Saving Money on Ice Cream

Here are some tips for saving money on ice cream from the ThriftyFun community. Feel free to post your ideas below.

Lactose Free

My daughter is allergic to lactose, meaning I can't just buy any ice cream on sale. I had been buying rice ice cream and soy ice cream, but it's about $4.50 a QUART! My daughter was 3 last summer, and it seemed wrong to spend all that money for something that she really didn't enjoy.

One day. I saw Breyer's vanilla comes in Lactose Free, and it was the same price as regular Breyer's! I was so happy, I sent Breyer's a thank you e-mail, and they sent me 2 $1.00 coupons! Aside from that, my friend says that the Save-a-Lot premium ice cream is delicious, but I'm funny about trying store brand ice cream.

By LAnBfflo

Combine Coupons and Sales

A good way to save money on designer ice creams like Breyer's and Dryers is to look for manufacturers coupons and then combine that with a sale price. A lot of the nice ice creams cost about $5.00 per half gallon but I can usually get it for $2.50 to $3.00 if I combine a coupon with a sale price.

Try Store Brands

I have found that the store brand ice cream is often as good as some of the name brands. They have lots of flavors now and in some cases, I like the store brand's version better than Breyer's or Dryer's.

Buy Cheap Vanilla

Buy cheap vanilla ice cream in 5 gallon containers and then add your own toppings. You can get chocolate syrup or chop up candy bars that are on sale and make your own designer ice cream flavors. Also, if you have any broken waffle cones, save those as a topping. Waffle cones with hot fudge sauce over vanilla ice cream is delicious.

Ice Cream Cones

Eat ice cream in cones instead of bowls and it will stretch further. Buy small ice cream cones and only put one scoop on top. If you don't like ice cream cones then use small, one scoop bowls instead of soup bowl. Make ice cream a treat, not something you fill up on.

Do you have any ideas for saving money on ice cream? Feel free to share them below.

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Saving Money on Ice Cream

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By 06/11/2008

If you own a food processor you can make your own. We buy frozen fruit and use 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 1/2 cup of yogurt.

That way we are sure our kids are getting the yummy goodness of ice cream. With out uncessary calories,dyes or presertives.

Cook books like the weight watchers cookbook and many websites have recipes for chocolate ice cream and vanilla.

By 05/14/2008

About store-brand ice cream--I've found that Kroger's PRIVATE SELECTION brand, and Safeway's exclusive brand (can't think of the name) are every bit as good as the brand name. Give it a try! They're almost always on sale, or much cheaper than the brand names.

05/14/2008

Ice cream here in Greece is so expensive that I just can't make myself buy it so several years ago I started adding cinnamon and some diet sugar (Sweet'n'Low, etc) to a cup of strained yoghurt and it is so yummy that I don't miss the expenive ice cream at all!

By Jessica (Guest Post) 05/09/2008

Save -A- Lots Ice cream is the BEST.. My family loves it and can't eat any other kind. I have a very, very pickey family. You should give it a try. We only like the Vanilla, but then you can add your own toppings..