Bill and I spent about two hours cutting out coupons the other night–the night before he was going to do our first real food shopping off The Grocery Game list, since our week one attempt was a failure. (Yes, that’s why I love my husband–he gladly does the food shopping.)
The first difference I noticed in this coupon-cutting event was that we were pretty much cutting out every coupon we came across that we’d found in the Sunday newspaper. In the past I would cut out coupons for only the brands that I was used to buying. However, we’ve quickly learned that the secret to making The Grocery Game really work for your budget is not only buying things when they were on super sale or practically free but also not being so brand loyal that you would miss out on these great bargains that a Grocery Game list points out.
In addition to cutting coupons and organizing them by category in our coupon holder, I printed out our standard grocery shopping list (which I’d finally collated in a Word document). Bill grabbed The Grocery Game shopping list from Stop & Shop (his target market for this week’s shopping, since it was on his way home from the office), and off he went to work. I couldn’t wait to get his feedback when he got home after work and grocery shopping.
“What I should have done is taken The Grocery Game list and made my own shopping list from it,” Bill reported, when he returned from food shopping that night. So while our preprinted shopping list was a great tool in the “old” food shopping days, now we needed to be just a bit more organized in how we did the list and approached food shopping. “I’d also organize it by section so I didn’t have to do all the poking back and forth in the aisles that I had to do.”
In addition to feeling as if our shopping list didn’t do our savings justice, Bill also discovered an important trick in how you save the most using The Grocery Game: having enough coupons on hand to take advantage of all the stocking-up savings you might find at the store that day.
Though we’d stockpiled about two weeks’ worth of Sunday coupons, “I think we would have been better off with four weeks’ worth,” Bill said. Plus, while I’d had the forethought to print out online coupons from CouponMom.com, Coupons.com and RedPlum.com (SmartSource.com doesn’t seem to work with my Apple computer) and sent them along with the traditional coupons, we hadn’t paid enough attention to the deals with “GG” marked after them. That meant Grocery Game-specific coupons that you can print out from the site. So lesson learned on that one.
I’m glad that The Grocery Game gives your four weeks to try out the service before committing for real, because as Bill and I are learning, you really do need a couple of weeks under your belt to take full advantage of this service–not to mention a couple of weeks of hoarding coupons.
So my advice to you is this: if you’re considering signing on for this service, stock up on at least a month’s worth of Sunday coupon circulars before you get going. This way you’ll start out better prepared than we were.
Bottom line on our week two grocery shopping: we didn’t spend much less than we would have on a “normal” weekly shopping pre-Grocery Game. Our bill was about $220. However, we have enough breakfast cereal and other package goods to last us through the rest of July. And best of all: Bill saved $60 on the overall grocery bill, just from applying the Grocery Game techniques he’s learned. This includes the bag credits of five cents each that Stop & Shop gives to those who bring their own reusable bags (we do). Finally, he estimates that except for buying perishables, such as milk, fruit and vegetables, we may not have to do another “big” food shopping until August. I’ll let you know if that turns out to be true.
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
A tip from Grocery Game that helps with coupon organizing…DON’T clip every coupon from the Sunday paper insert. Instead, write the date in magic marker on the front of the coupon flyer and file the entire flyer in a file chronologically. The Grocery Game will direct you toward the exact flyers and dates for relevant deals each week. Then clip only what’s needed that week, and refile the flyer. This technique makes it easy to match coupons with offers. Go Bill! (I wish my hubby would grocery ship…and cook!) Happy saving!
Thanks for that tip. We already have a hanging file folder in our kitchen to hold all of the Sunday fliers and whatnot. So trying this technique won’t be too out of the ordinary for us.