I Am Playing the Grocery Game
I enjoy saving money on weekly groceries by using coupons. In fact, it is one of my favorite hobbies. However, with current 'time' demands I have noticed my attention to the 'money-saving details' just is not there when I go grocery shopping.
What are the Money-Saving Details?
That is what I like to think of as the real savings or the rock bottom deals that come when you take cutting coupons to the next level of tracking advertised prices with your coupons for optimal savings. It is not hard to do, it just takes time, and time to dedicate to personal grocery savings is something I am a little short on right now. It is annoying me to know I am missing all the super good sales!
However, I came across a web site, which may be the answer to my problems. I figure for the $1.00 trial period, it will be worth it for me to try it out and report my experience here.
The site is called The Grocery Game and they advertise that they offer a list (refereed to as TERI'S LIST) which "reveals the "rock bottom" prices on hundreds of products each week and matches them up with manufacturers' coupons for the best possible savings at your local supermarket." The list is supposed to include both advertised and unadvertised weekly specials and sales.
This is exactly the way I usually work with my coupons, but with time not being on my side, I have been skipping the supermarket ads and just using coupons rather haphazardly. I am still saving, but I am also leaving a lot of money on the table by not doing my research before heading to the grocery store. So, I thought it would be interesting to see how the system at The Grocery Game works, report back here and give you my opinion on if it is a worthwhile investment or not.
Once the $1.00 eight-week trial period ends, the cost of the service is $10 every 8 weeks ($1.25 a week) or more if you add additional stores in your area and according to the FAQ, you can opt out of the service any time (I'll definitely report on how the opting out process goes).
I will update this blog throughout the eight weeks and rate my different experiences with the service.
Just for the record, I am not affiliated with this site in anyway, however I hope the system they advertise works - it may be the answer to the busy months ahead!
First Week
My first week using the Grocery Game proved to be a bit disappointing. I received the list of ads running in my area for Albertsons and when I clicked to see the coupons related to the ads I was directed to another major printable coupon site.The coupons available included very few food items and mostly had medicine and beauty products, none of which I was interested in buying. The only coupon I really wanted was for microwavable biscuits, but I didn't take the time to print it because I already had the identical coupon.
To be fair, I did not spend a lot of time studying the lists. I plan to really dive into it this week so I can be fair in my assessment of the program. On first go, however, I do not see where this program will really save me any time, which is the original reason I signed up for it.
Please feel free to add comments to the blog - your experiences, suggestions, etc. Next Monday I will post how the second week has gone. See you in the comments!
Update - August 30
Well it has been another nutty week and I am sorry for the delay in updating my grocery store trip, but I have yet to get there! Today is the day though or I'll be serving canned pineapple for dinner because that is all that seems to be in my cupboard ;-).
Which reminds me - have you checked the dates on your canned foods lately? I did it last week for the first time in a long time and let's just say I now have a lot more space in my cabinets. I found chicken soup that expired in 2004! I must have racked up on chicken soup coupons a few years back, because there were several cans to throw away. Anyway, back to shopping - wish me luck!
Comments
Sounds similar to a website I use that is FREE……
http://www.couponmom.com
Also free… http://www.mygrocerydeals.com
I think couponing is a fascinating, worthwhile, time-consuming task. But every cent matters, then every minute spent on seeking and using coupons is indeed significant.
I am familar with the other sites mentioned and both are good resources for those who have the time to sit and do the work of comparing grocery ads with coupons. I am looking for something which will be less work but where I still come out ahead at the grocery store. I’ll report how it is going on Monday.
I havebeen using both TheGroceryGame.com ad TheCouponMom.com for about 5 or 6 months now. I have spent 12.51 and saved $39. Or spent $18 and saved $49. This is not at all unusual for me. It is extremely rare for me to pay more than I save.
I would never be able to do this without these two sites, and I ned both. The couponmom only has Walgreen’s, CVS, and Kroger in this area (North Georgia). I save the 2 month fee in one trip.
