Grocery Game Recap

Many of you already know how to coupon and where to get your coupons from and what all the abbreviations mean but there may be a few who don't so I thought I'd cover the basics.

1. I don't re-invent the wheel - I have 5 kids and not enough time so I let the Grocery Game do it for me. Click here to be taken to her website.

2. Using the Grocery Game I sign in and get the list of deals at my chosen store. I am currently signed up for Harris Teeter and CVS - these are the stores that work best for me.

3. When my list comes up I proceed to "gray-out" all the items I don't want by clicking on them. I just scan down the list to see what I do want and click on all the items around it that I don't.

4. When I have finished going down the list I press print - the list will print only the items that I actually want to find coupon match-ups for.

5. I take my list to my coupon folder that is currently jammed full of coupons I have been collecting from all newspapers I receive and from friends.

- PG means Proctor and Gamble
- RP means Red Plum
- S means Smartsource

- there may be more than 1 of them in any given paper and there may be none depending on the week

6. Usually I check my list for my "hot" or "favorite" items meaning what we use the most or ones that are such a great deal I want to stock up on them. I find the stack of coupons with the corresponding date and begin scanning. There are times when my coupon does not match hers. Sometimes it's better, sometimes not.

7. I clip out all the coupons that she tells me to that match with items I wish to purchase.

8. I take my list and my coupons to the store and shop.

It really is that easy. It doesn't take a lot of time once you get used to it but the beginning may be slow and if you don't have a lot of copies of coupons you may have more trouble stocking up. If you're just beginning to get multiple copies of coupons I'd suggest buying 3 copies of the Sunday paper. For me the Washington Post seems to always have all the coupons I need so I try to get multiple copies of it when I can.

I've been using the Grocery Game every week since the beginning of the year and I can't believe it's already November!

Here's what I got tonight:



I spent: $87.24
And saved: $85.68 (at least I did also earn back $2.50 for buying 4 boxes of fruit snacks - that makes it an even 50% off!)

I spent a little more than I wanted - somehow I added wrong. It happens I guess :) A little over budget because of it. My new budget is $75 a week. And it's only that high because I want to earn the $50 in gift cards for Christmas. Plus, it's not like I'm not going to use the groceries :)