I've read the article on mommysavers called Price Book 101, by Amy Allen Clark. She talks about creating a price book, so you'll know which stores have which products for good deals, etc.

The idea of having a physical notebook for this seems a little unorganized for me, unless I'm just not picturing how it works correctly! Just wondering if any of you do this, or has anybody created some type of a computer spreadsheet to organize all of the information? Thanks!

I don't do it, but I know some mommysavers that do. I'll track them down and get them to post here. I quite figured out how to do this yet either. LOL I just keep track of certain items that buy I buy, I write it down with the price and thats about it.

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I've done the whole price book thing. It is labor intensive but also very educational.

I've now condensed it down to a one page sheet that I carry around in my purse. The sheet simply lists the item, the unit of measure, and my target price. If I'm at the store and I think I found a good deal, I check my target price sheet. I have some of my prices memorized like under $2 a box for a 15 oz box of cold cereal, any beef under $2 a pound, cheese under $2 a pound, and Scott 1000 TP for less than 50 cents a roll.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

I have been doing one. I was not keeping it up for awhile but have recently started updating it again. We have a new store that just opened and it looks like it is going to be cheaper than my current grocery store. I plan to finish updating it. I will then print it and tuck a copy in my coupon organizer so I can check prices.
It seems to be a labor of love as my supply list constantly grows and changes. It is very enlightening looking at the list though. Some stores can really get you if you are not careful.

Cookie2, where do you find cheese under $2/lb? My "buy price" is $3/lb, although once in a very rare while (once a year or so), I've been able to get it for $2.50/lb with an extra-special deal combined with coupons. Sometimes these things vary widely according to location, but just want to make sure I'm not missing out on a source.

I have a price book done one for several years ...
I keep a folder with add , I have coupon box and my new rebate folder . you need to arm yourself it war out there to stay ahead

Maman, that's my stock-up price. We don't use cheese much anymore because it is so hard to get it at that price. I certainly don't stock up on it often.

Butter ... if I can get that for $2 a pound or less, I'll stock up. That still happens sometimes.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

I mostly have the prices memorized for the stuff I buy regularly. So, when there's something I don't buy regularly, I'll write down prices for a couple of weeks - I've recently done this for frozen blueberries and walnuts and pecans.

The hardest thing in all this, is package sizing! Some store advertisements don't print the package size so it's really hard to compare. And, although most grocery stores list the price per unit, which allows you to compare, Target and Sam's Club don't list it.

And, have you noticed how many items are shrinking their packages while keeping the price the same?! I can't believe how small the new Breyer's ice cream packages are!

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I am creating a spreadsheet in Excel on my computer for this. I can upload the file to my phone and have it stored there. This is how I'm doing mine:

1. I'm saving my cash register receipts which list the itemized details of how much I spent on certain items. I'm starting with the 25-50 products we purchase most often.
2. My spreadsheet includes these rows: item, store, date purchased. Many people also include the size of the item. For me, I may add this in later but I find that most of the things I buy come in pretty standard sizes (for example a can of cream of mushroom soup, a block of cream cheese, etc.)

The longer you save the information, the greater the resource your spreadsheet becomes. You'll begin to notice that sometimes advertised sales aren't the best bargains. You'll see that some stores' everyday prices are lower than sale prices at other stores. If you save your information over the course of a year, you'll begin to see that certan times of the year are better times to buy than others.

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I just wanted to bump this up again as I am starting one next week and wanted to know if anyone else had any tips to add. Looks like a bit of work but well worth it.

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