How I feed 5 for only $65 a week!
... and that includes diapers, shampoo and soap
Jill Cataldo isn't crying the blues over spiking food prices. She's learned to play the game, the Grocery Game, that is and it's saving her family $40 to $60 a week on groceries.
The Grocery Game, a membership Web site (Thegrocerygame.com), tracks the price of thousands of grocery store items, flags when they are being discounted the most and matches those goods with coupons.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
"I am spending about $65 a week to feed my family of five, but that's not just food," 34-year-old Cataldo said. "I have two children in diapers. That includes diapers as well as other personal care items, shampoo, razors, soap, etc."
Cataldo, the mother of a 12-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 3 and 1, recently bought 58 boxes of cereal and 40 boxes of granola bars for a total of $5.15.
"They are all name-brand General Mills products, no generics," she noted. "None of it expires until May of next year. We're a family of five. We will eat it."
The Huntley resident is part-time Web designer and her husband, Douglas Cataldo, does marketing for the local library. They pay $1.25 a week to use the site and access coupons to use at Jewel and an additional 55 cents a week to get information on sales and coupons at Walgreen, to help them make ends meet, Jill Cataldo said.
She noted most grocery stores work on a 12-week cycle, meaning everything in the store is at its lowest price once every 12 weeks.
"So you buy enough when it's at that lowest point to last your household 12 weeks," she said.
"For frozen foods, cereal anything that doesn't have a very quick expiration date, it works very well."
For items like milk and produce, the deals aren't as plentiful, but they're out there, she added, citing one sale she took advantage of this week.
"I got organic milk, which is usually very expensive, about $4 a half gallon. I got it for 75 cents for a half gallon. That's ridiculously cheap."
The site tells you the sales price of items that day and the percent savings. It color codes items — black means its a good price, so consumers are instructed to buy those items if they need them then. Blue colored items mean the price isn't expected to go lower, so it's time to stockpile.
The site also has links to coupons, which Cataldo uses. She also gets her coupons from newspapers.
"The site tells you what insert coupons were in," she said. "I log on before I'm ready to go, print my list, go clip my coupons and go. It really is very easy."
She noted the site has helped her get many items free.
"Say a box of crackers is on sale for 99 cents," she shared. "If you have a coupon that's $1 off, it's free. Shampoo is buy one get one free constantly, and there's always paper coupons in the newspaper, buy one get one free. When you use a ‘buy one get one free' coupon on something that is buy one get one free, you get two (items) free."
She added, "most of the things I buy I won't buy unless I have a coupon."