Do you have a Price Book?

Elisheba

Hi all, 

I've been thinking of setting up a price book listing prices for all the products I buy for a while. It was recommended in The Tightwad Gazette, and one was just mentioned on the Frugal Living Challenge thread.

I've never seen a thread posting about them though, and with the demise of the supermarket comparison site, I can really see how a price book would be useful. When I see a special offer I'd really like to know whether it's good value and worth stocking up on or not. 

What I'm interested in hearing is if you have one what does it look like? What format does it take? Is it a paper book, a spreadsheet, an app or something else? How do you update it? When do you update it, and using what supermarkets as a baseline?

Basically I'm really interested in how it works for you and how you use it. 

Thanks, 
Eli

joedenise

Sounds a good idea.  Have bookmarked this as would be interested too.

I would think in this day and age an app may well be very useful as you could check it while you were actually in a shop but no idea if one exists.

summertime_2

hi, lv used my price book for years. Its a small hardback note book thats kept in my shopping bag & that l list all the products l buy . The products are in Alphabet order , so l  can look them up quickly in the shop . Listing this way works for me ,example B will be for bananas, bacon, butter, beans,. etc... M will be  for mouthwash, mushrooms, mince beef etc.  The products are written in pen but the prices  that my regular  supermarket charges are in pencil. l usually check the price weekly that my supermarket is charging . Then when i'm out ,usually Tuesdays ,and l see an offer, l can check what my supermarket is charging. Example; today l saw in my price book that Dairylea cheese (hubbys favorite on crackers) is £1.25 in my supermarket but its only £1 in Heron foods. As it has a very long expiry date l bought 4 packs to store in fridge. We saved £10 today on toilet paper, toilet rim blocks, bin bags, shampoo & scorra's just by using my price book. l  also got good price on butter and cheese which l then freeze. l have all my xmas food already as lv been buying it when l saw the products on sale over the months and that l can either freeze or it had a long expiry date. l do have online shopping but l only buy the products when on sale. l never, ever, pay full price for anything. Iv shopped this way for years.

twiglet98

The sudden and unexpected demise of MySupermarket was a huge blow, I had relied on it for a long time.

The family have grown and flown the nest and I'm only buying for myself, the dog and cats, so the shopping list is very much shorter than it used to be.  I work in a supermarket but even staff discount doesn't always make them the best value.  I don't make special journeys to other supermarkets as they're all at least 7 miles away, but once a week or so I check my rolling shopping list against the various stores' online shopping, and try to get the best offers that way.  Of course that doesn't include Aldi and Lidl but there are only a few items that I always buy in one or other of them, and they don't need to be on offer.  Surely someone must have considered reviving MySupermarket, or similar!

pamsdish

There is Trolley .co.uk, it does send emails regarding price drops and rises, haven`t used it as an app much, you can nominate stores.

Siebrie

I had a price book, but have abandoned it, I should set one up again. For the moment, I just use blanket prices, I won't pay anything over that. For instance:

meat and cheese max. €11/kg (whatever type)
fruit max. €3/kg (id.) or €0,50/portion
veg max. € 2,50/kg (id.)

Caveat: we don't have to watch our pennies, and we get around €350/month in meal vouchers from our employers. We aim to make this our monthly budget and buy some staples for the pantry. According to my colleagues, they use these vouchers on top of their normal budget, and the vouchers last 2 weeks at most.

Rosa_Damascena

I'm going to buck the trend and say that it is an activity for the sake of it. I tend to be good at making a mental note of prices and creating thresholds above whoch I'm not prepared to buy. This might be a complete waste of memory but after nearly 30 years of doing my own shopping, that's how I'm programmed.

polymaff

For best current best buys, Trolley.co.uk

For personal inflation a spreadsheet of 40 categories of expenditure. e.g.

https://imgur.com/POZmKSa

That's about 20 years of data.

Elisheba

I have been doing some googling, and there is an app.  Its free and you don't need to subscribe to anything that I have found.  It is called 'Price Reminder'.  I've found it on Google Play but not sure about Apple.  There is also a template s/s on this webpage https://www.thepurposefulpantry.com/price-book/ 

I have been having a play around with the app.  It has a form for each product and asks for the product name on one line and then the brand on another.  However, there doesn't seem to be anyway you can easily compare if you createa new product for each new brand.  So the solution I have found is to create one product e.g. 'cheese - extra mature' and ignore the brand line, and then when you go into that product add the supermarket and brand on one line eg. 'Tesco/CathedralCity'.  This means under 'Cheese - Extra Mature' you will be able to see all the supermarkets and brands you have entered at once (and it puts the cheapest on top).  Honestly, it makes sense once you are using it!

Also, just a little note, in order to edit or delete an entry, you need to go into history and click it there.  No idea why you can't do it under summary which is the first page that appears, but there you go.

pamsdish

Rosa_Damascena said:

I'm going to buck the trend and say that it is an activity for the sake of it. I tend to be good at making a mental note of prices and creating thresholds above whoch I'm not prepared to buy. This might be a complete waste of memory but after nearly 30 years of doing my own shopping, that's how I'm programmed.

What I like is alerts when something I use a lot of is on offer, I don`t have the attention span to go on different store websites to see the offers, also some are on line only.

tessie_bear

If i see a good price on something i buy i stock up but i couldnt be bothered with a book . seems a lot of work when i would imagine most savvy shoppers are across the prices of the things they buy