Grocery shopping itemising everything??

[Deactivated] on 25/11/2018 - 08:07
Last edited 25/11/2018 - 08:08

I recently came across a workmate who itemises every grocery item yearly on a excel

I must admit I do find it strange

EG she knows she has purchased this year 22 toothpaste tubes this 2018 year and 40 litres of milk and 2200 grams of coffee etc.etc etc

Does anyone go this far so to speak ?

Im not trying to judge but rather find out why.

I personally just use the Bank app to log my spending but its usually under Grocery items.

I have absolutely no idea how many bars of soap or toothpaste tubes i have bought this year.

Would this be classified as OCD ?

Financial

Comments

  • Nugs on 25/11/2018 - 08:21
    +9

    no, but I bet colesworth know…..
    .

    • Easton on 27/11/2018 - 10:09
      +4

      They do. I was trying to do up a spreadsheet to figure out how to cut down on my grocery bills and to avoid needing to manually itemise my purchases, as with the OP's co-worker, I e-mailed Woolworths and asked for a list of everything I've purchased where I've scanned my Woolworths Rewards Card. I got a CSV file back from them with every single purchase I've made itemised, along with the purchase price and store of purchase for the past decade (i.e. since I signed up for the card). The listing was for all Woolworths businesses and also included purchases at Big W and petrol sales at Woolworths petrol stations.

      • kerfuffle on 27/11/2018 - 11:01
        +1

        They do indeed; in January, flybuys sent a yearly snapshot of your points earings and it told me my dad bought bananas 32 times and I bought OMO eight times …

        • SnoozeAndLose on 28/11/2018 - 06:10

          if people have multiple flybuys and Woolworths rewards card make this even harder to itemise

          • kerfuffle on 28/11/2018 - 06:43

            @SnoozeAndLose: Nah, they itemised it for flybuys. I have one flybuys account and four cards to it; I got sent two e-mails - one with my dad's shopping list and one with my shopping list

  • JIMB0 on 25/11/2018 - 08:24

    That's a lot of toothpaste. Could be useful to develop better spending habits, although very time consuming.

    • [Deactivated] on 26/11/2018 - 11:24

      Depends how many people are in the family.

      We go through one pump bottle of Colgate a month for the two of us.
      With kids, 22 a year sounds about right.

  • gentlecrack on 25/11/2018 - 08:26

    I always wanted to do some analytics on my consumption. Global brands/local brands, organic/inorganic, company-wise, winter/summer etc.

  • WreckTangle on 25/11/2018 - 08:29

    I imagine if you know your annual usage, you can go to Costco and buy in bulk. Wouldn’t keep records without a purpose though!

    • try2bhelpful on 25/11/2018 - 08:34

      Fine for multiple purchase items, and non perishables, but who needs a litre of cream? Sounds like OPs co worker is a tad obsessive.

  • ego22 on 25/11/2018 - 08:31
    +2

    she purchases 22 tothpaste tubes this year!? your friends with mr ed?

    • rompastompa on 27/11/2018 - 11:03

      That'd be 22 jars of peanut butter.

  • kerfuffle on 25/11/2018 - 09:11
    +3

    I do this for petrol; I log when I bought it, from who if it’s not my usual, how many litres and how much per litre it was (no, I don’t use my car for work)

    • SydneySwan on 26/11/2018 - 17:29

      I do this and also record odometer when petrol purchased, type (E10 or U91) and so have a running calculation of litres per 100k, etc.

  • mskeggs on 25/11/2018 - 09:14
    +2

    When our family dropped to one income and more kids I started keeping itemised dockets in addition to the monthly budget of spending.
    It is useful to be able to look back at the spending if you find the $ for the period is higher than expected. I found we could make savings in lots of areas by being more organised, e.g. buying 4 lots of chicken when it is on sale instead of one, then three back at rrp saves $9. And also “hidden” costs. One recipe we like has several fresh herbs. If you buy them, it adds a lot to the per meal cost, but if you plan to make the recipe twice 7 days apart you can use the remaining herbs from the first lot (and, of course, if you are even more organised you will grow,your own!).
    So a combination of review and planning gets savings without any actual “going without”.
    I don’t do this any more, as our budget is less stringent these days, but I definitely recommend this level of scrutiny if you need to eke out every saving.

  • empty456 on 25/11/2018 - 09:27

    I have done this in the past to know how many I need to buy when the item is a good price. For example, if I know we use up a toothpaste tube every 4 weeks and toothpaste is 75% off, I would buy 4 (equiv to full price) because we'd use it up in 4 months anyway (it won't expire in that time). If the item is something we don't use much of then I wouldn't buy that much even if it's a crazy price.

