Laura Rowley Money & Happiness

Grocery shopping is like playing the slots in Vegas.

Last week I won, saving $25 by planning ahead and using coupons. Other weeks, the house wins -- I forget my list, miss the store circular, find out my coupons have expired -- and the register drawer devours my cash with a malevolent snap. Gotcha!

Saving Takes Time

Herb Sorensen, head of the Oregon-based consulting firm Sorensen Associates, has spent four decades tracking the grocery business. He says that there are two approaches to pricing: Everyday low prices à la Wal-Mart, and high-low prices featuring capricious weekly specials.

"High-low is a hellish way to run a store -- it's very inefficient," Sorensen says. "But a consumer who wants to invest the time and effort can make out like a bandit by buying on the low side."

The trick is to be a sophisticate -- catch the product at its cheapest price, buy it with a coupon, and stock up. Problem is, few people have the time to track when toilet paper hits bottom (no pun intended) or spend hours snipping coupons. The solution: Two fast-growing websites that do some of the legwork for you, and another that offers low prices and free shipping.

Playing the Grocery Game

I asked Californian Teri Gault, founder of The Grocery Game, if you can feed a family of four on $100 a week. "Absolutely," she replies, "when you know how to play the game."

Her site tracks pricing on 10,000 items in 126 supermarkets and drug chains nationwide. Subscribers pay $10 every eight weeks for a list of local deals and unadvertised specials from one store ($5 for each additional store). The site has 100,000 members.

"Teri's List" matches manufacturer's coupons with weekly specials and unadvertised deals, and is color-coded: green for items that are free when purchased with a coupon; blue for goods that have hit bottom and should be stocked; and black for products that represent a good deal but haven't quite hit bottom.

The Grocery Game provides printable coupons and tells you where to find others in your Sunday newspaper circulars. The key is to save the inserts and label them with the date -- then pull out the ones you need (provided in Teri's List).

A Gamer's Tale

Grocery Game subscriber Wendy Burger, a Maryland freelance writer and mother of three, cut her grocery bill by 40 to 50 percent, and now spends roughly $500 a month. She pays about $98 a year for the weekly list on her grocery store and drug chain, but partly offset the cost by dropping her warehouse club membership.

"When I first started, I spent a lot more time planning because I had to figure out the coupon thing," says Burger, who surfs myClipper.com to get multiple copies of a single coupon. For instance, she paid a 50-cent "handling fee" to buy 30 coupons for $1 off organic milk, saving $30 over the course of three months.

"It's not for everyone," Burger says, adding that it's somewhat counterintuitive to buy cheap, stock up, and plan meals based on what's in the cupboard. "You have to be willing to get the coupons, and be careful to stockpile things you use a lot but that don't go bad," she adds. Burger keeps her stash in a bookcase and a separate freezer. (See my blog for a dietician's advice on products that freeze best.)

The Mother of All Coupon Clippers

Stephanie Nelson, an Atlanta mother of two, started The Coupon Mom seven years ago to teach people how to get cheap grocery items to donate to charity. The site has grown threefold since last December, and now has 450,000 members.

Nelson's goal is to show families how to create well-balanced meals for $100 or less a week with an hour of planning -- something she does successfully for her spouse and two teenage sons. The Coupon Mom tracks the top 41 supermarkets as well as drug and discount stores.

Like the Grocery Game, the Coupon Mom offers a database that matches store deals to relevant coupons, but doesn't pinpoint when an item has hit its lowest price. "If it's buy-one-get-one-free, or over 50 percent off and you use a coupon, that's a good deal," Nelson says. "If you go for rock-bottom, you may end up with a cart full of air freshener, frozen waffles, and cat food. I don't think that's practical."

Plan Ahead

Nelson recently went head-to-head with a television reporter, shopping in the same store with the same list. At checkout, the reporter spent $232.60 for a week's worth of meals for a family of four. Nelson's bill was $73.35.

Planning ahead and being brand-flexible saves the most money, Nelson insists. "The average shopper is doing what the reporter did -- 'here's the brand I always get -- it's only 50 cents more.' But if you're the average family buying a hundred items a week, that adds up quickly," she notes. Excluding coupons and the use of a store loyalty card, Nelson's bill was still about $100 less than the reporter's.

When you seize the deal, buy the smaller package rather than the jumbo size, advises Gary Foreman, founder of The Dollar Stretcher website. "Retailers have trained consumers to buy big, but people are starting to find that the larger package is more expensive per unit," he says. And with a coupon, the smaller size offers better savings per unit ($1 off a four-pack of yogurt saves 25 cents per container, versus 8 to 9 cents each for the 12-pack).

Nelson's site is solely funded by advertising, which means the registration path can be a bit annoying, but she insists it's necessary to keep the service free and growing (and, to be fair, The Grocery Game has plenty of banner ads). "We found 48 percent of users are donating food to charity because of the program when they hadn't in the past," Nelson says. "That's really exciting." The Coupon Mom provides a free e-book explaining the system -- see my blog for a quick how-to.

Virtual Food Shopping

If you frequent warehouse stores, check out Amazon.com's grocery service, which ships 22,000 nonperishable items in bulk -- free, if your bill surpasses $25. A recent promotion featured $20 off a purchase of $49 in products from a combination of Keebler, Kellogg's, Carr's, and other brands. A subscriber program -- in which you choose items you regularly buy and how often you want them delivered -- provides additional savings.

"The grocery service went into beta about a year ago, and they haven't heavily promoted it," says Alicia Rockmore, a former packaged goods brand manager and founder of Buttoned Up, an organizational products firm. "They run great deals. If you're an Amazon prime member, you get free shipping and it ships two-day. You can also shop by sale pages -- items that are 90 percent off, 80 percent off, et cetera."

Once you've exploited online resources, don't overlook other ways to save -- targeting stores that double coupons or using your tax rebate to get an additional 10 percent off grocery purchases, for instance.

Burger says using an online grocery list has turned her into a shopping diva. "I'll find deodorant for 25 cents, but I want it for free, and I know if I wait I can get it," she says. "I'm still stunned at how much stuff you don't have to buy. I love it."