The Pricebook returns - can it help me pay down the mortgage?

Well as you know Evernote is now firmily in my life (see last post) and I can honestly say I love it and it's really got me organised!

This morning was the time to get back into my pricebook mode. This first year with baby has meant I lost my mojo on this sort of thing - tidyness, the blog, batch cooking, pricebook all went out the window pretty much. But no more!

How do I do it?

I have a notebook inside Evernote called 'Pricebook', and it's easily editable both on my pc and my phone. So when I am in the supermarket, I can edit prices, and it's all synched up with my pc.

Here is an example of the work I have done so far - some data is missing but I will fill that in next time I find that product:

Butter - Olive oil type £0.89p ALDI

Cheddar cheese 400g £2.39 / 5.98 per kg ALDI

Coffee (instant) - £       £0.72 per 100g / £7.20 per kg ALDI

Ginger (ground) 50g £0.50p / £10 per kg
Marmite £      £2 per kg ASDA

Mayo Squeezy 475g £0.89 / 1.80 per kg - ALDI

Nappies Size 4 (56) £0.10p each ALDI

Oregano fresh Mexican £3.50 per 100g / £35 per kg - Ebay

Paprika

Peanut Butter (Special) £1.29 / £3.58 per kg - ALDI  

Rice basmati 5kg - £6 / £1.20 per kg  Amazon

Teabags x 440 £1.49 / £0.01or less each - Approved Foods

Tinned tomatoes 400g £0.31 / £0.78 per kg ALDI

Toilet paper x 9 rolls Saxon - 1.99 / £0.22p per roll - ALDI

Tomato concentrate puree 200g 0.35p / £1.75 per litre ALDI 

Toothpaste 75g - £0.20p / £2.67 per kg - Approved Foods

Washing conditioner 1500ml £0.99p / £0.66 per litre - Approved Foods

Washing liquid bio Time £0.75p / £1.02 per litre / £0.03 per wash - Approved Foods

Washing Powder Radon non bio 800g £0.99 / £1.24 per kg / £0.08 per wash - Approved Foods

Washing Up Liquid - Magnum - £1.00 per litre ALDI

So I'm really happy with how it's working for me so far. Much better than a piece of paper, or a notebook - this is virtual and I will not lose it because it's 'in the cloud'.

What products are on your list? What are your secret weapons to save money on shopping?

I can't wait to add more to my list, sad but true!  Would much rather be saving that cash for baby or putting it against our mortgage. In fact, that may well be a challenge to myself now we are at the start of the month!

 

Evernote... everynote... ever simple!

Ok, so I have found *the* tool I needed. No more searching, no more scraps of paper, no more losing stuff. That's right, I am excited!

You have to see it: http://evernote.com/

It synchs with your phone, so whatever you do on the computer or on your phone, the other knows about. Sraps of shopping lists? No more. Too many bookmarks to even find what you wanted? Not an issue.

My dream of having an up to date pricebook is so much closer now. I also use it to clip recipes from the web.

Everything is searchable, so it's even better than Pinterest in that respect, plus everyone doesn't have to see what you are doing this way, especially if you are planning a birthday or event you want to keep under wraps.

A bonus? You. Can. E-mail. Directly. To. It.
So that important e-mail you got relating to the party you are arranging? You want it to quickly go into the Party folder, you just e-mail your unique address at Evernote and put '@ Party' in the subject line. Because @ pops it into whatever folder you name.
And it tags beautifully. You can tag to your hearts content, each note then gets tagged. Then just click the 'car' tag to see everything you have ever saved relating to your car. For me, it's will be the last MOT certificate, the last price I paid AA, when car tax is due...

And for me, I love the fact that... it has checkboxes... and bullet points... and you can change font size and colour. I am very visual so it helps hugely. Already I have build up several recipes, logged key household information, shared it with hubby... and now I can relax because between dropbox and Evernote, things are going to speed up alot in our household. Especially the recycling... as hubby is shared on that folder now! Do you use it? What tools do you use to stay organised? Would love to bounce ideas around as to how you do things.

Bulk Buying Bonanza - Saving on shopping

Ok so here is a short but hopefuly useful post on what I have achieved so far!

I bought 10kg of (broken) dishwasher tablets on ebay, 2p per wash this way. I will also carefully monitor the salt levels and use soda crystals so that the machine runs well and is happy overall.

I am keeping an eye on Amazon Grocery as they can have good deals too, never bought food from there before but when the have deals and also offer discounts for regular orders, some golden deals may be had there.

I'm going to use www.mysupermarket.co.uk more to compare prices and see deals, then if need be do my weekly shop in the best supermarket to bulk buy. It may involve slightly more petrol, but if we can bulk buy and make a family day out of it, it may work out!

Will keep an eye on local boot fairs and markets as they often sell boxes of veg very cheap, so I can make more pasta sauces, casseroles etc and get that slow cooker working for me again...

I will keep my Pricebook up to date, so far I know that 2p per dishwash, 10p per nappy (when I buy some, only buy 1 pack at the moment per month), 6p per clothes wash are best prices to aim for. Next ones will be things like toothpaste, loo roll (can I beat 22p per roll at Aldi!) and olive oil etc. None of them run out, so no danger of wastage - if you have any ideas please do share!

Pricebook for shopping

Here are some pics of my shopping pricebook - this has saved me an absolute fortune! I did not believe it would at first, but actually over time it's a valuable exercise.

I got it in Sussex Stationers for £2.99, it's mostly blank which I found was the best format for me. I write each item in the correct section (it's alphabetised) and then I write where the item came from (Sainsburys, Co-Op etc), the weight, price and the eventual price per Kg. This way when I see a deal, I can check if it's the best price I have paid, or there's somewhere else I could get it cheaper. It's great to use www.mysupermarket.co.uk and then note the prices, as they work out the price per kg for you ;o) I also always note when that price was a 'Deal' as opposed to it's normal cheapest selling price.




Today as an example, Co-Op have Utterly Butterly on BOGOF (Buy 1 Get 1 Free) for 500g. This makes the price per kg on the deal £1.36, so 500g is just £0.68p which is a great price. Plus it can be placed in the freezer.




I have been writing in mine for around 10 weeks now and I can honestly say it's saved me around £40 by now, all for £2.99 and a bit of elbow grease!

You may also be interested in meal planning to save more cash - see my 'Making Dinnertime easier' post - you can also download this meal planner:
http://frugalliving.about.com/library/Meal_Planning_Worksheet.pdf