Frugal tip for today. I made a spreadsheet, listing the foods we buy. I chose to use Google Sheets because that way I can access it on my phone, and so can others in the family. Although we access it on our phones, I only input things on my computer, because I am not as efficient at adding rows and data to Sheets on my phone.
On the spreadsheet, I have columns for item, price, size, unit price, store, brand, and date. I do not list everything at once and then fill it in. Instead, I add a row or several rows at a time to the appropriate place alphabetically, whenever I want to add an item, filling in the information at that time.
Sometimes I get the prices from my receipts; some stores keep my purchasing information on my online store account or phone app and I might refer to that. Sometimes I go into the store and use my phone to take pictures of the prices and the information.
I have been doing this for about a month, as well as adding two stores to our line-up (our new Aldi and BJ's discount store). I have been using what information I had gathered, as I went along, until I now have most of the foods we buy on any kind of regular basis.
Now I have revised my master grocery shopping list accordingly, so we don't have to refer to the price list every time we shop. I'm all about efficiency. My master grocery list has the stores and what we buy from each store, often with a note about size or brand. I know some of you probably don't use a master grocery list and that's fine. And some of you can keep prices in your head, but I'm not that person, so this combination of master grocery list and price list works well for me.
Aw, the digital age! Years ago, I used to read articles about keeping a "price book". I tried, but it was just too unwieldy to carry it into the store and also to update it. It's so much easier now!
I would like to add one point. We don't always buy everything at the cheapest price, even if we know what the cheapest price is. We space out our trips to different stores, and get an item at the cheapest store that we are going to that day or that week. Again, efficiency has a place in all this! But, knowledge is power.
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