Grocery Game

I forgot to tell readers I decided to sign up for the grocery game. It is a trial enrollment to see if I can save some money for 1 month. It costs $1 for unlimited number of stores in your area. I am using CVS, Walgreens, Stop and Shop, and Shaws.

After the one month trial it's $10 for 8 weeks at 1 store, and $5 for 8 weeks for each additional store. So I would probably do Stop and Shop and Shaws for $15/8 weeks about $2/week or $1/store.

Not bad right? Well it depends on how it works. I signed up last week and honestly haven't really found great deals. CVS and Walgreen I can do myself and prefer CVS because I pay so little Out of Pocket (OOP).

But for the other two grocery stores, I am finding the deals are not as plentiful as I would hope. It's possibly because of the stores involved. Or because I just don't buy the stuff on sale.

So for example a stock-up deal is Jolly-Time Popcorn @ 66 cents! It's 71% off, however, I don't buy popcorn really, we eat it maybe 2-3x/year and I have packets from CVS for free. Or GM Cheerios is $1.27/each for 60% off, but we don't eat cereal for breakfast.

Also most of the deals are between 40-50% off. And that's her suggested stockpile price for me! A 50% savings. Sounds good in theory, but honestly I can do better with Costco for many of these things in bulk. I also do better by not eating it. And I keep a price book for my staples, like chicken, steak, seafood, milk, eggs, bread, so I know a good deal on food I need to cook. I try to not buy fruit rollups, pudding, cake mixes, etc. Those are not bought in our house (it may change after kids ok?) but for now, no way.

So I'll see how the rest of the month plays out, but for now I can't see spending any more than the $1. It could do better for other people but not for me, and not for my area.