I hate coupons. I really do. But since joining thegrocerygame, I’ve gotten used to them. Yup, there’re a lot of crap coupons out there. But thegrocerygame isn’t just about coupons, thank goodness. They track the couponless sales, too, and the vast majority of things that we buy don’t require a coupon. Still, I do save some of the coupons for stuff that I don’t buy, but would consider if it were free or very low cost. And for other things I’m very impartial. Shampoo, soap, toothpaste, antacid. Meh. Whatever’s cheapest. Worst case is I get crappy shampoo, and can use it on the dog.
Yeah, I just logged in to the Grocery Game for my $1 4-week trial, and a lot of the things on their list don’t even require coupons. They’ll let you know that, for example, this week’s price on asparagus is the lowest it’s ever going to get, so go ahead and buy up.
That being said, the above analysis is exactly the sort of thing I’ve been doing on my own for the past few years. I have an Access database of grocery prices and everything. So I don’t need the Grocery Game to tell me that asparagus is at the rock-bottom price, because I already know. However, their coupon analysis is pretty helpful. I don’t buy a lot of the name-brand items that the coupons are for, but I do buy some, and I’m not brand-loyal to shampoo or hair care products, so that’s a big savings, also.
I may stick with it. I’ll re-evaluate at the end of the 4-week trial.
I admire that, but I’ll never do that myself. Time value of money slopes way beyond my tolerance for being that tedious. I do, though, keep track of actual costs versus pre-discount costs. Luckily I also have all of my old credit card charges in Quicken, so seeing the effect is certainly below my threshold for having to much else to do.
I come from a coupon-using family and have done it my whole life. The grocery game is pretty much what I did on my own, but it’s a time saver and makes it easier for my wife to do it instead of me. We went to the local supermarket last night and went through separately to maximize the doubling/tripling and single-use store coupons. I spent ~135 on groceries with a retail value of ~300. She spent ~66 on groceries with a retail value of ~150. Most of that was sales(store coupons with the loyalty card) but I had about $60 worth of manufacturer’s coupons and she had about 27, and when you consider the doubling/tripling we probably had ~120 or so that we saved due to coupons. We paid about 45% of retail and about half that was due to coupons versus sales.
Enjoy,
Steven
It took the most time in the first month or so of setting it up. I basically just log in the sales prices from the ad circulars each week for the two stores I shop at most frequently. After doing it for just a few weeks, I developed a sense for what good prices are, so now I don’t even have to log a lot of the stuff. I just see, “Oh, that sale price is way higher than the lowest price, I’m not logging it,” or whatever. Not that I am trying to convince anyone else to do this. It is really like a personal hobby of mine. I just always feel compelled to say that it’s not like I’m sitting here for 10 hours (or even 1 hour) per week maintaining this stuff. It’s seriously about 10-15 minutes of work per week at this point. When I bother to do it, which lately I haven’t been, hence my signing up for the Grocery Game.
For those of you who do this, how many people are in your household (and for that matter, how much storage do you have?)
5 people (2 adults and 3 children), and kind of a lot of storage space, which helps. However, I’ve been shopping this way since it was just me and MrWhatsit and we were living in a small apartment with no closets or pantry storage. The biggest difference now is just that I’m able to buy more when stuff goes on a deep sale. Before, I just tailored the amount to the storage space we had available. (Also, we have a deep freezer now, which makes it possible to stock up on turkeys around Thanksgiving, and so forth.)
Just the two of us, and I just got a freezer for my birthday. We have a moderate amount of storage space.
Yeah. To me, it’s a fun game. If it seemed like work I wouldn’t do it. (In fact, I don’t do much at the moment, but I’m soaking up the tips for when I’m ready to play again).
Seven people(two adults, five kids ranging from 13-4). We have a large fridge(~28 Cu Ft), a walk-in pantry, a full size deep freeze in the garage, and shelves in the garage for paper goods/toiletries. It certainly helps that we don’t have to worry about storage space if we find a great sale one day. We’ll either be able to store it, or be able to eat it before it goes bad.
Enjoy,
Steven
I should have explained why I asked. I’m shopping for just me, and I have a small kitchen and limited storage (for both food & non-food items). And so much of what I see when I do look for coupons is for products in bulk or “family sized” or just more than I possibly need or can/will use before it goes bad or I’m sick of it. (even with frozen foods - they don’t last forever)
I’m wondering if it’s worth it given the quantities I buy or if I’ll have an experience like amarone’s?
Also, does thegrocerygame ever expand? The store I’m most likely to go to (because it is within walking distance) is not on their list.
They do expand - I’m always getting little notices on my list that they’ve added some store I’ve never heard of.