One Money Design

About a year ago some our friends told us about The Grocery Game and how they were able to save hundreds of dollars per month while at the same time have more groceries to show for their money.

Grocery budgeting has always been a challenging area for us.  In the past, it’s never been easy to keep costs down.  Especially, with two little ones it can fluctuate quite a bit. 

So you can imagine I was interested when I heard the excitement in my friends’ voices.  And excited I was when our family started seeing over 50% savings on grocery receipts.  We’ve saved hundreds of dollars over the past year playing, so I thought I would share what we’ve learned about The Grocery Game. 

There is a lot of good information on the Grocery Game website, so this is not meant to be exhaustive, but hopefully, is a good start in getting you interested and wanting to learn more.

What is the concept behind The Grocery Game?

It’s simple.  Your food storage should look like your grandma’s food storage.  As a child visiting my grandma’s house, there never seemed to be a shortage of food in the freezer or pantry.  I think in general, past generations were more frugal.  They shopped best deals and made a lot of things at home that were preserved and stored. 

Now I can tell you our family doesn’t have time to make our own food and store it, but we can stockpile.  Stockpiling is the fundamental concept of the game.  The game helps you buy items at rock bottom prices.  You buy more than you need at the present time and stockpile items.  When you run out of something at home you don’t go to the store to buy it.  After a while, you have a good stockpile to source your food from within your own pantry.

How does The Grocery Game work?

All items that can be bought in the grocery store go through sales cycles.  The Grocery Game catches these items in their sales cycle and helps you match them with coupons (the coupons are easy – keep reading for tips if you’re a coupon clipping hater) you find in your weekly newspaper.  The sales price along with the coupon allows you to purchase at the lowest price possible.  The prices are claimed by the Grocery Game to be cheaper than food club prices such as SAM’s and Costco and after our experience,  I agree.

Each week, we receive an online list for the stores we have chosen to shop at within our zip code.  The list has three types of items.  Blue items are the best sale prices.  Black items are on sale, but not at the lowest price.  The Green items are free.  A coupon coupled with a sales price sometimes makes it possible to get an item free.

Follow these steps to become effective at playing the game.

1. Each Sunday, purchase two copies of your local paper.  There are grocery ads mixed in with all the sales ads.  Remove the grocery ads (you should have two copies of each ad) and write the date on the front of the ad.  Do this each week and file the ads in a file folder labeled by month.  There is no need to cut all of the coupons out of the sales ads.
2. Go to the Grocery Game online, retrieve and sort your list by color.
3. Review the blue items on the list (best prices) and select the items that you use or eat.  The list includes household and toiletry items as well.
4. Sort the list again to only show the items you selected and print it.
5. Review the list and find the ad and coupon date in your file (the list gives the appropriate ad and coupon date).  Look through your file folders, find the ads and clip your coupons.  Remember, you should have two coupons for each item since you have duplicate ad sections from purchasing two papers.  This approach helps you build your stockpile quicker.
6. Take your coupons and list and go grocery shopping!

10 tips we’ve found to be critical for success. 

1. You can get started now.  Don’t wait until you have a coupon inventory built up.  Some of the items on the list are for the current week’s ads.
2. Don’t try to stock pile more than 3 months worth of items.  Before I knew this rule we had enough shampoo to last a year.
3. File your ads in file folders with hanging files.  Since you’re writing the date on the each ad, you should be able to keep the ads in order of week within each monthly file folder for quick retrieval.
4. The lists are typically generated on Saturday night or Sunday morning.  Sales typically end when the stores close on Tuesday.  We’ve found it easiest to get everything together and go shopping on Sunday or Monday.
5. Don’t get too excited and buy things you wouldn’t normally eat or use.  A great deal may be tempting, but it’s not worth the money if you’re not going to use it.
6. Related to number one, you can start playing the game any time, but to have all the coupons that are on the list, it’s helpful to have 3 months worth of coupon ads in your file.  Don’t worry, it doesn’t take long and your saving money while getting your coupon ads.
7. You can pick one store for your list or multiple stores.  More than two stores will require a lot more time and energy each week.
8. Get a rain check.  You can get a rain check for items on sale, if the store has run out of stock and return next week to get your deal.
9. When getting started, read up on the forums.  You can learn a lot about stockpiling and others who’ve found success at the game.
10. Play consistently.  If you play the game each week, your trips to the grocery store should produce fewer items because you’re simply maintaining your stockpile.

Cost?  Here is the pricing plan directly from the Grocery Game website.

After your optional* 4-week FREE Trial, TERI’S LIST is just $10 every 8 weeks for the first store LIST you choose, and $5 every 8 weeks for each additional store LIST (if more than one store LIST is available in your area).   Example:  1 store List: $10 every 8 weeks, 2 store Lists: $15 every 8 weeks, 3 store Lists: $20 every 8 weeks. Cancel anytime! All amounts are in US Dollars (USD). Canadian currency will automatically be converted to US Dollars by the payment processor.

Have you had any experience with the Grocery Game?  Please share your story and tips in the comments section.

If you decide to try out join the The Grocery Game, please consider including my email address, SaveOnGroceries@OneMoneyDesign.com, in the sign up form as a referral.