Who else wants to save hundreds of dollars on groceries? I know I do, and if you spend upwards of $400 a month for food like I do, you probably want to learn how to do it as well.
All of the BIG grocery savings start with a grocery pricebook.
It's a simple tool that will save you thousands of dollars over time with minimal effort on your part.
What's a pricebook? Simply put, a pricebook is a record of the best prices for items you've bought.
If you have this record, you can tell in seconds whether you are buying groceries a the best prices, and not what the grocery store tells you are the best prices.
Have you ever had a sneaking suspicion that grocery stores mark up prices on groceries, only so they can later mark them down (just a little bit) and tout them as being "ON SALE"? The grocery store is still selling these items at a marked-up price, but if they tell you that frozen turkey normally goes for $3.
59 a pound, and now it's only $1.
99 a pound, you'd have a hard time knowing whether that's a good deal or not.
Sure, $1.
99 sounds like a good deal, but compared to what? The marked-up price of $3.
99 a pound? What's a good price for turkey? How can you tell if the price is low enough to stock up, unless you know the lowest it's been in the past? That's where the pricebook comes in.
By looking at your pricebook, you would be able to tell that the best price for frozen turkey is $0.
99 a pound, that it normally goes on sale twice a year at Thanksgiving and in July, and which store has the best price.
That $1.
99 price doesn't sound like such a bargain after all, does it? The idea of a pricebook isn't new, and it's not something I came up with.
It's been around for years, and those who rely on it have saved thousands of dollars on groceries over the period of just a few years.
For those who haven't used a pricebook before, it's a bit intimidating.
"How will I have the time to record the price of everything I buy at the grocery store?" is a question that often arises.
A pricebook is not difficult to start, and believe it or not, it gets even easier to do as time goes on.
Although there are a few tips and tricks that only seasoned users can tell you, the technique for how to use a pricebook can be summed up in three steps:

1. Record
2. Compare
3. Update

You can start your pricebook with some lined paper in a three-ring binder that you'll carry you when you go shopping.
For at least one month, you'll Record the price of every item you buy.
You'll want to continue the "Record" stage for as long as it takes to get a good record of the wide range of grocery products you buy on a regular basis.
Keep in mind, you'll buy some seasonal items, such as Thanksgiving turkey or corn on the cob, so when you buy new items that aren't in the pricebook, you'll want to add them.
Once you have a price recorded for an item, you'll simply Compare the sale price of that item to your recorded price, any time you're shopping for that item.
If the current sale price is lower, it's a good time to stock up on that item.
For example, if canned artichokes are on sale for $0.
50/oz.
, and your recorded price is $0.
75/oz.
, you'll want to get as much as you can use and store until the next time canned artichokes are on sale.
That brings us to the third step, where you'll Update your grocery pricebook with the new price for canned artichokes.
This becomes your new standard for comparison.
From now on, anytime you go shopping, you'll Compare the sale price to your updated pricebook.
You don't have to always shop by your pricebook - you can buy when things aren't at their lowest price.
Just keep in mind that by shopping the specials (and by now, you'll know when they truly are special prices!), you can save much more money.