Mr. Frugal: What you can do with soda you can do with chips

A lot of the time, we buy groceries at the store without question for the cost- until cost becomes an issue. Applying the principles we did to soda, if you have a bad food habit- you can be smart about it and consider the options.

Chip manufacturers (and snacks) are sold by net weight, not by the volume of the bag. I think there is some science to leaving a pocket in the sealed bag, and people will call it "false advertising" because they think there are more chips in there then they actually get. I side with the manufacturer on this one- get real. Depending on the weight of the product inside, the volume will change as chips fall on each other as they go into the bag. I am confident that manufacturers put EXACTLY a certain weight into the bag that they say they do. Now with that addressed...

You can figure cost per ounce. There are more variables involved- such as taste, favorite brand, etc- but you will need to make those upgrades (or downgrades) after considering the cost per ounce.

Chip	Cost per bag	Ounces contained	$/Oz
Lays BBQ	$            4.39	11.5	$  0.38
Doritos	$            4.29	11.5	$  0.37
Andy Cap's	$            2.75	8	$  0.34
Store Generic	$            1.79	10	$  0.18

Here we can see that the Lays BBQ I like so much is 38 cents an ounce. Big deal? Look at the store generic; it is 18 cents an ounce. The store generic also carries a BBQ line- and they taste just as good as the Lays chips. In that case, I would avoid the Lays and go for the store generic. Doritos are up there too. I thought Andy Caps were cheaper, but they are also up there in terms of price. Sometimes you can get kettle cooked bags for a good price. I don't have data on one, so I won't list it and mislead people. If the kettle cooked are good, and you like them, and they are a cheaper $/Oz, go for it. On a tight budget, buying the yummy alternative can save you money.