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The Grocery Game Print
Thursday, 23rd August 2007 (by J.D.)This article is about Food, Money Hacks, Shopping, Tools
For years, Kris and I have used coupons as one tool to get lower prices when shopping for groceries. Some people are opposed to coupons, but we’ve found that they help us to save money. (Number one tip: don’t use a coupon to buy something you wouldn’t normally purchase.)
In the Get Rich Slowly forums, we’ve been discussing how much the average family spends on food. MITBeta wrote:
Our budget (two adults and a seven-month-old) has been $375 for the last four months or so. Three weeks ago my wife discovered The Grocery Game and it seems like we’re saving a lot of money on groceries this month. I’ll let you all know at the end of the month.
I’d never heard of The Grocery Game before, so I decided to take a look. Here’s how it works:
The Grocery Game is a fun, easy way to save hundreds of dollars on groceries each month. TERI’S LIST reveals the “rock bottom” prices on hundreds of products each week and matches them up with manufacturers’ coupons for the best possible savings at your local supermarket. The Grocery Game has exclusive databases that track manufacturers’ coupons along with weekly sales and specials, both advertised and UN-advertised.
With TERI’S LIST, the days of time consuming work required for effective coupon-ing are over. The Grocery Game does all the hard work and research, presented in a quick reference format on the internet each week, as TERI’S LIST. Members log in, spend a few minutes with a pair of scissors, and they’re off to win The Grocery Game!
Basically, the site is designed to maximize coupon savings through the use of an up-to-date price database. It’s not a free service, though. The Grocery Game costs $10 every eight weeks, but:
- The four-week trial period costs just $1.
- It’s probably easy to recoup the cost of the site through in-store savings.
I’m guessing that The Grocery Game works best when used in conjunction with a price book.
Have any of you tried The Grocery Game? What were your experiences? Is it worth the $5/month? Is there a free alternative?
Addendum: In the comments, Jennifer points to an article that she wrote about how The Grocery Game works some places but not in others.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:25 am
I’m a Grocery Gamer. You don’t need to do a price book because they list the lowest prices.
I save 68% a week on food, health and beauty items, pet food/treats, paper goods, and cleaning supplies.
Produce and milk are the only things I ever pay full price for.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:26 am
I’ve used it, as have a number of people that I know. I *LOVED* it and the savings that I got. We even were known to meet at the big coupon events at midnight!
I always had tons of food in the house, never an excuse to not cook and was feeding a family of five on about $60/week, including diapers, meats, etc.
I would use the grocery game instead of a price book, because she keeps one for you, essentially. She’ll tell you when something’s a *buy* or when it’s a *buy it if you NEED it* or heck, just get it because it’s free. I’d never given away so much food before in my life to the food pantries, but if it was free, you bet I’d buy it and give it away. My neighbors thought I was crazy, because I’d be giving them stuff all the time.
I stopped using it because it was a lot of work, and I got lazy. Once you miss a week’s coupons, you lose out on a lot of the list. It works better for you if you have multiple sets of coupons, also, because you can get multiple items, in order to boost your stockpile. Also, I found that we were using a lot of prepared foods, rather than from scratch, which I prefer.
I’ve actually been considered returning to the list, because I’ve doubled my grocery costs, and I’d love to get back to where I used to be, or at least closer.
Sorry for the length, can you say passionate much?
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:28 am
Oh, darn. Two more things.
It’s totally worth the cost. I included the cost in my grocery budget, and it was easily absorbed.
Second, http://www.couponmom.com is a free alternative, but not nearly as good as the grocery game, in my opinion. I’m sure there are more sites, though.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 am
JD, I have played the Grocery Game in 2 different states now. I wrote an article talking about my experiences and why it worked in 1 state, but not the other. http://hubpages.com/hub/How_To_Play_the_Grocery_Game__Is_It_Worth_It
Hopefully it will help someone. Love your site, BTW.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am
I live in Texas, and the grocery chain we shop is HEB. HEB has a fantastic program that we take advantage of. The program is called “Fresh or Free”, and the object is for the customer to find out-of-date items. Upon finding an expired item, HEB will give one identical fresh item to you, for free. There is a 1 item per customer limit, but only for the same UPCs. So you could get 1 milk, 1 loaf of bread, 1 carton of eggs, etc all in the same trip. It has saved us quite a bit of money. Anyone can do it, no membership fee or anything required.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 am
I’ve tried CouponMom but I had a hard time finding coupons relevant to my area (triangle area, NC). Is the GroceryGame full of national deals and is it tough to find local coupons? I’d love to give it a try if not.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:44 am
We use the grocery game, and save an average of 30% per grocery trip. My only complaint as another has mentioned is that if you really want to save a lot you turn to boxed and prepackaged items vs. home made. We try to do a blend of convenience foods and home made - so I supposed if we were willing to eat more boxed items we could save more. In the end, even though it takes some time to organize, we get back more than the $5/month + Sunday papers.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:47 am
My casual observations of the “game” since my wife is the primary “player” are:
1. It really costs more than $5/month since we don’t have a newspaper subscription. Often we can get someone in our family to give up an extra copy of the ads from the Sunday paper, but when that’s not possible it’s another $2.50/week or $10/month.
