Many years ago, I kept a paper notebook as a price book. I tracked the best prices per grocery store, sale cycles, and trends, and I saved a ton of money.

I got out of the habit over the years, but now that I’m trying to save money and pay down debt, I’ve decided to re-up my price book. I hoped to find an app with all the functionality I wanted but didn’t collect my data like a drunk Mardi Gras parade goer collecting beads.

DollarStretcher suggested the Price Book—Track Grocery Price app. It gets 3.3 stars on the Apple Store and seems like it would be okay. They do collect data, but probably not more than most apps. Of course, I found this app hours after putting together my own Google Sheet. After giving it a shot, I decided my way would work best. You might find it helpful.

Either way, whether you choose a spreadsheet or an app, for this project, you will have to set up all the foods you usually buy. It is sort of onerous but well worth it.

Let’s talk about grocery shopping strategy. About 15 (cough cough, how did I get so old?) years ago, I wrote a blog post about my shopping style. It hasn’t changed much since 2008, “There are two prevailing grocery shopping strategies. One says you should prepare all your dinner menus for one week and then build your shopping list. The second one says that you should prepare your shopping list from the sales flyer and then plan your menu based on that list.

I have some problems with the first strategy. I could never, in a million years, make up a menu for a week beforehand. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal. Long-term planning (yes, a week is long-term for me when it comes to food) is just not going to happen.

1. What if I decided on any given day within that week that I just don’t want to eat what’s on the menu?

2. What if what is on the dinner hit parade takes an hour to cook, and I’ve just had the day from hell?

3. What if I pick seven of the most wonderful, scrumptious, mouth-watering, invite the President (Ewww) over for dinner meals only to find that the ingredients are going to require that I sell my firstborn, a prominent body part, or sexual services?

Now, the second plan—I’m all over it. I greedily snatch up all the sale flyers that come in the mail on Tuesday and Wednesday, grab a pair of reading glasses, a pen, and paper, and then settle in to beat the grocery stores at their own game. I try to think of it as a game because otherwise, it is a boring way to spend an evening.

The first order of business is to focus on the front page. This is where the stores are going to concentrate their best deals. The front page and the produce page are the lost leader stuff. I pretty much just skim the rest.”

Most sale flyers/ads come out on Tuesday or Wednesday. If you use Flipp, you can look at several sale flyers at the same time. However, it doesn’t have all the stores in my area, so I found myself switching back and forth. Personally, I have the grocery store and big box store apps on my device, and I look up the ones I don’t have. The Harp’s and Aldi’s are easy to read the weekly flyers, but searching the store websites is horrible. Someone needs to talk to their UX expert.

I set up my Google Sheets price book to filter, update, and search. It calculates the unit price for ease of comparison, has dates of when the price was last updated, whether it is a regular or sales price, when the sale ends, and any notes that may help in decision-making.

Every week, I go through the flyers to see what is on sale and decide whether I usually buy it or want to splurge a little. I update the price book and then check my existing stores. If I have plenty of an item, I’ll pass. If I have plenty of the item but the price is excellent and I can freeze, store, or can the extra, I’ll buy it. For instance, I have a three-pack of multicolored peppers right now, but they went on sale at Aldi’s for a great price. I’ll buy another couple of packages and then make roasted peppers because I don’t have any roasted peppers in the pantry and they preserve very well.

Once your price book is set up, it takes a few minutes to update it and make your shopping list. I only update if a price is on something I need or if something is on sale. By keeping track of prices, you will know you’re getting the best deal and can see when an item will likely go on sale.

Here is an image of what my Price Book sheet looks like.