While reading Amy Dacyczyn’s The Complete Tightwad Gazette this afternoon, I learned a great new money hack. Dacyczyn (pronounced “decision”) advocates using a grocery price book to save big bucks at the supermarket. A grocery price book is an ongoing list of the items you most commonly purchase and how much you paid for them. This list allows you to detect price cycles, spot bargains, and plan your shopping trips for maximum savings.
Dacyczyn explains:
My price book is a small loose-leaf binder. Each page contains prices for one item, and the pages are in alphabetical order for quick reference. I include my code for the store name, the brand, the size of the item, the price, and the unit price.
I began by writing down prices on sale flyers and from my grocery slips. I made a few trips to compare prices of specific items. It quickly became evident that not every sale was really a sale. But when I did find a good buy, and I could verify it with months of records…what power! I could stock up with confidence.
At first you may think this is too much work and the idea of shopping at so many stores will be inconceivable. It will pay off. A good strategy is to shop at different stores each week of the month so that within a 30-day cycle you can hit them all. We have our shopping system down to once a month with only a few short trips to hit unbeatable sales.
[Keeping a price book] revolutionized our shopping strategy more than anything else we did. For the first time we had a feeling of control over our food budget.
[...]
It might take you a total of five hours to make up a price book for comparison shopping, but after several years of supermarket excursions, you may discover that your hourly “pay” for those five hours was over $1,000.
When Dacyczyn first published this technique nearly twenty years ago, personal computers were not ubiquitous. But in the Internet Age, it seems a little old-fashioned to keep a paper-based price book. As much as I love notebooks, I’d rather keep my data in a spreadsheet where it’s easy to search and sort. I found two Excel-based price books: one at Cheap Cooking and a more elaborate version at An Uncommon Way to Wealth.
If you’d rather start a paper-based price book, OrganizedHome.Com has a free printable price book page. (Though, to be honest, you’re probably better off just using notebook paper!)
For more information on grocery price books check out:
- No Credit Needed: Grocery price book
- The Dollar Stretcher: A grocery pricebook and Price book 101
- Fractured Frugal Friends: The price book
I already know several powerful grocery shopping tricks — shop on a full stomach, always use a list, use coupons, shop alone — but the grocery price book is new to me. It sounds intriguing, but I worry that it would be too much effort. Do you keep a price book? How has it worked for you? Any hints or tips?
[The Complete Tightwad Gazette: The price book, pp. 33-34, 123, 322-323]
GRS is committed to helping our readers save and achieve your financial goals.Savings interest rates may be low, but that’s all the more reason to shop for the best rate.Find the highest savings interest rate from Ally Bank, Capital One 360, Everbank, and more.
This article is about Food, Money Hacks, Shopping, Tools
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.
Discover is a paid advertiser of this site. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
SEARCH FOR RECENT ARTICLES
Miss Dipsy mentioned a Palm app that acts as a shopping list, which can function as a price book. We went one step further and wrote an Android based app called PriceBookDB.
It lets you track items, prices, and stores, over time to determine the best time to buy any particular item. It seems that most people buy the same products week in and week out, such as milk, bread, meat, and produce. They also buy the same monthly items, Toilet Paper, cleaning supplies, soap, etc. All of these items can be tracked, sorted, and categorized.
We let you create basic shopping list, which can morph into exactly the brands that you buy. We let you share your shopping lists with your spouse’s phone, or a web site. You can sync shopping lists, check items off, and analyze your buying habits.
To top it all off, we crowd-source all of the users data, so that, if you want, you can see all of the item-price-date-store info that other shoppers have entered, in your area, so that you don’t have to do all of the work.
It’s a neat app, and we’re pretty proud of it. We’re working on it almost every day to make it better. If you have an Android smart phone, we would love for you to download it, try it out, rate it, and leave a comment. You can visit our web site http://www.pricebookdb.com
You can download it from the Android Marketplace, for free, here:
http://market.android.com/search?q=pricebookdb
We really hope you enjoy it.
Save well and prosper!
loading....
