Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Why I Can Never Pay Full Price Again

Joshua and I are about 3 months into our Grocery Game experience and let me just tell you it has changed our perception of groceries and eating. Every weekend we no longer have to sit around and say, "what do you want to eat this week?" "I don't know, what do you want to eat?" We dreaded the day of grocery shopping and meal planning.

Now we only shop the sales and we make whatever can be found in our pantry. This sounds boring but to us it is a game.

Sunday is Scavenger Hunt. We search the list for great deals and then race through the store finding all the items, because there is nothing more frustrating than watching the person in front of you pick up the last $.04 soy sauce. Seriously, we love Sunday shopping.

Then the dishes for dinner are like a puzzle. What can you make with noodles, ground chicken and tomato sauce? Oh yeah, I know we have some cheese and so we can make Chicken Spaghetti. Woo hoo! Right now we have about 10 boxes of pasta in our pantry so we are getting creative with noodles.

And all this fun...for the price of the grocery game which is $7.50 a month for 2 grocery stores ($5 if you just do one store). We have literally cut our grocery bill from $70/week to $30/week so you will find no complaints here. Plus, we have some friends who are also into living embarrassingly cheap and there is just nothing like geeking out with them about the free Reynolds Wax Paper, or the salad dressing we got for $.20

Shameless Plug: If you decide to try the grocery game (trial is 1 dollar for 4 weeks) let them know you heard about them from wiffut at comcast dot net

3 comments:

Stephanie said...

So, where do you get your coupons? Are they all from the paper? Do you just get a Sunday paper (or two) for this? We have lots of stores here that we could shop at, but I would like to limit it to one...and preferrably not Wal-Mart (actually, Nathan says no to shopping there, so it isn't a choice anyway). So, I am assuming you get a list for Walgreens and a grocery store, yes?

I have debated over and over again on this. We spend about $300/month on groceries for a family of 4 (including toiletries and some random medicine here and there for colds), but I am sure we could cut that more. Our biggest thing is produce. We eat a lot of produce...and it seems to be the biggest part of my bill.

sam said...

my grocery store in the city isn't on the list and i don't go to the drugstore often enough to make this worth it. sad day. although it's pretty entertaining for me to see what you guys are getting. :)

joshntiff said...

I do Walgreens with the help of Money Saving Mom and then I have the grocery game for 2 grocery stores...Kroger and Publix.

Do you have an Aldi near you because that is usually where I find the best price on produce?

The coupons on the list are from the Sunday paper and I think in TX you guys get some coupons on Wednesday in the paper as well so it might be worth that. The great thing is you can try the list for $1 for 4 weeks while you get serious about collecting the coupons and then decide if it is worth keeping.

Sam - Sad day, but you can live vicariously through my savings since I live vicariously through your NYC life