grocery price list?

[BiggerPiggyBank]

Hello everyone,
I’m fairly new to this group, and am ready to chime in now.

I’ve been married and doing the grocery shopping for nearly 12
years
now and have never kept up with a price sheet. I always try to get
the lowest price and am familiar with prices in my area, but
obviously
can’t memorize all prices. We have been strapped for cash our
whole
married lives, but are tighter than ever now.

I’m going to school
full time and the kids are getting older. I decided this week I’m
going to start my own price sheet/book. I started it with an Excel
spreadsheet.

How many of you do or do not keep up with grocery prices in a
book?

If
you do, what works for you?

Thanks,
Tamela

[mdowdy]

ok my mission is now to figure out a simple price book. Maybe I should start visiting some of the local stores see if they can beat foodlion

[faxonfive]

so any ideas on an easy price book?? i occasionally shop at aldi’s and sharp shoppers (pa & va) and get magnificent deals, but the drive to them is between 45 minutes to an hour…and gas is now going back up….but most of my shopping is at food lion as well….Arron told me that he went to Harris Teeter last night because they had BOGO free on bags of shrimp…..the one 2 pound bag was $26.00!!! no way!!

[Niddi]

I just want to know how you can keep up with a price book these days when every time I go to the store it seems the price has jumped up again. I used to know the stores that had the best prices on regularly purchased items and exactly what the price was, but now I’m floored when the price jumps by not only a few cents but some things as much as 50 cents since I bought it last, and I’m talking about a few weeks ago. Wal Mart has been real bad with price increases lately.

Some of their store brands are priced higher than the leading brands these days. You would have to adjust your price book every few weeks to keep it straight.

[mdowdy]

yeah these around here are changing so much I can’t keep up with them either. Looks like I am going to have to do a price book for this reason

[kkiriazis]

I have thought about making a price book because there is a point that something hits a rock bottom price and that is when I like to stock up. I have never made a book yet I am thinking my best bet would to be write down only the foods my family eats- I do not buy anything just because I have a coupon unless it is something I want to try. Lately I have been trying to eat better so we are seeing a lot of fruits and veggies in our house.

I can say that I try not to buy any prepacked goods because cooking from scratch is so much cheaper. When I come up with my book I will let you all know how I did.

[Tarrien]

I want to try making a price book, but I feel like I’m going to look weird with a composition notebook writing down prices in the grocery store. The grocery tool on here is a huuuuge help but I still need to know how quickly things add up- Sometimes I’ll just buy a thing here and there and it’ll cost an arm and a leg- other times I’ll buy the motherload of stuff and it won’t be nearly as expensive as I thought. I’ll probably go like at 2 or 3am when no one is there and do that.

[brchbell]

I tried keeping price books. Tried smaller ones that would fit into my purse and couldn’t get it to work. Tried a bigger one and keep losing it because it wouldn’t fit into my purse.

I’m terrible with numbers. I’ve dealt with tumors for more years than I care to remember and surgery on the brain ended up with me having to quit my 90 K biochemist job because I really can’t do numbers any more. I keep someone with me when I go shopping and I save my recipients.

If one of us thinks milk has gone up we pull the receipts and see. Now I just try to keep track of what I have and what I need to replace each month. I went through a couple years of real frustrations but now just go with the flow and thank God for every day I have without some new nightmare happening to me.

My latest thing to try and stop this is going with no simple sugars or starches. It’s been 3 years and so far no new nightmare has come forth. But gee I really can’t handle numbers.

Gave up on price books. We were just going through the files and realized we had 3 years worth of grocery receipts! Oh my that sure was an eye opening evening looking through to see how much stuff has gone up!

Between groceries, gas for the car and heating the house no wonder we have trouble staying in budget!

[mdowdy]

@faxonfive 99821 wrote:

so any ideas on an easy price book?? i occasionally shop at aldi’s and sharp shoppers (pa & va) and get magnificent deals, but the drive to them is between 45 minutes to an hour…and gas is now going back up….but most of my shopping is at food lion as well….Arron told me that he went to Harris Teeter last night because they had BOGO free on bags of shrimp…..the one 2 pound bag was $26.00!!! no way!!

i was afraid of that with Harris Teeter. I look at their ads but have been afraid to really shop there because they dont list their prices and I can’t get a handle on how much I would be spending. I am going to be working on designing mine in the next couple of weeks so I will have it when i go shopping on the 3rd.

Will let you know what format I come up with and how it works. With most of my shopping also being at Foodlion I really wont need but a space for foodlion and aldi’s. I am going to give them a shot but I pretty well know what is high and what is not compared to Foodlion since I am in there so much.

[Tarrien]

I’ve noticed if you break things down like do only produce one day then pastas another then frozen foods a different day it makes it less overwhelming.

[Baggz1971]

This may be a bit over the top. But, I have tremors in my writing hand so I have been bringing my laptop to the store with me. I have all the prices right in hand.

I also bring someone with me to watch my laptop. It works for me and beats writing all the stuff on paper.

[ThriftyMouse]

Hiya! I’ve kind of done the ‘In my head’ price book too, but really want to get one down on paper, actually Excel. What information do you collect for each item?

I have the following:

– Item Name
– Size
– Date
– Price
– Regular/Sale Price?

Are there any other fields that might be useful to collect?

Thanks!!

[CouponGranny]

I started a pricebook in December. These are the headings I have:
Item Brand/Type Lo Sale Price Reg. Price Volume UnitOfMeas Unit Price Date Store
I’m thinking I should probably only use one price column.

And I also wonder how long I keep adding the new prices. Maybe forever, dunno.

I don’t write prices down at the grocer as a rule. The first place I started with was using my receipts after I got home. Trouble is, the receipt doesn’t always tell me the size of the jar/bottle/can, etc.

Then sometimes I write down prices of things I’ll use that are in the week’s flyer.

[FreebieQueen]

@CouponGranny 170219 wrote:

The first place I started with was using my receipts after I got home. Trouble is, the receipt doesn’t always tell me the size of the jar/bottle/can, etc.

This makes a big difference too, particular since a huge number of companies are downsizing their products & HIDING it from consumers with deceptive packaging.

Check this out:
GroceryBudget101.com- – Clever, yet Deceptive Packaging that costs you hundreds

[kntrygrl256]

We are getting an Aldi’s in our town. I have never heard of them until recently, but what I have heard has been good. I can’t wait until it’s open so I can check it out.

We are also getting a Sam’s Warehouse. I’m glad I won’t have to drive to Birmingham for Sam’s anymore, LOL.

[JackieZ62379]

Just learned something new with your post about Aldi’s vegetables. Thanks for such a useful and wonderful tip!

[katsummers72]

I have always wanted to take a class. I did a short version at our church but that was many years ago!

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