Dear Jill,
Could you help me determine what the best price for laundry detergent is? I like to use the single load 'packs' of detergent but suspect I am overpaying for the convenience. (How much, I am not sure.) I would appreciate guidelines for this as we do many loads of laundry each week.
Patrick G.
Whenever I’m purchasing products that come in multiple sizes, I always try to figure out the best value per ounce or individual unit. Laundry detergent is a product that’s relatively easy to compare pricing on.
While the guidelines I’m about to share are not always true 100% of the time, they’re good rules of thumb to keep in mind to save money.
First, liquid laundry detergent is typically the least expensive form to buy. Individual-dose packs are typically the most expensive to use per load. They’re convenient to use, but as with many conveniences, it comes at a price.
Let’s look at a recent sale at a major chain drugstore on name-brand laundry detergent. A 64-load 100-ounce bottle was on sale for $11.94, and the 21-count individual packs of the same detergent brand were also on sale for $11.94. Before we even bring coupons or promotions into the picture, the store’s advertisement tells us that we can buy 64 liquid loads for the price of 21 single-load packs. This works out to about 19 cents per liquid load to about 57 cents per pack load — an enormous difference.
My goal as a coupon shopper is to get my laundry load prices, in any form, under 10 cents per load. During the above sale, the pharmacy had a $3 coupon for the detergent in their app and a $2.50 reward for purchasing. That dropped the bottle to $6.44, or about 10 cents per load — while the single-load packs worked out to 30 cents per load with the same deal.
As is often true with coupons, sometimes buying the smaller size is also a better deal. A coupon can often take a bigger “bite” out of the smaller item's price, resulting in a lower unit cost over the larger bottle. At the same store, a 22-load bottle and 12-count single-load packs of the same name-brand detergent were both on sale for $2.94. A $1 coupon for these smaller sizes dropped both packages to $1.94, making each liquid laundry load just 8 cents, while the single-load packs worked out to 16 cents.
I understand that not everyone has a washer and dryer at home. If you’re carrying laundry to a shared laundry room or Laundromat, it’s definitely more convenient to toss a detergent pack into the load so that you don’t have to carry a bottle along with you. Just keep in mind that you’re often paying at least twice the per-load price for this convenience.
(A note about powdered laundry detergent: Powders are still being manufactured, but the popularity of liquids and packs means that stores are devoting less shelf space to powders. In turn, many of the laundry detergent coupons available also exclude powdered forms. I am a fan of powdered detergent, especially for washing whites, but I’ve found better deals on it at ethnic grocery stores and even hardware stores and home centers. Pricewise, powdered detergents’ per-load prices tend to fall between liquids and packs.)
Another tip that I can share for saving on laundry detergent is not to be too brand-specific. Don’t be afraid to try different brands if the price is right. The shelf in my laundry room resembles a cocktail bar of various colors, sizes, and brands of laundry detergent! While we all have our favorite brands, don’t be afraid to try something different if the price is right. I delegate my premium-brand detergents to washing dark colors or heavily-stained items. Bargain-brand detergents often clean well but may not contain all of the fabric conditioners that premium brands do, so I use these for my “less than premium” laundry loads: Garage towels, pet bed covers, and garden gloves all need to be washed too!
Email your own couponing victories and questions to jill@ctwfeatures.com.
March 14, 2021 at 05:00PM
https://www.nwitimes.com/lifestyles/super-couponing-pay-attention-to-per-load-pricing-for-laundry-detergent/article_b6a4c8d2-28d5-5e49-b59e-89624991f753.html
SUPER-COUPONING: Pay attention to per-load pricing for laundry detergent - nwitimes.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=Laundry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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