The Cost of Feeling Competent By Dumping a Lot of Stuff Into a Bowl

I told you, when I listed the habits I was going to change when I moved into my apartment, that I was going to seriously get into cooking — and I was going to start with The Hairpin’s “How to Feel Competent by Dumping a Lot of Stuff Into a Bowl” muesli recipe.

Because we are The Hairpin’s financially-minded sibling, I decided to run the costs of making their recipe. I should note that I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, except I skipped the seeds because my grocery store didn’t really have any (more on this in a minute) and I substituted banana chips for shredded coconut because shredded coconut is gross.

— 32-oz bag of Bob’s Red Mill Extra Thick Rolled Oats: $4.69 (enough for two batches)

— Two 32-oz tubs of Tillamook plain yogurt: $5.00 (I would have got store brand, but this was the best deal)

— 8 oz tin of Planters’ Cashews: $5.49 (enough for two batches)

— 4 (?) oz bag of Signature Farms Dried Mixed Berries: $4.49 (I tossed the bag out before I wrote down the ounces, and I couldn’t find it online, but it was a pretty small bag)

— 6-oz bag of O Organic Banana Chips: $2.49 (enough for two batches)

— I also added half a tin of almonds that I already had in my kitchen. We’ll say… $4 for the almonds, roughly. Almonds are not cheap.

How much does this muesli cost to make, per batch? I’m going to half the prices on the oats, cashews, and banana chips (since I’ll get two batches of muesli out of them), and only count one of the yogurt tins. That brings us to: $17.34.

As a point of comparison, I pay around $2.99 for my weekly box of Frosted Mini-Wheats, with another $2.99 for the milk.

Yes, this muesli is significantly better than any breakfast cereal I’ve ever bought. I do in fact feel, as The Hairpin put it, “like the most competent woman on earth.”

But wow, that is an expensive recipe.

I’m pretty sure I can get the costs down by buying from bulk bins. The grocery store nearest my new apartment is a sad little Safeway with not much to offer in the way of bulk goods, seeds, or any kind of dried fruit that wasn’t a $4.49 bag of mixed berries. (I trawled the aisles twice hoping to find the dried fruit section, and all I could find was this one brand tucked in next to the fruit pouches.) If I went a little further out to the Whole Foods or the QFC, I bet I could do a little better on bulk prices.

In other words, if I’m a little smarter about my shopping, I bet I could get this muesli down to $10 a batch. It looks like the batch I made will last for about two weeks, so that’ll be roughly equivalent to buying Mini-Wheats and milk.

And I will feel like the most financially competent woman on earth.

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