***The trick with these sites is organization. Do NOT clip coupons prior to going shopping. Open the front of the circular, staple sheets to back, close, write date on front, and stack in order. When making your lists, flip to appropriate circular, find coupon, and clip it out THEN.
I keep mine in a notebook with pockets to store loose coupons and rainchecks in.
This will save a lot of people a bundle!
I hope this helps!
If you have any questions, feel free to write me.
And don’t forget that Walmart matches prices! They don’t double coupons, but…
i have been matching coupons to sale items for 10+ yrs.i cut all newspaper, mags., and store coupons and sort by catagories in a coupon book but it got too large to manage.long experience and that some stores do not accept certain coupons, i now put them in separate envelopes mark by each store with the last day of the month and i match to flyers,ads,specials etc.and put the ones i know i will use at the front of ea. envelope.i do this early ea. month and update ea.store weekly.i very seldom miss a good match . i have more trouble with expiration dates but this method seems to help. good coupon hunting!
Be patient. The reason the $1 trial is for eight weeks is that it takes a few weeks to get the system working for you. Like a previous poster said, you need to collect the SmartSource & Valassis coupon sections out of the Sunday papers. GG will tell you when to clip & use the appropriate coupons.
The whole concept behind the GG is stockpiling. Sales run in approximately 12 week cycles. So, you are matching coupons and sales to stock up when things are rock bottom and hopefully not having to buy them again until the next good sale comes around.
Since joining the GG, I have gone from hating grocery shopping to loving it. I have cut down the time I spend in the store. I simply print out my weekly list, figure out which deals I am going to take advantage of, gather the appropriate coupons and add whatever additional ‘need’ items I may need to purchase. In about six months, I have gone from spending $100-150/week to $50-75 per week on groceries. The GG is worth every penny!
The grocery game is an amazing resource. Have been using the service since april 06. Usually spend about $100.00 dollars a week, and save between $120-$200. The first couple of weeks may be discouraging because you do not have a stockpile of coupons, but after about week three…watch out for the bargains. The message boards are also a great place to gain saving info.
Love the Grocery Game!
I have become so upset lately because my small town store, Winn-Dixie will not accept computer-generated coupons; also a local Wal-Mart will not accept them, citing some “fraudulent coupons” are out there so they will not accept any computer coupons. I am really disgusted as I am a big couponer and now feel cheated at this news.
My GG lists are often incorrect. When I try to address this, they redirect me to the person who made the list who really doesn’t seem to care.
Besides health and beauty, most of the stuff is junk food. I’ve gained weight since starting it.
Their message board paints a pretty picture but is heavily moderated by employees of the gg.
I kept hearing about a 12 week cycle. well, it’s been several months now and I haven’t seen the savings they promise or the 12 week cycle. I’ll be canceling my subscription since there are other sites where I can get the same info from for free.
kroger will not take computer coupons what do i do
I love the grocery game!! you have to realize everything is a 12 week cycle. one week you may buy all medicines but the next week it will be meats. the point is to buy as much each week as possible and it will last 12weeks. take the time to do it and it is deffinitely worth it!!
I love the grocery game. I have been using it for about three months now and have saved over $600 dollars. In my opinion it is well worth the money.
Huge disappointment….Walmart will not take them …..I contacted Grocery Game and all they could do is encourage me to join…even when I had explained my trial experience was poor…oh well heaven forbid I save a dime
While I totally respect the people that use the free sites I would say to stick with the GG and follow their methods on saving money. The other sites are free that is true… however, you are spending $.63 per week to have someone analyze your local area and find the best sales for YOU, not a generalized nationwide list or statewide list. I want to know what is in my CVS store down the road, I get it.
I signed up in late April and since then should have spent more than $3,900 in groceries but actually spent only $1,500… that’s more than a 61% savings and I’ve taken about 2 months off since signing up because I can! That’s about $800 a month for food to only $300.
