Setting Up a Price Book

A few days ago, my daughter asked me if I would prepare a price book for her.

I had put together a price book for myself, several years ago.  I sat down with a couple of weeks worth of grocery sales ads and wrote down the prices (both regular and sale) for various items I regularly buy, using a separate page for different types of items (meats on one page, produce on one page, etc.)  I noted down the size of the product and broke down the prices to figure out the cost per unit (ounce, liter, etc.) to further facilitate price comparisons.  It probably took me a couple of hours, at the most, to do all that, so, to me, it was worth it.

I found it helpful to become familiar with sale prices. How else would I know that a particular sale was a good deal and worth stocking up?  I tend to shop at certain stores on a regular basis.  I will not go from store to store to buy items on sale, but, use my knowledge of sale prices to know if a certain item is a bargain or not.  Over the years, as grocery prices changed, I updated my price book until I felt I knew the prices well enough to recognize a bargain when I saw the sale price. 

Now, my daughter is getting ready to move up north and she will be doing her own grocery shopping and cooking.  Thus her request for a price book to help her recognize a good sale on various items.  

I've gone on-line and looked at the weekly grocery ads for a major grocery store close to where she will be living and started keeping track of their sales.  The first thing I noticed is that their produce prices tend to be higher than ours.  But there are bargains to be found and I'll make a note of the weekly specials for her.  The next step will be to help her come up with a grocery budget for her.  But that's another post.

Does anyone else have a price book?  Do you find it to be helpful to have a price book?