Shopping By EDJ

Some of you may read this and say I am cheap, but hey, "waste not, want not". This post will help explain, in part, one of the reasons why I will probably do well on the quantitative section of the GMAT. I may not be studying for the exam yet, but I am surely getting some practice in my day to day activities.

During Memorial Day I did some serious shopping online. It wasn't as if I really needed anything. I got one of those "Memorial Day Sale!" e-mails from a few stores that I normally shop at and I decided to check out their sales. I saw a few things I liked, and then I bought them.

But, it is the way I did my shopping that I am sharing with you. What I am about to describe--I do all the time no matter what I am shopping for be it clothing or computers. I would like to know if I am the only one out there that does this. I am using my Memorial Day shopping as an example.

First, I browsed the website and added items to my cart that I liked without concern for price or number of items. Then, when I was sure I didn't want anything else, I went to my cart and started categorizing items in order of priority i.e. which ones I just had to have and which ones I could wait for (especially when the prices get reduced at a later point). After sorting and "saving" certain items for later, it was time to pay for the items left in the cart. But wait...there's more to this.

Next thing I did was look for coupons. This is one of my favorite things about shopping online and Google is awesomely awesome at helping out with the coupon search. I found quite a few coupons for this store and after comparing coupons the two codes of highest value to me were for 25% off all orders over $100, and 40% off each item. Obviously I couldn't use two coupon codes, and of course I was going to pick the one that would save me the most money. This is where the GMAT quantitative practice comes in.

I actually took a calculator and calculated the difference between using the 25% coupon and the 40% coupon including taxes and shipping fees. Obviously using the 25% coupon option was easy. Simply multiply the total order + shipping by 0.75 and then calculate the sales tax for that amount. No problem.

The 40% option meant that I would have to do the math for each item as individual order. So, for each item, multiply the item price + shipping by 0.60 and then add the sales tax. I had to do this 6 times for all the things I bought.

So which one costs less?
1. (0.75 (order total + shipping amount)) + sales tax
OR
2. ((0.60 (Item 1 + shipping amount)) + sales tax) + (0.60 (Item 2 + shipping amount)) + sales tax) + (0.60 (Item 3 + shipping amount)) + sales tax)...(0.60 (Item 6  + shipping amount)) + sales tax))

 I'll give y'all some time to think about it. If you are familiar with the GMAT then you may be aware the options would look something like:
a) Option 1 costs less
b) Both options have the same value
c) Option 2 costs less
d) There is not enough information to make a decision.

Happy math solving! I'm sure you guys are smart enough to figure it out.

In case you are concerned, my shopping turned out great and I am eagerly looking forward to my purchases arriving!