Thanks. What we use now (Special Kitty) works very well, it clumps well, there’s no odor, it’s the cheapest clumping litter I’ve found, at about $0.32/lb. The Tidy Cat line is in the $0.56-57 range
It seems like that’s the best we can do. I’m not sure adding sand into the mix will do anything but complicate the issue, and potentially make the clay mix less effective and therefore raise the overall cost.
I have not used sand for cat litter but have used it in a stall for a foundered horse. Based on that I would not use it as cat litter. It is extremely heavy when wet and not really that absorbent. And probably tracks worse than cat litter (if you can imagine that!).
But I do feel your pain! I have one awful cat that has to live inside because the other asshole cat bites her. Too many abscesses to put her outside. And then sweet Uggs had to come live inside for a while when he recuperated from mouth issues. No way he was going to get his meds if I had to find him outdoors. The super poopers are getting old. I have two boxes in an upstairs bathroom and I have to clean them 3x a day and even then they are gross. It doesn’t help that Uggs was on steroids for a while and he was peeing up a storm. And the antibiotics were giving him the runs. I do have a window fan in one window over the litter box and it vents the air outdoors. That helps but there is litter everywhere in that bedroom and bathroom. I am opting for the cheaper clumping litter too. The expensive doesn’t seem to work a lot better.
I keep a long handled dust pan/broom combo behind the door and that’s my last step after I scoop is to sweep the floor. Having the pans in the one bathroom tub is also helpful, the tubs a mess, not so much the floor.
I got mine at ace hardware and it’s held up fine, nice and lightweight, of course I can’t find a link to it but Walmart should have something similar.
Our litter boxes are on tile. The one in the bathroom has a cheap throw rug under it to trap litter, but honestly, the Pretty Kitty doesn’t track tooo badly, most of it “tracks” when someone decides the litter box is a starting gate on exit 
We have a push duster we keep in there (long handle) and once a day or so we corral the errant litter into a corner, and then every couple of days use a long-handled dust buster to suck it all up, including off the rug.
I remember someone saying they use alfalfa pellets. It was the cheaper option (at that time) and controlled smell better than the pine pellets. Plus I think she said it broke down faster in her mini manure pile in the back garden. Minus the poop! Pee soaked pellets only, no poop.
That would be interesting! Sadly, even the cheaper alf pellets I get are still more than the litter I use now
Yes about the cost. Standlee alfalfa pellets average $18 to $22 a bag. Thank heavens cat litter isn’t that expensive. yet. You could use the broken down “used” alfalfa pellets for flower beds but meat eating animal waste is a no no for vegetable gardens.
The best suggestion I saw for handling traditional pine pellets was to invest in the 2 part box system where the broken down litter sifts through. Even better if you use a litter liner on the bottom box (or a stainless steel box) because over time the plastic absorbs the urine and becomes part of the source of odor. This is basically a cheap home made version of the tidy breeze system, only once noticed there are some litter boxes designed that way on Amazon. That saves you a lot of time, money and frustration since the buying the breeze box for the top and then finding a fitting bottom box was challenging!
But I’ve used pine pellets with big foster litters and it does a fantastic job of controlling urine odor and never used a shifting tray. The key is to use a thin layer and dump and replace every few days as it expands. But it is the worst for tracking. There is a clumping pine pellet litter made by okö. It’s priced about the same as most of the other expensive litters, and comes in a fine, medium and true pine pellet form. I would not use the true pine pellet version unless I had Maine Coon fluffy feet to factor in. The fine and medium version would track too easily. But the pellets clumps moderately well and has fairly low tracking
We used to watch a sailing channel that had to use sand for litter while sailing in remote areas. They would scoop out poop, and then wash the sand (in salt water) so they could reuse it.
Their cats seemed to like it, but they found it to be a stinky pain in the butt.
I agree that trying chicken scratch might be a more cost effective option!