2. Because sales seem to run in 3 to 6 week cycles, it may take up to 2 months (conveniently the length of the trial) before you get to you full savings potential because you will be buying stuff that’s not necessarily on sale, but stocking up on the stuff that is on sale. By the end of the 2 months, your food “queue” should be full and you shouldn’t even need to buy stuff that’s not on sale (some fresh items excluded).
3. My wife really enjoys playing the game and gets antsy by 11:30am on Sunday morning since the weeks list comes out at 12. Even if we’re not really saving anything, I think it’s probably worth it just to see how much fun DW is having…
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 am
Lanae, The Grocery Game deals are listed by your zip, so it’s local. To get the coupons you just buy the biggest Sunday paper in your town.
MITBeta, try the recycling center on Monday. Just ask them, they usually let you.
I’ve always made my menu from the circular ads for the week. I also donate a lot of items now. I dropped off 50 pounds of cat and dog food at the shelter two months ago. I now need to make another drop off.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:09 am
Lanae - I too am in the triangle area. I have been doing the grocery game for about a year now and find it worth it. I am willing to pay for the service because experience has shown me that I am not going to do the price book thing on my own. It is worth it to me to pay a little bit to have someone else do the work.
Now, I don’t get the fabulous overall savings that a lot of people on the GG message boards do. That is primarily because I buy a lot of fresh stuff and cook mostly from scratch. However, it has saved me significant money (probably $200+ each month over pre-gg spending). The best part about it for me though is that it has made me way more organized about shopping and cooking and that increase organization has saved me money too (and made my life easier).
I don’t think that it works for everyone for a variety of reasons but I think that everyone should at least give it a try. Really, it is only a dollar and some time…
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:38 am
I tried the Grocery game earlier this year, but I found myself having a hard time sticking too it. I think you can save money if you have a family, but I found it annoying driving to 3 or 4 different places chasing deals with coupons. Plus you have to factor in the cost of the Sunday newspaper to get the coupons. The only place I was really saving money on was household and personal items, but as a single guy, I don’t go through these things very fast. I would regularly find that deals on the site didn’t actually exist that week at a store (especially pharmacy stores).
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:55 am
I started using the Grocery Game since May and I do think it is worth it for a family of 4 like ours. I really enjoy using it. I shop Kroger so they have the double & triple coupons. I actually like buying groceries now to see how much I can save. I probably still do not save quite as much as I could because I stick to buying healthier non-packaged items unless it is a free item. Biggest savings so far is 58% but working on beating that.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 am
Thank you Leslie! I was a bit worried since I also cook a lot from scratch and buy fresh produce–glad to hear you are still saving! Which newspaper do you normally use? I’ll give it a try this weekend.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
I tried the Grocery Game about a year ago and decided to quit after a few months. We are a household of 2 people who cook simple meals and have a strong love for Trader Joe’s. With a situation like ours, the membership fee and the time it took to look at the lists didn’t seem worth it. But with a bigger family, I can see it working much better.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
My wife uses the Grocery Game. She regularly saves over 30% on each weekly shopping trip. We budget $100/week for groceries and very rarely do we even come close to that. Just coupons alone saved about 10% every week. The Grocery Game is worth every penny and then some.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I used couponmom.com (the free version) for a while, but stopped recently because my husband and I have switched to mostly organic and natural products. If they put out more coupons for organic products, I would probably go back to it.
