Grocery Game

CH: Since Jamie reads this, and she just asked me about the Grocery Game on Facebook (did you tell her I used that? I don't remember posting it anywhere)....I actually haven't used it in a long time...but I remember stuff...although I think we stopped using it after Ralph's put a cap on their doubling....

Anyways, I wanted to start a blog here so I didn't forget to write about it because I think it's a great blog topic :)

But we're heading out to Target right now, so I will continue later. :)

JH: I sure did! Jamie actually blogged about her new found success with coupons, so I thought she should try Grocery Game. I didn't do it long enough to fully get it, but I know you did, so I sent her on over.

CH: So this is what I remember...

The hardest part was organizing the coupons...it took us hours to go through coupons every week....

Basically we organized coupons by the week that we got the coupons as that was one of the ways that it's referenced in the Grocery Game...so we had stacks clipped together from every week and then I would write the week on a piece of paper on top of the stack.

Then we went through the Grocery Game and checked off everything we were interested in purchasing (again, this was much more tempting when Ralph's didnt have a limit on the coupon doubling).

Then we tackled one stack of coupons at a time....we would find all of the coupons from that stack's week that was featured in the grocery game (this was what took forever....page by page we had to go through it searching for the items)...then we would move on to the next week.

When we got to the store we would go for everything on our list, and if it was sold out (which many times it was) we would either leave the coupon there if it was expiring or just bring it back home if it wasn't.

In addition, when we were looking through the stacks of coupons, we would also pay attention to expiration dates...so if a coupon was going to expire before the next week when we went to the store again, we would just bring the coupon along.

So in addition to our grocery game (which we didn't get a TON of stuff off of, but we did get quite a few super cheap or free items) we would bring all these other coupons that were expiring just to see if we could get a deal...and many times there were sale items that we got super cheap with the coupons that weren't featured in the Grocery Game.

Between the two methods, we saved a TON of money...but also bought a ton of stuff that we didn't really need. At one point we had like 10 air fresheners just building up in our cupboard........

And the other thing to keep in mind is that the idea of this only works if you're willing to stock up on things you may not need NOW, but when you do need it (i.e. the 10 air fresheners that we had in stock) we already have more and got it at a great deal. And you also learn to plan your meals around what's on sale....so if you buy a bunch of hamburger helpers for $0.50 off the grocery game one week - then you're eating hamburger helper that week.

:)

Let me know if you have specific questions. :)

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/