Making a Price List: The Digital Version

photo by lustfish

A price list is essential for anyone desiring to save the most money on their grocery budget, whether they shop at regular old grocery or get all their food from a local farm. As long as you have multiple sources for the same food, there is bound to be some competition and therefore, variance in price. I’ve already shown you how to make a hard copy of your price list, so today we’re going to move into the 21st century with a digital version!

The digital version requires all the same information:

• item
• brand
• regular price
• unit size
• store

Personally, I find a digital price list to be the easiest way to record local prices, because spreadsheets are a great way to organize a lot of information at one time. You can just glance through the list and see the information you’re looking for automatically! I also love that a spreadsheet will alphabetize each section for you, making it that much easier to find.

There are 3 main spreadsheet software options (probably more lesser known options, too, but we’ll stick with these for now):

• Microsoft Excel - Most people have this on their computers, so it’s an obvious choice. On the other hand, it’s expensive, so you probably won’t want to invest in it just for your grocery price list if you don’t already have it. You can buy the QuickOffice app (currently $9.99) that will allow you to view and edit (to a certain extent) your spreadsheet on your iPhone or Android.
• Open Office - I don’t have much experience with this, but unlike Microsoft, it’s free. No app for phones, though, as far as I can tell.
• Google Docs - my personal favorite because Google Docs has a free Android app ($4.99 for iPhone) that I can bring to the store, both to reference and to update when necessary.

As an example, you can see my own personal price list here.

You can organize your own spreadsheet in one of two ways:

1. with one sheet for each category (like Produce, Dairy, Meat, etc.)
2. with all categories on one sheet, separated by different colored bars

I’ve personally opted for the second one so that all the information is contained in one place. Either one would work just as well.

In any case, each sheet should have 5 columns labeled the following:

Item - Brand - Unit Size - Store - Price

It’s pretty self-explanatory, but just in case, here’s what each of those columns should contain:

• Item: the generic name for the item you are recording, for example, apples or chicken breasts. One thing I need to do more consistently, and re-organize my list to act accordingly: add any qualifying adjectives after the title. For example, if you record both organic and conventional prices, your list would have a line with the word “apples” followed by a line with “apples, organic“. Or perhaps “fish, farm-raised” and “fish, wild-caught“.
• Brand: record the different prices for each brand in a different line and differentiate it here. This is important! It will help you compare generic vs. name brand prices, AND it will help you determine if you can get a good price for an item using a coupon during a super doubles or triples event.
• Unit Size: record the size of the container in question. You can go about this two ways. You can use a lowest-common-denominator unit of measurement for each item - like an ounce, for example - and calculate each price by that unit. So you would divide the price of a 16oz container by 16, or an 8oz container by 8, etc. With this method, you can clearly see the bottom line: which package is cheapest. OR you can be lazy like me and just record each item’s size as it is and do the mental math when comparing prices.
• Store: record the name of the store (or farm or co-op, etc.) with the price you are noting.
• Price: record the price, either the actual price of the item in question, or the price-per-base-unit as mentioned above.

Now you can see at a glance what store has the best price on any item from your grocery list! Plus, using the spreadsheet features, you can organize each list in multiple different ways. For example, on Google docs, you can sort:

• alphabetically by item - Select the range you want to sort, and highlight it. Click on “Data” and then “Sort Range by Column A, A-Z”
• alphabetically by store - Select the range you want to sort, and highlight it. Click on “Data” and then “Sort Range”. Then choose column D (or whichever column in your spreadsheet contains the store names) in the window that pops up.
• by price, lowest-to-highest - Select the range you want to sort, and highlight it. Click on “Data” and then “Sort Range”. Then choose column E (or whichever column in your spreadsheet contains the prices) in the window that pops up. Select A-Z.
• by price, highest-to-lowest - Select the range you want to sort, and highlight it. Click on “Data” and then “Sort Range”. Then choose column E (or whichever column in your spreadsheet contains the prices) in the window that pops up. Select Z-A.

In the same manner, you could also choose to sort by brand or unit size. I imagine the other spreadsheet software options have the same sorting functions.

And there you have it: the 21st century version of a price list!

If you have an online price list spreadsheet, I’d love to see if (if you don’t mind sharing, of course!)! Just leave a link in the comments.

Read the rest of the series:

What is a Price List (or Book)?

How to Make a Hard Copy Price Book

How to Make a Digital Price Book

How to Maintain Your Price List