How I coupon..

I use the Grocery Game (GG) and I pay 15$ every two months to get "the list" for two different stores in my area. One of which is Harris Teeter-they have the best best best coupon policies and deals. I also shop at Kroger because it is right across the street and sometimes I only have time to go that far for what I need. Their coupon policies are okay, not great but okay.
My SIL tried to use GG in St.Louis and it wasn't really a great deal there cause her grocery stores didn't have good coupon policies :(
*the list will tell you what your local stores policies are. or you can ask around.

The List:
Basically a break down of everything that is on sale...next to the item is the original price, the sale price, what coupon you can use and where to find it, the percentage saved and your final cost per item.

I like GG because it tells me what is on sale and what coupon to use with it. I get all the coupons from the Sunday paper inserts. (RedPlum, Smart Source, Procter & Gamble, General Mills) There are different inserts every week and on the binding of the inserts is that weeks date, it is super super teeny tiny but it is there. I file the inserts by date (no clipping ahead of time) and then when the list tells me a coupon is available for something on a certain date, I pull the insert out and clip the coupon. Besides ordering the sunday paper delivered to our home, I also pick one up for .50cents during the week...that way i always have a couple copies of each coupon...this comes in handy when you want to stockpile on certain items.

GG does a 5 week trial if you want to try it before deciding if it works in your area. When I did the trial I tried like 5 stores and then when it was time to start paying I picked the best 2 and went with them. (10$ the first list and 5$ for every other list)
(If you do sign up based off of this blog would you use me as a referral please? GG will ask you for the email of the person who told you about it...my email is jwillowb@yahoo.com)

A lot of people ask me if I buy stuff I "normally" would buy. The answer is "kinda". I normally buy Sour Cream. This week Daisy Sour cream was .17cents. I might have bought a different brand "normally" but I try not to be brand loyal so this week's sour cream might be different than the brand I buy next week.
I don't buy really cheap cat food just because it's 90% off. That would be silly, I don't have a cat.

I have tried a lot of new things because of the GG. I might not have "normally" purchased these items but only because I didn't know about them. Some things I won't buy again because I didn't end up liking them...but for less than a dollar to try something new...it is worth it. I have found lots of new things I like because of couponing.


This past week...here is what I did with the GG's help...

I shopped at Harris Teeter. This week was triple coupons at HT... HT only allows you to double/triple 20 coupons in one day...so I used my Vic Card and my sisters Vic Card and shopped at several stores over the course of 2 days. Sounds complicated but really it wasn't. They only double up to .99cents...so if you have a coupon for $1.00 or more then it's only worth that amount...

I purchased $652.35 worth of groceries. I paid $184.75. That is a $467.60 worth of savings. For the purists who think getting things on "sale" doesn't count as savings (eyes rolling) I actually used $292.92 worth of coupons and $174.68 was store sales. Any way you slice it I saved a TON. Before I shopped GG I didn't even really shop sales, I just bought what looked good. So for our family the coupons and the sales are both very real savings.

Here are some photo's of what all I got this week...just so you can see I bought "normal" types of items. I will say, I wouldn't have gotten so much hamburger helper normally but it was all FREE..I didn't even pay 1cent for it. This is the kind of thing that even if MY family doesn't use, I can easily donate to a food shelf...






Hope this makes sense and possibly inspires you!