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When you are compiling your shopping list of good deals, it is helpful to have an idea of what you need and how many of each item you need.  It is also to have an idea of whether something is actually a good deal or not (this can help when you find that elusive clearance rack as well.)  

To do this efficiently, I have combined my Price Book with my stockpiling list.  I started this in a simple way- I purchased a composition book.  Then, I made a little chart for myself with 6 columns:

Then, I sat down and thought about our average day.  For example, DF eats poptarts for breakfast every day during the week.  He eats 2 a day.  So, if I want to have a 12 week supply, I need 120 poptarts.  I wrote down:

I continued this list, thinking about everything we eat on a regular basis, considering each meal and deserts and snacks and condiments and other baking supplies.  I looked back at a few weeks of menu’s to figure out what we eat for dinner and approximately how frequently we ate it. I always erred on the side of caution, so if I thought we ate spaghetti once a week and so we’d need 3 boxes of spaghetti, I put down 4 or 5 just in case (especially since spaghetti doesn’t go bad).  

I decided that I would base my average price on Walmart prices, since they tend to be the cheapest around here, or at least I sensed they did.  If there was something I regularly bought from Aldis because I knew it was cheaper (like onion rings) then I based the average price on Aldi’s and just made a note of that.  So, I went on an expedition to Walmart one Saturday just to write down all the average prices of everything I buy.  This took a while, about an hour and a half, but it was a one-time thing so that didn’t bother me too much.

Once I had my average prices, I would update the Best Deal column each time I found a better sale price on that item (I write in Pencil, obviously).  If it was a wierd one-off, like a few months ago when Target was giving away Poptarts for free & you made money for it, I didn’t include it because it was unlikely to repeat.  However, if it is a sale I expect might come up again, like a great grocery store sale or a Walgreens instant value coupon or a Walmart rollback, I made a note of the new low price.  That way I know that this is the lowest price I have ever found, so when I see an item at that price I need to jump on it and buy as many as I can work into my budget that week that I can feasibly use before it expires.  

As I buy items, I update my price book to reflect the new amount that I have.  As I use items, I update the amount have as well.  The composition book sits in one pocket of a shoe organizer in the pantry door, unless I am going to the store or planning my shopping list.  The whole family knows that when they use an item, they need to update the “have” list.  

I also store some stuff, like extra bags of flour, in other places throughout the house.  This is of course noted in the column that pertains to this issue- the stored? column.  That way I know exactly what I have and where I have it.

I generally don’t include health & beauty items in the price book, because my general rule is don’t buy them unless they are free.  By playing the drug store game, I have not paid for toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, detergent, or any other health and beauty item for over a year (since I started) so I don’t even bother to track prices on these any more.