So are these price book things really worth the effort? How selective are you about what goes into it - just the staples, or your whole grocery list?

 I found the stretcher article on it:

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/05/05mar14c.cfm

I'm wondering if my personal foibles (like preferring to buy a certain brand of milk, so the farmers get a better deal, over the supermarket's cutprice milk) are going to be something I will have to put aside.

 
I wonder if I should buy The Tightwad Gazette.
 

Helen,

I was planning to redo my price book and really get detailed but I realised that would take so much time that I'd likely stop. So I am focusing on the things that I buy often.

 My price book is in my house book, its a thick note book with four sections. Heres how i do mine;

 first section; a list of things i alread have in the cuboards, lists of collections eg tuskers models so i dont buy the same one twice,dates and places i have brought things ie washing machine, how much,where,where the instructions and garentee are stored etc. whats in my preasent cuboard etc.

 Second section; a price book devided into types. ie freash food, tinned food, baking stuff, drinks ect,. I write in the price i paid and where and change it when i find it cheaper some where else.

 Third section; Random tips and recipes that i always need to hand, or jotted down as i find them, various dates and times of things ie when to plant certain veggies

 Forth section; things i`m looking out for, shopping lists, vouchers, jobs that need doing, things to remember, etc

 I always have this book on me where ever i am, so the info is always to hand and i always know what i need and dont need.

 I write it in pencil so i can change things and erase things as needed so no wasted paper etc. And i keep it up date almost everday here and there as required. I would recommened it if you are prone to forgtting things or mislaying things and i have certainly got a lot better with my shopping habits etc from keeping one

 Hope that helps a bit

 kind regards

fishcake 

You sound very well organized, fishcake!  I have a 'home folder' with maps of the area, information on activities, etc, which I'm trying to organize. I've also started a list of things like insurance and bank accounts, etc so that if anything should happen to us, its easy to organize our affairs. Also makes it easier when we move house!

I really like the idea of being an 'educated consumer' as it said on one of the pages - not just throwing away my money blindly!

I discovered a PDA program (I got a PDA for Christmas) price book so I might download it and try it out. Its free!

 Perhaps to start with I should at least do a page of the essentials - milk, bread, pasta, rice, cheese, eggs, chicken, fruit, veg and a few packet items like cookies and crackers, and tinned tomatoes. 

Helen

Dear Helen & Fishcake, I find it easiest to enter prices in my price book once I get home from the store, via the register receipt (which lists what I bought as well as its price).  I always shop for the double-plays (promotional price plus my having a coupon), so know that I have a low price.  For example, I won't pay more than a quarter a roll for TP; I won't pay more than 69 cents a pound for chicken fryers, & so forth.

Yours in thrift, Deb

Unless you have a terrific memory, how else will you know what is truly the good deal on any item? 

You can keep your personal preferences and track the prices of it all--this is a planning tool so you know what you are spending, with no surpises.

I do the staples whether it is kithen, or toiletries.

I am also very vigilant about meat prices so I can take advantage of what is a good deal.

You can make it as simple or as complicated as you like.

1I try to keep track of most of the household/food items.  Special things that I'm priceshopping for, I can keep in my head.

I usually just take my price book with me to the store - it's the easiest way to update the book when I do buy something.  Otherwise, I can make price-shopping notes.

Oh my goodness! Talk about an eye-opener.
 

What an educational experience it was sitting down filling in my price book! I'm using my PDA which has XL, a spreadsheet program, because its portable and I always have it with me. So a bit fiddly to put things in at first but I'm getting there.

I just can't get over how much I was paying for some stuff. And all the times I've "picked up some milk and bread" at the service station because I hadn't been organized enough to get it earlier - and paid an extra 50c for the two litres of milk and 40c extra for the bread. So on average an extra $50 a year just on that occasional item.

I don't want it to become an obsession, but how hard is it to take an extra few minutes here and there? And because I'm starting to buy extras of sale items, I find that I only need to shop for fresh food on a weekly basis. I can see myself saving over $40 a week on groceries without really trying, that's without even trimming any luxuries. Though those are going to be seriously trimmed now that I know how much extra I'm really paying for those convenient packages!!!! 

My pricebook sounds a lot like Fishcake's.  I cave a three ring binder and my coupons are organized in categories in page dividers--I keep the coupons in those baseball card holder bages...then the next section is my pantry and freezer inventory--need to have that with me as I have a habit of buying WAY too much ketchup or cans of mandarin oranges when on sale--figuring I must need them because we eat them a lot.  Storage space at my house is at a limit-so It helps to have my inventory with.....THEN it is the price book--I found some free printable pages online for a price book and made copies--do it in pencil and go off my grocery receipts.  When I first started, I just wrote down prices in the weekly flyers so I would have a starting place...now I am able to tell how low the sale prices go and when I have a coupon to use with it too!

the downside to all this--it takes me longer to be in the store--but I really try to stick to the outside perimeter of the grocery store--away from most of the processed (and yummy) stuff....we are dieting in my house.

I saved over 30.00 at my last grocery trip-all on things we USE!