Over the last three years I have adapted and changed the way I shop to cut expenses, save money, and live frugally. I find it challenging and fun to see if there is a more inexpensive alternative. Finding the alternative can be done in many ways:
- By shopping the sales and planning your meals around those sale items
- Using coupons and combining a coupon with a sale price
- Purchasing a store brand product of equal quality
- Buying in bulk for frequently used items
- Finding alternative sources for lower food prices either online or at a brick & mortar location
I have learned to not discount a store based solely on appearances which may require a little field work (aka shopping trip) to determine if a new store warrants further investigation. I look for alternatives when purchasing groceries to keep costs down either by waiting for an item to go on sale, purchasing in bulk, buying a store brand, or by creating a comparable product using similar ingredients.
On a recent trip to Aldi my mission was to pick up a few groceries and select a few items that would be comparable to a trail mix I had recently purchased. My husband and I just returned from a trip to Denver and one of the snacks I brought along was a pre-packaged trail mix. I don’t normally purchase trail mix due to the high price per ounce of the ingredients, but found Planters Trail Mix on sale at Walgreens for $.99 and combined the sale with a coupon which allowed me to pay $.50 for a six ounce package ($2.79 regular retail).
The trail mix was good, but I wanted to purchase the ingredients individually to see if I would be able to arrive at a good price per ounce with ingredients purchased from Aldi. The Planters Trail Mix I purchased included cashews, chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate pieces (similar to M&M’s), peanuts, raisins, and dried cranberries. I purchased similar products that would provide the same results, and ended up with cashews, semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanuts, and Fit & Active dried mixed berries (cranberries, cherries, blueberries, and strawberries). My total for all four products came to $9.36 for a total of 45.5 ounces. While the price was cheaper when the Planters Trail Mix was purchased on sale at the $.99 price, my alternative trail mix came close ($.20 per oz.) to the per unit price of the Planters Trail Mix ($.16 per oz.).
The end result of determining if an alternative trail mix would be cheaper ends with mixed results. I think that the alternative trail mix is a great deal since my $.99 price would be dependent on waiting for the Planters Trail Mix to go on sale and risking the chance of purchasing the product at a much higher price per ounce if the product was not on sale at all. I like the alternative trail mix and welcome the opportunity to continue finding cheaper alternatives to products that my family enjoys.