Let’s face it, you have to have snacks now and then. Every frugal shopping expert will tell you to avoid the snack aisle when grocery shopping, because you’ll end up spending too much money on junk food instead of on good food. The empty calories aren’t great either, but hey, we all need to crunch once in a while.
Sure, you can crunch on fresh veggies and other healthy stuff, but who doesn’t like a good crispy, salty chip, puff, or pretzel occasionally? This is a good time of year to give in to the urge. Snacks are usually on sale around Memorial Day because a lot of people have barbeques and picnics. Fourth of July and Labor Day usually mean sales too.
You can often get name brand potato chips, cheese puffs, pretzels, tortilla chips, and just about any other kind of crunchy snack for much less than the everyday prices. Watch the sale ads for buy one get one free and three bags for $5.00 deals.
Another good way to save is to buy store brand snacks. Wal-Mart’s “Great Value” brand is a high quality, reasonably priced alternative to national brands. In fact, their snacks cost about 1/3 of the price. My kids like the cheese puffs better than the most popular brand name, and they only cost a little over $1.00 for a large bag. Do you like pretzel sticks? I bet you’ll like them even better when you can get a 24 oz. bag for a buck. Tortilla chips, both plain and nacho flavor, are also $1.00. If you prefer potato chips, they’re usually two bags for three dollars and they come in regular, rippled, sour cream and onion, or barbeque flavor.
Don’t forget to check dollar stores too, but check the size of the package. If it’s a small size, you might not be getting a good deal despite the $1.00 price tag. You might be paying the equivalent of what you pay per ounce for a large bag at the corner grocery.