Selfish or Savvy?

OK, I'm back after a mini vaca/sick/sleep days. I worked WAY too hard for 2 days in a row outside and at the restaurant and I was pretty burnt out. But I feel MUCH better now. Yay.

Per my title, I wanted to ask you guys if I'm being selfish. I don't think so really, but there is always that little inkeling of doubt.

Yankee has ALWAYS been the most retarded of all hard keepers and it took me years to figure out what will keep weight on him. In Ohio it was $65 bags of grain that was a mixture of beet pulp, oats, high fat (%11) feed and corn. He went through about 4 of those A MONTH. God. Luckily I was still in high school so I didn't have anything else to pay for, so that was easy to swing. That was $260/mo

Then I moved here, and had to change his feed because it was a local shop that made his prissy grain in Ohio. The grain NSF used wasn't high fat enough and I was adding gobs of supps in addition to his almost FOUR scoops of grain a day, costing me an additional $70/mo. So that was technically $445/mo but I bet the grain costs were about half that.

So when I moved to SHF and went on self care I played around with his grain rations and found a mixture that worked pretty well, but was also hella expensive. It was 3 different grains, Omelene 200, Omelene 500 and Strategy-about %12 fat total. He would get 1/3sc of ea. AM/PM, 1/2sc of alfalfa cubes, and 3 flakes of hay at night, in addition to $65/mo in supplements. The bags cost about $20 each, and alfalfa was $11 (x2/mo) and I went through about 3-4 bags in a mo. So thats about $147/mo.

As you all might know, I am piss poor and barely make enough to feed myself since I spend all my money on bills and my horse. Trying to be savvy, I looked into the nuggets they put into the Omelene that adds all the fat. AND THEY SELL THOSE NUGGETS SEPARATELY. IN 50 lb bags. For only $29!! So. I thought, if I keep him on a competition feed that has %14 protein and just add the nuggets at 1lb a day, that should work right? The bags are $14, he will use 3 a month, plus 2 bags alfalfa, and 20 lbs of the nuggets (out of a 50lb bag) [have I lost you yet ;)] thats about $75/mo!

Now, I didn't count hay into those hay costs at all, minus the cubes, because I get those at the feed store. But I think with the protein and fat content remaining that should keep him stable. Haha, barn pun.

But seriously, the more processed the grain, the ^ the price, so why not buy the contents separately and mix them myself?

Am I being selfish doing this, trying to save a buck, or is this smarter?

PLEASE, do NOT think I am trying to neglect my horse in any way. As I said before, he comes first, always. I've been late on rent because I make sure hes fed, shod and housed before anything else. Its just what I do, he's my baby. But there's no harm in trying to save.

Right?

Does anyone else lay awake at night thinking about feed programs, haha. Lawd. Horses people is cray fo sho.