In our area, its generally assumed that Aldi & Save-A-Lot have the lowest prices around. So I just went to those stores, wrote down the prices & sizes for the items I buy, and use those as my price-book. When I see a sale at the main chains, I will compare it to the list. If its lower, then it truly is a sale & I will buy at the lower price.
Since we only have 2 people, its a good way to save money. We cant stock up too much, but we can buy where the items are cheapest that week. It saves us hundreds of dollars a year, and took very little time to put together.
loading....
Interesting concept. I may have been doing this without writing it down. My method is to scan the Sunday papers and see who is running a sale on the items that I buy the most of. Then, I shop there for those items. IF, it’s within a meaningful driving distance.
loading....
As a senior with still young children (expensive ones at that)…. I do keep a price book. Here where I live (Montreal), large stores are plentiful and they compete via flyers. Even drug stores compete. So yes, prices vary a great deal from one store to another. However, I like to weigh in the cost of traveling (gas), for all the specials. If I’m going to spend $10 of gas running around… is it really worth it?
loading....
We got a copy of the “Tightwad Gazette” and it does have some useful tips that saves cash over the long term (small chunks here and there DO add up).
I just came across a power shopping strategy where you wait for sales on your most used items and then buy a lot with coupons to stock up. Really simple to apply this strategy. I’ll try and write a post about it on my blog (after the 50 other things I want to write about – hee hee)
Anyway, I like your get rich slowly theme. It keeps people from borrowing money thinking it will get them rich fast. Learn, become wealthy in the mind, and riches can be yours anytime because you know how to be rich.
Thanks for allowing me to vent my 2 cents.
loading....
I am 27, started cutting coupons early 20s.
Some habits to get into:
Sunday is coupon cutting day, it is also the day I go online and review weekly ads for Walgreens, target, and Publix.
I write down what I need and then review foods that are on sale.
So here is what it looks like: Publix buys;
Carrots- $1.45 small bag (otherwise the rest will spoil)
Large Publix salad in a bag $4.00 (always get the salads from the bag they are the freshest)
Cucumbers 2 for $1.00
Okra .88 cents
Yellow squash 1.85
In season fruits and vegetables I try to avoid unless they are on sale, like corn, apples, and cherries/strawberries.
—Thats it for produce.
I cut coupons for salad dressings and can usually buy 2 8oz bottles for .99 cents w/ coupon or bogo.
Bacon BITS!! love em ( just ate a salad lol) 1.85
Cheese, buy block cheese generic, it’s usually under 3.00 and will last a while if you pull from the back.
Always always look for buy 1 get 1 w/ coupon, you will save ALOT.
Just bought tombstone pizza, bogo w/ a 1.00 off coupon, so it cost 4.00.
Frozen skillet dinners, bogo at 4.99
raman noodles 6 for 1.00
milk, get whats on sale always! had 2.00 coupons for lactaid so got 2 for .18 cents each!
Loooove it!
Air freshner with coupon cost me .39 cents
Usually at Walgreens I buy clearance toothpaste and shampoo’s, razors, mouthwash, soaps, handsoaps, toothbrush, deoderants, and I use my coupons, so I get these items for around 30-80 cents and I stock up. I have a huge bucket under the sink full of those items.
Target I check the weekly ads, and found their corn is cheaper then publix, .25 cents each vs, 5 for 2.00 at publix.
I like going to target for condiments and canned goods, they have a lot of these items for around 2.19 and I use 1.00 coupons which adds up to savings!
I take a sunday to have a little fun with this stuff because it’s my rush for the week, nothing feels better knowing you saved a ton of money.
loading....
I was a bit shocked when I calculated how much I spend on food. I like to think I’m thrifty in my food spending habits—I cook a lot and usually eat out only on the weekends—but I don’t usually add up my food costs and rarely make serious estimates for food spending when I make a budget, instead assuming that I’ll manage to make do with whatever’s left after I cut a check for rent, buy a bus pass, and pay my utility bills. Thanks for the information,,GBU
loading....