www.thegrocerygame.com information

As many of you know I am a GroceryGamer (GG'er). Dana (truly one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your life and so very genuine) introduced this to me in May of last year. There is an old saying "Give a man a fish, feed him for the day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life." Well I believe Dana was sent to me so that I could learn to fish. I don't know what I would have done without her!
Back to the GG. I really think this is a super deduper tool especially for those just starting out in this mad mad coupon/savings/what am I going to get for free world we frugals live in. I've talked about it before but I want to once again bring it up. I guess I do that because if you actually utilize the lists (ahem Teresa........., yeah I'm talking about you!) it will help you to understand how easy it is to shop frugally. And if your disorganized HOLY COW is it a great tool!
First, what is the GroceryGame you ask? It is a database of store sales that are updated weekly. They compile lists for places like Krogers, Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid, Meijers (I name these because they are the one's in my region). They have different store lists based on regions so it's not limited to these. CHECK YOUR REGION OUT! These lists will highlight the items that are at their lowest possible price for the last 12 weeks basically. Then they will match them up to the national coupons that are out there.
Membership runs in 8 week cycles. Regular membership is $10 for your first store and $5 for each additional store after that. HOWEVER, your trial membership is $1 for the first 4 weeks and you have access to ALL the lists of stores in your region for those first 4 weeks. Before the trial is up decide if you want to keep only certain stores and delete those you don't. This member ship literally saved me thousands of dollars last year!
They also have a message board system that is great to utilize. You do not have to be a member to access the message board so go on over there and check it out. Be sure to check out the newbie success stories!
You can get free months through referrals so if you go after reading this post please use sarastaggs@rocketmail.com as a referral! I know when I first joined I was very skeptical that you could save this much. Now look at me, I'm sitting here blogging about this at the crack of dawn, I avidly search the frugal blog spots and I carry a 4 inch binder full of coupons! AND best of all the money I have saved!

Being a new year I challenge all of you reading this blog to try out GG! You will thank me later!

Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act

I received an email this morning from CommonSensewithMoney. I hadn't noticed anything about it lately which I am ashamed to admit but ah well. This is going to impact more people than we realize because anything like this has a trickle down effect. You can read (and please do so) more at Baby Cheapskate, The Simple Dollar and Blissfully Domestic. I'm sitting here looking at my daughters hand made solid wood rocking horse realizing it is now a treasure to hold on to. Not that it wasn't in the past but I know the family friend that made this himself will no longer be making these things! I need to read more about this but it's something that has me torn just from what little I have read this morning. Yes I want things tested and my daughters safety is of utmost importance. However I know how Jim makes his things and I know they are safe. Yet you wouldn't because you don't know him. Also the testing process is expensive! Something else to keep in mind is something I heard about early on in 2008. If the report I heard is correct the group that does all this testing is sorely limited to personnel. For some reason I keep thinking that there are only a handful of people available to actually do the testing. Unless something has changed can you imagine how much more backed up and behind testing is going to become???? If you know something more about this please please feel free to contact me with the information. I truly believe knowledge is power so before I can make any decisions about anything I need more information. I think there is a lot more we need to look into!

Kroger gas points

Ok this is something I just noticed in my weekly Kroger ad. It's probably been there before but DOH! We are in the Lex., KY region so perhaps it may only be regional although it is probably national (I say perhaps just in case I'm wrong I want to cover myself). I knew that if you used cloth grocery bags you would get .04 off your purchase per bag but now you can get 5 "gas" points per bag. You will find it at the top of page 3 of the ad. Remember this is in the Lex. KY region :)

The P&G deal is still good as well. I think I saw a date of 1/17/09 on the advertisement in the store. AGAIN I might be wrong! I've only had a 1/2 a pot of coffee so far!