From the beginning--

book recommendation: The Complete Tightwad Gazette

http://organizedhome.com/content-73.html (price book story and instructions)

http://stretcher.com/stories/05/05mar14c.cfm (article)

http://stretcher.com/stories/03/03mar10b.cfm

http://stretcher.com/stories/981015a.html

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/05/05aug08g.cfm (what a price book is about)

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/990208m.cfm

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/971124a.cfm

http://frugalliving.about.com/c/ht/00/07/How_Create_Grocery_...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sns-yourmoney-spending0... (article about price books)

Here are some links that will get you educated on the whats, whys, and hows of price books use and setup. I started mine years ago in Word format, but have since changed to a space-and paper-saving Excel format. If you wish to see a copy of either one, please e-mail me privately and I'll send you a copy.

With the advent of handheld devices, many of us have our files tucked neatly away in PDAs--Blackberries, Handsprings, and the like.

Price booking is a practice of keeping track of commonly-purchased items with focus on unit price rather than shelf price, which is where your attention ought to be when it comes to food. Unit price (cost per ounce or pound) combined with cost per serving and portion control (which I will get into later), are the best methods for cutting grocery bills to the bone and maximizing your food dollar. Most of us have whole categories memorized, so you likely won't see us marching around stores with a binder in our hands--but we did when we were getting started.

Make a record of what you buy regularly, read these links for operating your price book, then go out and focus on getting the best PER UNIT price you can find in your area. Enlisting the help of weekly ads can aid your search for rock-bottom prices.

Once you master this method of saving grocery $$, then you can move on to the fine art of coupon tricks--then you will eventually find that you won't need to clip coupons any more (but this is months away, so don't hurry).

This is a learning process, not a race, so get to know the how's, why's, and where's, then once you have a firm grasp of the knowledge, pass it on to your kids. This is what we've all done here. The time spent mastering and perfecting price information and adapting it to our needs is the one important weapon in our arsenal against inflation and marketing schemes.