my list, I had a pretty good idea of how it worked and what I needed to do. I also dug through my grandparent's huge stack of used papers that hadn't gone out for recycling yet. I scored dozens of coupons from past papers, some really valuable!

This week I got:

1 box cereal

4 laundry detergents (32 loads each)

2 boxes pasta

2 power toothbrushes

2 full sized bottles of dish soap

3 boxes of kleenex

All of these items were name brand.....total cost: $12.50!! This is such a huge savings because the laundry soaps alone are twice that amount (original cost).

Sooo...needless to say, I'm hooked. I really think this is going to help our family significantly this summer, what with me having to sell my kidney so that we can fill our gas tank.

If you want to join (please do!) go here and look around. The message boards have a lot of great insight too. If you decide to jump aboard, feel free to use my email as a referral (jewels099@hotmail.com).

(I just looked back through this post and discovered A LOT of parentheses (I love these things!). Sorry 'bout that!)

(Stay tuned next week for my second week of savings!)

(Bye!)