How To Read Your Grocery Receipt: sale discounts and regular prices

Ever think that they make grocery receipts as confusing as possible so you don’t really understand what you’re paying? Well, maybe they do and maybe they don’t, but today I’m starting a series on How To Read Your Grocery Receipt.  We’re going to explore everything from double coupons to e-coupons to savings percentages, and today we’re starting with the basics: sale discounts and regular prices.

Deciphering Sale Discounts and Regular Prices

Let’s talk about how sale prices show up on your receipt.  On the right you see a receipt from King Soopers.  Let’s look at the bottom three items:

3 @ 3.49 Nstl Semi-Swt [ + ] -$ 10.47
SC Nstle Semi-S ($1.99) $1.50-P
SC Nstle Semi-S ($1.99) $1.50-P
SC Nstle Semi-S ($1.99) $1.50-P

Here’s how to interpet that: the first line, 3 @ 3.49 Nstl Semi-Swt [ + ] -$ 10.47 tells us that we bought three bags of Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and that they were $3.49 each, thus a total of $10.47 in the far right column.

(You can click on any of the images to enlarge)

Those chocolate chips, however, were on sale, so on the next three lines, we have the information about what the sale price was.  Where it says SC Nstle Semi-S ($1.99) $1.50-P, $1.99 is the actual price they were on sale for.  The 1.50-P shows us how much the register took off to adjust the regular price to the sale price.  Everything in that right hand column adds up to get your total.

So, we have three bags of Nestle chips at $10.47 regular price.  Because they are on sale for $1.50 off, we subtract $1.50 three times to get the final sale price of $1.99 each.

The number in the right-hand column at the top of the “section” of Nestle chips, in normal font, is the regular price.  The number inside the parenthesis is the final sale price, and the negative number in the right hand column below the regular price is how much the register has taken off in order to reflect the sale discount.

For an example of how something rings up that’s not on sale, look to the middle of that image at the item that says Kro Salt .49.  There are no adjustments to this price; it is not on sale.

Wow, I think these receipts are even more confusing when you try to explain how they work!

Here’s another example, this time with a Safeway receipt.  Safeway shows the product and price on the first line, then the second line states what the regular price was and how much you saved by using your Safeway card.

AA Batteries 4.99
Reg Price 7.49  CardSav 2.50

So, the price we actually paid was $4.99, which is the regular price of $7.49 minus the card savings of $2.50.  Personally I think Safeway’s receipts are easier to read!

Stay tuned for more on How To Read Your Grocery Receipt!  If you have questions, please feel free to ask in the comments, and I (or someone else) will either answer there or answer it in a future post in this series.  Next Monday we’ll look at how coupons and doubled coupons show up on your receipt.