I buy layer crumbles (chicken feed) and mix it with cats pride cat litter. It has gone up in price like everything else. Chick starter is more expensive. Not if the crumbles are smaller in the chick starter?
Yes, as I said, I used layer crumbles for several years because it was cheaper, and worked very well with odor, but the current price for Producer’s Pride, the cheapest I can get locally, makes it about the same as the clay litter. What I don’t know, and not sure it’s worth the effort, is whether long term I’d use less of the crumbles than the clay, accounting for not removing urine clumps, but eventually having to remove all the crumbles and start new. I imagine the difference isn’t enough to make up for the extra labor.
I think it does come out to be cheaper mixing it. I use about 1 tub of cats pride and the other half chicken feed and change the litter box out once a week. That’s for 5 cats.
How much litter are you even going through to be looking for a lower cost option than what you’re using now?
I’m just one cat short of you, but one is polydipsic/polyuric (iow he drinks and pees a pretty incredible amount) and the rest are all inside. The barn cat is locked up at night. We go through maaaaybe 2 bags of litter a month, which just doesn’t seem like much.
If you’re going through what you feel is a really untoward amount of litter, upgrading to something higher quality might actually prove cheaper if it’s more absorbent.
Or you could source your litter in bulk, but you’d have to have storage for a pallet or something like this
I go through 6+ 15kg boxes of clumping cat litter a month at $12 a box. My 5 cats are all on urinary food and they all pee a lot.
I would think that wet sand doesn’t clump and would be much heavier than wet clay.
TheCompliments brand I buy now has a new litter that is supposedly much lighter when wet for $16 for a 9kg box.
Costco has a 22.7kg box for around $17.
My cats have a sandbox in the back yard to play in. One of them really likes to dig. They use it as a litter box occasionally, why go inside and up 2 flights of steps when it’s right here?
It’s a low flat tote, with holes dug in it for drainage. I try to put a lid on it before rain, but not always. I poured bleach on it a couple times last summer + plenty of water, basically, I rinsed the pee out of it. I didn’t notice it stinking. I would not want 5 cats using it as a commode though.
This is a radical departure from your actual question, but… Have you considered a Litter Robot? Yes, flies in the face of your question about cheaper solutions, but hear me out – long term, my LRs have saved me $$$ in cat litter and hours of labor/time.
I have 5 cats and feel your pain on how often they pee and how much wastage there is. (side note: I buy the 35lb Tidy Cats from Chewy).
My single LR cut my litter wastage more than half. Before the LR I had 2 regular boxes and went through 6-7 35lb pails a month. Now I have 3 boxes (2 LRs, 1 regular) and go through 3 pails/month. I think this is because the pee/feces is removed immediately (you can program it to run immediately after a cat uses it). This is also much more sanitary than regular litter boxes.
I liked the first LR so much, I bought a second LR a year later.
I’m really curious how it reduces litter usage! I haven’t noticed any difference in the size of pee clumps from “been there for a few hours” vs “I just cleaned the box which sent the kittens running to pee because they decided they “forgot” to pee an hour ago” LOL
I occasionally do consider a LR but the cost doesn’t seem to outweigh the benefits, or at least would take a very long time for any ROI
FWIW, the litter I use is almost half the $ as Tidy Cat. I guess I really can’t complain about the cost, and
This reminds me of the story a woman told about when she got a patio and sidewalk poured. The contractor had a small pile of sand and another of gravel dropped in her backyard. She came home one day to find him outraged. Evidently the feral cat colony thought he put the sand there for their toilet. 
She also ended up with cat paw prints across the far side of the patio. She thinks the contractor left them instead of smoothing them out just to bug her. She loves them!
cats LOVE anything they can dig into for their toilet, and the more accessible and easy to dig, the better
And I also would LOVE kitty prints in my concrete!
My digger just likes to dig. She had a ball in a couple inches light fluffy snow. For some reason, she naps in the litter box in my mom’s garage.
For several years I had a half dozen or so paw prints in my foyer after one found a paint tray. I thought they were cute.
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