A plug for couponmom: I liked that their service is free because they encourage you to donate extra items, especially those you end up getting for free, to food banks and other local charities.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:27 pm
I am currently doing it. Of course I wonder if it really is worth the time & hassle.
You do in fact make your money back. Of course you have to sit down & clip coupons, download the list, sort through it, dig through several weeks worth of coupons to find the ones that match.
It’s definitely cheaper than going to my local grocer on a daily basis & picking up the carry out sushi & TV dinners.
But I think that it’s more expensive than bulk cooking.
The lists are designed to save money on pre-packaged pre-made foods. So if that is the bulk of your diet, it’ll probably work for you.
But if you are instead trying to eat healthier and make more of your meals from scratch you won’t find as much on the list for you.
Fresh veggies are hardly ever on the list. Fresh fruits are not part of the list on a consistent basis. If you are trying to follow the food pyramid it doesn’t help you out much.
I haven’t had orange juice, grape juice, or lemonade in the house since February since it hasn’t been on the list. I am missing out on things like black beans, split peas, herbs (fresh or dry)
My gut is telling me that I would do better by planning out my meals and bulk cooking again, both diet wise & budget wise.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I tried it for a full 12 week cycle. (12 weeks is probably the max between sales for most products.) I bought the list for two stores, Meyer and Kroger, to see which was the best. I quit because every week I could never find more than 3 or 4 items on either list that I would buy. And some of my staples, like Barilla Plus pasta, never made the list even though I saw it was on sale in the store. A friend of mine also uses the GG, same city, same stores, and she loves it, so it may just be our different food preferences. She’s actually been on a break for several months because her pantry is stuffed. It really can be a different experience for everyone.
There’s a book you can buy from the site that explains how to do in on your own if the GG isn’t in your city or store. Since I do a lot of my shopping at the food coop and Wild Oats, I’ve thought about trying to do it myself. But right now I’m focusing on other things to reduce the food budget.
Also, the GG is a franchise. Teri does her local area and the other areas are done by the franchisees. Since the store has more on sale than what’s in the sale circular, you need to physically go to the store to catch everything that’s on sale. And they say the best coupons come with local subscriptions to the paper, so your list is done by someone who lives in your area. That may explain why some have experienced discrepancies between the list and what’s in the store. Let Teri know if it’s really bad. It’s in her best interest to have accurate lists.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Hey, I found (quite by accident) a way to get those newspaper coupons for free. Earlier this year, I had a coupon for a free drink at Starbucks. I used it on a Sunday evening. The shop was pretty empty, and there were lots of copies of the Sunday paper all over the tables from previous people buying them, reading them, and leaving them behind for someone else. That included the coupons!
So, my husband has his weekly “splurge” at Starbucks on Sunday night, and i go along to find the coupons. I wouldn’t advocate just going in to take the coupons, tho. Seems a bit uncouth… like the guy i saw get a cup of hot water (free) then fill it up with chocolate powder, cream and sugar.
Of course if everyone starts doing this, it won’t work, so shhhhhh!
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Lanae - I have a subscription to the N&O. That is definately the largest circulation paper in the area. I already subscibed to the Sunday paper anyway so I don’t consider this an additional cost.
If you do decide to try it, I recommend signing up for all the stores available in your area during the trial. I found out quickly that I didn’t like one store and another was just not conveniently located. So, when it came time to really pay for the service I knew which stores I wanted to use.
Good Luck.
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I used it for most of last year and stocked up on paper items, health and beauty, canned items, etc. It’s worth the 4 week
trial to see how it works in your area with your particular stores. Before signing up
for the trial, spend about a month collecting the coupons from the Sunday papers. This way when you start the trial you will have most of the coupons you’ll need to get the most out of your trial period.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I do find it absolutely worthwhile, although I totally agree that the Platonic ideal of the “Grocery Gamer” is someone who will eat anything and everything they sell at the grocery store and is willing to eat a lot of prepared foods, and I’m not. It’s part of my routine now, and I’d say that between cutting coupons and making my shopping list it takes about half an hour weekly.
I do the vast majority of my cooking from scratch, have celiac disease (so I can’t eat any wheat, rye, or barley), don’t buy non-recycled paper products or cleaning supplies with phosphates, non-organic meat or dairy (and not much of it at that), or seafood that isn’t on the Monterey Bay list. So it does limit what’s on the list. And at this point I’m stocked for most toiletries & OTC medicines. Our grocery budget, for a family of three, is $75 a week. I get coupons regularly through Mambo Sprouts, Organic Valley, and directly through manufacturer websites and supplement the Grocery Game with that for “need shopping.”
