Does anyone use the grocery game list to save money on groceries?

[cruisnfamily]

You might want to check your list now. My was up earlier today. I am so ready for tomorrow. all I need are my Sunday coupons!

Sabrina

Nope, not up yet! It's been coming up between 7:30-10am on Sunday mornings for the last 4 weeks.

 

[InstImpres]

I've been reading the thread since the beginning but just join GG this week because of my vacation schedule. Today was my first shop. The interesting thing was that although my savings was not huge (needed some basic likes milk, no coupon/no sale), I saved about 30%. I think I did so well as I had my lists (did 2 stores) and just grabbed those items, no up and down the aisles. I think it cut down on impulse shopping.

 

[PrincessSophie'sMom]

FYI, our Eckerds has Fantastik spray on sale for $1.99. Use $1.50/1 coupon (I ordered mine from the coupon clippers) to get them for $.49 each!

I saw on another board that Walmart has them on sale for $1.94, but we don't have a Wal Mart close to us................

 

[cruisnfamily]

I'm going to have to email my customer service 'cause for the second week in a row, I have the inserts they say I should have but they coupons they say are in the inserts, aren't. Oh well . Another problem today, the catalina machine at the register I used wasn't working so I didn't get my $5 off my next purchase catalina for buying $25 worth of Scott, cottonelle, and Kotex. I made them hand write me one. My DD12 was with me and she was all embarassed. "mom, why'd you have to say something, why didn't you just forget it?" I was like "honey, that's my $5 bucks and I want it!" I probably missed some other catalinas that would have printed out too. I was pretty bummed about it!

Anyway, on to the numbers. Bought 65 items at Winn Dixie(I dropped the Publix list this week 'cause I didn't want to pay for 2 lists)

Retail Price: $237.19
I Paid $160.73
Savings $76.46 (32%)

Not a great week for me but oh well. It seems to run in cycles with a couple of ho-hum weeks followed by a couple of great weeks.

How'd everybody else do?

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Hi, GG newbie here. Just signed up for my trial. Not too impressed yet as I do not have some of the coupons from weeks ago ( I used to only cut out what I would definately use). I have 2 stores that I can use, but I really don't want to pay for 2. How do you guys choose which ones to sign up for? I'm not so sure yet that I couldn't do all this for myself without paying for GG.

Any pointers?

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Oh, regarding Catalinas - it is NEVER working at my store. I'm glad to know I can ask for a hand written coupon!

 

[cruisnfamily]

I have 2 stores that I can use, but I really don't want to pay for 2. How do you guys choose which ones to sign up for?

For your free trial, you can get both at no extra charge. So I would definitely do that for the 4 weeks at least.

After that, I personally picked the store I thought was cheaper overall and a tiny bit more convenient to get to for me. In my case that was Winn Dixie.

Oh, regarding Catalinas - it is NEVER working at my store. I'm glad to know I can ask for a hand written coupon!

I don't know if they would do it for every catalina but this particular $5 back one was in the ad this week so they had to give it to me since they advertised it. I'm sure I missed lots of other ones but if I just tried to say "hey, I'm supposed to have one for XYZ" they probably wouldn't have done it.

I'm not so sure yet that I couldn't do all this for myself without paying for GG.

You definitely can do it yourself. Too much work for me. Besides, you wouldn't know when the absolute lowest was, only that it was on sale. This makes it very, very easy for me to shop quickly and get good deals. For $1.25 a week, it's more than worth it. I save more than that $1.25 per week in groceries so I figure it's free.

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Thanks Cruisnfamily! I guess for the convenience we would just be paying the first $1.25 of our weekly savings. I will do it for the 4 week and make a decision from there. It would be great if it will work as well as it seems to for many of you!

Is there any other site where we can print man. coupons? I found a few but they don't seem to offer anything near me.

Thanks!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

UGhhh. After making my personal list I notice that the GG list I'm getting expired yesterday. I just joined today! Very wierd, emailed customer service. Does this happen often, or is it just that they haven't gotten this week's list ready?

Thanks again!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

LOL - OK, yet another question from me! Am I reading right that you guys buy multiple papers so you get multiples of the same coupons?

Also, I read that the GG does not work if you don't stockpile. We just moved to a teeny tiny house and I can no longer stockpile on anything larger than canned goods. For you experienced gamers, is it not worth the trouble for me then?

 

[cruisnfamily]

UGhhh. After making my personal list I notice that the GG list I'm getting expired yesterday. I just joined today! Very wierd, emailed customer service. Does this happen often, or is it just that they haven't gotten this week's list ready?

Thanks again!

Read your game rules. Your list may not come out on Sundays. Some of the lists come out on Tuesdays. Mine happens to come out on Sunday though. It's possible your list isn't ready but they usually guarantee it by a certain time on that day of the week. Check those game rules.

 

[cruisnfamily]

LOL - OK, yet another question from me! Am I reading right that you guys buy multiple papers so you get multiples of the same coupons?

