I’ve worked on my Price Book over the past week entering my grocery data into the Open Office spreadsheet. It’s a respectable amount of data and over time should help me better identify where I need to make changes if any are needed, as I’m sure they will be. As I continue to make purchases or a price changes, the data will continue to grow. I want to be able to see some historical data so some items may be listed twice but with different values. I may also have an item listed twice due to a price difference for two stores. I have one store that doubles one like coupon per transaction in my area up to $1.00, and while I think that many of the items are overpriced at this grocery store, a doubled coupon will sometimes beat the price of another store.
I have a few items listed that don’t include pricing information yet. For these entries I either can’t locate a receipt for the item or haven’t purchased it in quite some time and can’t remember the pricing information. I still want to include it in the price book because it is something that I will purchase in the future. Having the incomplete entries on my price sheet for things that I already buy will allow me to fill in the price while grocery shopping.
The price book comes in handy when an item is available in different sizes. I can quickly compare the unit price instead of relying on the price of the item to determine which is the better price. An example is an entry for shredded cheese purchased at Aldi in a 12 oz. package and Kraft Cheddar Cheese purchased at Buy4Less in an 8 oz. package. The unit price for Kraft Cheddar Cheese is $.19 and the unit price for shredded cheese at Aldi is $.25. While not a huge difference in unit price, it is a difference of $.48 for 8oz. Here’s where the price book helps stretch my budget. At the $.19 unit price I would pay $5.92 for four 8oz packages of cheese, but at the $.25 unit price I would pay $8.00 for that same amount of cheese. The $.19 unit price clearly wins out, but not breaking it down by unit price would make it difficult to determine the savings.
My price sheet is now in the front of my coupon binder, and over time I think it will allow me to reduce my grocery budget, or at least identify items that don’t vary in price. Instead of putting it into a plastic sleeve I’ve left it accessible so that I can write any notes that I need to. Check here for more on What is a Price Book.
Tags: Grocery Shopping, Price Book
[...] to decide which item will be the best purchase. Keeping a price book as mentioned here and here will help keep the prices straight on what is the better deal, as well as carrying a calculator [...]