Grocery Store Strategy One

This post is about how to use the cyclical prices at the grocery store to your advantage.

===Items Needed===

• Log Book
• Index Tabs
• Pencil/Pen

I purchased a lined book at Walmart and also a package of sticky tabs to add to the book. My grocery store has 16 aisles so I added 18 tabs into the book. Usually I start on the right side of the store which is the 16th aisle (milk,dairy,etc...which is the right side of my store), so my first tab is labeled "16 dairy,juice". This allows me to go from front to back through the book as I do my grocery shopping. The last tab is for the produce/bread aisle.

I  also add the item package size or ounces/unit cost and the reg price and date, this helps when shopping at different stores for price comparisons. TIP: Different Color pens/pencil can be used as a legend for different stores. Sale dates are noted under the price with the date.This dating allows you to figure out the length of the sales cycle. Your job is to buy at the bottom, but it will take you at least one sales cycle to figure out the length of each cycle.

You can click the picture to enlarge to photo

The time that it takes to start a book is quite a lot, but takes less time the more it is used, because a lot of the information is already in the price book. It took me about two hours the first two times I went through the grocery store, but on an average trip it only takes about five minutes longer. The idea is to catch your regularly purchased items at the bottom of the cycle. Mouthwash is usually around $2.49 but last time I caught them on sale for $1.00 each. I wrote the sale price and date into my book and bought 10 to get me through until the next cycle. That was about five months ago and I still have five left. When they go on sale again, I'll buy whatever amount it will take to get me to 10 mouthwash again. So, I'm saving around 60% off on this item alone. Now, do this with all of your items that can be stockpiled and add up some real savings. It will take a while to start to see some savings since you are front loading your costs.

Click here for the link to Part Two .