Teri Gault is the CEO and founder of TheGroceryGame.com and co-author of Shop Smart, Save More. The Grocery Game site is designed to help shoppers save money while shopping at the supermarket by combining advertised and unadvertised sales with coupons from Sunday newspapers. An average family of four saves $512 a month using Teri's system of savings.
Teri's top ten savings tips
- 1. Throw away your shopping list - This may be counter intuitive, but this is why- It's not about making a list of what you've run out of. It's about what you should be investing in, when it's a great deal.
- 2. Get the big picture - let the sales circular be your guide - The biggest pictures on the front page are usually the "must buy" deals, followed by more big pictures throughout. Ask yourself, is this something I will be running out of in the next 12 weeks?
- 3. Buy the limit- Whenever you see a "limit 4' for example, this is a good indicator of the very best deals, which are often called "loss leaders". I know you don't need 4 jars of peanut butter right now. But when it's 99 cents each, you do!
- 4. "Let your fingers do the walking" - Hit the web before you hit the store. Places like www.thegrocerygame.com, you can access sales and UN-advertised sales and where to find coupons to go with them. This saves you time and money!
- 5. Bigger isn't better - Which one do you think is the best deal? (answer: probably the biggest). Used to be that way. But lately, we're seeing more and more that the cost per unit is least on the mid-sized package.
- 6. Learn "Coupon Math" - What I just told you changes dramatically when you use a coupon. $1 off the 12 pack takes off 8 cents per unit. But the $1 off the 4 pack takes off 25 cents per unit. Now with this coupon, the smallest package may be the best value. Bring a calculator to figure the cost per unit.
- 7. Stock up on up to 5 weeks of dairy products - Yogurt and organic milk have up to a 5 week "sell by" date. So when this 4-pack is on sale for $2, it's time to invest in as much as your family eats in up to 5 weeks. Check the sell by date to get the most time. If you use a $1 off coupon on this $2 sale, you can get it for $1. Wow! Keep a permanent market handy to mark the sell by date BIG.
- 8. Find hidden organic coupons - Read the words on coupons, don't just go by the picture. This coupon says "good on any", but it pictures a non-organic product. This manufacturer has organics in their line, so you can use this coupon to save on organics.
- 9. Lose weight on veggies/Fruit -When they're priced by the pound, make sure they are dry. And if not, shake off excess water- water adds weight and increases the price.
- 10. Do not impulse buy! - You go to the register because you're done! Don't rack up a big bill on things you don't need.
Advertised vs. Unadvertised Sales - There are great sales that are unadvertised. The website, www.GroceryGame.com will highlight both advertised and unadvertised sales. Most people do not realize that about 50% of sales at the supermarket are not listed in the circular, so with out the list, you may be missing great sales.
Stockpiling vs. Need Shopping - Buy more than you need of a fairly priced item to save the most. Stockpile those items that are useful to your family, even if you don't yet need them. If you don't have certain items in your stockpile that you must have right away, you may have to purchase them as Need Items, and will have to pay a higher price. Your Need List gets shorter as your stockpile grows.
Questions about the Grocery Game
What is The Grocery Game, and How Does It Work?
The Grocery Game ( www.thegrocerygame.com ) is a website that provides shoppers with a fun way to achieve substantial savings on grocery bills. The site provides Teri's List, based on the shopper's local supermarket, which helps them to reduce shopping time and money by using coupons at precisely the right time for optimum savings.
What Is Teri's List?
Teri's List is a weekly shopping guide at TheGroceryGame.com that contains both advertised and non-advertised sales at the shopper's local supermarkets and drugstores. Teri's List provides shoppers with the best weekly deals and indicates what, where, how, and when to buy which groceries, resulting in maximum savings with little effort on the part of the shopper.
How Does Teri Get The List?
Teri has developed a proprietary system, based on cyclical categorical sales trends, which allows her to calculate when each item will become available at its optimum sale price. By coordinating this system with the use of coupons, Teri compiles a weekly list of which items shoppers should buy to maximize their savings.
How Do I Get Teri's List?
Members simply log onto TheGroceryGame.com once a week to access their current list. (New lists are posted the same day every week; days vary by region.)
How Much Does It Cost?
TheGroceryGame.com offers a four-week trial period for FREE. There is no obligation to continue membership but on the 28th day of the trial, should members choose to continue their membership, they will be charged a fee of $10.00 for eight weeks. Membership is renewed automatically every eight weeks thereafter.
Who Plays The Grocery Game?
Anyone who wants to save time and money can play the Grocery Game. Housewives, working women, men, college students and retired people are all winners, saving money each time they shop using Teri's List.
How Much Can I Save?
By purchasing only select items on the List, shoppers can save over 67% on their grocery bills. By stockpiling different grocery, beauty, and household items, Teri saves over $500 every month!
Where Can I Play The Grocery Game?
Teri selects stores to provide customers with the most substantial savings in their area. Supermarket chains are selected for a variety of factors, including sale prices and double-couponing, if available. Members simply log on to TheGroceryGame.com and enter their ZIP code to find the List-Store(s) in their area.
Does the website provide coupons for its members?
Yes the web site does provide coupons for its members, but the best coupons are found in your local paper. In fact 80% of coupons are found in the Sunday paper. It only takes about 15 minutes to cut the coupons from the paper each week, because you don't have to cut all 150, only 20-30 of the ones you need. No coupon file needed. Since members are reporting an average of $514 a month on grocery savings, which means that the coupon cutting time pays over $400 an hour by using Teri's List.
TERI GAULT
CEO & FOUNDER, THE GROCERY GAME, INC.
Teri Gault is the CEO and founder of TheGroceryGame.com, a website that provides shoppers with a fun and easy way to achieve substantial savings on their grocery and drugstore bills. Members log onto the site to get a weekly shopping list, which helps them to reduce shopping time and money by using coupons at precisely the right time for optimum savings.
A wife and mother of two, Teri began The Grocery Game as a home-based business in February 2000. As an avid saver and coupon-clipper, Teri decided to use her skills to create a list to help identify when to use coupons, based on categorical sales trends, to achieve maximum savings at her local supermarket. Even during her years of economic security, Teri had always looked for the best deals, and when her family needed a financial pick-me-up she realized that she could help others save money, and launched TheGroceryGame.com to offer her fellow Southern Californians the opportunity to benefit from her expertise. The Grocery Game now has members in 50 states, and continuing to expand globally.
In addition to serving as both CEO and key expert for The Grocery Game, Inc, Teri frequently speaks to women's organizations across the country, explaining how The Grocery Game allows her to streamline grocery shopping to save both time and money.
In her free time, Teri enjoys the outdoors. She walks daily with her husband, and loves to go boating with her family. Teri is a sports fan, and also enjoys watching her sons playing baseball, football and basketball. Teri also had a successful singing and acting career. She has appeared on numerous television shows, including "Happy Days" and "Good Morning America," in addition to several network pilots and feature films. She remains an active member of SAG, AFTRA, and NARAS.
Teri currently resides outside Los Angeles with her husband Greg and their two sons.
