Food manufacturers are constantly looking for new ways to persuade you to spend more money on their products. They create ever more clever packaging, add “healthier” ingredients, and introduce new flavor combinations.
Packaging products into “convenient” snack size portions is one particularly clever way they convince you to place their products into your shopping cart.
These snack size packages are frequently advertised to moms and dads as great items to place in school lunches or as great after school or between meal snacks.
The cost for these convenient snack size portions, however, is exceedingly high – hitting your grocery dollars at a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of how snack size packaging of food puts a strain on your shopping dollar.
Sun-Maid raisins are a favorite treat for many people. In a local Chicago supermarket, a 9 ounce package of Sun-Maid raisins containing six individual snack size boxes of raisins costs $2.99. This works out to 33.3 cents per ounce of raisins.
Close by a 15 ounce box of Sun-Maid raisins costs the exact same $2.99, but since the box contains more raisins you end up paying only 20 cents per ounce of raisins.
Amazingly, you pay 67% more to purchase your raisins in small convenient snack size boxes!
In another example, you can purchase a box containing 9 individual snack size packages of goldfish (cracker snacks). Purchasing these snack size packages will run you 51.5 cents per ounce of goldfish.
Nearby, you can just as easily buy a 6.6 ounce bag of goldfish for which you’ll only pay 33.2 cents per ounce of goldfish.
Purchasing the “convenient” snack packs of goldfish costs you 55% more money!
Sometimes food companies will slightly alter the food in their snack packs to make them more interesting or appealing. A perfect example is Mini Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. These are basically small bite size versions of the regular Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies.
For these miniaturized chocolate chip cookies packaged in convenient snack packs you’ll pay dearly. A 15 ounce box containing 12 snack packs of these Chips Ahoy mini chocolate chip cookies will set you back $6.49, or 43.3 cents per ounce of cookie.
In contrast, a bag of Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies will cost you only $4.29, or 28.2 cents per ounce of cookie.
For the privilege of having your cookies miniaturized and placed in a “convenient” snack pack, you pay 54% more money!
The lesson. Forget those cute little snack packs. You’re going to pay an arm and a leg for this so called “convenience”. Instead, make your own snack packs.
Simply purchase a large box of your favorite food and divide small quantities into sandwich bags. It only takes a few minutes and you’ll save a lot of money.
Sandwich bags can be purchased for pennies a bag at discount stores like Aldi Supermarkets and Wal-Mart, and you can also reuse your sandwich bags if you’re really looking to pinch pennies.
Don’t give in to food manufacturers’ solicitations to buy their high priced snack packs. Save significant money by simply making your own.
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I’ve found those small pudding cups to also be really expensive. Instead I use the instant pudding that you get in the box and a couple cups of milk to make my pudding. you get so much more pudding for your money. Of course you don’t have those cute little plastic cups to eat from but your helping save the environment.