Saving Money on Groceries - The Price Book, Part 2: Starting to Use It

So for example, here are some entries in my price book, each entered under the appropriate page so that I can find it quickly:

lemons F 3/1.00 R
white flour D 5# 1.00 R
laundry detergent D 40 load 2.75 R

So in other words, I purchased 3 lemons at the flea market for a dollar, a 5# bag of white flour at a dollar store, and also at the dollar store a large jug of laundry detergent that will do 40 loads for $2.75. All these items I got at regular price.

So now that I have these entries, if I go to Sparks Supermarket and I see lemons on sale with a huge special sign at 1.99 for 3, I'm not fooled even though they are marketing it as if this "low" price is indeed unusual. I've got my handy book to tell me "the price to beat." But if I go over to Cost-Less and I see they have laundry detergent that will do 40 loads and it's $2.50, then I will write a new line right under the other laundry line like so:

laundry det D 40 load 2.75 R
laundry det C 40 load 2.50 R

So do I run all over creation to save a quarter? No. But it doesn't work that way.
First start keeping your book and be sure to check out every store, stand, co-op, etc. within a comfortable drive of your home and on your way to work or any other route you regularly take for other reasons. The plan is, the place that is the best overall for fresh food prices, you will go to every week. The others stores you will rotate and visit one every week. So pretty much you only have to go to two stores a week, but you might be shopping for different items at five stores over the course of the month. Follow?

I prevent confusion when I shop by keeping separate shopping lists for the different stores. When I need to put an item on my shopping list, I look it up in my price book, and then, say it's lemons, that would go on the flea market shopping list, while the flour and laundry soap would go on the dollar store list. Without much trouble you’ll get the knack of putting staples like flour on the shopping list before you start running low.