Do you ever feel like math is just a subject that you learn in school and then never use again? Well, think again! There are many ways that you can use math in your everyday life to make things easier (and save money!). For example, if you are shopping for groceries, you can use addition and subtraction to figure out the best prices on items. Or, if you are planning a vacation, you can use multiplication and division to calculate how much money you will need. By using real world math in your everyday life, you can make sure that your finances stay strong. So why not give it a try?

You may be surprised at how useful math can be!

There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re trying to save money on groceries. The first is that you need to know the unit price of an item. This will tell you how much each individual item costs, and it’s a great way to compare prices between different brands or sizes. To calculate the unit price, simply take the total cost of the item and divide it by the number of units in the package. For example, if a bag of coffee beans costs $12.99 and there are 900 grams in the bag, then the unit price would be $0.012 per gram.

Unit price = Price paid for the entire item / amount of product in the item

= $12.99 / 900 grams = $0.012/gram

You can take this even further, and use this unit cost to determine how much your pot of coffee costs in the morning! Let’s say you use approximately 65 grams of coffee beans to make your pot. Not sure how to determine this? One easy way is to use a digital kitchen scale! Just pour the amount of beans in that you would normally put in your coffee maker, and read the output on the scale. Disclaimer – make sure your scale is measuring in the same units that you used to calculate the unit price above (in this example, it was grams!).

So if you are using 65 grams per pot of coffee, the cost for that pot is:

$0.012/gram X 65 grams = $0.93

So much cheaper than going to the coffee shop, AND you get a full pot of coffee instead of one cup!

Now that you know how to calculate the unit price of an item, you can start to compare prices and figure out which items are the best deal. For example, let’s say you’re trying to decide between two types of juice – one that costs $12 for 18 ounces, and one that costs $14 for 24 ounces. To find the better deal, you would need to calculate the unit price for each type of juice. For the first type of juice, the unit price would be $0.67 per ounce, and for the second type of juice, the unit price would be $0.58 per ounce. This means that the second type of juice is actually the better deal, even though it costs more upfront.

When you’re cooking at home, it’s also important to be mindful of the cost of each recipe. Just because a recipe calls for expensive ingredients doesn’t mean that it’s going to be more expensive to make than a simpler dish. To figure out the cost of a recipe, start by looking at the price of each ingredient and then multiplying it by the amount that you need. For example, if a recipe calls for one pound of ground beef and the unit price of ground beef is $12 per pound (you can calculate this using the formula above!), then you would need to multiply $12 by one to get the total cost of the ingredient. Then, you would do this for each ingredient in the recipe, and add them all up, and VOILA! you have the total cost of the dish. Once you know how much each recipe costs to make, you can start to compare prices and figure out which ones are the best value for your money, and even start looking at whether it makes more sense to make it yourself or just buy it already made at the store. Spoiler alert – this can often be the case with certain types of baking!

So there you have it! A few ways that you can use math to save money in your everyday life. By being mindful of the cost of groceries and recipes, you can make sure that your finances stay on track. So next time you’re at the store or cooking at home, don’t be afraid to bust out those math skills! They just might come in handy.