I always do the math because I want to know if there is a better deal or not if I buy them one way or the other, or if they are sold somewhere else at a different price that I am aware of.
So, if I want to know how much per dozen an 18-pack of eggs costs, I divide the price of the carton by 18, and then multiply by 12.
Let's say the 18-packs costs $3.49. $3.49 divided by 18 equals 0.1938 cents per egg times 12 equals $2.33 per dozen.
In this example, I know the price per dozen at Ruler Foods happens to be $1.99 per dozen, so they are cheaper than the bulk 18-pack at Walmart.
Unit cost is what I am almost always concerned with when it comes to comparing food prices, and it helps to guide me in the right direction when making purchasing decisions. Is it a good deal or isn't it? I can't know unless I do the comparisons.
Comparing ounces, pounds and so on and so forth is very helpful in knowing whether one price is presenting more value than the other.
I may use these comparisons in other ways as well. For example, buying a box of instant mashed potatoes. Say the box costs $2.99 and is 8 ounces. That's roughly $1.50 per pound. But I can buy a 10 pound of potatoes for $3.99 or 39 cents per pound. Even if I add in the butter and milk and any other ingredients, aside from the additional time it may take to make mashed potatoes from scratch, clearly the better value is the raw potato sack.
One final piece of trivia if you were curious, going back to eggs for a moment. One dozen eggs weighed on a scale is roughly 1.11 pounds. If you account for the shells, which you don't eat, the yield of a dozen eggs is about one pound. You can use that as a guage to compare whether you want hamburgers or scrambled eggs for dinner one night.
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© 2024 Jim Bauer
