Everything you spend money on gas, clothing, food, and even the utilities in your Houston home is increasing in price. Saving money wherever you can becomes that much more important. One of the easiest places to save a couple bucks is in the supermarket. However, it’s just as easy to overspend if you don’t know how to evaluate and compare prices for the products you’re buying.
Calculators Are Your Friend in the Supermarket
Use your cell phone’s calculator to do the math for you when you’re shopping in a supermarket. Let’s say you’re shopping for produce. You need 6 limes for a recipe. They are sold individually at 2 for $1.42. They’re also sold in 2 pound bags for $4.22. With all these numbers, suddenly you’re very confused.
- Count the number of limes in the 2 pound bag. Let’s say there are 7.
- Determine the price per lime for each scenario. Divide the price by the number of limes… If 2 limes are $1.42, then one lime costs $0.71 (1.42 divided by 2). If a bag of 7 limes is $4.22, then one lime costs $0.60 (4.22 divided by 7). The limes in the bag are cheaper.
You can apply this general formula to a number of products in your supermarket. This is especially useful when buying in bulk from wholesale stores. Simply divide the price by the quantity. For toilet paper, divide the total price by the number of toilet paper rolls. For cases of water, divide the total price by the number of water bottles.
What is Price Per Unit?
This is the price per pound, ounce, quart, gallon, etc. It can be found on the price sticker that’s located on the grocery store shelf. This is extremely useful when considering whether to buy the smaller or larger product. For instance, there’s an 11 ounce box of cereal that costs $4.25 and a 9 box that costs $3.25. Determining the better buy can be difficult in this situation because this is not the easiest calculation to do in your head. So don’t do any calculations at all. Look at the sticker and compare the price per unit, in this case the price per ounce.
It’s so simple to be mislead by grocery store prices. Easy ways to make sure you’re getting the best deals on the products you buy include simple things like…
- clipping coupons before you go shopping
- taking cash to pay for your items and help you stick to your budget
- buy the generic store brand products when possible
Get in the habit of doing simple math calculations to figure out which products are being sold at the best prices and don’t always assume you get the best deals when you buy the value sizes. Do the math. You’ll be surprised at how much you can save.
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