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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Grocery Gaming

I've always had ambitions of being one of these people who can brag about what I've purchased for next to nothing. I'm a self confessed cheapskate! I learned this skill from my mother, who learned it from her mother. She taught me to always walk to the back of the stores in the mall because that's where the clearance racks are! She also taught me that just because something comes from a more expensive store doesn't always guarantee that the quality is any better than something you might buy at a typically cheaper store (Walmart, Kmart, etc.).

Recently, I've become interested in figuring out how to lower our grocery bill. I dabbled in couponing a few years ago, but never achieved the real benefit of savings for the trouble I seemed to go through to clip them. In my couple of years of blogging, I've come across people talking about the Grocery Game and have looked at the website a couple of times. Being able to shop at the Commissary on post, I've questioned whether or not I would really save money shopping at a regular grocery store.

Last week, I bit the bullet and signed up for a $1 - 4 week free trial of Grocery Game lists. I've used her Walgreens and Albertson's lists this week and saved some money - 38% off shelf price at Albertsons and 48% off shelf price at Walgreens. I don't really consider this great savings, but I only had 1 real week worth of coupons from the newspaper. The website says it can take up to 12 weeks before you really get the hang of her system and see the full financial benefit. The jury is still out as to whether or not I'll be able to save more doing this than I do just shopping at the Commissary.

I know I'm going to have to change some of my shopping habits or mindsets. Until now, I've used a master grocery list and mostly bought the same things every time I go to the grocery store. I'll have to be a little more creative in planning our meals to coincide with the things that are on sale and are a good deal. I've also tried to do 2 weeks worth of grocery shopping at a time. This system encourages weekly shopping to take advantage of the weekly deals. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

If you're a
Grocery Gamer, feel free to share your Grocery Game experience with me in the comments. If you decide to join in on the fun, you can drop my info as your referrer. I'm not sure what I get for referring, but I know there's some perk.

1 comment:

geisme said...

hmmm, sounds interesting. Have you ever done coupon mom? Also, I've found that to buy some things in bulk pays.(not all, but some)For me, I can get 90% lean hamburg at Sam's club for just over $2.00/#. This is pretty decent, but you have to have a membership. I know ours expires this month & I haven't renewed it(due to finances), but something to consider.
-Gail

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