jQuery Change event on an <input> element - any way to retain previous value?

A better approach is to store the old value using .data. This spares the creation of a global var which you should stay away from and keeps the information encapsulated within the element. A real world example as to why Global Vars are bad is documented here

e.g

<script>
    //look no global needed:)

    $(document).ready(function(){
        // Get the initial value
       var $el = $('#myInputElement');
       $el.data('oldVal',  $el.val() );


       $el.change(function(){
            //store new value
            var $this = $(this);
            var newValue = $this.data('newVal', $this.val());
       })
       .focus(function(){
            // Get the value when input gains focus
            var oldValue = $(this).data('oldVal');
       });
    });
</script>
<input id="myInputElement" type="text">

This might do the trick:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $("input[type=text]").change(function() {
        $(this).data("old", $(this).data("new") || "");
        $(this).data("new", $(this).val());
        console.log($(this).data("old"));
        console.log($(this).data("new"));
    });
});

Demo here

$('#element').on('change', function() {
    $(this).val($(this).prop("defaultValue"));
});

You could have the value of the input field copied to a hidden field whenever focus leaves the input field (which should do what you want). See code below:

<script>
    $(document).ready(function(){
        $('#myInputElement').bind('change', function(){
            var newvalue = $(this).val();
        });
        $('#myInputElement').blur(function(){
            $('#myHiddenInput').val($(this).val());
        });
    });
</script>
<input id="myInputElement" type="text">

(untested, but it should work).

Every DOM element has an attribute called defaultValue. You can use that to get the default value if you just want to compare the first changing of data.