20. June 2008 by Lisa.

I know grocery prices are increasing so quickly that it seems a price book would be outdated in a few short weeks. However, if there has ever been a time to make and keep one, this is it.

If you’re one of those people who can keep the prices in your head, hats off to you. I could never do that. Seemingly everything in my life needs to be written down or it gets forgotten. I’m 44 years old and have never been able to keep prices in my head. I have a handful, but apparently that’s my capacity.

I keep a price book arranged in the same manner as my coupon book. The dividers are the same, and I keep 5 columns across the top of the page which read:

Item Description      Walmart      Target      Kroger      Tom Thumb

Rice Dream milk             2.88                                    3.88            3.96
1 qt.

Kraft mac & cheese         .33                  .44               .50               .52
small box

And the list goes on. I keep plenty of space for each price because I also break it down to PPU (price per unit). More helpful if you have one product in several different sizes. When I first made my price book I spent a day at all of the stores and didn’t do any shopping. I just walked around with my book, writing down the prices of everything we normally purchased.

I made my first price book shortly after we were married. We’ve been married 15 years now. I wish I had my original just to see how prices have changed.

Yes, it’s time consuming like everything else, but it just may be worth keeping to see if sale prices are truly good prices. Some people think that with GroceryGame, one of my favorite things, you really don’t need to keep a price book. However, even I, have found better deals (same item, same week) at another store on more than one occasion. I’ve also found stockpile worthy items that GG never mentioned. No slam on GroceryGame here. I absolutely love it and encourage everyone to play the game. GG does the work for me. However, GG isn’t perfect.

Consider how you would organize your own price book and when you would have time to make your first. Upkeep is much easier once it’s established. I usually update by looking at receipts.

Posted in FRUGALITY, TIPS | 2 Comments »

20. June 2008 by Lisa.

Do you keep a loose change jar? Remember you can always go to a Coinstar machine and trade it in for cash or gift certificates. Most of my area coinstars are located in Kroger stores.

Posted in TIPS | 2 Comments »