The Price Book revisited Pin It

I’ve been asked a few times recently via email and comments on my blog asking if I would explain the concept of a price book a bit more. 

 

What is a Price Book?

Basically a book of items with their prices listed for the different stores in your area.

The advantages of a Price Book: Knowing if the price of an item is the best price available to you in your area

 

So Why a Price Book?

Well by recording the lowest price you find on items you use frequently you can…

1. Take advantage of that lowest price and stock up.
2. Get the item at the lowest every day price and truly know if a “sale” price is really a great deal or not
3. You’ll be able to make your grocery shopping list to combine purchases.  Buy xyz at SAL, buy zyx at WM, etc. 
4. You’ll gain knowledge of sales cycles. (explained a bit more below)

 

Setting up a Price Book:

I started out with a small notebook of paper and made mine but now I use 3x5 cards on book rings. 

You can make your own pages for your price book or use one of the various online printables:

• Price Book Pages – My favorite set up of a price book page
• Price Book Template

Although you can print of the pages above or any other you find online, I  use 3x5 index cards, punch holes in the top and keep together with two book rings.

If you are putting them in a notebook of sorts, or however you want to keep track of them, I suggest you make a store code page so you can shorten the store name and your recording time.

 

I actually have one of these now as of June 2011. I carry it in my purse.

and there are refill pages available for it.

and dividers to go into it... you'll have to punch holes to match the card holes to fit into the small binder

 

Store Code Page

On the first page of your price book make yourself a store code of some sort.

Example:

WM = Walmart

P = Publix

BL = Bi-Lo

EF = Earth Fare

GL = Green Life

SAL = Save-A-Lot

Do that for all the stores in your immediate area or where your spouse or another family member may be working, etc. that can pick up an item at the best price for you.

 

Setting up your price book pages

 

Next step is to set up your price book pages. (an example is below). You will want to write in your price book the  items that you purchase on a regular basis, such as bread, milk, eggs, cheese, etc.

You’ll need to decide whether you want to set up your price book pages alphabetically or by categories.   I have mine alphabetically as it’s just easier for me that way. Use the system that works best for you.

Here is a sample of what a basic price book entry would look like for an item.

This shows you the basic set up for a price book page.    This one happens to be for Oats, rolled (or regular oatmeal)

Item:   Oats, rolled

Date	Store	Brand	Size	Price	Unit Price
4/9/11	SAL	-	42 oz	1.99	.05/oz
4/14/11	EF	bulk bins	1 lb	1.49	.09 / oz
4/14/11	GL	bulk bins	1 lb	1.19	.07 / oz

 

Using a Price Book:

Whenever you find an item that you think is a good price, compare that your price book and see if it "really is" a good price. If the price of the item is lower than what is in your book, then stock up until you can find that price again. Be sure to make a note of the price and the sale date, so you can track possible reoccurrences in sales on those particular items.

By looking at that price book page, I can tell that if I buy the regular oats at SAL (Save-A-Lot) I will only pay .05 per oz for those as compared to the least expensive organic ones at Green Life which are  .07  per ounce. However, since they are organic that would be a better option health wise. I can’t always buy organic though so I have to buy what I can afford at the time.

Keeping Record:

Although my index cards are written with a pen to put in the categories and item, I use a pencil to record the date, store, brand, size, price, and unit price.   This way, I can erase and record a new price for the item at that store if the price increases… which they have been recently.

Do you record sale prices?   Yes.  

I will record a sale price on an item and put a * by it so I know that it is a sale price and that it is the lowest price that item has been. By doing that, I can also tell when the item is going to be on sale again after I’ve recorded the sale price a few times.  Thus I gain the knowledge of the sales cycle on it and can stock up enough of it at the lowest price possible until it comes back on sale again in a few months.

 

I hope that helps explain what a price book is, why you may want to use one, and how to set one up.

Print this post

Posts May Contain Affiliate Links, Read my Disclosure Policy