Seasons of Life: Money Saving Tip

It is something every household uses...something you don't want to run out of...an ongoing expense... How can we save money? Unit price is something that many stores now show on their shelf labels, however it may not be the most accurate 'measure' of savings. I recently read on a blog I have visited on occasion a real way to calculate the savings - and for those of us that have a million things going on in our minds at one time, a simple way to calculate it. This was helpful to me especially.

What is this item? TOILET PAPER. I know that I have always be conscious of the 'unit price' when trying to make the best money saving purchases - however, the unit price (at least in this case) does not take total measurement into consideration and is usually based on the per roll amount.

How many times have you been in a store and seen this "SALE" sign with toilet paper on the display? How do you really know if the sale is a true savings to your pocket book?

An easy explanation of this was to first compare the square footage in the total package with the price for the package. For example, the total square footage of "X" brand may be 2091 sq. ft. Now a good price is one cent per sq. ft. (single ply, double ply...doesn't matter - in the end you will use about the same amount from the roll). Based on that base price per sq. ft. you can quickly figure the amount of the package using the following equation: one cent per sq. ft. times the total number of sq. ft. in the package...simply move the decimal point two places to the left...same as multiplying by .01. So, to figure out whether the shelf price is a "good" price in this case, the shelf price should not be more than $20.91.

If the shelf price is $15.97...you have scored a huge savings! Most recently on our shopping trip, I applied this method and found it to be true...in most cases, the shelf price is actually MORE than the formula of .01 cent per sq. ft. With money be tighter in this economy and since we "literally" flush this product down the toilet, wouldn't you like to save as much as you can? I know that the $4+ dollars I saved per package on our recent shopping trip, was easily applied to other items needed. Another note to keep in mind is that TOILET PAPER doesn't have a 'shelf life' SO STOCK UP when you find a great deal!