Start a Price Book to Track Rock Bottom Deals

One of the learning curves to couponing is knowing when to buy. Sometimes sales being advertised are not really sales at all. Just because an item is listed in an ad circular, does not mean it is on sale. Knowing the rock bottom prices of items you buy the most, is the key to reducing your grocery store budget. Even if you do not use coupons on food items, knowing your prices will save you money.

Tracking prices takes a bit of effort, but it will be worth it! Sales run in 6-12 week cycles. That means that sometime in that time frame, items will be at their lowest price. The goal is to stockpile enough products at their rock bottom price to last you until the cycle starts over. In order to do this, you will need to start writing prices down and track them for awhile.

To track your prices you can make a notebook or use a spreadsheet. A notebook is easy to take to the store but a spreadsheet is easy to tally items. It is really a personal preference on what works best for you. Make note of the date, the store, the product size and the price you paid. The price you write down should be after discounts and coupons. You may want to start with just a few items at first. After a few weeks, you will notice a trend.

I will be working on a price guide for all of you in the coming weeks. It really helps to know what a good price is! You don’t want to waste your precious coupons on items that are not at a good price point. I would love your help on this project. If any of you want to volunteer to help track a few items, it would be greatly appreciated!

Now it’s your turn! If you are a blogger, write a post about your idea for making dollars out of change. It can be on any topic as long as it has to do with saving money. Please place a link back to Madame Deals in your post. Then come back here and add your post URL to the linky. Please post directly to your post and not your homepage.

If you do not have a blog, we still welcome and encourage your participation! Please leave your thoughts in the in a comment below!

This post is linked at My Coupon Teacher, Melissa’s Bargain Blog & Life as Mom

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