Five Finger Discounts

If you don’t know the regular price of an item, how will you know when you are getting a real deal?

Many stores put items on sale.  However, a sale does not necessarily mean you are getting a good deal.  It only means they have reduced the price of an item.

Think about the 10 items that you shop for week after week.  This is a good starting place for your price book.  Next, think of the stores you usually shop at.  I created my price book using Microsoft Excel because I like the ability of using multiple worksheets.  I am also able to “sort” each column as I add items to my price book.  Use whatever you feel comfortable with…a plain sheet of paper will work just as well.

Here is a small sample from my price book:

Let me review this chart with you.  Starting with the butter- I can get a 3-pk. at BJ’s for $4.99.  Therefore, when I divide $4.99 by 3 I see that on average each tub of butter costs me $1.66.  If I purchase butter separately at Target or Lowes, I would be paying 73- 93 cents more for each tub of butter.  Therefore, it’s important for me to buy my butter at BJ’s.

Another example is egg beaters.  If I buy one carton at Target, I will pay $2.54.  At BJ’s I can get a 4-pk. for $7.59.  After doing the math, I see that on average I pay $1.90 per carton at BJ’s, saving 64 cents on each carton.

Eggland’s Best eggs are only $2.79 for a dozen and a half at Costco, whereas Lowe’s sells them for 20 cents more, and I miss out on 6 extra eggs.

Most stores offer incentives to get you to choose them over their competitors.  However, you really need to look at and analyze the items that you buy to see which stores are REALLY giving you a better price.

You don’t want to drive 30 minutes to Costco to save 20 cents on eggs, as you spend much more than that on gas and your time.  However, if you happen to be near Costco, why not stop by and pick up the eggs?  Little by little you will realize which store have better deals for the items you often purchase.

These are the stores I usually shop at:

• Groceries: Harris Teeter, Lowes, Target, Walmart, BJ’s, and Costco.
• Supplies: Target, Walmart, BJ’s, and Costco

The Wholesale clubs have great deals at times, but you really need to look at their unit price.  Sometimes, you get a better deal at Target than you would at BJ’s.

Below is a paper towel comparison that I did recently.

I will only buy “Bounty select-a-size” paper towels because those are the ones I like.  I recently purchased them at 3 different stores.  This is what I learned:

All the packages looked the same- they all had 12 rolls.  However, the type of rolls was different.  There was big, giant and mega.  I had not realized that in the past.  I then looked at the fine print to learn that the amount of sheets per roll also varied.  The giant rolls at Target gave me an additional 14 sheets per roll (multiplied by 12 rolls in the package) equals an extra 168 sheets, for $1 less than the BJ’s package.

Lesson learned: Not all things are created equal.  And that goes for most items that you purchase.  So, make sure you pay attention to unit prices and see which stores are really giving you more for your money.

If you have any questions about creating your price book, let me know.

Tags: Getting Started, Price Book