Years ago I used to eat a lot of dry cereals like bran flakes, corn flakes, rice crispies, shredded wheat, and the like. However, these days I generally go for cereals like oatmeal, oat flakes and cream of wheat. These cereals, apart from being more nutritious, are also more affordable when the price is compared to the dry cereals. I find that the price of dry cereals have really become too high - in my country at least. I hardly ever buy these cereals nowadays although they could sometimes be a welcome change from the ones I do buy, just for the sake of variety. How does the price of dry cereals in your country compare with the price of the other types of cereals such as oatmeal and oat flakes? Which ones do you prefer to buy?
Dry cereal in the US is pretty expensive and can go up to almost $5 a box. I buy the Malt O Meal cereals that are bagged. You get a larger amount for a lower price because you're not paying for the packaging. They stay fresh without a box and Malt O Meal makes their own versions of many popular cereals from Shredded Wheat to Cap N Crunch.
Cereals are expensive here particularly the imported Kellog's with the big box that is not actually full. What we buy is oat meal, the Quaker Oats brand. It is our trusted brand since I was a girl. But so as not to bore our taste buds with pure oat meal, we add the oatmeal in a boiling cocoa mix of water and milk. The result is like porridge that is black. Add sugar to taste and it's a good breakfast item that the kids would like.
On Oahu we have weekly sales from the supermarkets, so it's great! Cheerios can go for 2/5.00 for a 14 oz box! At Walmart Trix 14.5 oz goes for 2.72. Trix is now going natural so it's even better! We love oatmeal too and on sale a 42 oz box goes for 2/6.00! I wait for sales and go without until sales comes to the stores. There's CVS too with the same prices too and CVS has weekly sales! The stores are online so you can see the prices weekly. We have Don Quiote Supermarket and Marukai Wholesale Mart with weekly sales. Marukai Wholesale Mart is a membership store, so only members get their weekly sales brochures which has sale price changes on Tues.
I'm with @ACSAPA. I buy Malt O Meal too. When Kroger has them on special I stock up because you can't beat the price. The more popular brand names are too high where you can buy two Malt O Meal cereals for the price of one name brand just by adding a few more cents. There is a very good variety of pre-sweetened to whole grain similar to the name brands to fit every age.
Dry refined cereals are expensive here. Mixed fruit is pretty cheap. Bananas never seem to be expensive and are really filling. Chopped bananas, sultanas and a bit of cinnamon in a bowl with a dash of milk is lovely At least you know what's in it too!
I'm quite surprised that everyone says dry cereals are so expensive where they live. Here, you can get a box of cornflakes for approximately $0.30! Admittedly they're not the best tasting cornflakes (those are more like $1.50) but cereals on the whole here are pretty cheap. Muesli, oats and bran on the other hand are a lot more expensive, coming in at as much as $8 a pack! I'm surprised by the difference in the prices!
Name brand cereals are quite expensive here,between 4 and 5 dollars a box unless you watch the sale ads and get them on special. I was feeling flush a few weeks ago so I treated myself to some, but in general you will get the best buys on Generic. One of the stores I go to has a brand called Mom's Best which is maybe 2.20 for a large box which is like a frosted wheat type.
Oatmeal is by far the cheapest type of cereal here in my country. Breakfast cereals like those offered by Kellogg's are far too expensive but Quaker Oats and other local brands of oats are more affordable and budget-friendly. So I guess that's why Nutristar and Koko Crunch seem to be a fixture among rich kids. It's become a stereotype (at least where I'm from) but yuppies mostly prefer oatmeals.
I got curious about the Mom's Best cereal, and I found it is made by Malt O Meal. I think they either changed the name or it is one segment of the brand. Anyway, it is quite affordable as a brand, and I like it better than some of the store based generics. Some store brands do well with generics, and others not as much.