Granted there are some times you wonder, why am I here? I can only have so much toothpaste? Give it a week, meat items, veggies and many other things do come up often, not only junk food! That is why they give such a long trial to give it a shot.
The message boards are a wealth of information and support from sharing stats to organizing your coupons. Try joining the board to find out. Hope to see you there!
Personally? I won’t go without it. I refuse to go back to regular shopping.
I still don’t know how this game works?
I love the grocery game…it has saved me to so much money. Even have hubby clipping coupons!
Have you continued to use the grocery game or not? I was wondering if it was worth it since I just signed up. But the coupon mom looks the same and is free. Please let me know.
Thanks
I agree with both the positive and negative comments I’ve read here. I used the Grocery Game for over two years and saved tons of money. Negatives: I did end up buying lots of “stuff” that I wouldn’t normally purchase and my store, Ralphs, changed their policy to allow only one of each coupon. This really reduced my ability to stock up. I gradually grew tired of the effort and was discouraged that I wasn’t saving as much as when I first started.
I did the free trial too (also paid for a few extra months) and saved some decent money. The only problem was that I found it quite time consuming something I hoped the program would alleviate. My main problem was that the lists only run Mon-Thurday. I often shop on Sundays and the list is not updated until Monday. I have lost out on good sales that run only on Sunday as a result. If you wait until Thursday, many of the big sale items are sold out & I the last thing I have time for is tracking rainchecks too! If the subscription were a little cheaper, I’d probably rejoin. But at the current cost and no Sunday list, it’s not worth my time.
I feel the GG was a complete waste of time and not worth the time or effort. I did attempt to “play by the rules” however the lists did not post until late Saturday, and you only had two days to shop, Sunday and Monday. For a working mother, this was just not feasible, especially since for a time I only had computer access at work, and therefore did not get the list until Monday. Finally, many of the items listed as “on sale” were not, and most of the stuff that was actually correct was already sold out. When I attemped to communicate my concerns to the contact person, they were rude and told me that I was not following directions. Now, I don’t know about your town, but Houston does not have “special weekend only sales” as they tried to say, the sales run from Wednesday to Tuesday, period. Therefore, in order for this site to do what it purporting to do, the lists should be posted on Wednesday. It’s a fraud.
Found a local service in Mass for a dollar a week that tracks 3 major stores with the coupons and posts on Fridays. Works great! Jumpstartshopping.com
I agree that many things on the gg’s list are junk food. Still, if you try to avoid such “deals”, you can eat healthy and still come out ahead.
I tried the grocery game and found it to be a complete waste of money. Its ok to cut your teeth on but why pay for something that you can get for free? Try http://www.hotcouponworld.com for a FREE site with forums for you stores.
The grocery games forums are moderated that you can not even talk about the product on sale…what a mess.
I have been using GG for 4 weeks now and I will definitely be subscribing for a long time. I am amazed at the huge savings! It is absolutely worth the time and small fee. I’m a fairly bright person, but there’s no way I could come up with the coupon layering strategies on my own.
I was confused as to why they don’t run a new list mid-week when the grocery store sales change. I emailed the company and they explained that they run the list Sun-Tues (my area) to optimize the new Sunday coupons. I do wish they would do a list from midweek – Sun, then a new one Sun-Tues. I might be able to optimize some current sale prices and coupon combos.
My favorite place to save is Walgreens. This week there was a P&G promotion which made my $57 sale essentially free, once you consider rebates and instant $ back from P&G. Yes, normally I wouldn’t buy Olay Ribbons body wash, but for Pete’s sake, I got 5 of them for FREE. Wouldn’t you take it? That’s a $25 value.
What I also like about it is that it gets me out of food ruts. It ads variety to our diets. I love having more types of food on hand. Finally my kids are interested in the snacks I have available.
I’ve been doing the one dollar trial period for 2 weeks now. So far I have seen a savings of 23% on my groceries and general shopping. I just wish I could get my wife onboard with this. Only good things to be said about the Grocery Game thus far. Well worth the $1, $10 or $20 if they were to charge.
