Handy Tips for Cutting Your Grocery Bills

I liked this simple list of practical ideas about how to save money on your grocery bill. Sometimes it is the basic tips that can save you the most money.

Grocery Coupons on the Way Back

Can you believe that last year Americans redeemed 2.6 billion coupons? Using coupons to cut your grocery bill has re-emerged among consumers. This article gives some good examples of ways in which coupons can be used to save you money. But where do you go to find daily savings? Well, that would be right here!

Tracking Grocery Prices

A local news site in South Carolina decided to check grocery prices by creating a price book. They asked a reported and mother to monitor prices on grocery items at a number of stores. Interesting point that they make: Wal-Mart has great every day low prices, but buying extra impulse purchases meant higher expenses. This just reinforces the need for planning your shopping strategy ahead of time. And if you know where the deals are ahead of time, then planning becomes easy.

How Does this Price Comparison Thing Work?

We're very glad that you've found Pricebooking. The point of the site is to save you money on one of your biggest expenses -- at least if your kids have appetites like mine. Let's take a look at how the site works in general:

1. Compare Grocery Prices

You may want to see where the best deal on a particular grocery item is. Let's say you're looking for Daisy Sour Cream. Great! Well you go the Compare Grocery Prices page, select the size of Daisy Sour Cream size that you are looking at. Then choose the city that you want to make the comparison in.

The result is a graph and a table show you which grocery store has the best deal. Change the city, and you change your results! No more guessing about which store has the best price.

This is especially useful when you don't have coupons on an item and need the everyday low price.


2. Track Grocery Prices

Now, let's say you want to see how the price of Daisy Sour Cream changes over time. OK. Let's go to the Track Grocery Prices page, select the item and the city we're interested in. What do we get? A graph showing how the price of that brand and size of sour cream changes over time. Now you know if that everyday low price is really a good deal!

You can also print out a price book sheet with all prices and unit prices on it, so you have a handy reference guide when you are at the grocery store.


3. Add Your Own Grocery Prices

So, where do all of these prices come from? Well, we need your help! Pricebooking is a community, and as a result we need you to help add prices that you get from your shopping trips.

A lot of successful money savers have found that keeping a "price book" of your grocery shopping is a great way to monitor your spending. Well, now you can post your prices here and share the results from the whole community. This makes the prices more accurate and more timely.

Plus, you get points each time you add a price... hopefully very soon we'll be able to make those points worth something ... besides the price booking glory!

Happy Pricebooking!

Groceries on Less than $100 / week

There have been quite a few stories in the past months about how to save on your grocery bill. Some of the ideas to cut your grocery expenses will work for some people, while others are just impractical. Still, I like to share these articles as you never know if it could give you an idea for saving money!

Savvy Dollar

Where does someone in North Carolina go to find out about saving on everything from groceries and gas to clothing and cars? Well, that would be Savvy Dollar. It is a community bulletin board and discussion area where people share tips and hints about how to save money.

The great thing about the site, other than the obvious dollar-saving aspects, is the atmosphere. Other boards tend to have a rough and tumble feel to them. Savvy Dollar on the other hand is very friendly and supportive. Great stuff!

Nearly Ready to Track / Compare Grocery Prices

I know that we've been saying this for a little while, but at last we're almost ready to go. Watch for the official announcement shortly. But be sure to sign-up in the meantime!

Grocery Shopping in the NY Times

Keeping grocery costs down is a concern to everyone. If you're like me, then grocery costs are your second biggest expense -- well ahead of car and gas costs. The NY Times Personal Finance columnist, Ron Lieber, wrote a piece on intelligent grocery shopping. He was also interviewed on the Weekend Business podcast.

He recommends couponing, of course. But one of his strategies I found interesting. Because of the concern over gas prices, he suggests for some people to pick a store near you that has an "every day low price" policy. This does require you to know which store does have the best every day prices. And that requires comparing prices across stores.