We buy an inordinate amount of fruit roll-ups for a household with just two adults. But they're so tasty. We always buy Betty Crocker fruit roll-ups in the variety pack box. We like the surprise of the variety pack. They last forever in the pantry, and when it's days away from payday and you want a snack, it's easy. You can find significant savings with a little attention to sales alone if you regularly buy this item; although the three categories below include coupon savings as well.
a decent sale price if you're at the store craving fruit roll-ups
around $2.00 per box of 10
(standard size; $0.40 per ounce, $0.20 per roll)
consider buying an extra box
at or below $1.50 per box of 10
($0.30 per ounce, $0.15 per roll)
buy as much as you can if you love fruit roll-ups with an undying passion
around $0.80 per box of 10
($0.16 per ounce, $0.08 per roll)
Like most of our favorite foods, we go through phases where we can't get enough, followed by a period of time we don't really miss it. With fruit roll-ups, the swing is very evident. We bought 280 fruit roll-ups (!) in Aug - Dec 2006, 60 in 2007, 160 in 2008 and 40 thus far in 2009. My first 2007 purchase for fruit roll-ups was on 2/15/07, so it's not like I stocked up at the end of 2006. We ate 280 fruit roll-ups over basically 6 months -- that's one each every day or so, which is probably too many fruit roll-ups. I think our inclination to reduce the amount of processed food we eat is also at play in the reduction.
In a world without coupons and sales (aka regular prices)
I'm only looking at pricing for the 10-count individual boxes for this category, which is what I always buy. The below numbers were not my final cost.
- ranges from $1.99 (Sept 06 Target) to $2.69 (Nov 08 Kroger)
- Publix $2.59
- Kroger $2.69
My best deal by per fruit roll-up price
I've hit my best deal on multiple occasions, on 6 out of 21 purchases. Most of those were in 2008 and 2009, so that means I've been getting smarter about when I act on deal and coupon combos.
$2.59 regular price
-$1.29 store sale
-$0.50 ($0.50 coupon doubled on purchase of 2)
$0.80 final price $0.16 per ounce, $0.08 per roll
My worst purchase is Kroger in Oct 06, $2.69 -- $0.54 per ounce, $0.269 per roll.
Coupons
Used coupons 16 out of 21 purchases, usually a $0.50 doubled. Coupons appear regularly and often in Sunday papers. I do typically wait for a sale, so it's hard to pinpoint exactly when the coupons come out.
Differences between stores
Publix
average final price: $0.120 per fruit roll-up, $0.241 per ounce
Publix wins almost every time when it comes to this item. Even without coupons, you can often find this on sale for $1.30 a box.
Kroger
average final price: $0.186 per fruit roll-up, $0.372 per ounce
As usual, I get better results with sales at Publix, although the bulk of Kroger purchases were in 2006.
Target
only one purchase in 2006 for Target
Looking at the big picture over time
- Average price per fruit roll-up: $0.145
- Average price per box: $1.40
- Average price per ounce: $0.29
2006 (first purchase 8/1/06) 11 purchases 280 fruit roll-ups $43.23
2007 3 purchases 60 fruit roll-ups $10.78
2008 4 purchases 160 fruit roll-ups $12.40
2009 (as of 2/24/09) 2 purchases 40 fruit roll-ups $3.20
Random notes
- first purchase was 8/1/06
- prices do not include tax as it varies by county
Introduction to price book analysis series
Click on the price book category on the right to see all the available posts about my price book.
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