What a Difference Bulk Makes!

So, my wife came home with a box of healthy cereal (pictured on the right).  One pound of Ezekiel cereal cost us $4.89.  For a second, let's set aside the fact that one pound of this cereal costs more than the SNAP daily $$ allotment for one person.

One box of cereal has eight half-cup servings in it.

$4.89/8 servings = $.61 per serving.

Now, most stores carry oatmeal for $.99/pound.  The two oats containers you see pictured are each 2.5 lbs.

For the same cost as one pound of cereal, I can get five pounds of oats which is 60 half-cup servings! 

$5/60 servings = $.08 per serving

And if I buy my oats in bulk, I get them for $.60 per pound.  That gives me 8.3 pounds of oats for five bucks!

That's 3.3 containers of oats or about 100 servings of oats.

$5/100 servings = $.05 per serving.  

What's the bottom line here?  The boxed cereal costs me 12 times as much as oats.