Cross It Off The List

Are you ready for the second installment of What not to buy? Everyone is up for saving money, but the grocery store has more ways than you can imagine to suck the bills out of your wallet. One of their biggest tricks: Preying on your dream of a smaller waistline. Stop the suction.

If we put it to a poll (for once we will not), everyone reading would love to shed a few (or a lot) of pounds. Marketers know this. One of their best tactics is using calorie count against you.

Portion Control

Balance the portions.

The first time you went on a diet, the absolute first step was putting portion size into check. The infernal calorie count is the subject of hundreds of best selling books, pocket and purse calculators and the basis for the majority of pre-packaged diet systems. In all of the trimming, we still get hungry in between meals. The diet industry answered with a marketer’s dream come true: Snack packs.

These little (questionable) gems are packaged per 100-150 calories, since the optimal snack is never more than 150 calories. How does that translate to your wallet? In a word…

EXPENSIVE

Even when you can find snacks which are not horrific for your salt, sugar or fat intake, packaging them in snack-sized portions translates to as much as 500% the cost of the normal package or 850% of the bulk package. Not good with percentages? Let’s look at it another way.

The snack-pack box of cheese crackers contains six 150-calorie servings. Average cost for the box is $3.50. Cost per serving is $0.58.

The family-sized box of the same cheese crackers will set you back about $3. Does not sound like a lot of savings? Let’s do the math.

Eleven servings are in the family-sized box of crackers. Buying reusable snack bags and packaging the servings yourself means the cost per snack is $0.28. Still not convinced?

Average number of snacks per person: 485 per year
Savings per snack: $0.30
Yearly savings per person: $145 per year

Can you afford these?

This example is one of the most expensive: If you snack on cookies, your savings is as high as $0.82 per snack. If you only snack on cookies, you would be saving right at $400 per year…per person in your home.

Think pudding cups rock? Making the pudding yourself means a savings of $0.52 per serving or $252 per year.

Mac-n-cheese pack for lunch? Make it by the box and save $0.40 per serving.

Potato chips your vice? A three-ounce bag will set you back a dollar and a quarter. A 1.25 pound bag is only $2.59. Savings per serving: $0.86. At only one bag a day, this means saving $314 per year. What would you do with an extra $300?

Hold the Plastic

Are you with the saving money program? Let’s talk about the other waste…Yes, individual packaging wastes more than just money.

Tons of garbage at the end of the day.

The companies are sporting the overhead of as much as 700 times the packaging to send you individual servings. By dropping the individual packaging you can impact landfill waste, animals who ingest the non-biodegradable wrappers and consume products from recycled packaging.

Bulk packages generally contain between 35 and 70% post consumer recycled content. This means you are saving virgin trees by buying the bulk packages. You are dealing a double green blow for the environment.

Fruits, Nuts & Chocolate

Quiz: Which is more expensive?

A. Trail Mix

B. Godiva Chocolate

C. Chocolate-Coated Macadamia Nuts

The answer is A. Trail Mix. One of the most popular of the healthy snacks is trail mix. Choconuts run about $15 per pound. Godiva will set you back around $22 per pound. Single servings of trail mix (1.5 ounces) will cripple your wallet around $27 per pound.

$27 per pound

Want a better way? Make it yourself.

1 pound dry roasted peanuts
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate covered candies (or less)
3 ounces almonds
3 ounces your choice dried fruit

Total cost for two pounds of trail mix? $8. You can make it yourself, only put in the things you want and save $23 per pound. No cooking involved. Store it in an air tight glass container for up to three weeks. You will not be adding the mega dose of salt either.

Ever wonder why it is so salty? Companies salt the trail mix so consumers will drink while they munch. The drink fills you up, not the micro-serving of trail mix. Skip the salt in your version.

