I went to Food Lion today, armed with my coupons and list from The Grocery Game.  I was in such a hurry because I had so much to do today.  I didn’t have time to pinch pennies as much as usual, but I did pretty well.

Before the sales and coupons my total was $86.70.  After the sales and coupons I paid about $49, including tax.  This included regular items that we needed such as milk, eggs, bread, etc.  I didn’t buy any meat though.  I try to only buy meat when it is a really great price.  Then I stockpile while it’s cheap.  Why pay $4.99/lb for meat when you get pay $2.25/lb? 

The new sales flyers come out tonight and I’m looking for sales on meat, frozen items, and hypoallergenic laundry detergent.  Let me know if you find anything.  Thanks.

What deals have you found lately?

I walked into the grocery store yesterday and a man from the newspaper had his little booth set up to give out Sunday papers and to promote the subscription.  For 13 weeks, the price was about $32, but for signing up he gave me a $10 gift card to the grocery store. 

Now, I can start back up with The Grocery Game.

Some of you already know this, but last year my husband and I worked and lived at a ministry for a while.  Before moving there, we lived off our stockpile of groceries.  There was no sense in buying more groceries, when I had a pantry full of things I got at awesome deals.

Now that we’ve moved away from the ministry, it has been difficult to start over again.  I am not the kind of person that walks into the grocery store and only buys what I need for that week’s meals.  I was not raised that way and it’s simply not thrifty!  After all, why would I want to pay $4.99 for meat this week when I could have bought it last week for $1.99?

Shopping the sales with coupons is the best way to stockpile and to avoid paying full price for groceries.  When using The Grocery Game (TGG), I can easily save 50% or more on my grocery bill each week and have a pantry full of items.

So, here I am . . . All ready to start looking at TGG list each week and clipping coupons.  I’m ready to start saving again.

In case you’re wondering what the big deal is or how you can save 50% or more on your grocery bill, please check out these links:

How to Play The Grocery Game
10 Tips for Using Coupons
An Interview with Teri Gault, Founder of The Grocery Game
Time is Money and Money is Time

If you do decide to play The Grocery Game, please use me as your referral. knowhimwell at hotmail dot com. The introductory membership is $1 for the first month.

image: mine

I’ve been talking about The Grocery Game for months.  And it seems obvious that I would because this has been the top avenue that I have found to save the most moolah on your grocery bill. I’ve talked the talk and I’ve walked the walk.  I’ve taught you all how to use it and I’ve showed you the savings. 

Imagine my surprise and delight when I was contacted by a Grocery Game rep and offered the opportunity to interview Teri Gault, CEO and founder of The Grocery Game.  Me?  Really?  

The interview took place last week and I’ll just tell you that from the bat, Teri was warm and friendly and interested in sharing our love of saving money.  Here’s a bit of how the interview went.  There was so much information.  I hope I can share it all and not mess up anything.  Enjoy!

First of all, I’d like to ask how The Grocery Game came into existence.

Well, I have always been a bargain hunter. We’re a kindred spirit.

When I was only 12 years old, I began shopping for my family because my mom was in ICU.  It was such an early age and we were broke with hospital bills.  It was my job to make the money stretch. 

Everything started with a jar of peanut butter.  I had bought a jar of peanut butter for my family and then the next week it went on sale.  We had limited money and I had already bought the peanut butter, but realized I could have saved money by buying it while it was on sale.  It was sort of an epiphany moment for me with stockpiling.

Then later when I got married, I was an actress and my husband was a stunt man.  I continued couponing.  In the late 90s the business took us to Canada.  I had only $35 per week to feed our family of four.  Those were rough years.  I used that time to develop saving strategies.
 
By November of 1999, I was spending four to six hours each week clipping coupons and searching sale ads, but I was saving about $100 per week.  Even then, I was rolling coins to buy groceries.  I wished that someone would let me know what they were buying instead of me spending all that time figuring it out on my own.  Then I had wondered what would happen if I put my grocery list on the internet each week and and if people would pay me for my time.  I had never had been on the internet, but I went to computer store, bought a computer and internet.  I didn’t even know what to do.  I got my sister on phone and she taught me how to do email.

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Good afternoon everyone!  I just finished my interview with Teri from The Grocery Game.  She was very friendly and I’m so impressed at how she has built her company from scratch.  She answered a lot of our questions and I’m anxious to share this information with you. 

I’m busy packing and moving out of the area, but hopefully tonight I can get the information to you.  Stay tuned!

If you’re a regular reader of Thrifty Mommy, then you’ll know that I’m a big fan of The Grocery Game.  It’s quite a thrill to go to the grocery store and save 60% or more on your grocery bill and also be able to purchase extra groceries for your stockpile or for others in need. In fact, my family is moving out of the area next week and I have quit buying groceries and I’m sharing our excess with others. We have been eating off our stockpile for a few months now!!  I’ve just been picking up a few necessities here and there. 

Ok, now for the whole point of what I just said . . .

