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Apples to Apples

Imagine you are in a grocery store and see three options for buying apples. You can buy:

individual apples
at $1.99/lb

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or a 2.5 lb bag of the same apples for $3.99

or a 20 lb box of the same apples for $19.99

Photo Credit: chicabrandita via Flickr.com

This is the discussion icon. Which Apples Would You Buy?

Answer the following questions:

  • Which option for buying apples is the least expensive? As you do the calculation, keep track of how you figured it out. Share your answer and the steps you took to get it.
  • Which option would you choose for buying the apples? Were there factors other than cost that you considered when making your decision?
  • Think about other products in a grocery store. Are there some products where the only important factor to you is price?
  • When you go shopping and see different options for buying an item (eg., different sizes, multi-pack, etc...), how do you decide which one to purchase?

Reflection

Making a Grocery List

Think about the things that you would buy in one week for groceries. When you make your list, it's helpful to think about what you will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the week.

The following video will give you some tips about making good decisions when grocery shopping.

Check out a local flyer or use the site below to create your shopping list for the week based on a grocery store in your area.

Photo Credit: La Famille Rapp via Flickr.com

When making your list, identify the item, the number of items you'd like to buy and the cost of the item.

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Comparison Shopping

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Like the apples in the example above, when we shop, many items come in different sizes and quantities and sell for different amounts. In order to make a good decision on which item is a better buy, we can calculate the unit price.

The unit price is the cost of one unit of an item.

For example:

  • for a case of water with 24 bottles, the unit price would be the cost per bottle.
  • for a box of cereal, the unit price would the cost per gram.

To determine unit price, we take the total price and divide by the number of items or units for the product.

Unit price equals total price divided by the number of units or items.

This is the example icon. Example

Which is the better price for pop?

Six bottles for $4.49 or 12 cans for $6.79?

Check your answer by viewing the following video.

Two advertisements for pop, one selling 6 bottles for $4.49 and one selling 12 cans for $6.79.

This is the practice icon. Practice

This is the question/answer icon. Questions


  1. Mayonaise sells for $4.99 for a 890 ml bottle. Determine the unit price.
Answer

 $0.0056/ml

  1. Chicken sells for $9.00 for a 840 gram bag. Determine the unit price.
Answer

 $0.0107/g

This is the dropbox icon. Calculating Unit Price

Calculate the unit price for two of the items on your grocery list. List the price, quantity and your calculated unit price.

Estimating

As you're filling your cart at the grocery store, it's useful to have a general idea of how much you're spending. You can estimate how much the items in your cart will cost you by rounding prices to the nearest dollar or 50 cent value.

Enter the virtual grocery store below and fill your shopping cart. Try to keep a running tally of your estimated cost of the groceries.

This is the dropbox icon. Estimating the Cost of Your Grocery List

By rounding off the price of the items in your list, estimate the cost of your grocery trip.

At the Checkout

Photo Credit: Michael Kappel via Flickr.com

Many people use their debit cards to complete purchases, but paying this way has some disadvantages. When you know you can access all the money in your account, it's more difficult to stick to a budget. This is particularly true in a grocery store when you're faced with aisle after aisle of delicious food.

One way to enforce your budget is to withdraw the amount of money you have budgeted for groceries. This forces you to think about how much money you're spending and not go over-budget.

You should be able to estimate how much change you will receive.

Review this video on making change to help you in determining how much change you would receive if you paid with cash for your groceries.

The following interactive activity will give you a chance to test your change making skills.

Complete the interactive several times so that you have experience with making change for different amounts.

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Grocery shopping is a skill that requires you to make good decisions on purchases and to be aware of the impact those decisions can have on your budget and spending.

These decisions in the end will have an impact on your financial situation.

This is the discussion icon. Smart Shoppers

There are many blogs, articles and videos that contain tips for smart grocery shopping. You can use some or all of the following search terms to find tips on effective shopping.

  • Tips
  • Grocery Shopping
  • Healthy
  • On a Budget
  • For One

Do some research to make a list of five tips for effective grocery shopping.

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