Serious Cereal Savings

My food of choice for breakfast is (and has always been) cereal. I am generally not very picky as to the brand or type although my favorite is Frosted Flakes. Since I eat cereal almost every morning, we tend to go through quite a bit of it. Walking down the aisle at your local Walmart or grocery store, you'll see an endless selection of brands and types. There are the name brands offered by General Mills, Kellogg's, and Post as well as store brands. Store brand cereal does not bother me.

In 2011 I first noticed while shopping at Walmart that pricing of their cereals were constantly changing. I began not paying attention to the actual price I was paying, but rather the price per ounce. After several years of watching the price per ounce, it seemed that most cereals averaged a little over 20 cents per ounce. The Walmart brands were lower, but still ranged between 13 and 19 cents per ounce. There were a few cereals (mainly the Walmart brand of Frosted Flakes and Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Almonds) that were less than 12 cents per ounce. Those were generally the cereals I would purchase.

When Aimee and I moved to Elizabeth City in December of 2012, we discovered Ollie's. We had always heard about the store, but never ventured into the discount retailer until we moved. Among many of the other cheap items they had for sale, we found Ollie's generally sold cereal on the cheap. At first, we were apprehensive and wondered about the quality of the cereal (expiration date, staleness, etc.) but nevertheless gave it a try. None of the cereals we purchased were out of date, nor did they taste stale. When doing the math, many times we were purchasing cereal between 8 and 10 cents per ounce, and some of these were name brands! At one point in 2013, Malt-O-Meal (the cereal in a bag people) had a campaign to put some of their cereals in a box in order to try to raise awareness for their bagged cereals. They figured that if people tried their cereals in boxes, maybe they would switch to the bag and effectively "bag the box". I'm not sure if their campaign worked, but they had quite a few leftover boxes of cereal on closeout at Ollie's. These cereals were priced around 8 cents per ounce and included their off brand of Captain Crunch w/ Berries, Frosted Flakes, and Apple Jacks. On one occasion in early 2014, we were able to pick up a box that contained two bags of Frosted Flakes at 5 cents an ounce.

One might wonder, what the difference is in a few cents per ounce. Assuming I consume around 2 ounces of cereal each day six days a week and another ounce once a week as a dessert, my annual cereal consumption is 676 ounces. Conservatively, if am saving around 7 cents per ounce (most of the time it is more than that) my annual savings is $47.32. Some might balk and say that is not much, but in my Toyota Corolla, that is a tank and a half of gas (600 miles worth).

I have often times wondered the potential savings of purchasing in bulk from Sam's Club or Costco. Unfortunately, I do not own a membership so I cannot analyze whether or not the bulk savings is equivalent to that of Ollie's.

If you know of a way to save on cereal or have a suggestion for a savings tip, please email me at PennyPinchingPaul@gmail.com.

Happy Saving!

-Paul

Save Some Bread on Your Bread

Since our last blogging series a few years ago, Aimee and I have found a simple and easy way to save money on loaf bread. At most grocery stores, a decent loaf of bread (Nature's Best, Sara Lee, etc.) will set you back at least $2.25. Sometimes you may find a special for under $2.00. Since we eat sandwiches everyday for lunch, our bread consumption is fairly constant and waiting to find a deal on a loaf of bread can leave us with the possibility of not having it available for lunch.

For several years now, we have been eating higher quality loaf bread while only spending $1.00 plus tax. The local Dollar Tree sells every item for $1.00 or less and includes bread. As bread in regular grocery stores nears its expiration date, the loaves are collected and distributed to discount stores (such as the Dollar Tree) and sold at a discounted price. The bread is delivered several times each week and each Dollar Tree has its own schedule as to when it receives the loaves. At our local store, we have found that it is delivered normally Friday evening or Saturday morning. We plan the trips on Saturday mornings in order to get the best selection on the loaves. The selection each week is not always the same, so we visit often to stock up on our favorite bread brands (mine is Nature's Own Honey Wheat).

One might ask, "Since the bread is near expiration, how can you stock up with several loaves without them going bad?" The answer is simple, freeze the loaves not currently in use. There is a common misnomer that you cannot eat bread after its expiration date, as if it would go bad a few days after the sell by date. While this may be the case with other store bought items, such as milk, this is not the case with bread. We have found that if you freeze the loaves of bread you are not currently using, you prolong the life of the bread. This allows you to eat bread that is still fine a month or two after the sell by date on the loaf.

At our house, we tend to eat about a loaf every two weeks. Assuming consumption of 26 loaves annually and an average savings of $1.25 per loaf, we are able to save about $32.50 each year on bread alone.

As always, if you have a savings idea that you would like to share, email it to PennyPinchingPaul@gmail.com.

Happy Saving!