Watch Out for Those Grocery Store Unit Prices

Have you ever seen those fancy grocery store price tags that show you the selling price of an item, plus the unit price? Do you ever pay much attention to the unit prices?

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Well, here's a great reason to pay attention. The other day, I spotted a sale on Tropicana Orange Juice at the local grocery store. The tag said "Save $2.00" with a sale price of $5.99.  Sounds pretty good...a large (89 fl. oz.) $7.99 container of orange juice for just $5.99.  On the shelf below, there was a half gallon container (64 fl. oz.) of the same exact brand priced at $3.69.  It was not on sale, so surely the larger "on sale" container was the cheapest, right?  (hint: if it was, I wouldn't be writing about it)

Let's do the math...if we reduce the price down to a common unit, we can see which one is really cheaper.  In this case, the store chose to display unit prices by the quart (32 fl. oz.).  In the case of the large container, 89 fl. oz. divided by 32 fl. oz. in a quart = 2.78 quarts.  $5.99 divided by 2.78 = $2.15 per quart.

For the half gallon, 64 fl. oz. divided by 32 fl. oz. in a quart = 2 quarts.  $3.69 divided by 2 = $1.85 per quart. So the large container on sale is actually 16% more expensive!

But you would have already known that (without a calculator) because your local supermarket tells you that on every tag.  You just need to remember to look.

UPDATE:
Well, it happened again.  This time it was time to buy Triscuits.  First look at the 13 oz. "Family Size" with a price of $3.59 (or $4.42 per pound).  Then, on the shelf above, was a sale on the regular size (9.5 oz.) with a price of 2 for $5.00 (or $4.21 per pound).  Keep watching those unit prices!

Lower the Cost of Medical and Childcare Expenses

Back in the "old days", out-of-pocket medical expenses could be deducted from your taxes if you itemized your deductions.  Unfortunately, in the past 20+ years, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) virtually put a stop to that.  Now, only medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) are eligible for deduction.  If you and your wife have an AGI of $120,000, then the first $9,000 of medical expenses cannot be deducted.  Except for those facing serious medical conditions with little insurance coverage, most taxpayers will not reach that level of medical expenses during one year.

But there's hope!  If your employer offers a Section 125 plan (a.k.a. medical savings plan or flexible spending plan), then you can put away pre-tax dollars for medical expenses during each year.  In fact, most Section 125 plans also allow you to set aside pre-tax dollars for childcare expenses as well.

Let's do the math...

Assuming you set aside $2,000 for medical expenses, your paycheck will only show a reduction of approximately $1,200 (assuming a 40% combined Federal, FICA, and State tax rate).  That's a savings of $800!

As you incur medical expenses throughout the year, you will submit claim forms showing these out-of-pocket costs.  Some Section 125 administrators, like ADP, offer flexible spending credit cards to make things even easier.  Walk in to your local drugstore and use a special credit card for any eligible medical or prescription expenses.  The amount will get deducted directly from your Section 125 account.

So, this sounds great, but there's a catch.  You need to do a good job of estimating your future medical expenses before the year starts.  If you set aside too much money, your employer has the right to keep the excess amount that you do not spend.  So like "The Price is Right", you must estimate your medical expenses without going over.

So check with your employer to see if they offer a Section 125 / Medical Savings Plan and be sure to check out all of the terms and conditions of the plan.

Generic Drugstore Brands Work

Anytime I buy over-the-counter medications, I always look to generic brands first.  Whether it's aspirin, acetaminophen, or nasal breathing strips, it always pays to look at generic store brands first.  Depending on which drugstore you shop at, you might be able to take advantage of a sale, too.

Recently, CVS.com ran a sale on CVS-brand products.  The sale was 20% off all store-brand items with no minimum purchase.  Combine that with the everyday free shipping on orders over $50 and you will see some real savings.

Let's take a look at the numbers to see just how much money you could save.

Buy 4 boxes of 150 count Tylenol extra strength caplets, on sale at CVS for $14.99 each.  So that's 600 pills for a total of $59.96 with free shipping or about 10 cents per pill.  We'll leave out sales tax from the analysis since every state / city has a different tax rate.

Now let's buy 6 boxes of 150 count CVS-brand acetaminophen caplets for an every day price of $10.99.  Take 20% off and you've got an order total of $52.75 or about 5.9 cents per pill.  Note that we needed to buy 6 boxes or 900 pills in order to get free shipping.

So, in the end, we purchased 900 generic CVS-brand acetaminophen pills for a savings of 41% compared to the equivalent name-brand Tylenol product.  Not bad for just switching your thinking away from a brand name label.

XBOX Live Membership for Less

So, the other day I received an email from Microsoft telling me that my kids' one month trial of Xbox Live Gold is set to expire.  I clicked the link to renew the membership just to find out that Microsoft is asking only $49.99 to extend it for 12 months.  Seems pretty reasonable, so I reach for my credit card.

Then I remember seeing these Gold memberships sold at retail stores and not just by Microsoft.  A quick visit to Google Shopping reveals a low price of $43.49 (no tax and free shipping) from a popular online retailer.

