Spreadsheets: Part 5 - Grocery Price Book

The final spreadsheet that I use to help me coupon and calculate my savings is the Grocery Price Book. This is one of the last spreadsheets I started using in my couponing adventures, yet it is probably the one I refer to the most, as it tells me if a sale is actually a good deal or not.

You can find the Grocery Price Book template here or in the column to the right.

I originally found this spreadsheet at Uncommon Way to Wealth, and you can see their examples under the first tab in the spreadsheet.

Date & Store
These columns are pretty self-explanatory.

Product Catagory
Here I put a very general catagories - for example: meat.

Product Name
Here I enter more specifics - for example: chicken breast

Brand Name
You'll see under my Grocery Pricebook 2009 that I've tweaked this spreadsheet a little. I've added a column called Brand Name so that I can compare brand prices and sales.

Weight/Volume/Units/Count/Quantity
These columns are really up to you as to how you fill them out. Generally I do ounces in the first two columns and pounds in the second two columns. You'll want to maintain some consistency with these, especially for similar products so that you can compare like products.

Orig/Sale/Coupon
Here is where you record the original price, the sale price and the coupon value (I've added the coupon column to the original spreadsheet).

Final Price
This is automatically calculated for you.

Price per Unit
This is also automatically calculated for you (don't you LOVE spreadsheets yet) and are the columns you'll reference most often to see which store has the best price or if a sale is worth taking advantage of.

Be patient with this spreadsheet.

It will take some time (weeks) and multiple trips to the grocery store to gather information. So, don't rush and don't expect to have a useful pricebook in just four weeks.

Also, don't stress yourself out with entering all of your trips to the grocery store every week. If I'm busy and don't feel like I have time to fill in this spreadsheet then I skip it!

Couponing is not worth it to me if it takes energy away from life and adds more stress to my schedule. I want couponing to be a blessing out finances, not a drain.