What is the perfect energy food for cheapskates?

Now this is a topic I can sink my teeth into! What is your favorite cheap energy food? Gu and Cytomax (whatever they are) don't count. It has to be the sort of thing you can buy at Safeway in Ballard.

Snickers? Payday bars? Swedish fish? I'm still on the lookout for the perfect energy food for cheapskates.

Well, I figured it's worth pulling this out as a separate thread from "What mandatory items do YOU carry in your pack". So the question as posed by Lowell and paraphrased here: What is the perfect energy food for cheapskates? What packs the most calories per $? It has to be the sort of thing you can buy at your local supermarket.

I almost never use a spreadsheet to add up food calories and weight, but I have done so a couple of times for big multi-day ski mountaineering trips, where food weight was headed towards 8-10 lbs. That's a lot of food for me, I'm a light eater and weigh 155 +/- 15 lbs depending on conditioning. The spreadsheet I made has columns which calculate calories per gram and per $ for each food item, so some good answers are right there.

The winners from my list (all prices are typical SALE prices, which any cheapskate would be sure to get; and calories per gram includes the weight of any packaging):
Little Debbie Fudge Brownies: $1.25 for 6 brownies, 1740 cal ==> 1392 cal per $ (4.5 cal/gram)
Pop Tarts Frosted Brown Sugar: $2.00 for box of 12, 2520 cal ==> 1260 cal per $ (4.0 cal/gram)
Pop Tarts Frosted Strawberry or Cherry: $2.00 for box of 12, 2400 cal ==> 1200 cal per $ (3.9 cal/gram)
Snickers, 2.07 oz bar: $0.25 on a good sale, 280 cal ==> 1120 cal per $ (4.7 cal/gram)
Milky Way, 2.05 oz bar: $0.25 on a good sale, 260 cal ==> 1040 cal per $ (4.5 cal/gram)
M & M's Peanut, 1.74 oz: $0.25 on a good sale, 250 cal ==> 1000 cal per $ (4.9 cal/gram)
M & M's Plain, 1.69 oz: $0.25 on a good sale, 240 cal ==> 960 cal per $ (4.8 cal/gram)
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 1.5 oz (2 cups): $0.25, 230 cal ==> 920 cal per $ (5.0 cal/gram)

The brownies are an absolute steal, since even worst case they only cost $1.39 at the suggested retail price on the box (still 1250 cal per $).  Obviously, if you pay regular price for the Pop Tarts (> $3) or candy bars ($0.69 ?!?!), you won't come close to the values listed above.

For comparison, Clif Bars are about 250 cal per $, on sale.
Most pepperoni sticks or salami, about 200 cal per $.
Freeze dried dinners, about 100 cal per $.
Bagels, about 500 cal per $ (varies a lot).
Lipton Pasta/Noodle Sides, about 500 cal per $.
Single-serving cracker packs (e.g. Club & Cheddar or Ritz w/ Real Cheese), nearly 700 cal per $.

I'd love to expand my culinary options with any other winning items . . . please post your favorites.

I guess I like to keep things simple but good.

It can be hard to eat when really working hard.  So, to get something in me while hoofing, I like Hershey bars... get some sugar and it goes down easy, not to mention it tastes great.

Instead of snickers, I carry several Balance Bar Gold - Caramel Nut Blast.  This is real food.  I buy these by the box at Costco 24 bars for about $18.  These are so good, that I always carry some around.  210 calories per bar.  This is the perfect basic energy food.

A ziplock bag full of salty mixed nuts. 
A ziplock bag of little salty pretzels.

When Summer climbing to Camp Muir, I reward myself at the top with a can of fruit cocktail.  I don't mind carrying the can back down.  The fruit cocktail goes down easy and helps rehydrate.  A can of mandarin orange wedges is pretty good too.

A banana. 

Not cheap... but a lifesaver.  When I got to the Lunch Counter I was so exhausted...  had one of those trail meals where you pull this string and this bag of lasagna automatically goes steaming hot.  Well... that was just decadent.  But at about $7.00 a shot... well.

Worst:  Trying to eat a sandwich after a long climb.  My mouth was so dry, I just couldn't chew it.  Takes a half hour just to rehydrate.

Good idea, Amar.
It certainly helps to have a few scientists and engineers on a forum like this to help get to the bottom line on various matters.

I usually have a stockpile of various pogie bait from the local discount market around for my trips. I especially like the bars that get down to the quarter a piece area of pricing. Guess I'll have to start reporting in with costs weight and calories in order to get a well rounded data sample for the spreadsheet.

Discount Foods had boxes of 1.76 oz Balance Bars (24) for 8 bucks a while back... 33cents a piece ain't bad; 50gr, 210cal - 4.2 cal/gr

One question, though, Amar -- wouldn't the results have more universal usefulness (ie, duplicatable) if the prices were suggested retail rather than sale prices?

Olive oil = 9cal/gram costs a little more per cal than Lil'Deb but I think it's actually good for you.

Little Debbie Fudge Brownies: $1.25 for 6 brownies, 1740 cal ==> 1392 cal per $ (4.5 cal/gram)

Nice analysis Amar, but I think you need to also factor in the increase cost in long-term health care from eating foods so high in trans fatty acids. I've heard Little Debbie cakes have some of the highest ratios of trans fatty acids of any snack foods (I googled and couldn't find a reference for this though)

Bread, bagels and bananas, while more perishable, are healthy choices which are inexpensive.

Nice analysis Amar, but I think you need to also factor in the increase cost in long-term health care from eating foods so high in trans fatty acids. I've heard Little Debbie cakes have some of the highest ratios of trans fatty acids of any snack foods (I googled and couldn't find a reference for this though)

Bread, bagels and bananas, while more perishable, are healthy choices which are inexpensive.

Little Debbie:
One brownie w/ walnuts = 1 gram trans fat:
www.dietfacts.com/html/items/37702.htm

or w/english walnuts = 1/2 gram trans fat:
www.dietfacts.com/html/nutrition-facts/l...sh-walnuts-47731.htm

My guess this just a stiffener to keep the brownie from turning into a lump.