Yes, yes and yes!  Finding little ways to save is becoming a necessity for a lot of families including mine.  I try to be frugal with our spending, particularly with household items and groceries.  About 6 years ago, I stumbled upon The Grocery Game which started me on my coupon clipping, grocery saving path.  I wanted to share how I save each week at the grocery store.

What is the Grocery Game

Run by Teri Gault who is the company’s founder and CEO, The Grocery Game site is recognized as one of the best grocery and coupon clipping sites in the nation.  Currently, the site offers savings lists in 48 states.

Teri recognized early on that there were sales trends to items the grocery stores put on sale.  Only certain items are on sale each week, and the pattern repeated itself after approximately 12 weeks.   If you shop only for what you need and don’t take advantage of the categorical sales, you’ll save on a small percentage of items and overspend on the others.  By stocking up during the categorical sales, you “win” at The Grocery Game.

How It Works

Now, you certainly could keep track of the trends and sales and coupons yourself, but it would be a lot of work.  I certainly do not have the time or patience to do it myself.  What I like about The Grocery Game is that Teri does all the research and work for me.  Once you sign up and select your store(s), all you have to do is log in, select the products you want and print your list.  Then, gather your coupons and head to the store.

The List is published weekly and lists the lowest-priced products (advertised and unadvertised) at your local grocery store or drugstore.  The products are then matched with manufacturers’ coupons and specials giving you the absolute rock bottom price allowing you to stock up at the best price.

The list of products is in 3 different colors, black, blue and green:

• Black items are on sale but not the cheapest price.  Purchase these only if you need them.
• Blue items are on sale at the cheapest price with coupon and best for stockpiling.
• Green items are free with coupon!

There are 3 quick steps once you are logged in:

• Step 1:  View the list of products and check the items that you want to purchase.  The items are listed with the regular price, the sale price and the cost of each after all discounts and coupons are applied.
• Step 2:  This step tells you exactly where to find each coupon, the Sunday coupon insert, online, or the stores website.
• Step 3:  Sort your list and print.

What Is The Cost

Teri offers a free 4 week trial.  The cost after the trial period is $10 for 1 store membership every 8 weeks and $5 for each additional store.  Believe me, you will more than make up for this in your weekly savings.

How It Works For Me

Typically, I save 40% to 50% off my grocery bill.  This includes loyalty card savings as well as coupon savings.   I am not an extreme couponer.  I try to purchase an extra newspaper so that I have 2 sets of coupons, and I’ll print coupons from various online coupons sites as well.

I do not have a stockpile of 50 bottles of ketchup and 25 boxes of cake mix.    Right now I have 1 bottle of ketchup in my pantry.  I could save more by stockpiling a few more items, and with grocery and gas prices increasing daily, I am going to work on building it up, but not to extreme levels.

Grocery Game Tips

If you are interested in starting a free trial of The Grocery Game, here are a few tips:

• To fully utilize your free trial, start saving the Sunday newspaper coupon inserts for a few weeks before signing up.
• Buy additional Sunday papers if you can so you have extra coupon inserts.
• Try not to remain brand loyal.  This was hard for me at first, but I’ve found that opening up my shopping to other brands and items I may not have purchased before led me to some great products at great savings.
• There is a wealth of information on The Grocery Game site.  You should review it before playing.
• Be prepared to spend some time organizing and clipping your coupons.  It takes me about an hour a week to prepare for my shopping trip.
• I like to purchase items that are cheap or free even if I will not use them.  They can be donated to our local shelter or food bank.

Do you cut coupons?  How do you save money on household and grocery items?