I have been a Grocery Gamer for 2 and 1/2 years and it works! You really have to follow the rules to make it work. I understand that there is a lot of junk food listed but it doesn’t mean you have to buy it. Just buy what you use and need and you will see a BIG savings. I save 60% almost every week
I just don’t see why you would pay to get coupons when they are free. This reminds me of school kids that go door to door selling coupon books for fund raisers.
AJ – you don’t pay to get the coupons (other than buying the paper). The subscription is for someone else tracking each store’s lowest prices, and telling you when to buy each item and which coupon/s to use to make it cheap, extremely cheap or (best of all), FREE. I’ve been using GG for about 3 months now, and my savings are incredible. The first month was basically a wash because I didn’t have many of the coupons, but after a while not only was I saving money with coupons but I was shopping to a list… which meant quicker and cheaper! Last week, for example, I had savings of 83%! AND I got lots of free stuff I could donate to people who needed it!
I have been with the GG for about 2-2 1/2 months. I love it. It is true that one week you will stock up on meds then the next it will be clean supplies. It seems to run that way. But looking at my full shelves, I seem to have built up quite an array of stuff from food, to cleaning to baby wipes and make-up. Someone said it is all junk food, I hate to disagree, but there is almost always some type of meat, produce and dairy on my list. And besides, just because junk food comes up, doesn’t mean you have to buy it. It is ultimatly up to you what you buy and how you use it. We don’t buy much junk food, but our chest freezer is full of beef, chicken, hot dogs, whole wheat breads, and yes frozen pizza and chicken nuggets (for the nights I don’t want to cook). Over all though, I am spending the same as before but getting WAY more for my buck. After about twelve weeks, when you have a good stockpile, you spending often goes down. And I have noticed over the last two weeks that what I am buying on my lists is getting less, but I am buying more of each quantity so that I have my extras. I would definently suggest GG to anyone who is willing to give it a try. Think of coupons like money, you wouldn’t pass up a $1 sitting on the street, so why think twice about using a coupon?
The $1.00 free trial fee and the $15.00 first month’s fee was the most expensive grocery coupon experience I have ever had. I had trouble getting the coupon printer to work on my computer, so I emailed GroceryGame.com for some help. They said I needed to go out to MicroSoft and update my browser. I complied. This resulted in a complete system failure on my computer. It cost me almost $600 all together to get my computer fixed, not to mention 1 month of aggrevation. I guess everyone has a different experience, but be careful if you have trouble interfacing with the GroceryGame.Com software and downloads. There is no one to talk to in person about your difficulties. I decided it was cheaper for me to cut local coupons.
Paul B — I’m confused! It’s $1 for the 1st 4 weeks and then you are billed every 8 wks (10$ for the first store and 5$ for each additional). That doesn’t match what you posted. And the grocery game site does not have downloads or software. It is 100% web based content, not even flash or adobe. There is one page that has links to OTHER companies that allow you to print coupons from online. Those are the same sites tha you can find searching on your own. Those sites do use a coupon printing software plug-in for your browser. That same plug-in is used by a bunch of companies, it has nothing to do with Teri’s company. Did you really use the service?
Back when I was raising a family that included four boys there was no internet and I did most of this kind of coupon and bargain hunting myself. And we managed even though both my husband and I worked full time. Granted, I lived in a small town and had only three grocery stores and one department store which greatly reduced my choices but I also found other ways to stretch my food dollar. We invested in a large upright freezer. We grew a large garden, but if you don’t have the time, space or inclination, shop the farmer’s market that most all towns large and small have and stock up on produce in season. I did a lot of canning also but most anything can be frozen. I also traveled 20+ miles every two weeks to stock up on meat from a meat processing store. I still get my meat at the local place. You’ll find better cuts of local meat (not ecoli laden meat from some giant factory-like facility)at cheaper prices. Even though there are only two of us now, I still use coupons, store cards and I still stock up on bargains but only if I know it is something we will use up in 3 months. Old habits die hard.
