I’d learned about using a Price Book first from The Tightwad Gazette, but also found this great post on the topic at another great blog, No Credit Needed. 

I’m going to refer you to NCN’s template for this as I think it’s as good as you’ll find.  You may also consider keeping your price-book on a PDA in MS Excel mobile file.

I began by printing off 35 of the sheets from the NCN blog, and pulling out a month’s worth of grocery receipts to get started.

This helps for a couple of reasons:

1. You can see seasonal trends, for instance the price of turkey is far lower in November than in May.
2. You can track stores for individual products. For instance, I know I save 30% by buying my daughter’s “Good Nites” disposable diapers at a liquidator store rather than the local grocery store (I don’t care if they have last season’s floral patterns).  Note: Please don’t harp on me for not using washable diapers for our tot. We’ve tried, but haven’t found one she won’t soak through… the laundry alone was costing us far more than disposables are, and I shudder to think of how much water we were using!

We’re splitting our shopping and price checking between a few sources:

1. Our regular grocery store, Win-Co which is likely familiar to West coast shoppers.
2. A local liquidator for non-food items.
3. A catalog food company, Azure Standard, for organic products, whole foods, staples, grains and really yummy organic cheeses.

Keeping all the prices on the price book (a 3-ring binder) provides us the guidance we need to plan menus within budget, and pick up the right products at the right stores.

Also, I use this for my business—tracking paper costs, printer toner and Post-It flags that I use in my business in large quantities. My printer toners are usually about $144 each, but I found them for $89 each from Inksmile (an advertiser here at Penny-Wi$e Family).  Rather than buying paper at the local office store, I’ve found better prices at the Kinko’s/Fedex store, and the local K-Mart.

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