How to set up a Shopping Notebook

Once you have a notebook specifically designated for shopping that is set up and ready to go, shopping will become an experience that will cost less time and money. Your shopping notebook will give you all the information you need to make well-informed decisions on whether what you are thinking of purchasing is truly a good deal or not.

First, you need a notebook. It should be spiral bound and ruled on both sides. It should be able to fit in your purse, but be large enough to comfortably write on. I use a steno notebook, and it works great for me because my purse handles it perfectly.

The beginning section of your notebook should be reference pages. These pages will be critical for you to determine if something is a good deal or not.

The first page in my book is called “supermarket price codes” (so I don’t always have to have a calculator with me). You may know all of this already, so you might be able to skip this section:

12 for $8 = 67cents 8 for $12 = $1.50

10 for $4 = 40cents 4 for $10 = $2.50

5 for $3 = 60cents 3 for $5 = $1.67

7 for $4 = 57 cents 4 for $7 = $1.75

5 for $4 = 80 cents 4 for $5 = $1.25

4 for $3 = 75 cents 3 for $4 = $1.33

…and so on. I find this section especially helpful for deciphering the supermarket ads to see if they are really offering me a good deal.

The second section of my book is called “things that I think are too expensive”. In this section I place items which cost more than I wish they did. Usually these are items that I don’t have to buy every time I shop, and would rather buy in bulk if available at a good price. Here are a few examples of what is on my list.

Item	Size	Store	Price
Honey	1 ½ Pounds	ABC Supermarket	3.67
Peanut Butter	1 lb 12 oz	XYZ Club	2.23
Pecans	1 lb	ZIP Market	6.95
Our favorite cereal	43.5 oz	ABC Supermarket	4.48
Whole-wheat bread	2 loaves	Wholesale club	4.00
Diapers	80 ct	XYZ Club	10.98

Why go to the trouble? These are the things that bother me most to buy and I love being able to get a good deal on them. Since I already know how much I usually pay for 43.5 oz of cereal, I will know if 12 oz for $1.50 is a better deal than what I would normally pay. I also am able to determine if something is such a good deal that I should stock up on it to last until the next big sale on that item. If you keep a list like this, you will also soon discover that no one store (no, not even Wal-Mart or Costco) have the best deals on everything all the time.

You might also want to have a section of your notebook that lists your favorite shopping resources such as shopping comparison sites, coupon sites, bartering sites, free-giveaway sites, locations of your favorite stores, and so on.

The next, and biggest, section of your notebook should have your running “to buy” lists and the sales of the week. For me, each page accommodates a week. On the right hand side, I write the name of the store, and then list below it the items that I might be interested in buying from that store and their respective prices. Then I look at the next store’s ad and do the same thing for that store. After looking at all the items and prices, I star the ones that I feel I really must buy that week (if any) and try to hit those stores while doing other errands. On the left-hand side, I keep a list of things that we will need to buy soon.

My notebook looks kind-of like this:

Store #1 11/8-11/14	Running to buy list:
BLSL Chicken breasts 1.77/lb	Laundry Detergent
Milk 1.97/gal	Ketchup
Grapes .69/lb	Molasses
Snickers .33/ea	Parmesean Cheese
Store #2	Rice
BLSL Chicken Breasts 1.77/lb	Sour Cream
Milk 1.77/gal
Campells Soup .60/ea
Rosarita Beans .75/can
Store #3
Colgate toothpaste $1.00
BL Roast 1.88/lb
Cake mix .59/box
Peanut butter $1.00/18oz

(BLSL means boneless, skinless)

You may wonder why I would duplicate the price of an item for on a different store. It really comes in handy if I decide that I really don’t want to go to all those stores and just stick to going to store #2 for example.

In the back of your notebook, place a paperclip on each side. Attach the coupons you might use to the one on the right. If you decide not to use the coupon, transfer it to your purse, or to the left paperclip so you won’t have to sort through your coupons when you get to the register.

After your notebook is full, transfer the information from your reference pages to the next notebook and start over!