With my little bit of energy I organized today. I’d never actually done a price book, despite my love of Amy Dacyczyn. I decided after a Costco visit that it was time-I knew from the prices that I keep in my head that the prices on a couple items were great, but other items were not good deals, to say the least. It’s time to give my memory a break, and let other items besides prices find room in my head. I feel good about my grocery expenditures-average of $103 over the last 17 months-but it will be nice be able to stock up confidently when I see a truly great deal.

I did already have a lot of prices in my head, and was able to make more entries in my spreadsheet Price Book than I thought. I have a Rule of Thumb column, for standard cutoffs that I use all the time at all stores (pasta 50 cents a pound or less, etc.). I have columns for the four other stores I shop at regularly, plus a column for “other” stores. Instead of one page per item, I did a list of items, so I will have two landscape pages total to start. By using just 2 grocery receipts and what’s in my head I’ve got a good head start. It’s surprising how many prices I’ve memorized, and then I just had to peek at the container to check the total weight.

I also put together a list of what I have in my Presents Stash. I have 16 person-specific gifts, and nine miscellaneous gifts that could go to anyone, and are good hostess gifts, or even “it’s been a bad week-feel better” gifts. Making the list also helped me figure out where holes are, so I can look that much more carefully at garage sales and thrift stores for certain people.

I’m going to bed early tonight. Still not up to par, and just a whole lot of nothing on TV.