What is the perfect energy food for cheapskates?

From another site :

M&Ms Jumbo Pak 3600 cal/$

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

A true cheapskate (or simply a thrifty, value-minded shopper) would always buy non-perishable items on sale, especially the extreme example of candy bars where the everyday markup is so astronomically high. You can always find one brand or another of candy bar on sale for $0.33 every week, with occasional "good sales" at $0.25, so I don't understand anyone paying $0.69 unless they had some type of uncontrollable craving for candy bars. Just my opinion.

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 brownies only have 0.5 g trans fat according to the box. The real key for me is NOT to eat any of the items I listed as good values above, EXCEPT for on climbing or skiing trips (OK, sometimes a candy bar at home, but very rarely). That way, those items are an enjoyable treat on hard trips, something to be looked forward to eagerly even at 14,000 ft when nothing else looks palatable, and not simply a normal part of one's diet. If I ate that stuff at home, I'd easily weigh 200 lbs (like my cousin), instead of continuing my ongoing struggle to stay at 155 +/- 15 lbs.

At home, I have eaten a diet high in fresh fruit and vegetables for over 12 years, since moving to Seattle after college. But I can't bring my normal diet along on skiing or climbing trips, so why not eat high-energy snack foods and then go back to healthy meals afterwards. On longer backcountry trips, I make sure to bring plenty of dried fruit (especially raisins, cherries, blueberries), to try to maintain the balance and provide enough fiber for proper digestion.

I do the same as Amar for long bike rides, 5-8 hours. I never eat Little Debbie snack cakes at home, but I have to hide them so my kids won't. I really like the brownies, oatmeal creampies, peanut butter crunch bars, fig bars and chocolate wafer bars. These are so much tastier than a power bar or cliff bar or any such sports food when I'm in need of calories. On another note I've be making and eating my own granola bars. I got the recipe for the Whitewater granola bars from an issue of Off Piste last fall. I've tweaked the recipe a bit they are great fuel.

Great list and research project, Amar.

I cannot go skiing without Fritos.  salty, light, easy to eat after long climb. Cheap in big bags.
It also helps to go skiing with people who bring homemade chocolate chip cookies to share.

Other favorites for high calories, low cost, low weight per calorie and easy to get down:
Early in the trip, when you can eat anything:
- leftover pizza.  Basically infinite calories/$ because its a leftover you should have thrown out.
- summer sausage. 85 cal/ounce. (sorry, I'm not a scientist, so can't do cal/gr).
- cheese and/or pastrami or corned beef or ham on a bagel. (not so cheap).
- chocolate bars and Butterfingers.
- peanut butter.

later on
- mandarin oranges or satsumas.
- trail mix from whatever we've got, usually peanut M&M's, mixed nuts, raisins, dried apricots, almonds, all cheap if you buy in bulk or big bags.
- Wheat Thins
- cans of fish paste that my sister sends from Norway, on rye crackers or wheat thins or just on a knife blade. Available at regular grocery stores in Norway, anyway.
- Kashi trail mix bars, like an oatmeal based rice krispie treat.

Late in long trips when it getting hard to eat during a really long trail run or climb
- cereal/fruit bars - the soft kind. Not too many. Overdose can be fatal.
- Gu and drink mix packets that you pick up from tables at fun runs or fairs. Again, infinite calories/$. Fairly easy to score a years supply at a time.
- Tang. a last resort for me, but I know some who won't leave home without it.
- tea in a thermos with lots of honey or sugar or both.
- Starburst tart chewy candy squares. A sugar shot that gets the saliva flowing.

Eat lentils once or twice a week. It's not necessarily on the go food, but they are cheap and a good source of protein.

Ramen - 3800 Cal/$ ($0.10 per pack on sale, 380 Cals/pack)

Weighs very little, best when crushed, water on the side
even comes with accessory electrolyte packet