Price Points

Originally posted March 23, 2010
As you coupon and sale shop, coming up with price points is a must. I used to say I had food buying rules, now they are price points. One day my sister mentioned she likes Pringles, but will only buy them when they are less than $1. She rarely uses coupons, so 10/$10 sales were too high. The Pringles had to be 99¢ or less. This radically changed my junk food buying habits! For me, a big bag of M&Ms must be less than 2/$4 and Oreos must be less than 2/$5. M&Ms must be $1.99 or lower and Oreos must be less than $2.49 before coupons. This has curbed my M&M consumption and virtually eliminated Oreos from my home. As an added benefit, I lost a little weight!
Using a price book is recommended--it's hard to keep all those prices in your head. I don’t have one, but need to start because I never know when Cheez Whiz or tea bags are cheap enough. Price books can be simple, just track the prices of foods you use all the time, size of item, date, store, if there was a sale, and if there was a promotion (i.e. Safeway Buy 5 Save $5, or a catalina). Sales are cyclical and some promotions come back year after year.