Something that I have slacked off on for the past several months and need to get back to doing is building my “home store” resources at “sale prices” and not “when I need it prices.” If you understood what you just read, you can quit reading now. If you did not, read on as I will try to explain.
Several years ago I found myself upset by something as simple as going to the grocery store. With a tight budget and a growing grocery bill, I was having a hard time coming to grips with the problem. I was literally leaving the store in tears. I was doing all the right things. I was shopping at the cheaper grocery stores, shopped the sales ads, making menus, and using coupons. I went to discount stores for certain items. I shopped in bulk for items. I was doing all the things I knew to do to save money.
I had a detailed list to go with my menu and I would go to the store and I would still leave in tears because once again I would leave over budget and I might not have gotten everything on the list. I knew something had to change but I did not know what.
So I went searching the internet for various money saving things. How can I cut things out? What could I do to save money? I wasn’t looking for a miracle. I was simply looking to shave my grocery bill back down to fit back within our budget again. I didn’t need a miracle, just a little help to offset the increasing grocery prices.
I found it.
I should preface this by saying that I am a die hard skeptic. If it is too good too be true, it most likely is and so you’ve got to convince me. So I stewed on my findings for a couple of weeks. After talking to a couple of friends, I was convinced I really didn’t have to be worried I just needed to try it. It was going to work. Still I was skeptical. I just needed to try it. The words kept ringing in my mind. The website that I was looking at with this amazing system has a $1 trial that would last for 4 weeks. I just needed to try it. I put in my PayPal information and I started with just one item the first week. I did 1 item the second week. I did not even give my trial the real honest effort I should have. I did, however, see that in that half attempt with just 1 item each week, I could save huge on certain items and stock up and then I could afford other items. The brain was working.
The real test was when I did my first full grocery trip. I had been running consistently $80 over budget by this point. I was going to give this system a test. It took me three hours to go through the list and pull the coupons and get organized. This is not typical for me today, but when you are starting you can expect to spend a lot of time until you find your “routine.” The results spoke for themselves. My car was FULL. I brought in bag after bag after bag after bag and placed them on the table. My husband’s look was priceless. You know, the “you just blew two weeks of grocery budget in one trip” look. The truth was, I had not!
I was less than 50% of my budget!!! It was working! I did not put me under budget that week, I was still $40 over that week. I reduced my overage $40 that week. It took me two weeks and I was back under budget. It took me six weeks to stock my empty deep freeze with meat. Six weeks. I did it without ever shelling out more than my weekly grocery budget. No trips to Sam’s. The best part was within 12 weeks I was consistently falling $40 under budget from time to time.
So today I would like to share a valuable link to all of you that could use the help. It helped me. I am still using the system today. I can tell when I do not use it as earnestly as I used to. This past year is an example of this. I can tell you that it was a saving grace when I had my sister and her three children living with us.
http://www.thegrocerygame.com/blog/?p=1663958811 Introduction
http://www.thegrocerygame.com/blog/?p=1663958813 Day 1
http://www.thegrocerygame.com/blog/?p=1663958821 Day 2
They are sharing some tips and how-to ways to save over the next month. I am not saying that anyone needs to rush out and sign up. I know plenty who have signed up and have dropped for their own reasons. I know plenty who still use it today. I just want to share what worked for me.
You WILL have to change your way of thinking when you go to the grocery store to make the system work. If you can’t, then the tips will still work for you. Your savings will not be as large.
Let me clarify that this is NOT EXTREME COUPONING and it should not be considered that. You can do extreme couponing with this system, but it is not encouraged. Grocery Gamers are encouraged to share and share a like. I have walked past more deals in the past year because I simply did not feel like going to the store. I did not have to go to the store for those items, by the way. Of course now that I’ve used that thinking I am down to “need to go get items” state and I really need to go to get items and it is causing a frustrated state of mind. This is totally fixable with the system, it just takes work.
If you are interested in signing up, just let them know I referred you.
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