The most useful tool I've found for reducing my grocery costs is to keep a "price book." I first heard about the idea from Amy Dacyzn (pronounced "decision"), author of the Tightwad Gazette. She went from rags to riches (she has 6 kids, too!) by being a tightwad. So no, she's not writing her gazette anymore, she's probably getting a professional massage or is in the hot tub (I would hope), but the newsletters were compiled and released into three books and you can probably find them at your library. They are also now in one volume called, The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

Anyway, the price book was invaluable, and it is something you make yourself and it's FREE! I found I only need about 20 pieces of paper in a small notebook. It has to be small because I want it to fit in my purse so that I always have it with me.

You can organize yours any way that makes sense to you, but I wrote at the tops of my pages:

Notes (This is where I write the key to my shorthand abbreviations, how many cups of flour are in a 5 pound bag, etc.)

Beans

Beverages

Dairy

Fruit

Grains

Herbs & Spices

Meat & Fish

Nuts

Oils, Butter, etc.

Vegetables

Misc.

Cleaners (& shampoo, etc.)

Paper and Plastic Products (& foil, tampons, etc)

So to start, set up your book at home and pull out any grocery tapes you have. This will only take you half an hour at most. It will take you a few weeks to get your price book rolling, but then after that it will be a lot less work, and it's really not a lot of work to begin with.

For each item you typically buy, you want to write in pencil on a horizontal line in your book:

Item / a letter code for the store you buy it at / the weight, amount or volume / price / and then I like to add a one letter code, R for regular price, S for sale price and C for clearance price, and actually it's also not a bad idea to put the date if you have room on your page.