Bottom Line

If you are a snacker, you can save hundreds of dollars per year by investing in snack bags. Start saving money by packaging your own snacks. Spend less. Create less waste.

~~~~~~~~~~


Are you a snack eater? Do you buy the single serving packets? Would you swap your snacks to bulk sized packages and snack bags to start saving money?

Are you saving money from the beginning of this series?

(c) Ann Marie Dwyer 2012
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27 Comments

  1. I see you and I shop along the same guidelines in order to keep a few dollars in the wallet at the end of a shopping trip while still getting all the foods and snacks hoped for after check out.
    Great post, Red!
    Thank you for the comments while I was gone too!
    Hugs xx
    Deb recently posted..South PointMy Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      You are so very welcome, dear. I have been missing for a couple of days and am trying to dig my way out of the comments and the emails about posts I really want to visit. I promise to be along before too much longer. {HUGZ} Red. xxx

      Reply
  2. Plus, those little “100 calorie” snacks are deceptive. “It’s just 100 calories” and pretty soon, after you’ve eaten 3-4, it wasn’t just 100 calories but closer to 400.
    MJ Logan recently posted..JD to the Rescue!My Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      Part of that is our conditioning. Plates are meant to be full. Even our idioms of being satisfied are about a full plate. In honesty, we need so much less than a full plate to be both full and satisfied. I deal with this all the time with the short ones who are convinced I starve them. Left to their own devices, they would have 100 calories an hour. When I get them away from the constant grazing, they eat such better foods and more of them.

      Reply
  3. What if you hate trail mix…haha
    Bearman recently posted..Editorial Cartoon: Facepalm – Facebook goes PublicMy Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      You do like I do and only put in the parts you like 😉

      Reply
  4. I do the grocery shopping and I also do math while I shop. I never look at the price, but the per ounce price. We do some shopping at a whole sale club, but really don’t buy a lot of snacks. I mean, we do buy crackers and some other things for the kids, just not too much. My wife will make jello and put it into individual jello sized containers for my son’s lunch. Saves a lot of money.
    Derek Mansker recently posted..10 Ways Churches Can Help Their Youth MinistriesMy Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      I have some fun kiddo versions I will post with this series. As a professional snacker, I have a load of them!

      Reply
  5. I buy chocolate buy the ton and it saves me a fortune. Well, not as much as it would save me if I didn’t eat any.

    Personally I think your trail mix needs more chocolate and wine gums.
    Binky recently posted..Original MapMy Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      I need to find out how wine gums are packaged. Do they come in individual wrappers?

      Reply
  6. I don’t buy snacks but I do pickup crackers. I don’t buy anything processed. I like cooking from scratch. I use lots of herbs and spices and in winter stop by the Bulk Barn for them in small amounts.

    I have always been careful who gets my money. Still, groceries are not coming down. Prices are going up. GREAT post.
    Tess Kann recently posted..Is This the Stuff Some People Eat or the other one?My Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      Thank you for commenting on this one, Tess. I am going to put up some more snacking recipes and other quick and cheaper yummies. No, groceries are not coming down at all. Some of the usual inhabitants of our fridge are getting out of reach. Were it not for the crops we grow, I feel certain I would not be able to afford some of our luxury foods.

      Reply
  7. I don’t snack often, preferring to eat regular meals and drink a lot of fluids, usually tea or the occasional cup of coffee.

    We have a similar thing to trail mix, but mixed with curry powder called ‘Bombay Mix’.

    I don’t eat that either!!! 🙂

    Love and hugs!

    Prenin.
    prenin recently posted..Monday – A trip to the Co-Op…My Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      Oh, blech. That sounds perfectly vile. I am definitely not a curry fan. I am, however, a Cajun. Therefore, with enough red peppers, garlic and herbs, it can be really addicting! I either like it really sweet (lots of fruit) or really, flaming hot. {HUGZ} Red.

      Reply
  8. My shopping habits are odd, you have given me some food for thought! I don’t really eat processed foods, but I never have anything to snack on when I want it either.

    I am terrible about cooking though recently made a deal with mate that we were going to start (again) eating meals together, which means cooking.

    I have to get better about this. Have to pay attention …. to you.
    Valentine Logar recently posted..Tainted Meat for $300My Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      I have some in mind you and Mate would like. I need to sit down and actually write the recipes. They are things I do without ever having thought about what goes into them. I love to snack when reading…I have to have relatively healthy (and right calories—not necessary low calorie) ones…I read A. Lot.

      Reply
  9. I prefer to eat natural foods, prepared by myself, cooked and enjoyed…

    Not those ready meals, tv dinners and all that salt, sugar and ‘E’ numbers, colourings, etc and it is much cheaper too, if only everyone took the time to cook their own opposed to buying in those lazy meals all the time 🙁

    What a brilliant posting Red 🙂

    Androgoth XXx

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 23, 2012

      I hope with this series to give some of those people a few ideas on ways around the whole meal in a box idea. The savings is not what it appears to be. Problem…so many of the M3 Readers are doing precisely this already! Glad you liked this one, Andro.

      Reply
  10. Becky

     /  May 25, 2012

    I’m a snacker. No doubt about it. You really opened my eyes on the savings per serving if you don’t buy pre-packaged servings. I’m a pudding cup lover. I eat 2 of them for a snack. To be quite honest, I thought $1 for a 4 pack was a steal. Just bought 5 packs of Snack Packs… I’m not much of a cooker, but find my bank account becoming pretty scarce after trips to the grocery store. Thank you for these tips. I’ll be sure to implement them to the best of my cooking abilities!

    As for the link to the 5 foods you should never eat… I’m lactose intolerant, so I have to drink soy milk. I loves me some Country Crock, and I stay with my sister who only uses Splenda. Guess I’ll be retaining my weight. lol 🙂

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 25, 2012

      LOL! We ditched Splenda a while ago and if left to their own devices, my children would each drink an half gallon of mild a day. I have not bought that tub stuff, since, umm, let’s see….the ’80s. 😉

      You can do this one, Bec…promise!

      Reply

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