Off the top of my head, things that I do get regularly through the Grocery Game: sustainable seafood, produce, nuts, raisins, unsweetened applesauce, olive oil, spices, garbage bags & similar household items, some toiletries, some “natural foods,” tea, juice.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:31 pm
This is a revelation for us. Thanks for all the worthwhile comments. We are going to check out grocery gamer.
Cheers,
FIRE Finance
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:23 pm
NOT worth it. I have tried it multiple times at multiple stores and I see no real benefit in it unless you eat only pre-packaged meals and sugary snacks. I had a hard time finding the “good” foods in the Grocery Game … at least the ones I couldn’t figure out myself by reading the paper. However, I know now what the cheapest prices for detergent is and I can but it at a discount without the Grocery Game.
I love my grocery store. I make almost everything from scratch. I don’t buy my cosmetics from the grocery store. I don’t buy my hair care from the grocery store. I saw no savigns benefit and huge time waste.
Don” forget, even if you do play you have to shop on certain days and you better get there early or the stuff you want will be sold out.
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Seems like there are a number of variables that determine whether people have good luck with it, not the least of which is whether the list is “good” in their area.
DW says:
“interesting. that’s a great idea about picking stuff up for food pantries if it is essentially free.
i think what the people might not be seeing in some cases is that if you don’t typically buy prepackaged food, then don’t buy it. you don’t have to buy stuff just b/c it’s on sale.
but yes i’m hooked! and I haven’t bought anything not on the list since i started aside from milk and the refresh pm. “
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
The problem with ALL coupons, is that many do not provide any savings. I don’t care if I can save $3.00 on Pampers, because I don’t have children. 25 cents off Libby’s canned vegetables doesn’t help me….other brands can be on sale cheaper than the coupon, and because I try to feed a whole family (one can won’t do that), I try to get frozen veggies for $1 a pound or less.
The bottom line is, I save more by buying 10 lbs of butter when I can get it for $2.00 a pound on special, then I do by buying a national brand with a 50 cent coupon.
Same goes for boneless/skinless chicken breast when it is $1.79 a pound or split chicken breast at 79 cents a pound. A $1 coupon doesn’t do much off of a large package of chicken breast priced at $4.99 a pound.
People need to learn to shop and buy in bulk when the prices are low, then not buy that item again until it is for sale at a low price, not use coupons to save a few cents weekly.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I’ve been a member of grocery game for about a year. The first week I saved $80 and I was hooked. I normally save about 50% on my grocery bill every Sunday. I’ve lowered my monthly food budget from $400 a month to about $250. Cannot recommend this site highly enough.
The key is, like others said, don’t buy what you don’t need and buy tons of what you do need when it’s on sale AND you have a coupon.
- Undertrader
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Just wanted to add that I use the list at Ralphs, which gives double coupons every day, so that $1 coupon to you is a $2 coupon to me.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:21 am
I had bad experiences with GG. My lists were ALWAYS innacurate b/c they were using an incorrect coupon policy to create the list. Also, their message board moderators were employees of GG who I suspect, censored quite a lot. In fact, I groaned in dissapointment when I saw that you gave them massive (free) advertising by spotlighting them on GRS.
If you are interested in couponing, I suggest checking out http://www.hotcouponworld.com
August 24th, 2007 at 5:39 am
@JohnK:
Nobody is suggesting that you buy things that you don’t need just because you have a coupon. What is suggested, however, is that the Grocery Game tells you what coupons you will find in this week’s paper AND when to use them to their greatest effect, which is not necessarily in the same week. Combine that $1.00 chicken coupon with a $1.79 sale and now you’ve got $079 boneless/skinless. Buy A LOT of it then and free it.
August 24th, 2007 at 6:06 am
I think the game is much more effective if you have a large space to store your stockpiled groceries and a larger family, and like others have said, if you like a lot of packaged goods. For these reasons it wasn’t worth it to me. I haven’t seen anyone else mention http://www.groceryguide.com - a free version of the same, similar to couponmom but better organized in my opinion. But I love couponmom’s emphasis on donating your extra food!
August 24th, 2007 at 6:22 am
JD, I don’t know how you escaped The Grocery Game. I read quite a bit about it on various blogs.
