Money Saving 101: Keep a Price Book

(This post is part of the original “Money Saving 101″ section of the 100 Ways to Save Money ebook. Read other sections: Part I: Make a List, Part II: Be Aware of Sales Cycles, Part III: Keep a Price Book, Part IV: Check Per Unit Pricing.), Part V: Stockpile, Stockpile, Stockpile!

To track the sales cycles, you’ll want to start something called a price book. You can do this in a notebook or use a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel or Open Office (free!). The main goal of a price book is to track the prices of products during particular weeks at different stores.

The easiest way to do this is to use the sales circulars that you receive weekly from the stores (grocery, drug, super) in your area. When you receive the circulars, record the date, product, store, size, and price of each item you are tracking. It’s nice to do this in a spreadsheet program because you can then easily calculate the unit price (e.g., a 20 oz. bottle of shampoo for $3.98 is approximately 20¢ per ounce). The unit price will make it easier to compare when you have products of varying sizes (which can often be misleading).

If you want, you can also record non-circular prices by visiting the store. This is helpful when you’re first starting out because you can get a general idea of how a product’s price varies from store to store.

You can then use your price book to determine which store has the lowest price and also see what pricing patterns arise. You can make up rules such as “If Product X drops below Y dollars, I will buy it” to prevent overspending. It’s pretty amazing how much prices for certain items can fluctuate within a few weeks!

Filed Under: Ways to Save Money

Ways to Save Money – Join the Discussion!

Do you use a price book or track prices in some other way? Share it with us in the comments below: