Small Bore Ammo too expensive?

I recently picked up a brick of  Lapua Midas L Small bore ammo for my venerable but very accurate, Mod-52D Winchester.  This is a 1963 .22 target rifle that has had many many thousands of rds through it and it seems to like slightly larger dia. of the Midas L ammo.  With a few other purchases I paid my bill at Brunos and noted that I was spending  a little more than I thought it would be.  Well when I got home and looked at the bill, I found that I had payed $16.43/50 rd box for those little rimfire bullets.  Holy cow, I dont even feed my dog that good.  $16  a box--- I must be nuts! Well, it is a great rifle and I do love shooting it--but $16 a box,,arrrgh!
  I'm sure that you have all noticed the rise in prices of Sm bore ammo and you may feel like I do,  it isn't worth it---because it isn't, unless you are a High Master shooter that can expect to shoot a 1600 on a good day and win the Western Wildcats match.  Well, I'm not and I don't so I'm not going to lay out that kind of money for "The Best" ammo.  I am starting to believe that there is lots of good ammo out there at much more reasonable prices, so I am now shooting SK and Wolf ammo---$4 to $6 per box and I think I am getting just as good scores as I would with the "really good" stuff.  With me, it aint the ammo that shoots most of  those bad shots, it's my old eyes and lack of skill. 
  On a good day I can get in the 1590's with a scope (1598-105x last time) and average 1571-70x with irons weather its $16 per box or $4 per box--- so why pay too much for ammo.

  Can $6 ammo shoot well--see below. That's a 100 yd metric target from the last metric match I shot with iron sights.  Other than one called bad shot the group is about 1 min of angle.  Good enough for me and I think that it would have been half that with a scope and a rest.

SK Match ammo, Irons, 100 yds, A33 tgt
See you all at the Western Wildcats matches 3/17---3/21 Phoenix.