does this exist?

We've got some very smart people here. I'm reading a book on "lean" entrepreneur-ships and start-ups. It gets me to thinking.

What I want is a program on my computer that interfaces with my bank and my grocery store. I go to my bank and grocery store websites and download my transactions for the last time period "X". My software then takes that information, itemizes what I bought, compares it to my pre-set (and variable) preferred inventory. It calculates my purchase frequency and cost. When I get close to running out of inventory the software notifies me that product "Y" is on sale (from the grocery store interface) and that I should buy some--it basically gives me my shopping list based on past purchases and how long it's been since I bought those items. At the end of the year the software gives me an itemized printout of how much I spent on the major product categories (Utilities, Entertainment, Automotive, etc.) and my grocery shopping (Dairy, Produce, etc.) so I can see where my money went. In an ideal world, a Bot would notify me of what other vendors have the same products at better prices when it's time to buy.

I'm assuming that for security purposes I would need the information flow to be one-way, from the vendors to my computer, not the other way around. Is this something that could be pitched to the stores and banks so they'd use common software for this purpose? Or is it going to take some group like Microsoft, Wal-Mart and Bank of America going to bed with each other before such a thing would be considered?

Brick and mortar retailers enjoy the advantage of not doing this. You can cross shop your new television. You can't effectively cross shop your grocery list. They put out an ad with some sales, and you're probably going to buy all of your weekly groceries there. If you could take a database of every product price in every store, current gas prices, a certain value for your time, and feed it into a computer, you could engineer the cheapest shopping trips. The retailers don't want you to.

Your nearest competition is probably going to be Amazon Echo.

My Wal-Mart puts a QR code on the receipt that links to an online receipt. It doesn't look like you can do much with it.

It would take regulation to force this. Look at the FTC and XBRL.

There are software packages called web-scrapers that are capable of automated browsing of one or more sites, searching for specific items, and retrieving the text/price returned by the search. Unfortunately, they require consistency to work properly - they need to know where the fields are that need populated, the button to click on to search, and the position of the text/price to be returned. As soon as a site is updated and one or more of these fields gets moved, you have to reconfigure the web-scraper again. if you're doing a large number of sites it could become a real PITA.

As Mike mentioned, it wouldn't work for things you typically buy at a brick & mortar store, as most don't list in-store prices/sales on their sites. It could work well for cross-shopping a handful of items across a handful of websites though, but it takes some programming knowledge to setup and get working.

I messed with it briefly several years ago before I had any programming experience, but couldn't get it working right. It's on the list of things I'd like to try again now that I have a bit more knowledge & experience, but it's not something I have much of a need for anymore.

What you're looking for is an inventory management/distribution system that can gather data from web scrapers. Don't know if such a thing exists, but it wouldn't be too hard to do, I sure there are similar FOSS systems you could modify.

Seriously...you care about stuff like this enough to dedicate your life to maintaining a program? What you are looking for is "Enterprise Resource Planning"(ERP) software. Expensive, lot of effort to implement the application and requires constant maintenance along with yearly update fees.

Get a girlfriend that does the shopping and cooking. Done. Other fringe benefits tend to be included.

Lemme offer some context. Apparently after the divorce is final I'm going to be trying to live on about $650 a month. I'm planning on having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for every nickel, obviously. Perhaps best to just build a spread sheet and enter all my receipts?

Whoa you're in trouble man

Well I know all about this: There are sharply diminishing returns to trying to cleverly manage your budget, and when you're trying to run an automated, computerized inventory system to help you squeeze the most out of $650 a month, you are so deep in them that you've come out the other side. A spreadsheet program and some reminders will do what you need, beyond that you're pissing away effort and possibly software costs for nothing.

Don't focus so much on tracking resources as conserving resources...and you're going to need to do some serious conserving

Have never seen anything that allows you to download an itemized grocery list. You could do it manually with a scanner App, but that is a lot of work. Apps like Mint allow you to get your total bill recorded and are great for budgeting and tracking expenses.

Learn something from the people who are already saving tons of money at the grocery stores- coupon users.

Rather than trying to change the system that exists, they (mostly ladies) have gotten exceptionally good at working inside the existing parameters.

A little Google set bing should give you plenty to work with.

If you COULD design a program that would save you money, it wouldn't save you money.

Grocery store operate on about a 2% margin. They depend on the use of loss leaders to entice customers and survive.

If you invented something that worked well and a lot of people used it, grocery stores would have to raise their prices, defeating you.

SVreX wrote: If you invented something that worked well and a lot of people used it, grocery stores would have to raise their prices, defeating you.

I think it would just lead to further "Walmartization" with prices (and quality) falling across the board, until it was practically impossible to save money with the program due to transport costs etc.

I don't see how it would lead to grocery stores raising their prices

See also: Online retailers/Amazon; online travel purchases/sites that let you compare them.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

That's not an apples to apples comparison.

You said they would lower the quality. I said they would raise the price. In reality, those are the exact same thing.

They would raise the price on the same product, or offer a different inferior product.

