How Research & Comparison Shopping Can Help You Save Money

1. Do the math

This is key when it comes to comparison shopping. You need to know the price per unit.

Sometimes you have to do a little math. Other times, you don’t need to do any math because the price per unit is printed right on the shelf, but sometimes it isn’t. If it’s not listed, you have to do some division to know if you’re getting a good deal in comparison to similar products.

Here’s an example. Say I have two boxes of cereal. One box is $2.50 and the other one is $3.79. Before I run to the checkout with the cheaper $2.50 box, I need to see how much cereal I’m actually getting for my money.

So, I divide $2.50 by the number of ounces in the box, which is 10. I see that this cereal is .25 cents per ounce. That would be the price per unit. Now, I would do the math for the other box. So I divide $3.79 by 18 ounces and see that it’s .21 cents per ounce.

So, in reality, the higher-priced box of cereal is actually the better deal. The lowest price isn’t always the best value but sometimes you have to do the math to find that out. 

2. Compare price and quality

Of course, it’s tough to tell if something is quality or not until after you use it. But if it turns out the lower-priced item is not very good, then don’t keep buying it.

In the long run, you will need to replace lower-quality items sooner, which results in spending more money in a shorter period of time and you won’t be as satisfied.

3. Don’t drive long distances for small savings

I don’t drive all over the place just to save money on one or two items. Of course, if I’m buying a big ticket item, like a television, and I could save $100, that would be worth it. But for groceries and small household items and supplies, it’s not usually worth driving too far.

So, if I’m going to drive all the way across town to save $2 on a pack of paper towels or $1 on a box of cereal, I calculate the cost of the gas to get to the other store to see if it even makes sense. If I’m going to use up $3 worth of gas just to get $3 worth of savings, I’m not going to go.

4. Use store apps on your smartphone

A lot of the apps have a scanner feature for products. This is very handy when you’re considering a name-brand item. So, for example, say I’m at Target and I’m looking for a new item (it can be anything). I suspect that maybe Walmart has a lower price.

While I’m at Target, I can whip out my Walmart app, tap the scanner icon and scan in the product’s barcode and see what Walmart is charging for the same exact product. If the product is priced low enough at Walmart, and I need to go to Walmart, anyhow, I’ll wait to go and get the item then.

But, Target has a price match policy. You can show the Walmart price to the cashier and that’s the price you’ll pay.

5. Read the reviews

This is another reason to have the store’s app. You can also filter out any products that have products with less than four or five stars. I start by reading the one-star items to see the negative comments first because they reveal what can go wrong with the product.

Recently, I was shopping for a toaster oven and the one I wanted had a 4.3 rating. But when I read the one-star reviews, I saw that so many customers were complaining that the toaster oven had caught on fire and that the glass door had exploded.

Many times those reviews are the deciding factor when I’m comparison shopping.

How research and comparison shopping can help you

I hope this helped you to see how important comparison shopping can be when you’re trying to save money. Have you ever used the reviews when deciding to buy a product?

Let me know in the comments if you have any other ways you research and do comparison shopping for your groceries and household items.