Wednesday, January 19, 2011

How I save hundreds of dollars every month and get stuff for free , TRUE story!

This isn't some scam of any sort, but my true example of how I manage to save literally hundreds of dollars each month and get stuff for free! I wish I would've been taught this while I was growing up, that way it could've saved me (us) a lot of headache and a ton of money! But it's hard to teach youngsters and I probably wouldn't have listened and applied it anyways :) So if you're wondering how this can be done, then read on...

It all started 2 years ago this month. I was pregnant with baby #4 and my dh (stands for dear husband) signed us up for a trial membership to http://www.thegrocerygame.com at that time it was $1 for 4 weeks, now it is completely free for the trial month. I can't tell you how many times I heard about this, shoot I even had it written down in my organizer as a website to look at! Talk about procrastination! Anyway, he read about it from some money site, not sure if it was from Dave Ramsey, or another site he likes, but either way, he talked to me about it and signed us up.

I have to admit I was very leary at first, I mean how could I possibly save more by buying all name brands even with a coupon and going to Kroger of all places! I was super loyal to Wal-mart and thought they had the cheapest prices in town, I was sorely mistaken!

I'll tell you up front, YES you do have to use the dreaded "c" word, Coupons. Not sure why there's such a bad rap for coupons. Sure it does take some extra time to clip them, but look what you're saving, much needed money!

Basically the grocery game is a website that gives you a "list" based on what stores you choose in your area. They do all the hard work for you, they take the weekly sales ad and match it up with the coupons and rate it, color wise, Green items are totally FREE, Blue items are the rock bottom price and that means stock up on it, Black means things are on sale, buy if you need it. A ton of things are listed that do not require a coupon, but it means that the computer has notified her that the item is the lowest of the year, sales usually happen on a cycle, take notice.

You may think, why bother clipping coupons, or coupons are too much work for me, or I can get generic brand items cheaper. Well let me tell you, I was a big skeptic before, but now I'm a true believer and a couponer at heart!! I can get name brand things on sale with a coupon a lot cheaper than regular store brand stuff! I'm a name brand kind of gal, had too many experiences with crappy off brands, so I prefer to stick with what I know and love :-)

Now we get 5 newspapers at a time, our Sunday paper that has the coupon inserts in them. They're $.75 each, plus the low cost of the grocery game service, so we have to take that amount into consideration when determining if we're still saving and we are saving, hundreds of dollars a month! Remember, we are a family of 6 and so we usually need more coupons of each item.

I'll never forget when we first signed up, dragging all 3 kids with me to price check the list at Wal-mart, I wasn't just gonna take their word on it! Not to mention that I was almost 8 months pregnant at the time! No, I had to make sure I was getting the best price before I bought anything. Now I rarely shop at Wal-mart for anything! Kroger doubles coupons up to a dollar in my area and they have great sales!!

2 years later and we're still using the grocery game and still loving it! We have down graded our lists to only 2 now, a grocery store (Kroger's) and Wal-greens. I'm still shocked and pleasantly surprised at some of the deals we get. I can't remember the last time I had to actually pay for toothpaste and shampoo!

If you're wondering if I work for them, well, no I don't. LOL! I'm just a huge fan of the program and reap the rewards in my wallet! The only thing I do ask is, if you decide to sign up , then use our address (shadl3y@gmail.com) so we can get "credit referral" for it, if you sign up so many people you can get a month free. NO this isn't a requirement, but it would be cool to get something else for free :-)

So now you know my secret, not a secret since I proudly tell everyone about it! In the grocery store the clerks are always amazed about how much I save and almost all of them are nice about the coupons and they're always smiling when I leave b/c of the huge dollar amount that my coupons takes my total down too! For the people behind me, I simply smile and say, I have 4 kids and using coupons helps me stay home with them, to which they usually smile and say I wish I could save that much money too. So now you can save that much money too :-)

If this post helps out just one person, then it was totally worth my time to write it. I honestly never knew how to really shop before. Now I have a freezer full and a pantry full of good stuff. For the record, I do NOT buy things that I normally would never buy, sure I buy stuff that I would like to try, stuff that I could never afford before. Almost every new product on the market comes out with a coupon to try it. Never before have we eaten so good and healthy for that matter. I don't buy my kids a bunch of junk either just because I can get it really cheap (b/c you certainly can!)

Try it out, it's free, the only thing you'll be out is your time clipping the coupons. I just store them in a folder with the date on them and clip them as needed, so really not a big hassle at all.

Vicky

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