Cutting costs at the grocery store part 3

What you buy…and, yes, this is the other half of the battle.

Cut out pre-made junk food

Don’t panic. I didn’t say cut out all sugar, eliminate junk food, or go on a diet. While that may be ideal for your health, I’m certainly not doing it, and I’m not going to suggest you do it either. What I am suggesting is that you stop buying powdered doughnuts, pre-made cakes, Little Debbies, packaged cookies, etc. These things (yes, even the generic versions) can raise your grocery bill faster than you can blink…and they add absolutely no nutritional value. In fact, in addition to all the fat and sugar your pouring in your body, you’re adding lots of nasty preservatives to your body. Instead, use that extra time you saved by limiting your grocery shopping trips to make a weekly batch of cookies, a cake, homemade cinnamon rolls, or whatever your little heart desires. It doesn’t take that much time, it’s much cheaper, and it tastes waaaayyyyy better. Also, if you’re on a health kick, you can adjust the recipes to help with the caloric content. Or, you can do what I usually do, and that is to add even more things to add to the caloric content. Did I mention my sweet tooth was the size of Texas?

Buy store brand of basics

J and I both have a list of things that we will not buy store brand. He must have Heinz Ketchup and Hidden Valley Ranch. I will not allow generic pop of any kind into the house. Etc. That said, for basics, I have no problem buying store brand. A few months ago, I listened to a radio program where they read a list of the best things to buy store brand. Essentially, the moral was this: the FDA monitors things. If it’s flour, it’s going to be the same flour, whether its store brand or not. The same goes for spices, veggies, basic baking supplies, etc. It when you start mixing things (dressing, etc), that the taste begins to change.

Stock up on sales

If pasta is on sale for $.50, I’m going to stretch my budget somehow, someway, to buy enough that I won’t need to buy some for a long time…etc. After awhile, your pantry gets stocked up enough that you are constantly buying basic staples…and you can either cut your budget or splurge a bit more.

Cut back on convenience foods

I like convenience foods. However, cutting back on some (and using sales/coupons for the rest) can really impact your budget…and it is so much better for you. (Yes. I’m on an anti-preservative kick. Humor me.) This is an area where I’m still working. This coming summer, I hope to try canning and make our own jelly/apple butter. I’ve started making our own bread. I also want to try and make spaghetti sauce in bulk and freezing it.

That said, I will probably never make my cakes from scratch because, so far, every.single.one has turned out dry. If someone has an awesome cake-from-scratch recipe that can rival Betty Crocker, please share it with me. Until then, I will continue to buy them in bulk from my Markdown Market stores and on sale.