How much can each item cost? Find the maximum price before shopping
By Erik Nilsen · Kroni3 min read
When your child needs several identical items, calculate a maximum unit price before searching for products. That avoids building a basket that could never fit. First subtract money to be kept and fixed costs that do not depend on the number of items.
Divide the amount left for products
In a hypothetical example, your child wants five identical decorative badges. They have 90 units, want to keep at least 15 for later, and know delivery costs 15 for the order. The family has checked that delivery is fixed for this imaginary order. The amounts are arbitrary teaching numbers.
The product budget is 90 − 15 − 15 = 60 units. Dividing by five gives a maximum unit price of 60 / 5 = 12. Five items at 12 each cost 60; adding delivery brings payment to 75. The planned 15 remains.
At 11 each, the products cost 5 × 11 = 55 and the total is 55 + 15 = 70. Your child keeps 20. At 13 each, the products cost 65 and the total is 80. Your child can pay 80 but keeps only 10, failing the plan to retain 15.
Write “maximum 12 per badge” beside the need for five. This is a limit for this specific plan, rather than a claim about what shops should charge for a badge.
Check what the unit price includes
A realistic snag is a price of 10 applying only when buying ten badges. That is not an available price for five. Calculate the actual buying method rather than a theoretical unit price requiring a different quantity.
If delivery changes with quantity or size, recalculate the limit. With fixed delivery of 20, the product budget becomes 90 − 15 − 20 = 55 and the maximum unit price is 11. An old maximum cannot be used after the costs change.
Your child can wait or change the number wanted. If the five items are necessary school supplies, clarify parental responsibility rather than treating them as an optional allowance purchase.
Ask your family: “What remains for the products after the reserve and delivery, and which unit price provides five within that amount?”
Carry the calculation into your family agreement
Kroni can keep track of your child's virtual balance. The app does not transfer money, so any actual purchase is paid for outside it. Agree on what you will record, then check the amount with your child afterwards. Do not deduct a possible cost as though the purchase had already happened. Read about allowance in Kroni.
