During my Wednesday deals update this week, I mentioned the concept of a price book, and many of you have contacted me wanting more details. Basically, you keep a notebook where you write down the good prices you find on items that you regularly buy. Don't do it for everything, but do it for the top 10 or 15 or 20 items you use all the time. Write down the store, the price you paid and what the item was, including the size of the package. You can then calculate price per ounce or pound or whatever to make sure you're getting a fair comparison from store to store and sale to sale.
By doing this, you accomplish two things. First, you become a more educated shopper because you actually know what you pay for those items and can therefore spot a good deal when you see one. Second, if you are consistent and do it long enough, you can figure out what some of the sales cycles are. Many items go on sale every two months or every few weeks on a regular, repeating cycle. If you know what the cycle is, you can buy enough when it's cheap to last you between sales.
So that's the gist of a price book. For a more detailed description, I'm going to direct you to Faye Prosser, a Garner woman who I still say is a couponing genius (though she refuses to accept the title). Faye has a great discussion of price books and other money-saving techniques on her Web site. (The price book discussion is about two-thirds of the way down.)
Re: Coupons 101: A price book...
I'll be honest :-) I've been doing this so long that my price book is in my head now. But some people just use a notebook. Other people use Excel. Whatever works for you!