Creating Your Own Price Chart
January 27, 2007 by Expert · Leave a Comment
A price chart will allow you to open up the Sunday grocery store ad and see if that special on a brick of cream cheese for $2 is really a bargain. When you check your price chart, you will find that you’ve been able to find the same size and brand of cheese for $1.79 before, so it might be worth waiting to buy. Of course, if you are completely out of the cheese and need it that week, sure go ahead and buy them, but if you were just purchasing them to stock up on sale items (the topic of another article) then it is worth waiting.
The first step in creating a price chart is to go through your refrigerator and pantry and catalog the must haves the items you use at least once a month. Some staples in my pantry and refrigerator include onions, garlic, bananas, tomatoes, milk, cheese, orange juice, coffee beans, bread, olive oil, boneless, skinless chicken breasts and breakfast cereal.
After I compile a list of food items, I start recording the best prices I’ve found on the items, being sure to determine costs by size and packaging, as well. For instance, I know that I can find 6 oz cans of tomato paste, a staple in my Italian cooking, for $.25 apiece if I wait for a sale. That is about $.07 less than buying the cans in bulk at my local warehouse store. Because I almost always have the paste on hand so there is never an emergency situation, it is a better bargain for me to wait for a sale at my local market and bulk up then. However, nine times out of 10, it is a better deal to stock up on toilet paper at the warehouse store, where I can find a sturdy, good quality roll of 425 sheets for $.41 apiece. Keeping a price chart also allows you to quickly distinguish when a sale is really a sale.
I’ve found the simplest way to create a chart is on the computer and print it out. That way, my price chart ends up being a typed piece of paper that easily folds up and remains in my wallet where I can reference it at any time. In addition, having it on the computer means updates are simple. So the next time, you see a big sale on your favorite ice cream, you can quickly reference your price chart and determine that yes, it is worth hopping in the car and stockpiling a pint or two.