This week I will be talking to Teri Gault, founder of The Grocery Game.  I have some questions that I would like to ask her, but I also would like to know . . .

What do you want to ask Teri?

Leave your questions in the comment section and I’ll see if I can get your questions answered this week.  Isn’t this exciting?  

I had a problem. When I went to the grocery store I had to take my 2-year-old with me. My little boy is normally very well behaved but for some reason, whenever we walk into a grocery store he starts acting as though he’s never been in public before.

As you can imagine, grocery store visits were taking a lot of time. I had my grocery list from the grocery game and my coupons, and I was trying to find the best deals while dealing with a 2-year-old. I decided I’d better find a quicker way to get out of the store.

Here’s what I did to save time:

First, I looked over The Grocery Game list for the week. I printed off only the items that I was interested in purchasing.

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Whenever I have spent a considerable amount of effort and time on something, I have frequently heard the phrases, “Time equals money”, “Your time is valuable”, or something along those lines.  I always perceived that the person was saying that what I was doing was not worth the effort.  Otherwise, why would they have said that?

Yes, my time is valuable . . . BUT it takes time to make and SAVE money.  Here’s a recent example . . .

My cabinets are so stuffed that I haven’t used The Grocery Game (TGG) in about a month.  I’ve just been picking up a few things here and there that were on sale or things we absolutely needed. 

Yesterday I decided it was time to sort through the coupons.  I know that when I haven’t done TGG in a while I will end up spending a good amount of time sorting coupons, clipping, and tossing out old stuff.  In between taking care of my son, I spent 3 hours doing those things.  Of course, it wasn’t a solid 3 hours, since I was caring for my son, but 3 hours is a long time to spend on coupons.  Then I also spent about 1 1/2 hours at the grocery store.  Again, it wouldn’t have taken so long if I wouldn’t have had a 2 year old with me.  lol

Now some people would think that I’m crazy.  They would never dream of spending a few hours on clipping coupons to save money.  I work at home and make a little bit of money each month.  These frugal tips that I share aren’t just for you.  They’re for me too.  I get to save money and have the joy of sharing tips with you.  These tips enable me to stay at home.

Do you want to know how much money I saved at the grocery store yesterday?????

Click below the “Read More” to find out.

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As I promised earlier this week, for Frugal Friday I am giving you some tips for playing The Grocery Game. 

When playing The Grocery Game (TGG), you do not clip the coupons until you need them.  It is such a time saver.  Each week, I take the inserts out of the paper, write the date on the front of each packet, and file a week’s worth into a section of my expandable file folder.

Another option is to use a notebook with plastic sleeves or folders and file the coupons that way.

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Most of you do not know this, but recently my husband lost his job.  No problem, right?  He’s a qualified guy that has experience in many areas.  He’s sort of a Jack-of-all-trades. 

The first week he was unemployed I cut back on our spending, but not dramatically.  Week two I really started cutting back.  No eating out unless it was really cheap.  No more grocery shopping, except for essentials.  No buying any extras. 

Imagine how anxious I was come week 4 when he still didn’t have a job.  A few things got us through this hard time.  Earlier in the year we had paid off a large sum of debt.  We had also taken Dave Ramsey’s financial peace classes at our church.  We were working on our baby steps to financial peace.  We had our emergency funds (and then a little more) in savings.  Having an emergency fund in place also allowed my husband to search for a job that he wanted, rather than taking an underpaid position at a place he didn’t want to work.

Another thing that got us through is that I stockpile things when they’re really cheap, mainly groceries.  When I go to people’s houses I honestly wonder where all their food is.  I don’t shop week to week. 

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Ok, I’ve told you about how I started subscribing to the Sunday newspaper so that I can join The Grocery Game.  Now that I have 4 weeks of coupons, I signed up for the 1 month trial. 

The one month trial membership is only $1.  During that first month you can choose as many stores as you would like for only $1.  This is great for me because I wasn’t really sure which stores I wanted to subscribe to each month.  I need to figure out which ones will have the best deals and suite my family best.

Right now I am subscribed to Food Lion, CVS, Lowe’s Foods, Harris Teeter, and Bi-Lo.  I checked out all of the lists this week and decided to go to CVS, Food Lion, and Lowe’s Foods.  I think I have already determined that Food Lion will not be a store that I subscribe to.  The reason for this is because I can do pretty well at Food Lion on my own.  I watch the buy 1 get 1 free specials and then if I have coupons I use those too.  Lowe’s Foods seems to be a good match for me because they double coupons.  Harris Teeter also doubles coupons.  I wasn’t too impressed with the CVS list for this week.  Maybe it’s too early to tell.

One of the things I like about Terry’s Grocery Game is the easy to read chart format.  Each row tells you what’s on sale, how much the regular price is, how much the sale price is, the amount off for the coupon you need to use, which week of the paper it came from, what coupon flyer it came from, how many items you should buy, the percentage off the item is, and if it is an item at rock bottom price that you should stock up on.

I suppose you’re wondering how I did this week.

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