Q&A: product sizes & coupons

I had a reader contact me about a post I made about my trip to Acme. She was asking why I purchased the small container of Teddy Grahams, isn’t that more expensive?

Yes, and no.

If you’re going to actively coupon, you sort of have to throw out all the old thinking about bigger quantities of items being cheaper. And I’ll try to give some examples.

Most of the time, if a coupon says “Take $$ off ANY…….” you want to look for the smallest size product for the best savings. My coupon was for “take $1 off ANY Nabisco cookie” so I chose the smallest one at $1.29.

The regular price for the 10 oz box is $2.79 or $.28 per ounce. The regular price for the little 3 oz container I got is $1.29 or $0.43 an ounce. At full price, no coupons, the little container is much more expensive.

If we add in the $1 coupon-
10 oz box goes to 1.79, or $0.18 per ounce
3 oz cup goes to $0.29 or $0.10 per ounce
It’s almost 50% cheaper, on a per ounce basis, to purchase the small plastic cup this way.

The same goes for dishwashing liquid and the recent Gain deals show this. The bigger bottle was much cheaper on a per ounce basis. But the smaller bottle was free after coupon, and what’s cheaper than free?

If you need a huge quantity of an item, say diapers or baby formula, and you don’t have any coupons to use…..then the warehouse club stores and packaging will probably (but not always, so do the math!) be your best option. But when adding in coupons, it’s usually the reverse that works.

Most cell phones have a calculator option, so don’t hesitate to use it while shopping. After all, if we’re talking 50% or greater savings on some items, that’s significant.