Remember that it swells while cooking, and if you buying from a bulk bin, you could just buy a dollars worth, or less.
It doubles in size when cooked, so actually it ends up being quite inexpensive.
One other thing is that it's a real stick to your ribs food. It would be hard to eat an entire cooked cup of quinoa, that's 1/2 cup raw, especially if you had it mixed with other veggies or fruit. When you do finish it, you're not hungry for hours and hours. It really stays with you.
heh....I made two cups (after cooking) this morning, left about a third for wally to eat for breakfast, ate about a third of it for breakfast at work, and the other third is sitting in the fridge here. I'll eat that tomorrow. Probably cost about 50 cents.