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The Joy of a Sales Book

February 14th, 2007 at 05:03 pm

OK, well, it's not quite a book, is a spreadsheet. DH caught me entering stuff into this weekend and almost freaked out, he thinks I'm an uber-dork. Yes, I freely admit I'm an uber-dork, but I think the turn of events will prove this to be a good thing, not a weird thing.

In my spreadsheet, I keep track of

1. where I shopped
2. item bought
3. quantity bought
4. date
5. general category (Household, Food, Medical)
6. on sale (Y/N)
7. whether the purchase was impulse, planned (due to weekly sale), regular (would've bought regardless of sale like milk), or tax (yup, keep track of sales tax too Big Grin)

Since I've migrated to Open Office, I get to take advantage of the easy 'Sub Totals' function their spreadsheet offers. For instance, I know that so far about 30% of my purchases are marked as impulse. YIKES! But, 80% of those were unadvertised sales I found going through the store. Suddenly, that doesn't seem so bad now does it?

Anyways, the fact that I keep track of what was bought on sale gives me a big advantage. And not just sales-paper sales, it's the unadvertised sales that can really add up. Like name brand soy sauce, half off. If I were a couponer, I'd know to start looking for coupons for Kikoman!

Plus, some things go on sale in cycles. Since I keep track of what I bought, the date, and if it was a sale, it's easier to spot trends. This is especially true for meat, at least at my store. I told DH last week that the sirloin sale had to be coming up, and sure enough it hit this week. WOO and HOO!!!

Actually, a lot of sales hit this week for items I purchase regularly, so it is stock up time!

whole chicken 49c/lb reg 99c/lb
sirloin steak 2.99/lb reg 6.99/lb
edy's icecream 1.99 reg 4.99
pepsi can 12 packs BOGO 4.99
alexia organic fries 2/4 reg 2.69 ea
2lb bag froz veg 1.99 ea reg 2.39 ea
smithfield bagon BOGO 4.99

Guess it's time to get the new-to-me freezer ready and loaded!


Posted in Frugally Fabulous | 8 Comments »

8 Responses to “The Joy of a Sales Book”

  1. boomeyers Says:
    February 14th, 2007 at 05:35 pm 1171474540
    1171474540

    Wow! Seems like a lot of work, but look at the information you can get from it! Great job and super example!

  2. tinapbeana Says:
    February 14th, 2007 at 05:49 pm 1171475345
    1171475345

    you know, it's actually not that bad. at first entering the stuff was kind of a pain, but a lot of it is copy and paste (store, date, whether i paid cash or check). after that, the items start to repeat themselves, so it'll auto-fill when i start to type, say, Muir Glenn 28 oz tomatoes. soon as i get to Mu it knows where i'm going, b/c i don't buy anything else that starts w/ Mu...

  3. cindilee Says:
    February 14th, 2007 at 06:53 pm 1171479211
    1171479211

    Great idea! I'm too lazy to take it that far as far as prices sales etc. I mainly shop the meat area when the meat manager is marking down the meat on the weekends and the discounted bread area and also the discount bread store. Do you have a discount bread store? There are some great buys there and with a freezer you can freeze some things from there. I bought my freezer a couple of months ago and am so glad I did!

  4. Ima saver Says:
    February 14th, 2007 at 07:02 pm 1171479739
    1171479739

    Good work!!

  5. kimiko Says:
    February 14th, 2007 at 07:55 pm 1171482940
    1171482940

    wow, lots of work, but better than the manual pricebook method.

  6. daylily Says:
    February 14th, 2007 at 08:31 pm 1171485094
    1171485094

    I started out 2007 doing something similar. I'm trying to keep track of groceries, HBA, clothing, etc. I'm also tracking my coupon usage.

  7. monkeymama Says:
    February 14th, 2007 at 11:10 pm 1171494619
    1171494619

    That's great! I started to keep track but was way too time consuming. I wish my dh would take the ball on this but he hasn't. He has the time and he does all the shopping. But I give up - I was spending all my free time entering things. Maybe because we buy a lot more too (for 4). LOL. I may try again down the road though. My dh has a lot in his head but I was looking forward to spotting more of the trends and when things tend to go on sale, etc. He knows what is a good deal and stocks up when it is, but we still don't have a good handle on the cycles and all.

  8. daylily Says:
    February 15th, 2007 at 02:08 pm 1171548512
    1171548512

    I need to keep track of the sale cycles too for products/food that I use frequently. I'll add that to my list.

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