Grocery Game

It may sound crazy but the Grocery Game is one of my favorite things in the world to play. I've been using the system for about 10 years, so I'm pretty good at it. I love saving tons of money and coming home with an insane amount of groceries to boot. I'll try to explain it the best I can.

Every week the supermarkets put items on sale in order to try to gain your business. They also have what they call "loss leaders" which are products that they put on sale for rock bottom prices. Their hope is that you get into their door and just spend all of your money there instead of a competitors. The three chains I really look at are King Soopers, Albertsons and Safeway.

Anyways, there are a number of ways to save money on groceries with this game:

1. Sale - Pretty much I only buy items on sale. If it's not on sale this week, chances are it will be next week

2. Coupons - Don't sigh! It's free money people! Why pay more for a product than you have to

3. Price Book - Now this is what people online pay for. This is just a listing of items and their corresponding regular prices at each grocery store.

So here are some tips on how to do this to it's full potential.

- Only buy items on sale. While you may need to purchase the occasional item when it's not on sale, make it few and far between. Now, there are a few things to be watchful for here. Just because an item is on sale and has one of those bright "BUY ME, I'M ON SALE" stickers on it, it doesn't mean it's a bargain. I've been sucked in by that, only to realize that the sale price was only $.05 lower than the regular price. You need to look at the sale price compared to the regular price on items to make sure it's truely a sale item.

- Combine coupons with a sale items. Well this is easy enough. A $3.00 jar of peanut butter, on sale at the store for $2.00, with a $.50 coupon is now $1.50 (half price), or go to where they have double coupons and the peanut butter is now $1.00!.