A price book is a journal you create so you can keep an inventory of store sale prices. Keeping track of food and household items that are on sale can be very helpful to a smart and frugal shopper.
Keeping track of store sales prices can help you in many different ways. For example:
*Is it really a sale? Just because something is in the store’s sales ad doesn’t mean it’s on sale. A lot of times a store will place a regular priced item in their flyer, with the hopes that you will think it’s a sale and buy it. A price book will help you determine if an item is on sale, and how good of a sale it is. For example, if you see in your store’s sales ad, a 24 pack of Pepsi on sale for $6.99, you can look in your price book and you might see that a 24 pack of Pepsi has been on sale in the past for $3.99. This is how your price book can help you decide if it is a good enough sale to stock up on, or wait until a better sale.
*Is there a pattern? Some stores place certain items on sale regularly, or during certain times of the year. By keeping track of the store, item and date you are able to determine if there is a pattern of how often items go on sale. For example, if you look at your sales ad and see that sugar is on sale for $1.99 for 5 lbs., you can take a look in your price book and see when the last time sugar was on sale at that store, and for what price – it might have been six weeks ago. You now know that sugar may go on sale about every six weeks. This also helps you be prepared for a sale. If you know something is going to be on sale regularly at your store, you can then watch out for coupons for that item, and be ready when it comes on sale. That is, if it’s at a good price. This also allows you to know how many you need to stock up on to last you until the next sale.