Frugal Challenge of the week, A Price Book

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You need to know your prices in order to be able to save money.

Several years ago I made a list of everything that I buy and I also added things to that list that I like to have in my deep pantry such as 25 pd bags of sugar and 20 pd bags of rice. Everything that I buy from food to paper products pet food even seasonal things such as school supplies. I use this to see how good a sale is or if I find a clearance sale I will know if it is really a good markdown.

You need to do this so that you can reference prices when something comes on sale and when you are planning your menu and shopping list to help you stay within your budget.

We have three stores here a Wal-Mart, Safeway and City Market ( Kroger). I don’t shop at Safeway I feel that their prices are too high and when they do have a sale they have limits on them so it isn’t worth my time to go there. I shop at Wal-Mart and City Market.

 

I used Wal-mart as my base prices since I only have two stores that I shop. I can use the Wal-mart price to compare if it is cheaper there or at City Market. If you shop a few different stores you may want to do the two cheapest stores prices this way you have a general idea of what the lowest prices in your area are.

 

So what you need to do is get a notebook ( I just used a spiral notebook) write everything down that you buy and use.

Take your notebook with your list in it and go through the store and write down the prices for everything on your list (and yes people may look at you funny but oh well).
This will take a little time to do so you will want to have a few extra hours also if you know the layout of your store you use to try to make your list using that layout if you can do this it will help make it a little faster. Also be sure and leave room to add so if you see something that you forgot to put on your list you can add it and the price.

 

Another option would be to take your notebook to the store and just go aisle by aisle and write down everything you see that you use and write the price down with it.

 

Now that you have this it will help when putting a menu and shopping list together so you can stay within your budget.

One Reply to “Frugal Challenge of the week, A Price Book”

  1. NRP

    Good idea, but I would suggest going one step further, I keep an inventory on the PC for pricing I paid and amounts I want to maintain. Take Sugar, if I’m wanting to maintain 100 pounds for example, I can set a low limit, it will flag me when I hit that limit, AND I carry this Inventory with me to the store watching for BIG sales.