The Price is Right...Or is it?

Price Book

As I mentioned before, this is not the first time that my husband has been laid off. Combine that with the weakening economy and I have felt "the pinch" for a while now. I remember when I was first married discussing, with my husband, his mother's practice of shopping at 2 to 3 or maybe even more grocery stores each week, aiming to get the best prices for her food. Well, in my mind, my time was worth more than that. I've always been a relentless coupon clipper and a store flier fanatic, so off I would go every Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to the local grocery store (note the singular). Never mind that this local grocer is, in my opinion, more expensive than other retailers in the area, but the others were not quite as close by. In fact, this chain has another store 2 towns away which I have always heard is cheaper than the one in my town, because it has more competition. But it is 12 minutes away rather than 6, so it was always a no-go. Fast forward 12 years and I'm feeling like getting a full grocery cart for $20 less if I shop around or go a little farther is now a good deal.
So I began juggling 3 different grocery store fliers and travelling 20 minutes to access both Super Walmart and BJ's. I thought I was doing well until I bought 4 bricks of Cracker Barrel Cheddar Cheese at a BOGO sale. Now buy one/get one is almost always a better deal than you will get anywhere else. I mean, it is essentially a 50% off sale, right? Right. Doesn't get much better than that.... Until I really looked at my receipt and realized that this particular store had marked the price up so much that I paid a few cents more for those 4 bricks than I would have if I'd bought them at BJ's for their regular price. Bummer!
My mind is not a steele trap by any means. At this point it's much more like an aluminum sieve; room for the big stuff, but the details fall right through the holes. How am I supposed to remember what I paid for a 3 pound container of ricotta at one store when it goes on sale at another. It's not like I buy ricotta every week.
Solution: The Price Book
How to:  For a few weeks or a month save your grocery receipts. Your "book" can be whatever works for you. I use a small 3"x5" spiral bound index card book because I like that it fits into my purse. You could use a regular size notebook of you prefer and I would imagine you could do something similar with your smart phone, though I don't own one so you have to figure that out for yourself.
Anyway, divide your book into grocery sections such as produce, dairy, meats, bakery, toiletries, etc. Take your saved receipts and use them to write the name of the item, what size it is, how much it is and where you bought it. Write down only regular prices, not sale prices. This way when a store runs a sale you can open your price book, find how much it usually is, say at BJ's, and whether or not the sale price at Stop and Shop beats that.  Periodically, update your price book and make a note of any new products you are buying or whether the price has gone up or down on anything.

No more getting taken for a ride at the grocery store.


Include the name, size and price of your item. Include where you purchased the item.



Unexpected Shortfall?

Every week my husband's unemployment check arrives (direct deposit) on Tuesday morning. Every other week my paycheck arrives on Saturday. Except... when it doesn't. This past Monday, being Memorial Day, slowed things down and so the check did not arrive in the account until Wednesday morning. Not a big deal except when the bills need to go out Tuesday night.
We have several items that come due yearly; others need to be paid quarterly; still others bi-weekly or weekly. In all honesty, it's tough to keep straight. If the money coming in greatly exceeds the finances being paid out it may not be such a big deal. In our case it's pretty much 50/50 on a good day. When only 1 of us is gainfully employed the ratio sways in an unfortunate direction.  Throw in a late pay check or unemployment check and if it doesn't spell disaster, it spells "serious meltdown" on my part (since I am the one sitting down to pay the bills). That's where serious budgeting comes in. Every long term bill or significant bill gets budgeted every time I get a paycheck. Long term bills are any bills that get paid quarterly, semi-annually, or yearly. Significant bills are anything big (such as the phone) or potentially (relatively) unpredictable such as the credit card.
Budgeting is easy. For each bill, figure out how much the bill will be when it is due; divide by the number of weeks or paychecks until the bill is due and place that much into the designated account each time you get paid. We have a dedicated savings account just for these bills. In addition, I keep a notebook with a breakdown of how much money is currently allocated to each bill. We also have a section titled "undesignated". It would be fun if this section could be available as extra money for an upcoming vacation. Instead, for us, it is extra money in case one of the car breaks down or the well pump dies. In this way, even though we know we have X amount of dollars in the account, we also know how much of that is available to each bill. Here is a link to my sample budgeting form. https://www.dropbox.com/s/owzsq6izpl8zlaz/Sample%20budgeting%20book.xlsx
Knowing how much money we have; saving all year long for those long term bills; takes much of the pressure and anxiety off when one of the checks is delayed. It doesn't solve all our money woes, but it's easier for me to see in black and white, and it also keeps us in the black more than the red.
I hope this is helpful for you.