It's important to know your personal price points (the point at which a product is a price you are willing to pay) because it will help govern your spending and to help you get the best deals. For example I won't usually spend more than 75 cents for a box of cereal (and never more than $1), more than 25 cents for a tube of toothpaste or 30 cents for an individual yogurt cup. If you are unaware of what a good starting point for various grocery items are here are two sources for price lists, with accompanying ratings:
Savvy Shopper Price List. The link is contained on the 7th comment down on the page.
(Note: You must sign up as a member on the site, and be logged in to access the price list, but it's in Excel so I'd recommend downloading it for future reference since it can be hard to find anything again on this site.)
Pinching Your Pennies Price Book.
Each contains a list of common household and grocery items and the top two or three price ranges. It's worth comparing the two lists, because they vary slightly and your own personal price points will also vary from them but it's a good starting out point. I even keep a copy in my coupon binder so that if I am at the store and want to know, for example, if a certain item on "clearance" is actually a good price or not then I have a good reference guide (although after awhile you'll know most item's price points by memory). I especially recommend this as you are starting out and trying to establish your own price points.
You may find that when you are starting out your price points are higher because you haven't yet been able to build up a good supply/pantry/food storage to be able to wait out a good sale. But you will find that pretty quickly as you do start accumulating more you can lower your price points so that you no longer have to buy toothpaste when you can't squeeze another drop out of that scrunched up tube and pay whatever the store is charging that week, nor do you have to pay $1.00 (an ok sale price) or even 50 cents/tube ( a pretty good sale price) because you have enough to grab a new tube from your pantry and you can get more toothpaste to replenish the stockpile only when it's free, or even a little bit of an overage!
That's the power of the price point, and it's worth knowing.
Another good article to read about "The Buy Ahead Principle" (aka building up a good pantry/food storage/stock piling) is found Money-Saving Mom's Blog here.
Savvy Shopper Price List. The link is contained on the 7th comment down on the page.
(Note: You must sign up as a member on the site, and be logged in to access the price list, but it's in Excel so I'd recommend downloading it for future reference since it can be hard to find anything again on this site.)
Pinching Your Pennies Price Book.
Each contains a list of common household and grocery items and the top two or three price ranges. It's worth comparing the two lists, because they vary slightly and your own personal price points will also vary from them but it's a good starting out point. I even keep a copy in my coupon binder so that if I am at the store and want to know, for example, if a certain item on "clearance" is actually a good price or not then I have a good reference guide (although after awhile you'll know most item's price points by memory). I especially recommend this as you are starting out and trying to establish your own price points.
You may find that when you are starting out your price points are higher because you haven't yet been able to build up a good supply/pantry/food storage to be able to wait out a good sale. But you will find that pretty quickly as you do start accumulating more you can lower your price points so that you no longer have to buy toothpaste when you can't squeeze another drop out of that scrunched up tube and pay whatever the store is charging that week, nor do you have to pay $1.00 (an ok sale price) or even 50 cents/tube ( a pretty good sale price) because you have enough to grab a new tube from your pantry and you can get more toothpaste to replenish the stockpile only when it's free, or even a little bit of an overage!
That's the power of the price point, and it's worth knowing.
Another good article to read about "The Buy Ahead Principle" (aka building up a good pantry/food storage/stock piling) is found Money-Saving Mom's Blog here.
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