Some folks have posted how does the Grocery Game work…and I thought I would explain the best I can as I’ve been doing it for several years now.
There are lists in different parts of the country for various grocery stores. You can go to thegrocerygame.com and put your zip code in to see what Lists are available in your area. Okay – so now you see what stores they have lists for. Now – you can choose to do trial for $1 for 28 days – I think that’s right. It is a $1 – I am sure of that. Okay – so you choose to give it a try.
You can look at the lists that are on the site now that you are a trial member.
There are days that you use each list – they call this “shopping days” for each of the lists. I shop 5 stores with them – and three have the same shopping days the other two are different. How do you know – well – the very nice customer service people that I have emailed a million times will tell you – or you can look at what they call “Game Rules” for the Lists. You can look at those by clicking on “Game Rules” to the right of the store name when you log in.
Now – where do you get the coupons?
You get them from the Sunday newspaper primarily. You can mark them with the first letter of the coupon section name…like SMART SOURCE coupons from 5/21st would be marked (S 5/21) and clip them all and put them in a file. (lots of ways to coupon file – you can ask others for tips or just do some searching on your own – or on the GroceryGame message boards…that’s how I got started…and my friend helped me after I got going.
or
You leave the coupons in the coupon sections – use a big marker – right on the front of it what day the coupons came from. Then when the coupon shows on the List – you clip that one and use it.
You will also see that the Wal-Mart list, CVS List and Walgreens lists use some of the grocery game coupons. YOu can print those from the web site if you want to and redeem them at your store.
There are also “eSaver” coupons that you can load to your savings card for some stores like Kroger and Safeway affiliated stores….each list tells you if it’s worth your time.
Okay – now that you know all of that…..
On the day you know your List updates – you log in to the site – you pull it up – you pick the items you want to buy – you pull your coupons and you go to the store before the last “shopping day” for that list and you save money.
Does it take a lot of getting used to – yes. Does it require changing the day you shop for some people? Yes. Does it save you alot of money? yes Does it save you the headache of trying to look at all the ads for stores near you to see if there are some at least better deals at one store than another? yes
The grocery game people don’t put every sale that you see in the weekly store or other “stuff” on their lists…it’s only if it is “good enough”. There are black ink items that are “needs” priced – buy it if you need it. (lots of my organic stuff is like that on my lists) These items are price checked for you at the “warehouse type stores” and WalMart to make sure the price beats it or meets it. (I have lots of emails to understand this – so thought you would like to know like I did) There are Blue ink items on the lists and these are the ones you stockpile as many as you need for your household with. Green ink stuff is FREE w/ the coupons.
So – let’s see….
you pay $10 for 8 weeks of one List and then $5 for each additional list – so for example – $15 for 8 weeks of two lists…and you’ll save alot more than that.
They disclose produce sales, meat, dairy, organic and regular items of all types….from the great for you stuff to the junk. You buy what you need and you don’t blame a List for buying junk you don’t. My Cooper Center vitamins were Buy 1 Get 1 Free at one of stores 2 months back… OMG – these are like $45 a bottle….my organic pizzas I love were 6.59 at one store but always on sale at another for 3.99 – 4.99. My kiddos favorite healthy cereal and his favorite sugary mess cereal goes on sale all the time….but I always buy it for more than I should….and then it’s on the List and I kick myself and go with my coupon and laugh all the way to the bank.
So – that’s a Mom, stay at home employee, wife and weight watcher’s take on http://www.thegrocerygame.com….take it or leave it….and if you take it – join me in saving lots of money.
I really want to get into couponing but it still seems like so much work for me to stay on top of things. I tried the Grocery Game for the first month trial and still didn’t make things a whole lot easier. I’m sure tho that for some people could really make the Grocery Game work for them.