Time for the math!
We’re eating 9 servings (3 bags) per week = 1 box every other week or 2 boxes per month.
We’re eating the store brand at $0.47/bag (batch).
The popcorn maker cost $25 new. At $0.05 per serving times 4 servings per batch, one bag of Iowa State kernels costs $0.20 per batch.
Just looking at the popcorn, I’m saving $0.27/batch (bag)!
But now lets add the popcorn maker to the mix. I’m going to say… $25 cost / $0.27 savings per batch = 93 batches of popcorn before it’s absolutely cheaper to use the popcorn maker. This means if we do 3 batches of popcorn per week, the maker will pay for itself in approximately 31 weeks or 7 3/4 months!
If you usually purchased Orville Redenbacher, you’d be saving $0.46 / batc h (bag)! At 3 batches of popcorn per week, the maker will pay for itself in approximately 18 weeks or 4 1/2months!
As you can see, eventually it is cheaper to use a popcorn maker. It takes about the same time to to make both fresh popcorn and microwavable popcorn. The upside to the popcorn maker is fresh popcorn where you can choose what ingredients go into it – no preservatives here! The only downside is the return on your investment. If you don’t eat that much popcorn and don’t care about the ingredients in the microwavable bags, you’re probably better off just purchasing the microwavable bags.
Kristen,
This was a great analysis. And thanks for breaking down the pricing like that!
I learned a frugal way to make popcorn from Real Simple Magazine.
All you do is pour loose popcorn kernels into a brown paper lunch sack and roll up opening so it’s closed tightly.
When it comes to cooking time, every microwave will be different, and it also depends on how much popcorn you poured in there. I think we do ours for 1 min. 30 seconds.
Sure it’s just plain popcorn, but you can dress it up with butter and salt when you pour it into your bowl. And making it this way is far cheaper than buying name brand!
Comment by Heather@TheGreenestDollar — July 13, 2009 @ 2:43 PM
It’s arduous to seek out educated people on this subject, but you sound like you understand what you’re talking about! Thanks
Comment by Alchemy LIbrary — February 26, 2012 @ 9:41 PM