Hey everyone! I'm off to a totally forgotten 'girly visit'..the last one for a while, I'm afraid, with a friend in Houston. I will be altering the other daughter's prom dress before she heads off to college..and then we'll just have a good long chat.
This evening we will drive together to our weekly square dancing lesson for the teenagers and I'll be bringing two racks of GORGEOUS square dance clothes for our 20 or more teen girls. They are all so excited!
Peggy called this morning at 8:00 am..and was surprised I was still sleepy. Gee..this appointment definitely slipped my mind! (We were up late SKYPE-ing with the kids in Washington and the grandkids. ) :o)
So here I am, not doing the post I had planned..but instead am going to throw a quick intro to my favorite game--The Grocery Game. (I'm not sure if quick is something I'm actually capable of doing.Ha!)
If you have not heard of this, you are in for a lot of fun! If you get addicted..and this IS a possibility...it could also mean a lot of WORK. (Don't blame me--I warned you.) But what you will get most, is tons of savings.
For the last two years or more, I've just been buying all my groceries 'enmasse' at Sam's (similar to Costco) and buy picking 7-10 recipes for the month, I can buy bulk ingredients and make almost (though not quite) as much savings as The Grocery Game. We just were too busy to do the game.
This method works great for big families..but not so good for those of you who have small families or are retired. The Grocery Game is a MUCH better idea for you. :o)
But Rebekah and I are ready to jump in again...and it was just SOoo fun! We are very good at this so it didn't take much to get going. We clipped a few coupons since we only have one newspaper's flyers. But we still saved on average about 40% off of everything. I always forget how much groceries you bring home for the same amount of money that you normally spend. And it shocks me!
I can't wait to show you more but for now, this will simply have to be an introduction. My frugal friend, Jaime of Life and Love in the Country, does this regularly and she wrote several posts on how fun it is and how much she saved.
The total bill was 22.35 at CVS...I saved 15.11..that's a huge savings!
The grocery game is simply buying only items that are ON SALE for which you also have a COUPON. The sale price automatically saves you money. If you only bought items from every store near you each week and stocked up, you would naturally save tons of money.
But if you could COMBINE those savings with COUPONs. Well, you are going to save much more! The more you play the game and keep stocking up, the lower your grocery bill gets. It's that simple.
But matching up all of those circulars and your coupons is a lot of work. Instead, just go to either The Coupon Mom (which is free) or The Grocery Game (small monthly fee) and they will publish the lists of matches for you. They do a FABULOUS job and save you a ton of work.
I recommend that if you are new to this, that you pay the small fee and use the grocery game first. Then when it starts bugging you about paying the fee, you can cancel and start using the coupon mom. Unless you are really pretty savvy and have the time. It isn't rocket science to use the Coupon Mom.
The advantage of the Grocery Game is she makes sure you get the best bargain from each store without overlapping. (In other words, you could use the same coupon at several stores who might also have sales on that product..but whose combined savings is the best? She'll sort that out for you.)
The lists include not only all the major grocery stores but also Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens, Target, and even dollar stores.
The Simple Way to Play the Grocery Game
- First Go to Coupon Mom and find my state's drop down list. Select a grocery store..i.e. Kroger.
- Click on all the items I want to buy.
- Click on any printable coupon links and print those.
- Now go through the properly dated coupon flyers (Smart Source, RedPlum, etc.) and find the coupons referenced.
- Cut them out and staple them to the list.
- Go shopping!
You will want to start buying your Sunday paper. We pull out the coupon flyers from each paper (we usually buy two) and file them in file folders with the week's date at the top. We put these files in an accordion file for easy reference.
Well..can you believe this is the short version? I've gotta go..but do 'weigh' in and share your expertise in the comments section. I know we'd all love to read your testimonials..good or bad.
BEST BARGAIN OF THE DAY~ I got two free gallons of milk at Krogers while buying four boxes of cereal ON SALE and I used a $1.00 off of two coupon for two of the boxes, plus .50cents off of on box of Cheerios. Total savings on the cereal? $7.50 Cost of the cereal on sale $8.00. So for four boxes of cereal and two GALLONS of milk I paid $0.50. Now that's a savings!
Have you tried something like this before? Do you like using coupons or have you always thought, like I once did, that coupons were a waste of time because we didn't buy 'brand name'? If you are experienced at this, can you share some of the pitfalls...yes--there are a few. :o) Have fun shopping!
7 comments
Never heard of the senior discount at Krogers. How do you get that.
I wish I would take the time to do this. It would help alot.
I love to save $$ but I've always done the leg work myself...nice to know there's an easier way! That would certainly free up some time!
Thanks for sharing!
Blessings,
Jill
There has been a big problem with the local newspapers here with people stealing the Sunday coupons. I am told that the reality show involving coupon collecting is the cause of it.
Donna, love this idea but when I went to the site and put my state in, I kept getting a pop-up "Do you want to open this, this could harm your computer". So I backed out of it all. Help! K
I get those weird warnings too. It's just overkill on the part of windows. Coupon Mom is perfectly legitimate--I've been using her site for YEARS. Don't worry about that warning.
I've never heard of the reality show you mentioned, needled mom. But i DO check my newspapers before I buy them to make sure the inserts really are there. :o)
By the way, I don't know what I was thinking. I paid $6.50 for the four boxes of cereal..and got the milk free. Weird..my brain doesn't do math in a hurry very well. Ha!
About the senior discount..I don't know why they keep putting that on my ticket. We aren't seniors! I've just been to busy to make a fuss. But I've got to get online or call someone to rectify this.
You have to register your Kroger discount card and if you go online and update your profile you can put your birthdate..or maybe that just goes on the application. We didn't know there was such a thing..we just get the discounts. I'm assuming someone has my birthday wrong..but apparently Tim's too. Anyway, certainly Debby you will want to look into that.
xo
Donna
Great Posting
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