Price book. Ack.

[cristina47454]

So I started my price book....we regularly get flyers from three local grocery stores. It has been very eyeopening, but what a PIA! It's taken me forever to input items. Do I need to do this every week???

My main frustration is the flyers that say "Buy one get one!" but don't tell you a unit price. Grrrr. Or that paper goods are by the sf in some flyers and by the sheet in others. Makes it impossible to do an apple to apple comparison! Do I need to physically go to the store too? I know this is worth it, but it feels like a p/t job!

[Fuamami]

Originally Posted by cristina47454

So I started my price book....we regularly get flyers from three local grocery stores. It has been very eyeopening, but what a PIA! It's taken me forever to input items. Do I need to do this every week???

My main frustration is the flyers that say "Buy one get one!" but don't tell you a unit price. Grrrr. Or that paper goods are by the sf in some flyers and by the sheet in others. Makes it impossible to do an apple to apple comparison! Do I need to physically go to the store too? I know this is worth it, but it feels like a p/t job!

I don't know, do you think it's worth it? I have tried to do this kind of comparison shopping before, and it has driven me crazy. I do work part time, so I can kind of calculate what my time is worth, and if I'm going to save 7 cents on 3 cans of something by going to three different stores, then there's no way I'm going to. But maybe you could get an idea of what store is the cheapest overall, and just trust that shopping there will balance out?

IDK, I'm not an expert in saving money on groceries, and I've never been able to make coupons work, mostly because in spite of what people on coupon sites always say, they really are not for the things I need or use. So maybe you'll get some better advice from someone else.

[Satori]

I don't bother with a price book, waste of time imo. I realized that once I started paying attention to prices I just remembered whats a good price and what isn't.

[AngelBee]

:

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by Satori

I don't bother with a price book, waste of time imo. I realized that once I started paying attention to prices I just remembered whats a good price and what isn't.

I could never remember :

I would only price out regularly used products and staples.

[Leta]

I use Shopping List by Home Plan Software. It's a free download. I like it because it takes a lot of the work out of making a grocery list and you can program it as you have the time- I started out just putting in prices from our grocery receipts.

So this isn't a true blue pricebook- also a grocery list/inventory. The other thing I like about it is that if I see we're low on sugar, I just get on the computer and click, "Sugar, 10#". It makes it very easy to keep a running grocery list, and saves me tons of time.

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by Satori

I don't bother with a price book, waste of time imo. I realized that once I started paying attention to prices I just remembered whats a good price and what isn't.

:

I started making a price book, but I found that just keeping receipts and looking them over is sufficient for me to remember what a good price is versus what isn't.

Sometimes I compare what's advertised in the flyers with what I have on the receipts I've saved, and this helps me to see when prices are low enough to make the trip to a store where I don't normally shop.

[retro.mama]

Like others have posted, I keep a running price book in my head. Prices around here have been going up so fast that I'd never be able to keep up an accurate book. I used to be able to get pasta for 2/$1, but now the "good" price is $1 an box. I'd be waiting forever for the pasta to go on sale for the good price.

[CarrieMF]

Originally Posted by Satori

I don't bother with a price book, waste of time imo. I realized that once I started paying attention to prices I just remembered whats a good price and what isn't.

Same here. I have a pretty good idea what the price of something is & what stores it's at. I just store the info in my head.

[kay4]

Originally Posted by Satori

I don't bother with a price book, waste of time imo. I realized that once I started paying attention to prices I just remembered whats a good price and what isn't.

ditto this. We eat pretty much the same rotation of foods anyway so it's just in my head what stuff costs. When I get the sales flyers I can usually tell if its a good deal or not compared to another store

[texmati]

I can't do it in my head anymore! I'm planning on just using the recipets -- not looking at different flyers. that way I'm only keeping a track of the stuff we buy all the time.

[Paxjourney]

The only thing I track are items that I buy on a weekly or multiple weekly basis. My youngest is lactose intolerant and drinks lactose free milk. I know what the price is from 1 store to the next. I also know that my two local stores had a price increade about 6mo ago and its now an additional 50cents for a half gallon. So if I buy it in town its $4.78 for a HALF GALLON. or if I buy it a wal mart its $3.38 for a half Gallon . Same Brand. We go thru 3 half gallons a week. So $14.34 at major supermarket in town or $10.14 at wal mart. I'm saving $16.80 a month, $201.60 a year.

[bigteamug]

inflation made me give this one up. Only time I price shop is if I'm buying a big bulk quantity, say, 25 lbs of organic rice. Azure Standard was so much cheaper than our local coop last time I ordered, for instance, and I "shopped" online to price check - but otherwise, I just keep a general idea of prices in my head and stock up as I find a great bargain. Too big a pain to price book stuff in the store with DD#2.

[meandk0610]

even if you decide not to do a real book, you should still go to different stores. i recently went to the grocery store 3 miles from us to get veggies for the rabbits. EVERY SINGLE VEGETABLE was at least $.20 higher than the grocery store 6 miles away that i usually go to. so for us buying the quantity veggies that we usually do, it definitely is worth the extra drive. something i would not have known without making the trip to both.

[Carlyn]

I found making up a price book was really helpful when I was first starting out (we had just moved from overseas). I just kept a small notebook with me as I went shopping, and took a bit of extra time a few different trips, writing down the staple things I buy regularly. I did that for the grocery stores that were a reasonable distance from our home.

Once I did that, I knew what/where the best prices were. Then when flyers came I could quickly figure out if the sale was actually a good one. I usually only did a trip to one of the grocery stores per week, so I would choose to go to the one where I could stock up cheapest on the things I was running low on. I am sure that it helped me to keep our grocery spending down.

Now we have moved, and I think I need to do it again. That, and grocery prices have gone up for many items. Once I have a good idea in my head of the best prices, it is much easier to make smart decisions about where to shop. Good luck! It really is a big task!

[griffin2004]

Originally Posted by texmati

I can't do it in my head anymore! I'm planning on just using the recipets -- not looking at different flyers. that way I'm only keeping a track of the stuff we buy all the time.

I can't keep it in my head, either. When I get home from shopping, I sit down with the receipt and enter the info into my $1 discount-bin journal. I don't note everything; just the regular stuff I buy.

It's come in handy for those "is this a good deal?" moments and also at Costco where the deals are not always so much better than a grocery store sale.

[sanguine_speed]

I find a price book useful because I haven't developed the ability over time to remember what a 'good' price is, even for items I buy regularly (I do have a learning disability related to this).
My price book note the prices of staples or items I buy regularly, so that I can know what a good or not good price is.

[mightymoo]

I won't remember a good price just from shopping, but I did find that by keeping the price book a while it helped me learn what a good price was, I didn't necessarily need to enter every price every week once I had a good supply, I just entered what I thought were good sales, so I could keep a running 'best price' going.

[rebeccalynn]

keep it simple! I have kind of lost what the good price is for many things so I am doing a new price book. I remember that I buy certain things from the warehouse vs grocery store b/c it was a better price at the time that I did my last price list, but I never can keep it up. Over the past month, I have only logged the price per unit of the regular stuff that I actually bought at the store. Then as I had time, I checked the price at the other stores. I also can know if the price is good or not.

As far as the bogof, I usually put it on my list as a "look at it item" but then make the decision based on the price. Mine is not an exact science but a mix, it saves us money but I am not putting a ton of time into it either.