Despite prices topping $5 a box, cereal seems irreplaceable for hectic mornings and finicky eaters.
Still, American families are changing their cereal-buying habits as the price of the morning staple has increased 13 percent from last year.
“We have changed brands and kinds” of cereal, said Phoenix mother Michelle McKay, 40. “The name-brand, sugary (and) fancy ones are gone. We do more generic Cheerios and Corn Flakes. They charge a lot to make cereal pretty.”
Miranda Wilfert, 28, is a Phoenix mother of children ages 4 and 2, and a child-care provider to five other children, so she has to keep her pantry stocked with cereal. She found cereal savings through a program called CouponSense.com. Wilfert pays $15 a month for the online program, which identifies coupons and store sales.
“I won’t spent more than $1.50 and usually not more than 50 cents a box,” she said. “I look at the ads, and I see where cereal is on sale. I’m not going to buy at $5 a box when I can get it at 50 cents a box; I’m going to get eight boxes. Some people shop at their convenience, but the key is to watch the sales and then stock up.”
McKay, who facilitates an online group called AZFrugal Mommies at yahoo.com /groups, and the Dollar Stretcher (stretcher.com), which publishes money-saving tips, offer these other six suggestions for taking a bite out of cereal costs.
Beware of sale prices. A sale is good, right? Maybe not. Dollar Stretcher founder Gary Foreman said even if the box looks big, check the number of ounces and then check the sticker on the shelf for the price per ounce. “Let’s face it, there’s air in the boxes, and you can’t go by the size,” he said. “It may not be such a good deal when you are only getting three or four bowls of cereal out of it.”
Bag it. Some national brands package their cereal in bags that are more economical than their boxed counterparts. McKay estimates that when she also has a coupon, she can get almost 50 percent more cereal by buying her brand in a bag.
Mix and match. Create a custom-blend cereal that also is more economical by mixing a sugary cereal, which generally is more expensive, with its healthful counterpart (Frosted Flakes with Corn Flakes, for example) or the name brand you prefer – Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, for example – with the store brand.
Clip and wait. Everyone knows that a coupon is a way to save, but McKay suggests holding onto the coupon until the cereal goes on sale. Doing so can save up to 50 percent.
Stock up when the savings is 30 to 50 percent. If you’re uncertain about what is a good price, Foreman recommends carrying a small notebook and noting sale prices of your favorite cereals. “It can be hard to remember if $3.29 is a good deal. This way, you’ll remember, and if you put the date by the sale price, you’ll start to notice a pattern of when a store puts a particular item on sale,” he said.
Try the store-brand variety. Don’t be a snob, because you could be getting robbed, Foreman said. Cereal-factory workers have confided in him that labeling is changed on a line, so that what goes into the store-brand box is the same national-brand cereal. But he cautioned that not every store brand of toasted oats, for example, matches the national brand the consumer prefers. “Regardless, it’s certainly worth giving it a try to see if you like it,” Foreman said.
The Arizona Republic
By Sonja Haller | July 28, 2008
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2008/07/28/20080728cereal0728.html
