The Importance of Knowing Price per Unit

Saving money isn’t just about getting items at a discount thanks to markdowns, coupons and sale prices. It’s about knowing that you are truly getting the best deal available. The only way to be sure of this, you need to know what the price per unit is for each of your options.

An example…

I have found a bag of bulk sugar at my local Amish bulk food store. The 50 pound bag will cost me $26.50, which divides out to being about 53 cents per pound. This is about a slightly better deal than buying WalMart brand sugar at $2.69 for a 5 pound bag, which divides out to be approximately 59 cents per pound. However, WalMart currently has their store brand sugar on sale for $1.99/5 lb. bag due to it being canning season. This adds out to be 40 cents per pound. That is a significantly better deal than the $26.50 bag from the Amish store.

Right there is an example of when buying in bulk is simply not better than buying from the store. Had I not done this research, I would have spent more on sugar than I should have by buying it in bulk and just assuming that the bulk price was the better price. It’s important to know your best price so when sales roll around, you know if you are really getting a good deal or not.

The key to making sure you have all this information right at your fingertips? Keeping a price book with your coupon binder. Whenever you get a good deal on something, write it down. That will be the lowest price you will be willing to pay for an item until you can get it for cheaper. This also enables you to stock up when an item does hit your “target price”.

Just because something seems like a good deal, doesn’t mean that it is. This is why you need to know your best prices. You can go about making your price book a number of ways. You can spend a few hours going to your usual grocery stores and writing down their best prices, or you can write the “best prices” down as you see them featured in the weekly sale flyer. Or, you can do like me, and as you get a good deal, write down the price in your notebook. Then, when you see that item on sale, you can check your notebook to see if it’s stock up worthy or not. When an item reaches your target price, or lower, stock up! By doing this, you will further stretch your grocery budget for your family.

More importantly, you need to know the price of buying something vs. the price of homemaking it. Did you know that a bag of beans makes more than three cans worth of canned beans for far less cost? It’s important to know how much it costs you to make things like bread, cakes, brownies, etc. vs. how much it costs you to buy the item at the grocery store. While sometimes it is worth it to pay for convenience, it is often times just as easy to whip up a homemade batch. And 90% of the time it is cheaper too.

What I’m trying to get at here, is how important it is to knowing your target price. I didn’t know my target price for hardly anything for most of my first year of couponing, but I now realize how much money I have been wasting just because I “thought” something was a good deal. Now that I have been keeping my target price notebook, I don’t buy unless it is in my target price range or if I truly need the item. It’s all about being a smart consumer and making the most of your family’s grocery budget.

So start your notebook now! You don’t want to pay twice the amount for something that you should be! It’s all a part of stockpiling and saving money. And saving money…well it’s the new black…