All hail the price book!

I can be kind of socially clueless sometimes.  I get excited about something, and then before I know it I've bored somebody stiff by telling them EVERYTHING I KNOW on the subject.  For example.  I was talking to a friend last week, and happened to mention some tax credit I'd learned about that day (looking for tax information on my 401(k), since I've never had one before my current job), but rather than getting mildly excited about the prospect of saving fifty to a couple hundred bucks, like I was, she was bored to death.  Herer eyes totally glazed over, and I realized I should probably change the subject, before she went comatose with boredom.  Around this time is when B pointed out that actually, not a lot of people enjoy talking about saving money, and even fewer enjoy discussing the finer points of the tax code. 

Point taken, but this is for the few of you out there interested in such arcana.  Today's post is much simpler than tax law, though--it's how I save a boatload of money on groceries and household supplies by keeping a price book.  (Some might argue this is even more boring and less romantic than tax law, to which I say, hah!  Surely there's no such thing.)  Consider yourself warned.

My mom taught my sister and me to bargain hunt and compare prices when we went grocery shopping together, and I'm SO glad she did.  Comparing unit prices and seeing through packaging tricks is about 85% of the battle.  However, it was always in the context of our regular grocery store.  I discovered, being out on my own and on a pretty tight budget, that I can get better deals and stretch my food budget further if I'm willing to hit a few different stores to get specific items I know are priced better at store A than store B and vice versa.  Simply put, the convenience fee is something I can't afford right now, and given my work schedule, I have more free time to skip what's convenient in favor of the best deal.  (I do include cost-of-driving calculations here--my dad and I came up with a useful formula to figure out operating cost per mile, in the context of figuring out how far I could travel to save a certain number of cents per gallon on gas.  That may need its own post, in fact.)     

The idea of the price book is pretty much what it sounds like: write down prices of things you commonly buy across different brands and stores, so then you don't have to hold it all in your head to compare prices effectively.  As B, my local economist, would say, there's a market inefficiency here that we can exploit.  I started by making a list of things I typically buy (or would if I could find a good deal--I'm looking at you, organic berries) in a few different categories: produce, pantry staples and dry goods, dairy, and household items.  That's when I ran out of room in the little notebook I had, since each item gets either a page or a half-page in my book.  Ideally, I would've liked to include meat, fish and seafood, and alcohol (no shame admitting it, I drink a lot of wine y'all), but that just needs to be in another notebook I don't have yet.  (As a side note, I almost feel like I don't need to pay too much attention to price on wine given how many really yummy wines there are out there for, yes, under $5/bottle.  No, it's not Franzia or crappy Napa chardonnays, more like Two Buck Chuck, weird Italian imports, and odd lot remainders.)   

I carry my price book in my purse, and when I'm shopping, I'll write down what I need to know--store, date (to notice patterns in sales), whether it's on sale or I had a coupon or other discount, if it's organic or conventional, the product itself (it's on its own page, but this is if there's a specific brand, say, Muir Glen crushed tomatoes), unit or container size, price, and unit price.  This is a lot of information, but it's all really helpful, even for stores and products I did not anticipate would be a good deal.  That's the whole point of this!  For a month or two, I wrote down the information for everything I would conceivably buy from any store I visited, time permitting.  Ran down to Ralph's to get sour cream and scallions for taco night?  Get those, and maybe also catch the price on organic tomatoes and avocados.  I also write down price info that comes in the flyers in the mail--I'm looking for coupons, but if I find more stuff for my price book that's a bonus.  I was really surprised by what psychological pricing tricks and biases were costing me money, and by how far off my idea of a good price on something could be.  

My handwriting is terrible, so rather than a photo, I've typed out one of my pages as an example.  

STRAWBERRIES

• [Farm I can't remember the name of] at the Laguna Hills Farmers' Market, 3/14/14, organic, 3 lbs / $5, $1.67/lb
• Vons/Pavilions, 3/21/14, SALE, conventional, 3 lbs / $5, $1.67/lb 
• Ralphs, 3/20/14, conventional, 2 lbs / $5, $ 2.50/lb
• Smart & Final, 3/20/14, organic, 1 lb / $3.99, $3.99/lb
• Whole Foods, 5/31/14, SALE, organic, 3 lbs / $10, $3.33/lb (with my employee discount, it's 3 lbs / $8, $2.66/lb)

Since I know berries are consistently in the Dirty Dozen, I prefer to buy organic whenever possible.  I snatched up those farmers' market berries, and bought the 3 pack at Whole Foods when they were on sale, eating a few fresh, but mostly freezing them for later.  This information lets me set a "buy price," when even if it isn't on my list it may make sense to stock up and use, store, freeze, can, ferment, or dry it for later use. This varies by area and time of year, but I know for me, organic avocados under a dollar each are beating the average price, for example.  It also helps me make store-specific shopping lists--right now the best deal on organic potatoes is at Whole Foods (with my discount, they're about $0.68/lb), but organic all-purpose flour is cheapest at Target.  It also lets me keep track of what's actually a better deal in the bulk bins--it's important to read the labels and figure out if it really is a good deal (for some reason, organic quinoa is a better deal in the bulk bin at Mother's Market than packaged, but it's the opposite at Whole Foods--there's a 3.5 lb bag for $19.99, $5.71/lb or $0.356/oz BEFORE my 20% off discount!). 

This has trimmed a LOT of unnecessary spending off of my grocery bill.  An extra dollar per pound here or an extra thirty cents for a can of tomatoes may seem small in the moment, but they add up.  Whenever I don't take advantage of my system, I am donating my hard-earned dollars to stores for an identical (or similar) product I could get for cheaper but choose not to.  I get the same product, but just pay more for it?!?!  Why?  That's not my style, to say the least.  That same donation could go directly to Sabina's Rent Fund, or an oil change (it's been waaaaaaaaay too long), gas money, a night out with friends, or it could get socked away for a trip to see my parents and sister, or funneled into the (laughably tiny, at the moment) farm down payment savings.  

I guess that attitude is where I get my desire for frugality--that money could be doing more!   Don't let your money be lazy!  So while I LOVE LOVE LOVE eating good food and enjoy luxury as much as the next person (probably? I guess?  I mean, I like massages, so there's that.), I could have fancy things and live paycheck to paycheck forever, or I could scrimp and save for a few years and have my farm before I'm 30.  That's just my personal preference and not any kind of moral judgment or financial advice.  (I'm so unqualified to tell people what to do with their morals or their money--what business is it of mine?)  There's a balancing point where I am getting the best quality food for my money, and it still doesn't break the bank.  The price book helps me get there, and to me, cheaper food and the farm is way beyond an acceptable compromise.