Shopping for groceries is one of life’s necessary evils, I suppose.  Unless you are one of those highly resourceful earth friendly, green-thumbed persons that I so admire, you probably do not grow your own vegetables, milk your own cow (or goat), mill your own flour, or gather your own fresh eggs.  Nope, if you’re like me you have to make a run or two or three every week to the local Wally World and buy up another batch of groceries.  Your family probably has the audacity to consume what you’ve bought on the last trip.  No matter how certain you are that you put something in the pantry, when that dreaded question (”What’s for dinner?”) demands an answer, you’ll be lucky if you can find anything to cook.  Oh and did I mention the disappearing bank account?  Look at that checkbook – how could I have swiped my card that many times at the big W and not have anything to cook?!?!

My current occupation (according to those little boxes I check whenever I do a survery) is “Full-time homemaker”.   I recently decided that I should, I could, I would do my job better.  Grocery shopping falls under my list of duties but to me it was a time-consuming, money-draining, borrrring task.   Fill the cart, pay without thinking, unload the bags, repeat often.    I was recently reminded of a time when I had an extremely tight budget (of course, the small amount of income I had at that time would have made me a wealthy person in most parts of the world, but that is another story for another time).  Each week I would plan my meals around whatever items were on sale at the local grocery store.  And each week, there was enough to last until next week’s shopping trip.  Hmmm.  When did I stop doing this?  WHY did I stop doing this? 

And so I set out to find a new/old way to shop.  During my research, I’ve read LOTS of information and gotten some great ideas for saving money.   Two of the most helpful experts in the area of grocery shopping have been Ellie Kay and Mary Hunt.  It was through Mary Hunt’s site that I learned about something called “The Grocery Game”.  Game?  Aren’t games supposed to be fun?  Guess what – shopping has truly became an enjoyable experience.  This game requires some patience and takes a little time to master (I’m very much still in the learning stages) but the results are amazing.  To try and put it in a nutshell – this is “stockpile” shopping vs. “needs” shopping.  Still confused?  Don’t worry it starts to make sense after a while.  Basically the method involves (1) using coupons to purchase sale items (2) purchasing as many as you can afford when they are on sale so that you begin to create a stockpile (3) maintaining your stockpile so that eventually – within a couple of months – you shop only for the items you absolutely need.    The Grocery Game makes this easier by creating lists based on what items are on sale, letting you know when they hit the rock bottom price so you can buy at that time.   

Now I must admit that the idea of creating a stockpile of groceries/shampoo/toilet paper sounded a little repulsive to me.  I envisioned either a greedy little hermit or a doomsday alarmist preparing for “the big one”.   But here’s how it really works – let’s say that canned veggies are on sale this week and you have several coupons (you’ll get details on how to obtain coupons on the GG website).  You buy as many canned goods as possible at this sale price.  Right now there are enough cans of green beans and corn on my shelf to last several months.  If I’d only bought a can or two at that time, then when I needed them next week I would have paid full price.  Instead, I have a ton of them, all bought very inexpensively.  Still having nervous visions of greed dancing in your head?  Here’s the best part – when I stock up for my own family, I am saving enough to help stock our local food pantry.  When I buy those cans of supersale beans, I can fill up a bag for someone else’s family, too. 

I won’t lie and say this doesn’t take some work – clipping coupons, etc. – but if you can set aside a couple of hours a week to do this you will be amazed at how much you can save AND how much you can afford to give away!  There is a small fee for using the Grocery Game service (fee is based on how many stores’ “lists” you want to receive).   I incorporate the fee into my food shopping budget and find it more than pays for itself.  You can check out the site and get much more lucid answers than mine my visiting www.thegrocerygame.com.  There’s even a 4 week trial that only costs $1.00 – try it and see what you think.

Insert shameless plug here:  If you decide to join The Grocery Game, I would be extremely grateful if you used me as your referral – allisonadavidson@yahoo.com.

Now….why all this fuss over grocery shopping anyway?!?!  Well, as I said at the beginning of this post, I’ve always considered it one of life’s necessary evils.  Shame on me!  How fortunate I am to live in a place where I can walk into a clean, safe market and fill up a cart with food.  How blessed I am to be able to afford to do so.  How foolish I’ve been to have wasted so much.  How thankful I am for the chance to start over, to spend wisely and to share cheerfully.

Oh, and just a little p.s.  Since starting this new way of shopping, I haven’t set foot in a Wal-Mart.  This is just my preference and not necessarily any sort of statement I’m trying to make.  But for me, it’s sort of a personal triumph.  Since Wally’s doesn’t have sales, I actually find that I save MUCH more by shopping sales combined with coupons.  The joke around my house is, “Hello, my name is Allison.  It’s been [54] days since my last Wal-Mart trip.”  It’s good to be free.