I probably don’t grocery shop the way you do. I use The Grocery Game and spend far less. If you could save 50% (or more) on groceries, why wouldn’t you? Because many people get hung up on the process to use it so let me explain how it works.
1.) Sign-up
First of all, you will need to sign up. Joining for 4 weeks just costs $1 to try it out is now free!
2.) Start collecting coupons
By far the easiest way to get coupons is through the Sunday paper and that’s what the lists for The Grocery Game will reference (the name of the circular and date). Most people will only keep coupons during the week that they arrive in the newspaper but you will want to keep them until they expire. You can cut out the coupons for products you would use and file in categories in an organizer. You may also choose to file the entire circular in a binder.
3.) Get your list
Login to get your store list(s). The day and time that it is available will vary so check that to know when to login. The entire list of sale items will be shown.
Little Known Fact
Adding a drugstore like CVS or Walgreens to your Grocery Game membership is well worthwhile. It isn’t obvious but that’s where you can save huge amounts.
Try to focus only on items that are in green and bold OR blue and italic. These are items that have prices so good that The Grocery Game thinks you should get them.
Green is free, blue is a good buy, black is only if you need it.
The coupons are listed by the date and circular they appeared in. In the above image, see the references under the product amounts such as “(S 6/14)” shown there? That means that the coupon appeared in the Smart Source circular on 6/14. The full list of circular abbreviations is below.
Here’s the concept that you have to get used to:
Stockpiling
Most of us go to the grocery store for what we need THAT week. When using The Grocery Game, you need to stock up when they are on sale only. At first, you’ll still be buying items that aren’t as cheap but as the weeks go on and you have more coupons and more in your stockpile, your savings will grow. My goal was always to make the cashier say “wow!” If he/she was impressed, I knew I’d done a good job on that trip.
Stockpiling requires providing space for your items to be stored. Since we never bought a second freezer, I am limited on how much I can stockpile frozen items. However, we did have an extra closet with shelves that became like a little grocery store in our house. In fact, when you are stockpiling, you can often skip weeks of going to the grocery store (except for a few perishables) which is maybe the best part to me.
Confession
I will confess something though: I hate clipping coupons. Often times I will just skip this step and shop the items on my list that don’t require them. I like knowing that I’m not just shopping sales but sales that genuinely have great prices. For maximum savings though, I strongly advise going the coupon route.
I will say that 50% savings wouldn’t impress the avid gamers on the message boards of The Grocery Game. They often save much, much more but it’s just in how much effort you invest. I can comfortably say that you should be saving 50% within 4 weeks. I bet you can save even more.
And, finally, here’s a video created by the founder to help get you started. She talks in more detail about things like how the website works.
So, what do you think? Still have questions? Now that you’ve got the information, there’s no reason to pay for full price anymore!
Related posts:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This is so informative!! I’ve always wanted to save money and clip coupons… but it has never seemed to work for me. Good to know you don’t like clipping coupons and it still works to look things up this way! I’ve never heard of the Grocery Game before… I’m going to go check it out now.