Hello! If you have been reading my posts, you may remember me mentioning that I was trying out something that should save time and still save money!! I am now able to share this information with you. This is what I plan on continuing to use.
Well, I have spent the last 4 weeks trying something called The Grocery Game. This is a paid service that does all of the work for you. They match up coupons and better yet they keep track of the prices of items.
In April at the beginning of my coupon journey, I spent A LOT of time going to blogs and reading the postings at The Grocery Gathering at BeCentsable. This is a great resource and I saved a lot of money using this. I appreciate all of their work. They take the sale flyers of the grocery stores that you shop at and then match coupons to the sales. The only downside is they don't keep track if the item that is on sale is at its cheapest. (I was saving about 20-30% off my grocery bill when I was doing this.)
This is where the Grocery Game comes into play. They have a database and keep track of the sale trends of the items that are sale. Most items will circulate through a sale period and will be at it's cheapest price once every 12 weeks. The key is to try to apply your coupon to the item when it is the cheapest. (I have been saving 35-50% off since I have used their lists.)
They offer a month trial period for only $1.00. I would also recommend that you sign up when you have also saved at least a month or so of coupons. Otherwise, your savings wouldn't be as great.
You can sign up for as many stores as you want during this trial period. After the trial period is over you only pay for the stores that you want. I originally signed up for Jewel/Meijer/CVS/Kroger/Walgreens. Honestly, I looked at the other store's lists but still continued to shop at Kroger and Meijer.
Once a week, you can access your store's list. The list is based on that week's sale flyer. They color code the list based on percentage of savings. If an item is green, you can get that item for FREE with the matched up coupon. Blue items should be purchased if you use the products featured on this week's list because according to their databases this is the time to buy. This item may be on sale again but not for as low as this price -until the next cycle (which is usually 12 weeks).
They refer to blue items as things that you should stockpile. This means that you would buy as much of this product as you can afford and/or store (if it has a good shelf life). The theory would be that if you stockpiled this item and used your stockpile during the 12 week cycle you would always be buying this item at it's cheapest. This may or may not work for you. During this process, I have stockpiled deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, body wash, shampoo, shaving creme, and pasta. Most of these items were less than a 1.00. I shouldn't need to buy these items again for another 12 weeks. For example, we eat pasta at least once a week. I have bought 12-15 boxes of whole wheat Barilla pasta when it was the cheapest and with a coupon!!! This should last us until the next time it hits the lowest price again.
Black items on the list are good prices but not the lowest. They recommend that you buy these items only if you need them.
I spent a lot of time investigating this site and read lots of reviews from people who have tried this. The majority of these people LOVED this service. There were a few that didn't like and their reasons were hilarious. One lady said that she gained weight because she only bought junk food! Really!!! I also viewed video clips and read many references to The Grocery Game on such sites as MSNBC, Fox, etc. This company has been favorably mentioned everywhere that I have read.
There are a few negatives I have noticed, but I will still be using this service!!
1. Sometimes I am not able to find the coupon they are referring to. I have learned that certain areas get more coupons than others. Since we live in a smaller city, we don't receive as large of a circular as the bigger cities. This hasn't been that much of a problem.
2. The other negative is when they release their list for each store. They wait to release the list to advantage of the most recent Sunday paper. For our area, Meijer's list isn't released until Tuesday. The sale flyer comes out on Sunday but the list isn't available until Monday evening. So you would have to shop at Meijer on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. For Kroger, their sale flyer comes out on Thursday and the list isn't available until Sunday. So you would have to shop at Kroger Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
I shop at Meijer on Tuesday's and Kroger on Sunday's. This is what works for me. My time in the grocery store is also a lot shorter because I am shopping off the list and not browsing the aisles. I am in each store for less than 20 minutes! HONEST!!!
When the list comes out, you can manipulate the list to print only the items you would purchase. This week's Meijer's list was over 13 pages long. I chose the items that we needed or would eat and my list was only one page. You take the list and then match up the coupon to the item. They tell you where to find the coupon. I recommend using the binder system I had mentioned in an earlier post. This only takes me about 10-15 minutes to find the coupons for each list! This is a HUGE reason for me to continue with this service!!! I have no problem taking 20-30 minutes a week on this process. This is less than the 40 minutes to an hour that I spent using the other method.
Well, many of you are wondering the cost..... It depends on how many stores lists' you want to receive. I will be paying for 2 lists. For one list it costs 5.00/month. For 2 lists, it costs 7.50/month.
I have been saving a greater percentage using The Grocery Game's shopping list. I feel that the $7.50 investment a month is worth the savings....
Week 1 of the game I spent 101 and saved 86 =46% savings
Week 2 I spent 41 and saved 43=51% savings
Week 3 I spent 134 and saved 77=36% savings
Week 4 I spent 98 and saved 64=39% savings
So, I saved $270 dollars this month for a $7.50 investment....You do the math!!!
Here is the website: http://www.thegrocerygame.com/
If you decide to sign up, I would appreciate you using me as a referral. My email address is rexie.wl@verizon.net.
In a quick summary, I am now a Grocery Game girl because I can save more money and save a ton of time!!
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