Making a price book

[IncaMama]

I'd like to make a price book, but i'd love to hear tips/ideas about it before i jump in and make mistakes. LOL do you all use a regular notebook? do it on your computer? should i just start with receipts? my brain is so unorganized/scattered about this kind of thing that i feel like it will take me so long to get into the groove of it. but i gotta start somewhere!

my local library doesn't seem to have the tightwad gazette available right now, so i gotta wait on that. i'm finding some stuff online, but i'd prefer to ask here. you ladies rock.

[mightymoo]

I do it on the computer, I use Excel. After going shopping, I just sit down and go through the receipt and enter each one. My columns are something like Date, Store, General Category, Specific Category, Specific Item, Brand, Name or Generic, Price, Size, Units, Price Per Unit, Units for PPU. The PPU is the price made into a standard unit, like per pound or per 100 count, or per box. So I can compare similar items that come in different sizes.

So an example:
10/23/2008 / Hannaford / Dairy / Milk / Milk 2% Organic / Hood / Name Brand / $3.40 / 32 / ounces / $6.80 / per gallon

I just make it up as I go - the categories are just so I can group similar items, so once I've done it a few times I sort by General Category, Specific Category then Specific Item - so that way two similar items appear near each other. After a while I settle down to a routine on how to store everything.

I always do it right after the grocery run because I do not have enough info from the receipt itself - for example meat will just ring on the price of the whole thing, it won't have info on per pound, so I have to look at the meat to see - which I can't do if I've used it already. Similarly for other things, I want to put in the size of the container.

I like excel because I can sort and then just look at the section for that category, I don't run out of space and all the math is easily done to compute things like per gallon, per pound, etc.

[Contrariety]

I do mine in a binder with loose leaf paper. Mine is arranged in alphabetical order, and I just add pages in if I start a new category. I sit down with the grocery ads every week and record prices on things we buy regularly. I only write down a price if it's lower than what I already have down. At the same time, I make a grocery list, noting which stores I need to go to in order to stock up. I'm planning to take my binder to my local HFS and price out bulk items this week.

I thought about doing it on the computer, but I like the portability my binder affords.

It's been a pretty big eye opener.

[avendesora]

Originally Posted by Contrariety

I only write down a price if it's lower than what I already have down.

But if prices are always slowly on their way up, then wouldn't you end up with a low price that hasn't been available for a long time? How do you decide to update your 'lowest' price?

Aven

[bigteamug]

I, too was looking at making up a price book, but inflation has been so bad I decided to spend my time shopping around instead. I really only shop at my coop, bulk order thru them, and bulk order thru azure standard, with only very occasional trips to the other stores in town (like the local QFC having
7th gen diapers at 33% off). the price book really wasn't a good payback for me in such a small town. Might be more worthwhile if you have more places to shop.

Whatever you do, make sure it's easy to update.

[SeekingJoy]

Originally Posted by avendesora

But if prices are always slowly on their way up, then wouldn't you end up with a low price that hasn't been available for a long time? How do you decide to update your 'lowest' price?

Aven

This is such a problem for me. I have had to move my "buy" price up on a lot of things. Sometimes it is only temporarily; for example, I bought a few chickens at one price and then a month or so later saw them for $.10 less a lb. Whatever. I just bought more at the new cheaper price. I think of it to some extent as dollar cost averaging. Kinda.

My system is much less complicated. I just have a single page of notebook that I keep at the front of my shopping binder, which organizes my sale fliers, coupons, rainchecks, shopping list, etc. I only list the item (i.e. black beans) and price per oz and store. I also limit my list to the things I most commonly buy or I will soon be running out of. For me it isn't worth it to pricebook something I only buy once a year (say a less used spice or something).

[mightymoo]

When I make my shopping list, I put prices next to them from the price book in the store, rather than rifling through the price book, I know what price to look for right on my list.

Originally Posted by bigteamug

I, too was looking at making up a price book, but inflation has been so bad I decided to spend my time shopping around instead. I really only shop at my coop, bulk order thru them, and bulk order thru azure standard, with only very occasional trips to the other stores in town (like the local QFC having
7th gen diapers at 33% off). the price book really wasn't a good payback for me in such a small town. Might be more worthwhile if you have more places to shop.

Whatever you do, make sure it's easy to update.

