Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Making my grocery price book

This is a project I somewhat started around 2 years ago and then abandoned because I wondered if it was really worth the effort. I'd created an Excel workbook of all my grocery shopping so as to compare prices and look for trends in specials. I'd made it a huge project, too many pages, always inputing the data after a shop ... NOT where I wanted to spend my time and energy, therefore abandoning it.

However, I've been inspired by my friends at Bean Counting to take it up again, but in a much simpler form of a booklet in my handbag. See, here's keptwoman's neat little price book. My book isn't decorated at all yet. I've just been concentrating on how many items I usually buy and constructing my index list. The decisions to be made: whether to group like items such as dairy, meat, vegetables, or just go completely alphabetical. At the moment I'm finding I keep forgetting to add little things I take for granted in the cupboard, such as peanut butter and jam, or the clingwrap and dishwashing liquid. So, once I'm satisfied I've not left anything out, I'll begin filling in my price book. (Maybe my perfectionism is bringing about this procrastination!)

Do you keep a price book? If you do, I'd love for you to share any ideas or interesting finds you've made. :)

Here are some more sites which offer ideas for price books:
- The Dollar Stretcher: grocery pricebook and pricebook 101
- Get Rich Slowly (which also lists the above & more)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have a price book, but I usually try to buy things that we use a lot of, such as cat food when they are on special. This way, I can save half of the usual cost.
Blessings,
Jillian
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Homestay Mama said...

I don't have a price book. I just shop at Costco whenever I can because their prices are very reasonable. I don't know if Costco has come to Australia or not. I know they're in Korea and Japan.

Thanks for stopping by my blog recently and for your kind comments. If you want more pics of my kitchen remodel let me know.

Michelle Downunder said...

We kept dockets for two years on everything. I had a little cheap pocket diary in my handbag for the times I didn't get a receipt.
It was well worth the effort and helped us to see where the money was going.
I would be a little scared to do it again-I've gone back to a few bad habits.
Michelle