Saving Money on Groceries

You may remember that I’m test driving what I think may be the most promising grocery money saving web site: The Grocery Game. The month trial for $1 did not motivate me to take any action and I decided that subscribing for two months for $10 was worth a shot.

I’ll start out by saying there are some people who are alright with some change and people who are very much less so. I am fine with adjusting my shopping, my boyfriend is not.

We normally shop at Hannaford because my boyfriend prefers it and it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other. Of course, the Grocery Game goes with high-low grocery stores (which is I’m guessing a grocery store with normally higher prices which has great sales) meaning the GG goes with the local Shaws store.

My boyfriend sulks everytime we go into the store. I remind him that I’m trying to save us money. I have also turned it into an experiment for both his interest and my benefit. Here’s what we’re doing.

1) We only buy things in Shaws that are on Terry’s List. We don’t buy anything else there. We buy all other groceries at our usual store.
2) We track our grocery spending (and savings) over a month or two… then we decide if it’s worth it.

First GG savings this month: $15
This month’s grocery bill: $394
This month’s dining out: $90
Total food spending: $484

Last month’s grocery bill: $510
Last month’s dining out bill:$64
Total food spending: $574

Previous month’s groceries: $373
Previous month’s dining out bill: $138
Total food spending: $511

So whether it is directly the GG membership or not, I’m saving money on food in my life. Of course if I eat out less, my grocery bill will go up, which is why I’m looking at total food spending. But it’s also easy to see that I can cut back on food even more.

There are still a few more weeks on The Grocery Game until I come out with my findings (and perhaps a graph!) But just so you know, so far, so good.

Photo: That’s right, I make sushi (and in general a lovely meal most every night). Sean in turn buys me flowers on occasion.