Keep Cupboards and Wallet Full by Playing the Grocery Game

As the mother to three very active and rapidly growing boys, I have in the past raised concerns about our grocery budget. At one time, I was able to feed our small family for about seventy-five dollars a week. As our family has grown, and prices have steadily increased, that had almost doubled. I began searching out alternative methods of saving money on groceries. That was when a friend introduced me to the Grocery Game.

I went to their web site and did some reading. It is a paid service that is supposed to help save you money. I was skeptical right off the bat. Why should I pay them money to tell me how to use coupons, I wondered. And besides, coupons are only for processed food and junk, aren't they? I decided at that time not to join. Meanwhile, I struggled with the grocery budget, and as a single-income family, with money in general. Something had to give! In near desperation, I decided to give it a try. Even if it wound up just saving people money on things we didn't eat, like processed foods, maybe I could at least save us some money on toiletries and household items. The fee was one dollar for the four week trial of each store in my area. After the trial, it became ten dollars every eight weeks for one list.

Once I signed up on their website, I scoured every page: taking in all the details, reading the testimonials, reading and re-reading the rules, and perusing the message board. I was anxious to get started!

My lists came available on Sunday. To my disappointment, because I had never collected coupons from previous Sunday papers, I missed out on several free items. Yes, free items! I was amazed that you could actually get things for free! And things we would actually use, like shampoo and conditioner. Also, I was astonished to see fresh produce and meat on my list at "rock bottom prices" even without coupons. Armed with the list of things that I could get with no coupons, I set out to save some money!

On my first trip, I spent about what I normally spent, but I brought home a lot more food for my money. I was happy, but still not sure if I wanted to stick with the Grocery Game beyond the trial. The next several weeks yielded similar results, although since I had started collecting the coupons from our Sunday paper, I was seeing more and more of them on my lists.

By the end of week four, the end of my trial period, I knew which store I liked the best and although I still had reservations, I decided to give it another eight weeks, one full price subscription. Each week, my savings became greater. I learned a lot during that time on the message boards as well. Many people used multiple sets of coupons, from buying more than one newspaper or getting them from friends and relatives, so that they could take advantage of multiple deals and start a stockpile. I started getting my neighbor's coupons and saw my savings increase even more.

By the end of the twelve weeks, I was hooked. My grocery bill had plumetted to an all-time low of sixty-five dollars a week, yet my cupboards, pantry and bathroom cabinets were fully stocked. Our family was still eating the same foods as before, except now we were eating the name brands instead of generic. I had aquired many items for free and had even been paid to take items out of the store!

Was it worth the fee? Absolutely! In fact, my only regret is that I didn't try it sooner!