The Price of Rice

Strategies Used:  Buying in Bulk and Price Book

We eat A LOT of rice at my house.  It makes an appearance at dinner alongside tostadas, burritos, with stir fried veggies and tofu, etc.  My daughter even likes a bowl of it plain with seaweed.  I have been known to eat it for breakfast with almond milk, cinnamon and dried fruits (a relic from childhood).  After several failed attempts at trying to get my clan to exclusively eat brown rice, I have accepted our household as one divided between white and brown rice.  My daughter (and friends who eat over) eat white rice, I eat brown, and hubby will eat either.

So, what is the price of our rice?  What’s your guess on how much 1 serving (3/4 c. cooked) would cost?  Let’s start with looking at white rice.  Would it surprise you that it costs $.04 per serving?  Just. 4. cents.  Doubled for a hungry person and now we are up to 8 cents. 🙂

Here’s how we achieve this:

I buy long-grained white rice at Smart Food Service (Formerly Cash & Carry) Warehouse Stores for $11.39/25 lbs.=$.45/lb.  This is the lowest price I have recorded in my area.  Costco also has similar prices on rice.  You can buy 1 lb of rice at Target for about a dollar, which is twice as much.  Grocery store prices range from $1.99/lb to $.99/lb.

Brown Rice actually costs a little less at Smart Food Service, $10.97/25 lbs.=$.43/lb.

It takes our family about 3 months to go through a bag of white rice, which I store in a closet.  I store brown rice in the freezer, as it can turn rancid.   If you don’t think you would use such a large bag, you could always split with a friend!

As far as cooking the rice, for plain white rice I use a rice maker. It makes perfect rice every time!  Although I could use my Instant Pot, I like that the rice cooker is smaller (more manageable)  and easier to clean.