Thankful Thursday (and Friday:) - The Grocery Game

I have to share something that I have been doing recently that is totally helping my family financially - The Grocery Game! I have been playing the Grocery Game for about 6 weeks now and I absolutely love it! I first heard about it from a college friend, Kellye, and I decided to try it out. The more I do it the more I love it! SO, my report from my first six weeks.... I figured out what stores and sales work best for my family and I am finding that she, (Teri the grocery game lady - my new best friend:) is great about helping you understand what you can get things for and when is the best time to shop. So, I'm "stockpiling" or creating my own grocery store when things are on sale- SUCH AS I bought 10, yes 10, boxes of cereal, 10 bags of goldfish, apple juice and diapers buy one get one free, and TONS of meat like steak and chicken at incredible prices just this last week- so instead of buying b/c I need it for a recipe or b/c we are out, I got it at a ridiculous price!! So I've been buying bulk, still getting what I need for our normal cooking and such, and STILL saving 30-60%!! Plus I really haven't felt like I'm running to several stores or anything. I'm quite impressed! Give it a go! (We did go to Waco to get our old refrigerator though which I'm loving having esp as we continue stockpiling things for our family of 5, we needed the space!!)

I'll just post the basics here and you can post further questions and I'll try to answer them. It's easier when you have someone explain as your looking at the website, but hopefully this will help for now!! (I am pretty much using the directions that Kellye used on her blog b/c she did such a great job explaining. :)


1. Go to http://www.thegrocerygame.com

2. Click on "join the grocery game" and enter your zip code. You'll get a free or $1 four week trial (after that you pay $5 per store list you receive every 8 weeks)- pick as many stores as you would potentially go to (I had 5 stores during my 4 weeks so I could get a good grasp on who really has the best sales). You most likely will only go to two stores, maybe three at the most but you'll start to see where you save the maximum amount of money.

3. You have to get a Sunday paper each week where you save the following in a file: Redplum Coupon Book, Smartsaver Coupon Book, and PG & E (this one is only 1 time per month). Label them by date and tuck them away. (I don't cut the coupons until she tells me to use one - this saves me a lot of time - just put the date on the outside and pull them out as you need them.)You save these as a whole b/c sales go in 12 week cycles so you might not use a particular coupon until the fourth week b/c it is buy one get one free plus you have a coupon that saves you $2.00 so you're getting the cheapest possible deal by using the coupon during the sale instead of the coupon by itself. Also collect your local stores adds as they often have coupons in them and if you use Walgreens, they have an "Easy saver" book for rebates in the store so you have to pick that up at the beginning of the month.

4. After you sign up, go to the Member Sign In and to your home page. Go to and read the "game rules" for each store you have chosen so you can get a good handle on how the sales work at each place. Then go to print list and choose a store. At first you will want to print the header and footer so you understand all the codes for the coupons. Go through the whole list- Green are items you get free so stockpile as much as possible, blue are best possible deals so stockpile these, black are only if you need it for a recipe etc. You will find during your first four weeks that you don't have a lot of the coupons that you need b/c you haven't been collecting them so it takes a few weeks to really build up your coupon collection. Before you print your list, you can "gray out" items that you won't buy. If you don't want soda, just click on it which will gray it out and then it won't print on your final list. She does everything by the aisle so you will find printing in her order is the same as the natural progression of your specific grocery store.

5. The shopping days are Sunday- Tuesday and you will find she tells you when and where to buy for maximum savings. If you shop on Thursday, you'll end up spending a lot more and can't use your coupons at all and miss all of the great sales. I find myself menu planning on Sunday and shopping on Monday or Tuesday. Also, you have to shop every week. It's all about creating your own pantry when it's on sale so you're spending less when you actually need it. This should start you out, post questions if you have them and I'll try to answer!!!

6. Put me down as your reference so I can get a few free weeks!!:) -awerleys@yahoo.com

This "new" way to shop has been a lot of fun for me and such a blessing at the same time! I get very excited about saving money these days and I like the challenge of finding the best possible deals. I also love that Teri (coupon lady) does most of the work and research for me and I have a definite plan and purpose with each shopping trip. I took Andrew with me a couple of weeks ago and he was sold when we bought $280 worth of groceries for only $120! I call that AMAZING! Try it out and let me know how it goes. :) Thanks for reading!