My take is that it’s far easier to buy generics and while the gains aren’t quite as good, they are a good value for my time. Coupon and excessive bargain hunting and planning is not a good use of my time. Part of this is that it’s just me and my wife, our monthly food budget is very, very low. If we had 2-3 children and one of us were a stay-at-home parent, this might change.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:03 am
I have never done the Grocery Game, but there are a lot of sites that have similar information, but a little more freewheeling and not as organized.
I use primarily hotcouponworld.com and pay attention to the forums for the stores I have. It’s free and there is a process of give-and-take that lets you figure out what deals are working and how. It also brings rebates, Catalina coupons and other rewards into the mix, so you can maximize your returns. You can find out most of the sales before the circulars come out and members will match up coupons to show you the best deals. There’s also a huge database of all kinds of coupons, so you can see if you got the coupon in your area (or can trade to get one someone else got).
I’m a single guy and have more food and health/beauty products than I know what to do with. I actually make a profit on my grocery shopping now and donate a ton to the local food bank.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:20 am
I used the grocery game for a while, saved a lot of money and, like other posters have said, had so much stuff I was giving it away. I quit the site because I thought the same info was available elsewhere for free. It probably is, but it takes too much work to find it all on your own (for me, at least). Now I keep meaning to return to it, and definitely spend too much money dragging my feet on making a decision about it. I am taking this as a sign to return!
August 24th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I highly recommend The Coupon Clippers at http://www.thecouponclippers.com
They give you all the same info as the Grocery Game, but for FREE, and you can order coupons for the items you need for about 5-10% of face value. I have saved an incredible amount of money using The Coupon Clippers.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I’ve tried the grocery game and it didn’t work out for me. We only have one local grocery store, and their sale info is not on the grocery game. If we wanted to drive 30 miles to a neighboring town, I think it would have worked. But, I could not justify spending an extra $40 per month for fuel to save about that same amount or less on groceries. Also, our local paper does not have the ad flyers, so we would have had to spend more to get a subsrciption to the paper in the neighboring town, also.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
One of my readers mentioned GG to me a while back so I took a look at it but decided not to try it out because, unsurprisingly when you consider what’s in the Sunday paper coupons, most of the deals were for prepackaged and/or convenience foods. We just don’t eat that stuff, plus the only store I go to every week is Trader Joe’s, so I’d have to start making extra trips (TJ’s has much lower prices on produce, especially organic produce, so I would never consider switching back to Ralphs!).
August 25th, 2007 at 4:40 am
@JohnK, the Grocery Game advises combining coupons with lowest prices.
I used it for a couple of years but quit as my life became more organized and I mostly buy things coupons don’t apply to — produce, bulk beans, non-mainstream-brand organic items. You save the most on toiletries and snack foods.
Now I grab the weekly sales fliers and circle what we want, then shop starting from that (and I still clip coupons). I pull out specific coupons for what we need at home, catch extra sales at the store — and my savings are about the same (usually 38% to 46%).
August 25th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Shoplocal.com is another site that will check your local circulars for you–for free. Many of the online circulars (drugstores, grocery stores, etc.) are actually powered by ShopLocal. I hate to see folks spending money needlessly when there are free resources out there. There’s no secret formula for saving. Buy store brands when you can and buy the rest with coupons when it’s on sale.
If diapers and formula are on your shopping list, come on over to my site, for Pete’s sake. It’s free.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
My wife and I are trying to cut our grocery expenses, but they are still high. we started cooking some meals and freezing them and we are starting a price book. We can’t seem to find coupons though. Where do you get them? circulars sow the sales but no coupons.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I live in Los Angeles & have used the Grocery Game for 1 year (family of four). I pay $16/month for the weekend LA Times (sadly they won’t just sell me the sunday paper) and $5/month for the GG subscription. Using it has saved me $30-$50 per week in groceries, so $120-200 a month. I have come to the conclusion that it is because:
1) I shop at Ralph’s, which has a double coupon policy. When I used the GG at Von’s, which doesn’t, it didn’t seem to save a huge amount. But those double coupons add up really fast.
