For a long time I have been a devotee of the Grocery Game. I have used its principles to amass a pretty impressive stockpile of food, cleaning items, and toiletries. In fact, my stockpile runneth over--I'm literally running out of places to store food. Now, it's time to scale back what I spend each week at the grocery store, and focus on using that stockpile, and only adding to the stockpile when there's a too-good-to-pass-up deal.
And just what is my definition of a deal that is too good to pass up? Meat that is 50% off or more, for one. This week's example: combining a store Super Coupon with a Manufacturer's Coupon to get a 24-oz box of Frosted Mini Wheats for 29 cents. I had two store coupons, and Albertson's will honor competitors' store coupons, so I got my limit (1 box, sadly) at both Alby's and Safeway. Ditto the store coupon for a free 2L bottle of 7-Up products, one at Alby's and one at Safeway. Free is always within my budget.
But, in general, today I did not stock up just for the sake of stocking up, like I normally would do. I stuck to the basics that we needed for the week--copious amounts of milk (for those darn teen/tween boys of ours!), produce, dairy, bread, tomato sauce, etc., and spent about half what I would usually spend each week.
