The value of keeping a price book

Logically speaking, if you are using coupons, nine times out of 10 that means you are trying to save money. The best way to do this is to not only use coupons, but also keep track of what stores carry items you normally use at the lowest regular (non-sale) price. This way, when you don’t have a coupon for an item you use regularly, or you can’t find a good sale to stack a coupon with, you can still get a decent price on the item, thus saving money.

This is where price books come into play.

Price books are a written price comparison sheet of your everyday household needs.

This way if you need, let’s say diapers, you can look in your price book to see who carries your preferred brand of diapers at the lowest regular price.

If you can’t find a coupon or a sale to match with that item, you can still go to a certain store and still save some money by already having your comparison pricing done for you.

The best way to compare prices between stores is to break down each item into a unit price. You can do this one of two ways. Carry a calculator with you and divide the total price by the amount of units in an item. A good shelf tag will have the unit price listed right there for you to read. If you need to use a calculator, it’s still an easy process to go through. A good and easy example (for me) is diapers. Say you see that a box of 96-count diapers is regularly priced at $17.99. This breaks down to approximately 18 cents per unit. This gives you a good base to compare prices from.

Once you find the best regular price for an item, you can even write down a quick list such as (theoretical prices given by the way):

n Milk $3.49 a gallon Fred Meyer.

n Eggs $2.49 a dozen Wal-Mart.

This way you can quickly look up what item you need, what the unit price is and where to find it.

The value of price books is invaluable if you feel like you have the gumption to keep on top of the prices as they change.

If you don’t want to keep a written record with you all the time, and have an iPhone, there is a bar-code scanning application that can help you comparison shop and will add items to your shopping list for you. This might be an easier alternative to keeping an actual written record of prices.

It is, of course, up to you if you wish to keep a price book, but I guarantee that if you go through the trouble it does make your life much easier when coupon findings are slim and you still need to save money.

Erika Buswell runs a blog dedicated to coupons and deals in Alaska (alaskanbargainhunter.blogspot.com) and lives in Palmer with her husband and two children.