2) I tailor my menu each week to what’s on sale, especially meats. If it’s chicken, we eat chicken, if it’s broccoli, we eat broccoli. I cook 5-6 meals from scratch a week, but I am very flexible in what we eat — some weeks it’s mexican cause the refried beans are on sale, sometimes it’s stirfry because tofu’s cheap. You gotta be flexible
3) Learn to work the system — only buy the things in blue or green (on sale or free) and skip the others. Clip ALL the coupons and be flexible; and buy ahead (I bought 2 jars of mayo today even though I already have an extra one; when I run out of mayo it will be there for me). And don’t buy something just cause it’s on sale (took me a couple months to learn that).
You can do all these things on your own, obviously, but $21 a month is worth it to me, considering the savings I make vs the time I would have to spend puzzling it all out on my own.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:51 am
I have used GG, Coupon Mom and Hot Coupon World in the last year. I love the Coupon Mom because it’s free and for the emphasis on giving to charity. I have saved a lot on groceries and lowered our monthly budget from $500 to $300 (includes diapers for 2 kids). We get a lot of our beauty and household supplies for free, which frees up more money to spend on favorite food items.
I wanted to add Coupon Mom has recently added lists for Walmart, Target and Rite Aid and they might be worth a look since they are free!
November 15th, 2007 at 9:24 am
YOU CAN NOT SPEAK TO A LIVE PERSON IT SUCKS
November 20th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I’ve been using GG for about a year. I started doing coupons at that time and it has really helped me learn how to put coupons and sales together. I now know what a good priced sale is for the items I normally buy. Granted I don’t use the majority of items they list, but that is fine because someone else does and sometimes I buy something out of my norm and like that it is on the list. I was having issues with not finding the coupons, so I called them and talked to someone. They mentioned that I wasn’t the first person to complain about my area and it seems to be that we have a bad paper for coupons. I’ve also learned to go ahead and price check things at my store since they don’t always have the sales prices listed. I trust the list more now instead of what the shelf price says. I’ve also started looking at hotcouponworld and though it is helpful for drugstores and such, it doesn’t give me near the deals that for my grocery stores that the list does. If I wasn’t able to have the GG list in my area, then I would use hot coupon world as my source (free source too). I told my DH when I first tried the list that if it ever cost me more for the list and paper than I saved then I would cancel it. As of yet that hasn’t happened.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:46 am
I’ve been using the Grocery Game since 2004. We save so much that I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Of course, I shop where there is a double coupon policy.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I totally think GG is worth it. I was super skeptical at first, but after saving my coupon packs for a month, I was floored by my savings. I average savings of 50% each week. I consider spending $10/month ($5/mo for GG and $5/mo for paper) TOTALLY worth it. In three weeks I’ve saved over $150 b/c of GG. I certainly could not have done that on my own. I could have saved even more if all of the items in the list had been on sale at my store. Overall, GG is awesome for us. (Plus, I’ve been referring friends, so I have 24 free GG weeks coming to me — that’s another $20 I’m saving. . . )
March 19th, 2008 at 7:03 am
GG is a total scam!!!!! they post a grocery list deal that don’t exist!!!!!! you contact customer service and they give you the run around with the list by saying……”you need to ask the manager and see if they match the deal” manager work for there companies not for Grocery Game!!!!!!!
I don’t recomend Grocery Game at all!!!!!is a total SCAM!!!!!!!!!
April 24th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I have never used the Grocery Game and don’t think I would pay for this service. I find that a couple of hours a week with the newspaper ads and coupons are all it takes. I usually save at least 50% every time I shop and I know I am going to get the deal because I see it in the paper myself. I feed a family of 5 on less than $300 per month. Yes driving from store to store is a pain, but if you live in an area where the stores are all close together, like I do, it’s no big deal and the savings are so worth it. I say do it yourself.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:43 am
There is just no reason to pay for something that is supposed to save you money. Anyone can learn how to match coupons with sales to get a good deal. But if you want to join a FREE community of other coupon minded folks you have just got to check out http://hotcouponworld.com they have forums for just about every store and a rockin’ coupon database and then the members help each other out by posting the hot deals, clearance finds, and just have so much fun saving money and building that stockpile.
pshaw on the grocery game…what a waste of money. That $5 could be going to my weekly starbucks habit and I still can save 70% or more without them.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I have been doing the grocery game for about a year and saved about $8000 so definately worth it!
I disagree with those who say it only works if you eat a lot of pre-packaged foods. Sure these show up on the list but so does produce, meat, baking supplies, etc. And the money you can save on health and beauty supplies alone justifies the cost.
