GALLIPOLIS, Ohio (WSAZ) -- Imagine saving hundreds of dollars on your weekly grocery bill.

It is not a fantasy. For families in our region who've mastered "The Grocery Game", it's reality.

Kim Thomas, who's from near Gallipolis, saved about $10,000 in one year on her grocery bill.

Thomas has a husband and five children, and often a house full of her children's friends -- who come hungry!

Despite that, Kim says "I spend on average, $50 a week."

That money is mainly spent maintaining the enormous stockpile of food she has in her basement.

Following the advice of a website called "The Grocery Game", Kim's basement literally looks like a grocery store- with shelf after shelf of cereal, other dry goods, canned foods, and even make-up, soap, shampoo, and cleaning supplies. She has two deep freezers that are filled with ice cream, meat, frozen vegetables, frozen breakfast foods -- she even freezes butter and cheese. She says it all freezes well, although she says the biscuits don't rise as much and the cheese is a little more crumbly.

"Everything is a name brand. No generics," Thomas said. "This is cheaper than the generics."

The Grocery Game sends its subscribers a weekly list of items that are at their lowest possible price. It advises you to stock up on those items to last for 12 weeks - when the same items will go on sale again and you can stock back up.

Kim admits at first it was overwhelming. The Grocery Game instructs you to clip and save hundreds of coupons. Once she got her system down, Kim says she spends about 45 minutes a week cutting coupons and another 15 minutes organizing her grocery list and getting the needed coupons for the week. That's the extra time it takes her in addition to the actual shopping.

She says the extra money goes for vacations and other luxuries they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.

The Grocery Game is not free. A trial membership costs a dollar for four weeks. After that, it gets more expensive. The list for one store costs $10 for eight weeks, and any additional store lists you want cost $5 each. Kim subscribes to two store lists, so she pays $15 every eight weeks.

Kim says The Grocery Game advises it should take about 16 weeks to get your stockpile amassed, but with her large family, it took her about a year.