    • ThirdRonnie on 25/11/2018 - 23:07

      (it won't expire in that time)

      Toothpaste - expire?

      • kerfuffle on 26/11/2018 - 07:41

        Those with active ingredients like in whitening toothpaste will expire

  • loulou1 on 25/11/2018 - 09:50
    +3

    I do not do this. Too much effort.
    However, my “friend” once got a great deal on toothbrushes. 3 for $1 of the ones they use. So they bought all that was in stock. Later on My “friend” went on a holiday to visit family. Her husband called while she was away and asked if she knew how many toothbrushes were currently in their house. She did not know. Her husband said “97 damn toothbrushes”. Friend then went and tracked down a store with 3 more. 100 is such a nice number.

  • livo74 on 25/11/2018 - 10:17

    could come in handy.. if say chose to then buy bulk items (where applicable) from cosco etc.

  • Diji1 on 25/11/2018 - 11:16

    Now that's a (mod: edited) who knows what she's spending unlike most of the people doing zero price comparisons and go to supermarkets based on credit card spending incentive programs and pretending they're getting a bargain even though they did no price comparison.

    • try2bhelpful on 25/11/2018 - 23:38
      +1

      Looking for points doesn't mean you aren't looking at prices. What it means is if there is something on special, that is non perishable, you might buy a few of those to get you above the level required. I do get a laugh from the "Aldi" ads talking about this - if there was ever a "cult" shopping group it is people who buy from Aldi.

  • pinnacle on 26/11/2018 - 09:54

    Our household use an Application named AceMoney for more than 15 years now to track Income/Expenses. Unfortunately, they do not have an App yet except for a minimalist interface. Every transaction goes into this application which helps us in both Budgeting and Expense Analysis. Though it sounds like OCD, I find it helps with Home Finance. It does not take long for data entry at the end of the day considering the amount of time we spent of Social Media nowadays.

  • afah0447 on 26/11/2018 - 10:04

    She just sounds like a very thorough accountant.

  • mysterytal on 26/11/2018 - 10:15

    I don't itemize each item as that would take far too long but I do enter the whole grocery trip expense into a spreadsheet so I can see what I've spent over time. I spend $50 every 10 days for day to day groceries for two.

    I do keep all receipts and if I run out of something I can find when I last purchased it and what was paid just by going through the receipts. I tend to do that for the big things such as coffee 400 grams which lasts about 4 to 5 weeks and should cost no more than $16. Dog food 7.5kg which lasts 7 to 8 weeks and should cost no more than $16. I always buy things when they're on offer to get the most out of the shopping.

    • [Deactivated] on 26/11/2018 - 11:49
      +1

      Your coffee 400 grams lasts 5 weeks? Mine is lucky to last 2 weeks !!!

      I just love coffee

      • dimitryp on 26/11/2018 - 12:06
        +1

        you gotta roast your own :). I've started doing this and am saving approx $1,000 per year in coffee costs

  • [Deactivated] on 26/11/2018 - 12:23
    +1

    @ mysterytai, am i reading this right, you spend $50 every 10 days for groceries for two?

    How do you that? I think i spend far more than that on just myself.

    • mysterytal on 28/11/2018 - 04:00

      Although I listed coffee and dog food the $50 excludes the coffee and dog food. The $50 is just for general groceries. Mainly meat, vegetables, dairy and frozen. I don't eat much fruit at all and sweet treats are not a major part of my shop. My treats are corn chips topped with salsa and cheese which I have as a meal. I don't really have a sweet tooth.

      I also consume a little less calories than recommended. Not dieting I just don't have a big appetite. I eat breakfast every day but it's either toast or cereal but never both at the same time. Toast will be with either an egg and a slice of bacon or just with some spread such as Vegemite or jam. Cereal is whatever is on sale at 50% off maybe Nutri-Grain or Sultana Bran and served with supermarket branded $1/litre Milk. I drink tea or coffee and what many would consider a weak cordial instead of 100% fruit juice.

      I just have learned to eat cheaply. Yesterdays main meal was 2 beef sausages with a sliced fried onion and several mushrooms with a side salad of a tomato and some lettuce. I had a slice of vegetable quiche for lunch with some of that tomato and lettuce salad I made up. I also had a slice of a Coles branded apple pie for dessert.

      We also have chickens which supply us with a couple of eggs every day but I do not account for their feed costs under groceries as they really are pets and their feed costs are entered under pet expenses on my spreadsheet. They have Barastoc Champion Layer at a bit less than $30 for a 20kg bag. That lasts about 8 weeks.

  • donedeed on 29/11/2018 - 11:25

    This might be just me. But rather than putting all my energy and focus into that, I rather put more effort into increasing my income. :)

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