Thursday, July 29, 2010

Frugal Friday: How Do You Know When Toilet Paper is a Good Deal?



Buying toilet paper at a good price can be confusing. There are so many different types and sizes. There are single rolls, double rolls, large rolls, extra large rolls and 1 1/2 rolls. How do you know if you are getting the best price? My friend Melanie gave me a great way to tell if you are really getting a good deal on TP. Calculate the cost per square foot. A good price is $.01 per square foot.

Here is an example:





This Quilted Northern 12 double roll pack is on sale for $5.99 and I have a $1 coupon  making it $4.99. To find out if this is a good deal, first look for the square feet on the package. This particular Northern package is 266.6 sq. ft. Now you need to do some math (don't be scared, it's easy).  Divide the price by the square footage and then you will know the cost per square foot.



4.99 divided by 266.6 = $.0187171

So the price is a little less than $.02 per square foot. This toilet paper is above the $.01/sq ft. target price. If you are completely out or almost out of tp this is not a bad deal. However, if you are well stocked then I would pass on this deal. I hope this helps you make sense of TP prices!


For more frugal ideas, visit Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

8 comments:

  1. How about Paper Towels? I skipped a CVS deal the other week because I couldn't decide if it was a good deal. The rolls we normally buy have more sheets. It seemed like it was potentially a deal based on Target shelf pricing, but we normally buy at a club store.

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  2. I am frequently baffled at how to compare toilet paper prices because of all the different ways they size them. One thing I do is try to shoot for no more than $.25 a roll, although rolls definitely vary in size. I will pay as much as $.40 a roll if I am almost out.

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  3. I never thought to look for the square feet, I always use the number of rolls. Thank you so much! I will definitely use this next time. =)

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  4. Thanks for the tip, I'm always wondering which paper to buy, there's so many prices and sizes!

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  5. I was just today wondering if the deal I saw last night was one I should grab. Thanks for the tip.

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  6. I do it this way, too, and I always end up getting Target brand toliet paper for less than anything else, even with sales prices and coupons.

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  7. Busy Mom,
    I am not sure about a good price for paper towels but since paper towel rolls vary in size just like TP, the square footage method should also work. I will do some research and see if I can figure out a good square foot price for paper towels.

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  8. did you ever get an answer on the paper towel question? How about tissues?

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