direct material price variance

The difference between the actual material for a product cost compared to how it was budgeted to cost. For example, consider a bread company that needs 500 pounds of wheat to make loaves of bread, and budgets a pound of wheat to cost $1. If the actual cost of wheat rose to $3 a pound, the direct material price variance was $1,000: ($3 actual price - $1 budgeted price) x 500 pounds. See also direct material variance.