Create a Price Book to Track Grocery Prices

What exactly is a price book? It’s a tool used to track prices of things you commonly purchase (typically groceries – but this can extend to clothing or other things as well) at various stores and different times and places. No savvy shopper would be caught without one. If you’ve never considered keeping a price book before, here’s why you should: you’ll be arming yourself with the knowledge you need to make informed buying decisions – avoiding the confusing marketing tactics.

Before you begin, it helps to save your grocery receipts for a month or so. That way, you’re already in possession of the itemized records of exactly what my family had purchased when, where, and how much we paid. You can also grab the store circulars from recent weeks and record that data as well.

Price Book Method One: The Notebook

The traditional method, the notebook method, is often what people think of when they think of a price book. A spiral bound notebook small enough to keep in your purse For most people, it works best to label the top of each page alphabetically. Include canned tomatoes on your “T” page, cereal on your “C” page and so on. Record the date of your purchase, the price, as well as the unit size of each package so you can calculate the price per ounce. Start with the 25-50 items you always buy, then move on to things you occasionally buy.  It’s best to avoid recording items you rarely buy unless you really want to make this more of a project than it has to be.

Price Book Method Two: The Spreadsheet

With smartphones everywhere these day, I think the most efficient way for you to log your prices is using Google Docs and the Google Drive app.  I created my spreadsheet in a couple hours one afternoon. In the rows across, record the names of the stores where you shop most often. On the left column, write the name of the food items you purchase along with the unit size. In the cells where the store and the product intersect, record the price.  What I like about this method is I can make changes on my computers at home with receipts and I always have the spreadsheet handy on my phone while I’m shopping.

After you keep your price book for awhile, your outlook on grocery shopping begins to change.  Sometimes you will realize that advertised sales aren’t necessarily all they’re cracked up to be, and sometimes they’re not bargains at all.   You’ll be able to spot rock-bottom prices on favorite grocery items and add them to your stockpile without hesitation – knowing exactly how much to buy.

Related forum discussion:

How to keep a price book

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