I'm a Cheapskate...

No not really, but this post will most likely make me sound like one. I'm not really a cheapskate, but I am a 'stay-at-home-mom' (I'd pay someone to come up with a better title!) who has gone through some *tight* times before and old habits die hard. ;) I'm one of those "save it where I can so I can spend it somewhere else" people. I'm sometimes cheap, but also have my little luxuries ;)

If you're easily bored, its best to walk away now.


So...let's begin!

I signed up for the grocery game back in ...December? The concept being that grocery store sale ads work on a 12 week cycle. Generally speaking, every 12 weeks the sale repeats. The idea behind it being to stock up during the sale, buying it at the cheapest price.

Follow so far?

Ok, so you choose your store 'lists' - I use Hy-Vee and Walgreens. (You do have to pay for the lists, but its something like $2/list every 8 weeks? The amount I save in groceries pays for it.) It will track that store, and each week, has a list of things that are at their lowest sale price, it also keeps track of coupons that have come out and pairs them up with sales that week.

So let's say a certain brand of cereal is on sale 2/$4.00 this week, there's also a "$1.00 off of 2 boxes" coupon. So cereal will cost you $1.50 a box. Uhm...I buy a lot of cereal at one time! :) If you've ever met my husband, you'll know why. ...Boxes of cereal.

Ok...still with me? If so I'm amazed, I'm terrible at explaining things! :)

The idea is you're only buying at the lowest price, and buying enough to last through to the next sale. We're not talking MASSIVE STOCKPILING. (uhm...well, most people. Some...go the distance) My 'stockpile' fits on one of those 4 shelf plastic shelving units in the basement.

Top shelf - toiletries
Next - Boxed - cereal, granola bars, etc
Next - Canned - peanut butter, jam, soup, etc
Bottom - cleaning supplies

I know its not every one's thing, but it saves us quite a bit in groceries (and I haven't had to make a mad dash to the drug store for toothpaste in a while!) and they let you do a 4 week trial for $1. It does take a bit of time and energy. I buy 2 Chicago tribune's each week for the coupons (bigger papers have better coupons) so it does take some time to cut them out, organize them, print my lists, and go to (sometimes) 3 different stores. But I'd guess that I spend 3-5 hours a week including shopping. (most are less, some are more if I have to break up my shopping) I probably only spend an extra 1-2 hours a week doing coupons and then putting my lists together. Some weeks I don't even do it though because we don't NEED anything aside from perishables.

Oh, and CVS can be done through grocery game. I just never signed up for it, and just recently found the hotcouponworld website. The concept is similar, you go through the sale ad each week, pull any matching coupons, etc. The difference being, CVS does Extra Care Bucks, which basically act as a "save x amount of dollars on your next purchase" coupon. Which add up.

I'll leave it at that, because I see eyes glazing over, and I saw a few of you sneak out the back there while I was rambling. =)

How fitting that as I'm sitting here, I hear nothing but the sound of crickets chirping outside my window....hmmm...

I promise my next post will be more interesting. =)