“If you don’t mind my saying, Ma’am, this is the weirdest cart of groceries I’ve rung up today’.
Wow. That seemed a little harsh. The last thing I expect at the grocery story is judgement from my cashier. I mean, I wasn’t buying anything that out of the ordinary. A pastrami sandwich. A lint roller. Oh yeah, I also had 24 cans of coconut milk, 17 scour pads, and 22 packages of mai fun, a thin rice noodle common in Chinese cuisine.
Okay, maybe it was a bit weird. But only in quantity. I mean really, am I going to need 17 scour pads over the next week? I really hope not. But I couldn’t pass them up. Normally priced at $1.89, they were marked down to $.99. Knowing I always have a scouring pad around my kitchen sink, I figured I couldn’t go wrong stocking up and saving $16.83 on a household item I traditionally buy at full price.
And this is how I’m getting through the recesssion. I’m a self-employed contract worker who has seen a 40% cut in her income over the last two years, and boy has it hurt. Just like everyone else, I’ve had to make cutbacks. Sure, I’m clipping coupons, and shopping two for one sales. But I’ve also taken it one step further. Last year I started a price book.
For those not in the know, a price book is a list of all the items you regularly keep in their home, and how much they normally cost where you shop. I keep track of prices at two stores in my neighborhood. Everytime my items are on sale, I note the sales price in my price book. After a couple of months, I generally knew where I could get my grocercies for the lowest prices when they were on sale. It’s completely changed the way I shop.
Instead of heading to the store when I need something (and being tempted by other things in the store), I have a specific system. I go grocery shopping once a week with my price book. I go up and down every single aisle. When I see that one of my regular items is on sale for the lowest noted price in my price book, I buy it. Even if I have it at home. And I buy as much of it as I can, thus 22 packages of rice noodles in my cart when I still have seven packages at home.
Am I turning into my mother? Perhaps. But I’ve been tracking my spending for a number of years and I find that my price book not only insures I always have what I need on my shelves and in my pantry, it’s literally saving me hundreds of dollars every month.
Is it a little odd to buy two cases of coconut milk at a time? Perhaps. But being a freak for frugality is allowing me to maintain aspects of my lifestyle that I thought the recession was going to eliminate.
If you want to try your hand at keeping a price book, check out this easy to use template for price books from Organized Home.
Between 1994 and 2004 I worked for a government agency that investigates financial crime in Washington state. During that time I learned a lot of stuff about money. Like if someone cons you out of your hard earned bucks, they usually spend your money before they get caught. The criminal almost always gets busted, but the money is gone. Sometimes these crimes result in other, not-totally-awesome stuff. Stuff like identity theft, low credit scores, and piles of debt.