The biggest part of saving money has been knowing what a good price is for the items I buy most often and which stores have those prices.
I'll be honest once again. I haven't actually physically taken a notebook with me although I know it would help. I have a hard enough time keeping my toddler from eating my coupons and chewing on the shopping cart - a notebook would be just one more temptation.
Try this out and see if it helps. Get a small notebook that you can easily take with you. Make a list of 5-10 items that you buy on a regular basis. Make note of the size since different stores often carry different sizes. For the next 5 shopping trips, jot down the price of that item and what store you were shopping. You should start to see a pattern of what stores carry those items at the best prices.
If you really want to expand on this idea, make a slightly longer list. Shop at least weekly at several stores. Write in the per-unit cost with the date of each trip. Do this for several months. You will start to see a pattern of how many weeks in a sale cycle for these items so you can better plan how much stockpile you will need to last to the next sale cycle.
What have I found? Here are just a few: (please note - prices vary by region)
bananas - cheapest at Aldi's at $.39/lb
milk - cheapest at Aldi's at $1.79/gallon
Splenda (granulated) - cheapest at Walmart at less than $6 (and I have a lot of $1 coupons)
Yoplait Parfait Delights - cheapest at Kroger after coupons
What have you found?
