Maintain a List of Indicative Prices for Common Products
Even if you make a list before you go to the grocery store, you can still spend a lot of time – not to mention money – if you are distracted by the sale tags on the shelves in almost every aisle. Of course, I want to save some money. But is it worth standing in the aisle and comparing sale prices for the many sizes and varieties that you have in your store?
The unit price – that is, the price of an item per ounce, sheet, or otherwise – is usually easy to find on a shelf label. But comparing unit prices can be time consuming, especially if the units shown do not match from one brand to another.
That’s why you need a second shopping list: one for your own reference price.
Reddit user thenewyorkgod explained his method of tracking “estimated prices” for about 30 items they buy on a regular basis. They set a unit price for the cheapest version of each product so that when a sale comes up, they have a baseline of how good (or bad) the selling price really is.
This is how it works:
I track the reference price for each of these items based on purchases at the cheapest places like Aldi and Costco. For example, Costco toilet paper is $ 0.01 per square foot, Dove shampoo is $ 0.18 an ounce, and Aldi aluminum foil is $ 0.026 per foot. That way, when I shop and see a clearance sale or clearance sale for similar items like Charmin at Walgreens, Costco foil wholesale, I can quickly determine if that product, at its current size, is a good deal based on my reference prices.
Users share their frustrations with grocery shopping, from the existence of “87 different pasta sauces” (true) to “toilet paper math” that forces you to calculate single rolls, double rolls, and various other functions along with price. And this is if you only shop in one store. If you visit several different stores, as the original poster does, it adds another level of shopping comparison.
Here is part of the newlywed list. As you can see, this is far from fiction, but it does its job.
Why not just remember the last price you paid for this item and figure it out as you push the cart? Because we all fall prey to decision fatigue . We make thousands of small decisions every day, and by the time we get to the grocery store, we’re likely a little exhausted. If you rely on your memory to determine when something in a sale is a “good deal,” you will be wrong — not always, but at least from time to time. The ramifications of these mistakes are ultimately minor, but if you’re trying to maximize your savings, why not reduce the chances of making a mistake at the grocery store?
With a list like this, you can use autopilot for at least most of your time in the store. If one of your frequently bought items is on sale, you can browse the listing, find the lowest unit price, and quickly determine if the size of the item being sold means you can get a better deal than your benchmark price.