We agree that grocery stores could not survive , and would change the way they sell. Whether they raise prices, offer inferior products, or manipulate the system by posting incorrect prices online doesn't matter. They would still need to change, and it would still hurt the consumer.

Bottom line- you are trying to squeeze money from somewhere that has none to squeeze out.

I was thinking of dual-use. The first is to know where I'm spending my money (whether it's too much) and secondarily whether there were better deals to be had. Spreadsheets suck.

I've tried in the past to get a solid bead on where I should be doing my grocery shopping- primarily, is shopping at the chain near my house that offers discounts on their fuel when you buy more food & such a better value than shopping at, say, Wal-Mart where the prices up front might be lower?

The biggest issues, as others have pointed out, is that you have to do all the leg-work in finding the prices yourself, they're not available online (well, they're likely online somewhere on the company's internal system, but not published externally...). You're likely better off spending a few shopping trips to different stores and pricing things that you regularly buy and find which place overall is lowest and just stick to there while using coupons to lower the prices even more.

stick to coupons and sites like totallytarget.com and krazycouponlady.com where other people do all the legwork for you, then tell you where to find the coupons and in which combinations to use them to get the best deals. sometimes stuff is even free. One target trip I made was $28.99 or so. I walked out the door with a $5 gift card, 4 boxes of frosted mini wheats, 2 boxes of cheerios, and 4 bottles of the expensive shampoo my wife uses for $8.29. so under $4 when you count in the gift card.

i think your time is better spent like that. and find a grocery store that doubles coupons up to .99 then cut out every high money coupon you can find. lots of times i find myself getting a can of soup, a box of this, a pack of that for under 50 cents when they double a .75 coupon. went to the grocery store the other day and had a total of $99. knocked it down to $56 with my coupons and their doubling program.

also, Aldi. they save me $ too.

I think Patgizz has the best idea. If you are willing to commit a fairly small amount of time to couponing you can shop and spend VERY little money.

And to the $650 a month? Is this exorbitant child support, or something else? Mine is bad but it's not THAT bad.

Exactly. That's what I was trying to say earlier.

Modern couponing is not about clipping little pieces of paper from the Sunday paper and going to your local grocery.

Couponers are thorough, intense, and very good at what they do. It's a whole network of people and methods trying to help each other. Learn from them, and don't reinvent the wheel.

On that budget what you need is a pellet gun, a recipe for squirrel and a bulk purchase of rice and beans. $650 would barely cover a room in my hood. Sorry to see anyone in this position.

PS, forget what I said about getting a GF...they seem to not agree with you!

NOHOME wrote: On that budget what you need is a pellet gun, a recipe for squirrel and a bulk purchase of rice and beans.

Once saw a guy living under a cluster of highway overpasses in Toronto doing exactly this. Had one of those little camping BBQs to rotisserie it on.

SVreX wrote: Learn something from the people who are already saving tons of money at the grocery stores- coupon users. Rather than trying to change the system that exists, they (mostly ladies) have gotten exceptionally good at working inside the existing parameters. A little Google set bing should give you plenty to work with.

Seriously this! Ran into the young mother who sits next to me at work in the grocery store the other day. She had a set list from several grocer's that were on her way home from work. Watched her spend literally less than 70$ and walk out with a some food items two big boxes of diapers AND a 50$ gas card. She pointed out sodas were on sale, then pointed out the manufacturers coupons on the front of the display. 3 12 packs for 10$ became 3 for 5.50. Believe me, she spent 10 minutes with us and we ended up saving more than we spent. Which with having to drop a new well in last month goes a long way.

If I had to live on $650 a month I would go get a job in the oil fields asap. They will hire you on the spot if you have a pulse. You could live in a crew house and still make out on the deal. It might be hard work in miserable conditions but its better then a cardboard sign on the corner.

Generate extra income as well as working on spending a few pennies less

^Good idea. By me, if you're not rich and you haven't decided that working isn't worth it, you most likely have at least a side job if not a whole 2nd profession. I can sometimes add close to 20% to my monthly income with just a few hours of side work.

GameboyRMH wrote:

NOHOME wrote: On that budget what you need is a pellet gun, a recipe for squirrel and a bulk purchase of rice and beans.

Once saw a guy living under a cluster of highway overpasses in Toronto doing exactly this. Had one of those little camping BBQs to rotisserie it on.

Local Mason lodge puts on a wild game feed once a year and there is always squirrel on the menu. While chicken would be my first choice of low cost protein, I would have no trouble making the switch to tree rats during the apocalypse. Ditto on the rice and beans, having spent my early years living in PR!

Doing the starving engineering student thing in SD taught me the value of hunting for ambulant protein. Never did develop a like for the "Sport" but I did welcome the venison, pheasant rabbit and duck. Fishing can be good also if you are willing to clean a lot of panfish that you catch from the shore; pointless if you need to feed a boat.

Hahaha, it's like this article was made for the original question of this thread!

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/the-new-world-of-cutthroat-apps/