My family loooooves granola. My husband eats it morning, noon and night; my daughters nosh on it for breakfast and after school. (I know, not the most nutritious practice, but at least they’re getting lots of fiber.) As you can imagine our granola habit was putting quite a dent in my food bill. Why? The cheapest box at my supermarket (the store brand!) is $4.19. When I pick up five boxes (the minimum my granola munchers go through in a week), it adds up to a whopping $20.95. Throw in a brand-name box or two and—ouch. No really, ouch.

Then one day I walked past the self-service bulk bin aisle and a light bulb went off.  How much would I save if I scooped my own granola? Well, as it turns out, a lot, and it opened a whole new money-saving pathway for me (and showed me how to save on other grocery items as well). Take a look at last week’s shopping trip:

*I picked up 5 pounds of ginger snap and low-fat raisin granola for $2.49 a pound, totaling $12.45. The boxed equivalent would have cost me $20.95.  My savings: $8.50.

*Bulk-bin almonds are pretty pricey at $8.99/lb., but they’re a lot cheaper than the kind the store sells in plastic containers at $11.18/lb. (Who knew packaging could be so expensive?) I picked up a pound for healthy snacking. My savings: $2.19.

*I scooped out 2 pounds of brown rice at $1.39/lb. then scooted over to the rice aisle to see how much I saved. The same variety, in a plastic container, cost $2.97/lb. and $2.00/lb in a bag.  Bonus: Since I plan to simply refill my existing container, less plastic ends up in landfill. My savings: $1.22-$3.16.

*In a probably vain attempt to convert my family to healthy, affordable oatmeal, I picked up a pound of rolled oats for $1.19/lb. It was shockingly cheaper than the store brand ($2.66). My savings: $1.47.

Another reason I love the bulk bins: You can buy small amounts. I recently needed a scant 1/8 of a cup of unsweetened coconut for a recipe. I scooped out exactly that much, and because it was so little, it didn’t register on the scale. At the checkout, it cost me…nothing.  The manager gave it to me for free. Nice, right? Buying small also lets you try out new items, like the bulk bin sesame chews I bought for my kids and they promptly rejected.

My next step: Finding cheap, reusable storage containers for my bulk bin finds. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comment section. Thanks!

—Susan Spencer, executive editor

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