Also, I read that the GG does not work if you don't stockpile. We just moved to a teeny tiny house and I can no longer stockpile on anything larger than canned goods. For you experienced gamers, is it not worth the trouble for me then?

I personally do NOT buy more than one newspaper. I'm also not doing a huge stockpile but I am trying to stockpile as much as I can. You'd be surprised if you take everything out of your cupboards and reorganize, how much more room you have. I also cleaned out my garage(what a job, yuck!) and made alot more room for storage of certain items out there. Anyhow, I'm certainly not experienced at this, I just started a month ago but it seems to be working. I would say you have to stockpile to a certain extent or you really can't benefit because you'll always have a lot of needs you'll have to pay full price for.

 

[RichNKatHolly]

Thanks again Cruisnfamily! Sorry for all the stupid questions. Just hoping I can decide in 4 weeks if this is worth it for me!

Appreciate all the help and I look forward to posting my savings!

 

[cruisnfamily]

1. Usually I make up my weekly menus, and then make my grocery list from that, and adding all of the normal weekly staples, milk, juice, cheese, etc. So with using "Teri's List" should I continue to buy what I normally would and just add on the green/blue items for the purposes of stock piling? Obviously once I have a good stockpile going, I will not need to buy much of what would be on my "weekly menu" since I will already have it.

2. I do not have a chest freezer, so what is the best way to store meat without getting the ice inside the package?

1. That's exactly it! At least in the beginning. I've been trying to buy doubles of anything that's blue for stockpiling but I'm also trying not to break the bank so the stockpile is building very slowly.

2. No answers there. Sorry! I'm in the same situation. I've just determined I can't really stockpile too much in the way of frozen foods and meats. Maybe somebody else has better advice.

 

[Clancycat]

Wow! That would be awesome! As you can see, I am in Savannah, Georgia. If you don't mind my asking, what part of the country are you ladies in? Maybe it's a regional thing?

Just outside Boston, MA

 

[Clancycat]

My question is, where on earth do they double $1 coupons? My Publix doubles coupons UP TO 50 cents, (and I get the impression from this board that that's pretty good, as some of you don't get doubles at all) so the most you can ever hope to get is $1 off an item. But a 55 cent coupon is only good for 55 cents.

Do some of you really get 75 cent and $1 coupons doubled? That would explain a lot. That's the only way I can ever see The Grocery Game working to the extent they claim it does. Just wondering.

In general, stores here (Boston) only double up to .99 but a few weeks ago, Shaws/Star had special coupons printed in their flyers (the ones delivered to homes not the ones in the store) that allowed you to double any coupons up to and *including* $2 . The week before that they had coupons that allowed you to triple coupons up to .99. I was in coupon heaven, LOL! My list store, Stop & Shop, accepts competors coupons so I did really well those 2 wks!

 

[KaitlinsMom]

Had a good week this week - This is only my second time with GG - I did not shop last week as I was on vacation - Here are my results -

Pre-Total - $453.58
Savings - 226.29

Total paid - $261.65

Savings = 47%

I bought so much because London Broil was on sale, boneless pork chops - and boneless Chicken Breasts! So much meat - but I needed it - Freezer was empty of meat!

Completely thrilled so far with GG - Although, I have noticed the cashiers aren't as friendly as they were before -

I must say - Don't think I need to buy any popcorn for awhile!

Karen

 

[lbgraves]

You will find that there are some cashiers known as coupon cops. They take it personally that you dare to use coupons and make it such a chore...when in fact you are just asking them to do their job. Most know NOTHING about coupons! They think that the money you don't have to pay because of the coupons is coming out of their paycheck...or at least they act like it. DON'T let them intimidate you. If you EVER meet up with a rude cashier because you are using coupons in the right way, insist on speaking to a manager. The cashier needs retraining.

 

[KaitlinsMom]

Lisa - That is exactly how I felt - like the cashier thought I was taking money away from her - She wasn't really rude, just not too polite - and seemed really inconvienienced that I had coupons - she was younger, so maybe that was it -

Karen

 

[planning06]

The cashier I had Saturday congratulated me on my savings. I'm not sure why others need to begrudge somebody for getting a good deal.

Here's my results. WD is my GG store and SAV is my other store that was having superdoubles.

SAV
Retail $183.28
Paid $64.36
Savings $118.92 (65%)

WD
Retail $188.24
Paid $113.22
Savings $84.02 (45%)

Total
Retail $371.52
Paid $177.58
Savings $202.94 (55%)

I think I did pretty good! I actually want to go back to SAV and get a couple more things they were out of or I didn't have another coupon. My GG store savings are definitely going up each week. But, I think I will cancel since my promotional period is over this week and I will be going on vacation soon. I'm not sure I will join again because I actually did my GG store myself this week. I had to go Saturday so I figured out the deals myself. I checked what I got against the list on Sunday and I got everthing off the list I wanted. So I need to figure out if I just want to do this myself or not.

My dh is getting a kick out of my new hobby. He was impressed that a cashier actually congratulated me. LOL!