Actually I've found it very useful even if you only shop at one store because they have sales and promotions or just simply price changes and doing a price book at least for a little while helped me know when something was on sale. Often the big displays at the front for produce aren't necessarily a good price. I know when to buy, when to stock up and when to skip it now. Grapes are a great example - I used to just buy them, kids like grapes, put one in the cart. After doing the price book I realized one week grapes are $3.50/lb and another week they are $1.50/lb. Now that I know that, I only buy when the grapes are at a reasonable price. Despite the huge price fluctuation - the grapes are not necessarily listed as on sale or anything.

[bigteamug]

i guess part of what affects this is shopping style. for fruit and veg, i generally keep a rough idea of what things run in my head, and tend to shop by whatever is a good value at the coop that week. i usually aim to buy organic fruit that costs $1.50-2.00/lb. and i put how many servings of veg we need on the list, and do the same - buy a good value. produce prices at the coop are based on seasonality, quality, and how fast they need to move it if they bought too much.

sorry to veer off topic, just wanted to give a little background. we feel very squeezed for time this year, and so i often find myself leaning toward the time end of the money vs. time equation, hence no pricebook. but i'd still love to do one sometime.

[oneKnight]

I started a price book, and then forgot about it.
There's only one place to buy the milk, eggs & butter that I buy so I have to pay their price. There's only one brand of gluten free rice pasta so I have to buy that kind no matter the price. I buy meat, spaghetti sauce, produce, and several other items based on quality and what I like, so I pay the price for it.

I could understand if you bought Hamburger Helper, and it was $1.50 one place and on sale for $0.99 another because you get the same item, but I don't buy that kind of stuff.

[JTA Mom]

Originally Posted by oneKnight

I started a price book, and then forgot about it.
There's only one place to buy the milk, eggs & butter that I buy so I have to pay their price. There's only one brand of gluten free rice pasta so I have to buy that kind no matter the price. I buy meat, spaghetti sauce, produce, and several other items based on quality and what I like, so I pay the price for it.

I could understand if you bought Hamburger Helper, and it was $1.50 one place and on sale for $0.99 another because you get the same item, but I don't buy that kind of stuff.

Um, a bit judgemental? I kinda pricebook (in my head, need to keep a log) and I don't eat Hamburger Helper. I have noticed that rice is normally much cheaper at one store than another, for example. And this is brown rice, btw.

But yes, you can pricebook too. There are times when that gluten free pasta goes on sale or is cheaper. That's when you stock up. Same with the spaghetti sauce, rice, etc. You won't save as much as someone who can eat any brand of pasta, but you will still be saving money. For example, turkey here runs at least $2 a lb. A few weeks ago a store was having a turkey sale, 50cents per lb for turkey. They are prolly trying to move through a lot of 'older' turkeys before the Thanksgiving glut arrives and prices are much much higher. So yes, you can still pricebook without eating crap.

Ami

[IncaMama]

yeah, i don't eat hamburger helper but i doubt that that's the only thing that's helped by doing this - like JTA Mom said. we'll be doing gluten-free and casein-free soon, and prefer organic, but there are a few stores around here who sell that stuff. i still think i'll need to get a handle on that stuff. and i honestly don't have a sense in my head of when things are for sale or when there's a great deal.

[oneKnight]

Originally Posted by JTA Mom

Um, a bit judgemental? I kinda pricebook (in my head, need to keep a log) and I don't eat Hamburger Helper. I have noticed that rice is normally much cheaper at one store than another, for example. And this is brown rice, btw.

It was just an example of a recent ad I saw in the paper, please don't feel I was judging anyone.

But yes, you can pricebook too. There are times when that gluten free pasta goes on sale or is cheaper. That's when you stock up. Same with the spaghetti sauce, rice, etc. You won't save as much as someone who can eat any brand of pasta, but you will still be saving money. For example, turkey here runs at least $2 a lb. A few weeks ago a store was having a turkey sale, 50cents per lb for turkey. They are prolly trying to move through a lot of 'older' turkeys before the Thanksgiving glut arrives and prices are much much higher. So yes, you can still pricebook without eating crap.

Ami

I havne't noticed the price of the pasta doing anything but go up, it's not a popular item and I have never seen it on sale. Same with the Spaghetti sauce for example, Ragu goes on sale from time to time, but never the good stuff.
I'm glad it works for you, I'm just sayin it didn't work out for me.