Bargain Shopper's Dream

Anyone who knows me well knows I am a true bargain shopper. Clearance rack? Bee line. End of season sale? Outta my way. Double coupons? Cha-ching! Imagine my delight when I heard of a website called The Grocery Game, which promised to save me tons-o-cash with each shopping trip. And, bonus!, you got to try it for the first month for a buck.

Here's the premise...you clip your coupons from the Sunday paper, sort, file in whatever sort of organizer works for you. Enter your zipcode and it brings up the main local grocery stores & pharmacies in your area (ie, CVS, Kroger, Walgreens, Food Lion). Each week, these stores put out sale circulars on a designated day. The GG site has a HUGE database of info on when certain items go on sale, and whether it's at its rockbottom price. (You see, stores do things in cycles that are very predictable...news to me.) The GG site also keeps track of what coupons come out over the weeks, and it matches rock-bottom sale prices with recently released coupons....and what results?! A heck of a deal!

The whole idea is to buy things you would normally use while on mega-sale, and then stockpile for future use. This way, when you run out of an item, you "go shopping" in your pantry, instead of having to run out and buy it at full price. Makes total sense to me (I'm still trying to explain to Keith why we now have 5 tubes of toothpaste in the closet). The best I've done so far is saving 71% off my total purchase at CVS. Yep! Got $62 worth of stuff for $18...plus earned $6 to spend on my next shopping trip. Seriously people...if you haven't signed up for the CVS Rewards card, you are missing out!

I highly recommend checking out The Grocery Game website to learn more about what's involved (and if you decide to sign up, make sure you let them know I sent ya!). I thought I was a pretty savvy shopper before, but it's totally changed the way I think about my purchases, and what I'm willing to pay for stuff. I'll never pay full price for toothpaste again!