Original price after 30% off
Enter what you paid and this page works back to the pre-sale price. The discount is fixed at 30% — the price is yours to change.
Worked example at 30% off
You paid £84.00 in a 30% off sale.
- 100% − 30% = 70% of the original price remains
- As a decimal that is 0.7
- 84 ÷ 0.7 = £120.00
- You saved £36.00
Check it forwards: £120.00 − 30% = £84.00 ✓
Adding 30% back to £84.00 would give £109.20 — which is wrong, and wrong by more as the percentage grows. The discount was taken off the larger original, so putting it back on the smaller sale price never reaches it.
Where 30% off shows up
Thirty percent marks the transition from promotion to clearance. Retailers rarely open at this depth on current-season stock, so seeing it usually means the line is being run down or the season is turning.
It is the most common depth for a mid-sale escalation: an item that started at 20% off and did not move gets pushed to 30%. If both reductions came off the same original ticket price, reverse only the 30% — the two do not compound.
30% off price table
What twenty common sale prices were before the 30% reduction. Every figure is divided by 0.7.
| You paid | Original price | You saved |
|---|---|---|
| £7.00 | £10.00 | £3.00 |
| £11.00 | £15.71 | £4.71 |
| £15.00 | £21.43 | £6.43 |
| £19.00 | £27.14 | £8.14 |
| £23.00 | £32.86 | £9.86 |
| £27.00 | £38.57 | £11.57 |
| £31.00 | £44.29 | £13.29 |
| £35.00 | £50.00 | £15.00 |
| £39.00 | £55.71 | £16.71 |
| £43.00 | £61.43 | £18.43 |
| £47.00 | £67.14 | £20.14 |
| £51.00 | £72.86 | £21.86 |
| £55.00 | £78.57 | £23.57 |
| £59.00 | £84.29 | £25.29 |
| £63.00 | £90.00 | £27.00 |
| £67.00 | £95.71 | £28.71 |
| £71.00 | £101.43 | £30.43 |
| £75.00 | £107.14 | £32.14 |
| £79.00 | £112.86 | £33.86 |
| £83.00 | £118.57 | £35.57 |
Doing it without a calculator
You paid 70%, and 1 ÷ 0.7 is 1.4286 — awkward enough that estimating beats guessing. Adding three sevenths is exact but hard; adding roughly three sevenths, or about 43%, gets you there. On £84: 84 + 36 = £120, which happens to be exact.
The exact method is always the same: divide by 0.7. 30% off leaves 70% of the original, so dividing by 0.7 undoes it precisely. Multiplying, or adding the percentage back on, gives a number that is always too small — and the error grows with the discount.
Frequently asked questions
›If something went from 20% off to 30% off, is that 50% off?
Not if both are measured against the original ticket price, which is the usual case — it is simply 30% off. Percentages only compound when the second is taken off the already-reduced price.