Shopping Tips - Figuring Out Discounts and Sales Tax in TWO steps

Shopping is fun. Real shopping. Not grocery shopping, since that's clearly survival. I'm talking clothes, or fun household stuff or outdoor stuff or toy shopping, etc.. I totally intend to do these 'shoppings' when this teaching degree is paid for. ;)

I would like to share with you the easiest way to make sure your items are discounted properly. If you have discounts for groceries, you can use this too, but I just wanted to think about fun stuff!  Now I have a real problem with people standing there in the aisles of stores thinking so hard. I know right!~? Me have a problem with people over-analyzing math!? HA!
Kind of like this post about finding the tip, right?
Here's that video.

Now, let's get serious, because shopping, is serious.

If you see a sign that says an item is discounted by 20%, and has a sales tax of 6%,  most people will do the following steps to find the complete total:

(I'm hoping this will become your old way.)
1. Take total and find 20% (multiply it by .20)
2. Subtract that 20% from the total- for the NEW Total
3. Take NEW Total and multiply it by .06 to get the Sales Tax 
4. Take and add NEW Total and the  Sales Tax to find the Complete Total

This always will work, so if you love it, then you can always use it. That being said, I don't know why you would do that again after I show you this. I'm going to do the same problem, quicker. You know you have your cell phone when you're shopping. It has a calculator, so do these steps instead. 

First if it's a 20% discount then you're paying 80% of the total.. .right?
If it's a 30% discount then you're paying 70% of the total... see what we're doing here?
If it's a 25% discount then you're paying 75% of the total. You got it now right!?

Now, let's get serious, because shopping, is serious.

(I'm hoping this becomes your new way.)
If you see a sign that says an item is discounted by 20%, and has a sales tax of 6%,  
THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD DO:

1. Take the total and find 80% of it (multiply by .80) for the NEW Total
2. The the NEW Total and multiply it by 1.06 - for the 6% sales tax  to find the Complete Total

That 1.06 means you take 1 (100%) and the extra .06 (6%) of the NEW Total.

If you have 7% sales tax you would do 1.07, 9% would be 1.09 and so on.

Here's the video with one example and one to try on your own.

VIDEO- Figuring out Discounts and Sales Tax in Two Steps

click

I do realize that their are signs in most places telling you the amount the discount is now, but sometimes those don't have that one thing you want on there. You also should always check, as sometimes things are wrong. You CAN be smarter than a sign. You got this! :)