I visit a lot of coupon forums, where almost everyone is a bargain shopping queen (or king). So it's always something of a surprise when someone asks, "Is this a good deal?" And whether the item in question is laundry detergent or hot dogs, the same answer always pops into my head: You'd know if it was a good deal if you kept a price book along with the coupon binder.
A price book is a notebook for tracking the lowest price of an item. Simply put, it's the best way to cut back expenses without changing your lifestyle.
The best thing about a price book is that you don't have to maintain it forever – just until you've been doing it long enough to be able to recognize a good deal when you spot one. I have maximum price points in my head for almost all of the things we buy regularly, and I adjust that price as the deals get better or worse.
For example, a few months ago, I was happy to see Kleenex (our preferred brand) on sale for $1 if we needed it, and if we didn't, I tried to wait for a price of around 90-cents. But during the last few weeks, there have been some amazing sale prices of 64 cents for Puffs (after coupon at Walgreens) and 77 cents for Kleenex (this was at CVS, and the price came down to 47 cents if you factored in the Extra Bucks that you received with a $25 purchase). So now I'm looking for a sale price under 80 cents.
No Credit Needed has a handy downloadable price book template that I highly recommend.
Find more articles like this visit Cathy at Chief Family Officer, where she writes about family finances, parenting, and cooking.
Image credit: No Credit Needed.
Loading ...
Comments are closed.