Pickin' apples (at the store)

I love buying apples this time of year because you can find some really nice ones at my target price, $1 a pound. The thing is, you need to be aware that you're getting fewer, bigger apples. That's great if you're buying big juicy apples as a seasonal treat. But if you're buying them to fill a lunchbox, these apples -- even at a seemingly great price -- may be too big for your budget (as well as too big for your lunchbox, in the case of our oldest daughter's vintage metal box.)

Sometime this fall I started counting how many apples I was getting in a typical 3-pound bag. (This is exactly the kind of thing that embellishes the stereotype society has of thrifty people, I know, but how else are you going to know how much you're paying per apple? And if you don't know how much you're paying per apple, how are you going to know how much you're paying for a packed lunch? It wouldn't be hard to wind up spending more on a packed lunch than on a school lunch, especially if you're trying to balance thrift with good nutrition.)
Anyway, I discovered that a typical 3-pound bag contains anywhere from 8 to 11 apples. So when I pay $3.00 for my 3-pound bag of 10 apples, I'm paying about 30 cents an apple. Whereas when I buy the premium apples on sale for $1 a pound, seven apples wind up costing $3.60 or so -- more than 50 cents per apple.