I also disagree with holding off till you get a supply of coupons before signing up. I had no coupons when I started and my bill fell dramatically just by stocking up on sale items.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I have been doing the GG for almost 2 years.
We are a family of 6 with both myself and my husband working full time. I will say that we are much more organized about what we buy not just because of the Grocery Game but because we also do once a month cooking and freeze 30 days of dinners so that my older kids can start dinner before we even get home. This gives us much more time in the evening with the kids. The grocery game saves us a minimum of 50% per week. We are very aware of our limited time and I feel the GG saves considerable time. If you choose 1 store and stick to it you will find it fast and convenient. We did try 2 stores for a while and found it too much running around and hard to keep track of the coupons we had and hadn’t used.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I tried the grocery game. It is advertised as a 4 week trial period (last time I looked at a calendar, 4 weeks is 28 days). I cancelled on the 28th day, but they still billed me for another 2 months, because you have to cancel BEFORE the last day of the trial period, not on the last day. They refused to refund the money. I found it to be totally useless. I cut out coupons and organized for a couple of months before joining, in order to make it work. I found nothing on their list that was not in the newspaper adds. With the cost of gas, it is definitely not worth going from store to store to save a couple of dollars at each store. And each store costs an additional $5.00. I am going to stick to my regular largest retail store in the nation shopping, use my coupons there (and they honor advertisement prices from other stores) and forget about the grocery game. For my family of 2, there is absolutely no benefit and no justification for the time it takes to make it work. I am one very unhappy consumer with this service.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:07 am
This is my second shot at the grocery game. First I did the trial period. Currently Im signed up for 2 stores & paying the membership fee - but not for long.
I shop for 2 adults & 2 small children (age 4 & 16 months)
While you do save money, you are purchasing a lot of items that you may not need or use just because its .10 - .20 cents.
I dont grocery shop to stockpile - I shop to restock my pantry. My finances dont allow me to stockpile even with a great coupon. I can afford what I need now until the next paycheck
The Grocery Game philosophy is (buy when its on sale & you dont need it so you can stockpile) While I understand the concept - it doesnt work for me.
I like to spend my money to purchase items I can use or need now. If I spend 20 bucks on a ton of cereal/poptarts/ibuprofen/prepackaged items - I couldve used that 20 bucks for items that we actually need NOW.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I have been using the GG for 5 months now and at first it was difficult to stay within my budget, but after the first two months I had a huge stockpile and began to see my amount needed for grocery’s decrease. I went froma budgeted $500/month for a family of 4 to 250/month in 5 months.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:42 am
I tried the Grocery Game and I did enjoy it. but then I found a better site, its called A Full Cup
http://www.afullcup.com and let me say it has changed my world. There is so much information on there and its not only grocery stores, it teaches you how to save everywhere and it 100% free. I have been hooked for 4 months now. I have gotten my monthly groceries from $300 to about $80 and I don’t buy prepackaged stuff, and I buy mostly organic. check it out.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Also, moneysavingmom.com is a great resource. She pairs the best sales/coupons, provides links to online coupons, and provides a forum for other bargain hunters to post their “deal scenarios.” It’s well written and well organized, and it’s free!
January 6th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I second A Full Cup! They have “Shopping Lists” there now which give you all the same info as the grocery game - and it’s all completely free! I have saved so much money now - and I have great stockpile built up so I only have to buy perishables each week!
January 16th, 2009 at 10:17 am
The grocery game is very good for learning how to saving money through couponing.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:34 am
I’ve tried it for three months and have trouble with one list in particular. Their customer service refused to acknowledge the problem, and when I posted on their thread to try to get some help, their moderators deleted the thread. You will NEVER read of any dissatisfaction on their message board, because their moderators delete posts that reference any problems.
I am actually furious about this, because I pay for that service. No longer. Hi, Full Cup!
February 7th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Oh, I’m so furious…. as a full paying member at GG… I caught them deleting a member’s new thread, just as I was reading it. Then I tried to reply to her post…they would not allow me to post. I’ve done nothing wrong, nor violated any terms of an agreement, however…they are censoring like crazy there at GG message boards. They only want a certain positive image to be spoken of. To censor one’s questions or comments is so personal. I thought our culture was so beyond censoring now, but I guess not. I understand if someone was being rude or cursing in the message boards…but this lady wasn’t. I’ve seen it time and time again…removal of someone’s post if they are having trouble with GG.
