Knowing your prices is simple and doesn't require much thought at all. Here's how you do it: When you're at the grocery store, take notice of the food prices on items that you'll likely need at some point in the future. As the days and weeks go by, you'll notice sales and what things generally go for and you'll be surprised how fast you'll be able to judge what any given product is worth. Congratulations! You're just a little bit closer to becoming your mother!
One step to further save your grocery bill is to know how much a commodity itself is actually worth per unit. It's great to know how much a box of Cheerios normally costs, but what about if you see a jumbo size that is double the price, but HUGE! Is it a good deal? How can you tell?
Calculate Unit Pricing
Why do companies give you small, medium and large (and extra large and jumbo) sizes? To entice you to buy larger quantities because the per unit price is lower. It may also be because they want to confuse you, especially when the pricing is all different and not easily divisible.
Luckily, most grocery stores have simplified the choice for you by printing the per unit price right on the price tag for an item. It normally looks something like this:
Notice they've nicely highlighted the unit price for you. Using this information you can compare all the different sizes to see which is the best bang for the buck. Sounds simple right? That's because it is.
But sometimes when an item is on sale, the sale price tag doesn't list the per unit price. So you might go for the biggest jar of pickles on the shelf because you figure bulk=saving, when it would have been just as cost-effective to buy 2 smaller jars on sale.
That's why it's important to know how to calculate the per unit price yourself. It sounds a little complicated but it really is not. Just take the dollar amount of the grocery item and divide it by the unit of measure that's on the product itself. For example, in the picture above we have General Mills Cheerios selling 15oz (imperialist animals!) for $3.95. Not the greatest deal, but anyways, to find the price per ounce we do this:
3.95 / 15=0.26333
Divide the cost by the unit of measure to get the unit price. Choose the product with the lowest unit price to get the best value for your money. Remember, buying the biggest amount of something isn't always the most cost effective. Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy multiples of smaller sizes than the jumbo pack.
You'll only know how to judge value if you know your prices before you shop for a bargain.
