Last week I wrote about creating a price book in my Combating the High Price of Food Series. Having recently discovered how easy it is to create screen shots, I decided to share with you what mine looks like.
As you can see, my price book is computerized. The photo to the left gives a good representation of how mine is set up. (You can click on the photo to see it in greater detail.) Here are the specifics:
I have columns for the following:
- Category: I’ve found that the following categories of items work pretty well for me.
- Baking
- Beef
- Beverage
- Bread
- Canned
- Cereal
- Chicken
- Condiments
- Dairy
- Deli
- Dry
- Frozen
- Miscellaneous
- Pets
- Pork
- Produce
- Snacks
- Turkey
- Beauty
- Cleaning
- Health
- Household
- Laundry
- Paper & Plastic
- Item
- Best Sale Price: Here I note the best price I have found, the date I found it, and the store. This column is so helpful to me because it lets me determine if a sale is a good one or if I can beat the price at, for instance, a warehouse club.
- Stores: These are the prices at the various stores where I shop. I try to always list the price per quantity or ounce or pound, so that I can compare easily.
- Notes: Here I can note anything that might be helpful. Usually it’s a size, a brand name or a notation that it’s a generic.
As I mentioned in my earlier blog posts on price books, there are probably as many styles of price books as there are people who use them. This is just what works for me. If you’ve got a system that works well for you, I’d love to hear about it.
Related Posts:
Combating the High Price of Food Step Four: The Price Book
The Price Book: Part 1
The Price Book: Part 2
If you you liked this article, subscribe to my feed or sign up for email updates.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to The Family CEO for free with either an email or RSS subscription.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This actually seems like a great idea. I don’t have to grocery shop since I went back to living at home(im in college). My parents always talk about what they think the best prices are but always forget. Maybe I will suggest this to them. They love stocking up on deals.
David, Having your parents buy the groceries is the best money saving tip of all!
This is a terrific idea! It does look a little time consuming (much like my excell worksheet to track my coupons). How often do you update prices? I assume weekly because of sales. Have you found that the price of some items remains static?
I started *really* couponing this last January and it sure takes up a lot of time. I estimate I spend around 5-6 hours a week on planning, comparing, updating my binder, and (most time consuming of all) working on my coupon excel data sheet.
Hi, Mandy. It doesn’t take as much time as it looks like it would. Plus, I’m a nerd so I enjoy it.
At this point I don’t even update it weekly. Just when I get a really good sale on something. I do consult it fairly regularly, though, to make sure something that seems like a good price really is.
I would estimate I spend 1-2 hours/week right now clipping coupons and making shopping lists. I don’t track every coupon like you do thought.
Thanks for your comment! It’s always good to hear about what works for a fellow couponer!
{ 3 trackbacks }