How do they sleep at night, knowing what they are doing? The moderators have to be paid to do that…or else how could you live with yourself knowing what you are doing to people’s feelings on a regular basis. I’m taking my business elsewhere. Couponmom.com is a great site and free! I’ve had more help with couponmom’s forums than GG. I’ve learned so much more at couponmom than GG. Even use hotcouponworld, they are nicer. It’s no wonder why Oprah choose to have Stephanie Nelson the coupommom to be on her show!
What a fool I was with GG… I was taken. I feel so stupid to fall for them.
Allison
February 8th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Allison, don’t sweat it. We all learn from experience. I found their lists to vary by region after we moved but I tried to shop at the same store. Very different experiences. When I complained I was told that it is according to the local listmaker (they have a different title, of course). I found them to be a great step in becoming more proficient (on my own and with other websites, like Hot Coupon World) without having to pay the fee. It was quicker when they put the lists together … but I am happier now. As long as you have gained from the experience, you were not taken and you are definantly not stupid. It seems you have found other sites that work for you. I would encourage you to start using them and put this GG experience behind you.
Stephanie
May 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
i found it useful for items that were super cheap and had a coupon that i definately would have missed before. (i am to unorganized to figure all that stuff out on my own.) however the GG is almost all processed foods and i could see that we weren’t feeling as well, and i gained some weight :(. a lot would expire too, which is obviously money just wasted.
personally i think that when i eat mostly fresh and all natural food and take more time to prepare it, its actually cheaper than using the GG. that includes buying good and more expensive laundry detergent! i was getting cheaper stuff on the GG (for fear i would miss a ‘good deal’) and would have to wash my clothes over and over to get them clean- not a money saver….. when i don’t GG, i don’t buy stuff i dont’t need and i would buy garbage less often. like on the GG u can get a pack or oreos or whatever for super cheap one week, and something else the next… but when not doing the GG i would purchase something we all really loved, it might cost more money, but since it was a much nicer product, we would eat less of it and enjoy it more. (thus saving money….) i also bake more when i dont do the GG, which cuts out processed junk (not even considered FOOD) and costs less. plus you can get everyone involved which can be fun. i also make my own cleaners now which is incredibly cheap and house is free of bad chemicals.
last week i just discovered that they are charging me on 2 different bank accounts (i moved) and they WONT STOP. 20 on one and 10 on the other. i only have one store, so i should be paying 10. they will not answer my emails demanding my money back for one of my accounts. they dont have a phone number so you can’t call and try to get someone to help. imho, when a company doesn’t have a phone number run the other way. they obviously hide their number for a reason. they have no prob taking your money and completely ignoring you.
May 24th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
I completely agree with Bethany. Same here….we gained weight fast even trying to be selected..but wanted to get that good deal!
So we are back to natural foods and fruits and I make everything from scratch. Our quality dropped dramatically. We’ve gone back to fresh, unprocessed and organic foods. And making our own non-toxic cleaners. I am more selected and use fewer coupons. The days their list was out was so limiting for me.
I also tried contacting customer service and found them difficult to respond or offer answers to my questions. I wonder if Terri really knows what’s going on with the people who oversee the grocery game.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I found the grocery game to be a waste of time and money.
1. I was able to find the same deals with the same time and planning.
2. I found better fresh produce and meat deals on my own.
3. The cost seemed to outway the savings.
4. Their unclear policies = ufair practices, costing me additional money. They say you can cancel at any time, but this is not the case. You are locked to their 8 week billing cycle. So you may schedule your cancelation but it will not actually take place until the end of their billing cycle. You are charged in full at the beginning of the cycle and there are NO refunds for cancelation mid cycle.
They do not post their policies on the site or make them available to customers. They only say that they have an 8 week billing cycle and that you can cancel at any time, which is NOT TRUE.
What a waste.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I couldn’t have said it better, Jenni Mac! All so true..and has been my experience. Yet, the founder is a millionaire.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Sounds fun and resourceful, I’ll have to check it out.
November 9th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I used it for a long time, but then I discovered the Super Walmart. The truth is, Walmart’s prices are so low that without spending hours (and it did take me HOURS each weekend) to organize my shopping trip, I’m spending less.
And I also noticed that we were putting on the weight, because the food wasn’t necessarily the healthy choices I might have otherwise made.