I think it all started several years ago after the advent of the Apple App Store. My wife and I were newly married and were figuring out the norms for our family, such as where we wanted to shop for groceries each week. While buying produce on sale I would wonder how much money I'm actually saving. Is $5 for 2 pounds a good deal? How much more expensive are strawberries when they are not in season? I had no good way to know or track the answers to these questions. So I tried taking pictures every so often or using a spreadsheet or trying to memorize prices. All these options had serious drawbacks and my wife and I became frustrated with the lack of a good solution.
Every few months I would search the App Store looking for something to solve this problem. Most of the apps we found were either difficult to use, lacking in basic features or overridden with ads. So, as time allowed, I worked on my own solution, one that was robust without being overwhelming or difficult to use.
After several years and many iterations - PricedLess, as you know it, emerged.
PricedLess is the result of many questions and discussions, many tweaks and a couple rewrites.
One of the key guidelines when making something isn't just knowing what to do, but knowing what not to do. So PricedLess isn't an exhaustive list of every item you could possibly buy because you won't ever buy every single thing. It's not built to earn advertising dollars because ads almost always get in the way of what you are trying to do.
PricedLess is your personal, customizable, easy-to-use list of prices for the things you buy on a regular basis.
I have one more story that illustrates the need for PricedLess. It happened while shopping at Costco and buying, of all things, vanilla extract. We questioned whether we needed 16 fluid ounces of this occasionally used liquid. However, when we compared the price per fluid ounce with our neighborhood grocery store we were astonished. If my memory serves me right the grocery store was selling 2 oz. for about $5 and Costco had 16 oz. for about $10. So if I bought 16 oz at the grocery store I would be spending $40. I'm sure you can do that math but that's 4 times more expensive and we saved $30 by buying just that one item! And yes, we did end up using all 16 oz. but I think it took a year or two :)
What story do you have to share? Have you been amazed by changing prices or price comparison at different stores? Share a story on social media and include how PricedLess has or will help you!