And if that's not enough, I log into my eBates.com account to find that there's a 1% rebate if I click this particular online retailer's link through eBates.  Don't forget to check MrRebates.com, too.  Sometimes they offer different cash-back percentages!

Let's do the math...

Cost by buying the 12 month membership online (minus a 1% rebate from ebates.com) = $43.49 minus $0.43 rebate = $43.06 compared to $49.99 plus sales tax at Microsoft.  While that's not a huge savings, it didn't take much work on your part.  Get used to shopping this way.

Not All Shipping Policies are Created Equal

When you're shopping on the Internet, the cost of shipping should be an important part of your decision making process.  It makes no sense to save $2 on an item if it will cost you $5.95 to ship it.  As a result, many online merchants spend many dollars advertising their shipping policy to get your mouse to navigate into their store.  So, let's explore how different merchants treat shipping discounts and how you can use that to your advantage.

First, let's identify some types of shipping discounts that exist in the online world.  This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather, a few common examples.

Free Shipping per Item
Some merchants offer free shipping on specific items only.  Buy.com is a perfect example of this.  For each item offered with free shipping, a simple "Shipping Free" label is shown next to the listing. If you order only "free shipping" items and you choose the budget shipping option, then there will be no shipping charges.  There is no minimum order size to qualify for free shipping.  However, if your order includes items that are not labeled "free shipping", then you will be charged shipping for those items.

Free Shipping for an Entire Order
Some merchants will waive shipping charges after your order exceeds a minimum amount.  CVS or Staples both offer free shipping when your order reaches $50.  Drugstore.com's free ship discount kicks in at $25.

So why is it important to recognize a merchant's shipping policy?

Well, it's quite simple.  If you have a small-ticket item to purchase, then look around for the merchant that will offer free shipping on a per item basis.  I recently purchased an iPod audio cable for less than $10.  It was the only item that I needed to purchase, so my order was placed with Buy.com without shipping charges or sales tax.

On the other hand, if you have small-ticket items that can be made part of a larger order, then look for a merchant that will offer free shipping (or fixed price shipping) on an entire order.

Free TV on Your Computer or Mobile Device

The title of this article seems like one of those super-hype spam emails, right?  But, we don't do hype here at the Advice Register.

You may already know about a product called Sling Box.  This is a device that you attach to your TV like a cable box.  Then, using special free software, Sling Box will stream the cable television channel of your choice on any computer or mobile device.  Sounds pretty cool and, in fact, it is.  Unfortunately, the software is the only free part.  Buying the Sling Box tuner box is going to set you back about $150 or more depending on which model you buy.  Still not a bad deal if you're interested in watching your home TV channels remotely.

If you prefer not to spend money unnecessarily, we've got an inexpensive (read: free) alternative.  It's called Orb and all you'll need is a computer equipped with a TV Tuner card, which is common in today's multimedia PCs.  You can buy one for around 40 bucks.  Hauppauge makes some inexpensive tuner cards.

Orb installs on your home PC and gives you remote access to, among other things, the TV channels of your cable system.  As an added bonus, you can also access to videos, music, or documents stored on your computer.  Once Orb is installed on your home PC, you gain access to these digital goodies by logging into a web site on a remote PC or handheld device with a user name and password.  You won't need any special software on the remote device besides a standard media player capable of playing streaming video and audio.  It really is that simple!

Steps to set up orb on your computer:

1. Visit www.orb.com.
2. Download "Orb Caster" (link: www.orb.com/en/download.html)
3. Install Orb Caster on the computer that has the TV Tuner card.
4. Follow the prompts to set up Orb Caster or consult their User Guide.

Point your remote computer to: mycast.orb.com and log in using the username and password that you set up at orb.com.

A Few Tenths Can Make a Difference

How can something as small as a tenth of a percent make a difference?  Easy! When we're talking about interest on your savings.  Let's take a closer look at just how important it is to shop around for a more competitive interest rate.

If you're like most of us, you receive a monthly statement from your bank that reveals just how little interest you're being paid.  What used to be hundreds of dollars is now a one or two digit number.  Maybe you don't even realize it, but your money market account might be paying as little as 0.20% (that's two-tenths of one percent).  Even a one-month United States Treasury Bill was recently yielding less than one-tenth of a percent!

With interest rates that low, the only place to go is up.  Don't just sit there and fret with each month's statement.  Shop around just like you shop for groceries or other online bargains.

Let's do the math to see how much it can mean to your bank account.

Let's say your current bank account yields 0.20% and you have $25,000 in the bank.  When you receive your monthly statement, you will have earned $4.16 -- enough for a slice of pizza and a soda.  After 1 year you and your significant other will be eating at Olive Garden with the $50.05 that you earned.

Now let's say you use one of the many online interest rate search engines like bankrate.com.  A quick search today showed a top rate of 1.44% from a four-star rated bank.  In one month you will have earned $30.  After 1 year, you and your whole family will be eating New Year's Eve dinner at the finest steakhouse with the $362.29 you'll have in the bank.  By the way, one of our favorite banks is ING Direct. Also, check the top of this page for some other bank deals.

Now that's some pretty good eatin' just for doing a little shoppin'!