Let's look at baby formula. My baby drinks Enfamil. The doctor gave us a sample of the Newborn formulation, the manufacturer sent us a sample of the Newborn formulation. He didn't like the Similac, so Enfamil Newborn it is.
A quick cost comparison of the different ways it is available, powder, ready to feed and concentrate, reveals, almost every time, that buying the powder is the least expensive way, per ounce of prepared formula, to buy it.
The powder comes in 3 sizes. A small coffee can size, a larger reuseable plastic tub in the 22-24 oz range (depending on the formulation), and refill packs for the large tub which contain 2 pouches. Oddly, the refill pouches are not the same size as the insert that comes in a new tub. They are substantially smaller.
If you take the cost of the container and divide by the number of prepared ounces it should make, you will get your unit cost. Everytime I do this, the new refillable tub is less expensive than the refill inserts and the small can.
My baby is almost 8 months old, and he is still drinking the Newborn formulation. Newborn advertises that it is for babies up to 3 months old. When he got to about that age, and I was looking to buy formula, I picked up a container of the regular Infant formulation and compared them side by side.
The reuseable tub of Newborn purports to make approximately 170 oz. The Infant formulation of the same size and price makes about 167 oz. That's close enough to the same to not be pursuasive one way or the other on its own.
Then I looked at the nutrition information. The Newborn and Infant formulations offer identical amounts of calories, protein, fat and all nutrients except vitamin D. The Newborn formula has more vitamin D than the Infant.
So, the Newborn has more vitamin D and makes 3 more ounces than the Infant formulation.
The last 2 nails in this particular coffin were finding a tearpad of coupons for the Newborn, and only the Newborn, reuseable tubs in my pediatricians office, and at my husband's insistance asking my pediatrician. He didn't appear to have given the matter any thought, but when I told him the nutritional difference between them, and that I could get the Newborn cheaper (courtesy of the coupon) than the Infant, he gave me the go ahead to keep feeding Newborn formula. He also mumbled something about marketing gimmics.
I found those coupons in January, and they didn't expire until June. They still had more every time we went back in for a check up, and every time I grabbed more to keep the savings rolling on in.
On top of that, I watched the sales. Grocery stores and supercenters, oddly, aren't usually the best places to buy formula, not if you watch the sales and not if you buy a couple weeks worth of formula at a time when it is on sale somewhere. The drugstores, CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, have had some great sales on formula regularly enough that if you keep 2-3 weeks worth of formula on hand you can coast to the next good sale most of the time.
Most stores sell the refillable tub in the $25 to $28 range, as an everyday price. At least twice a month, I've been finding it on sale for $20 to $23. I get really excited when it goes on sale at Rite Aid or CVS. At Rite Aid, I was working on "earning" my 1000 points so I could earn the 20% discount off the everyday price. Courtesy of a lot of sales on baby items, I hit the Gold discount, and I get 20% off everyday. At the most expensive Rite Aid in town, my baby's formula, after my discount, is under $22 everyday. At CVS, my baby purchases count towards my quarterly ECB rewards. It's not much, 2% of your spending rounded down, but 2% is better than 0%, and that's what the grocery store offers.
What about buying online? I checked in to that. The best prices I could find online were as high or higher than the sale prices I was paying locally, and I couldn't use my manufacturer's coupons to bring that down like I can at the store. Some places offer free shipping, others don't. I could not find a deal online that could beat what I was paying right down the street. You may.
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