Food Costs more the more Processed It Is
When trying to save money on food one of the best things you can do for your wallet is to buy foods as close to their natural state as possible. For every level of change the food goes through, the more it is going to cost you.
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Let's take a look at a basic example: lettuce. If you are going to buy the ingredients to make a salad, you have to have lettuce. To buy a head of lettuce at a grocery store you are going to pay $1.29. To buy a head of lettuce that has been pre-washed, you are going to pay $2.39, to buy a head of lettuce that has been prewashed, dried, cut up, and bagged you are going to pay $4.59.
This means the difference for the same salad is $3.30, and a little less effort. Does it really take that much effort to wash and chop lettuce yourself? No. Imagine if you started saving $3.30 on every item you buy at the store. How much could you save in a week's worth of groceries?
To buy a pack of eight pouches of pre-cut apple slices at Costco you are going to pay $7.99. To buy eight apples on their own, you are looking at closer to $4. As you can see, each time you add a step to what it takes to get the food from it's first state, to you, you pay.
So, with your fresh produce, buy it fresh, and do the work yourself. Canned fruit costs more than fresh, and fresh is better for you, so buy fresh rather than canned whenever you have the chance. You will save money, and you will have the added benefit of not eating the preservatives.
If you buy a whole chicken, and cut it up yourself you can save up to $1 per pound. If you buy a big tub of yogurt, rather than the individually portioned yogurts, and portion it yourself at home, you can save 10-15 cents an ounce. If you buy a carton of eggs and scramble them yourself for breakfast, rather than buying "egg beaters" you are going to save a couple of dollars a week.
The effort it takes to not buy everything pre-made is really not as much as some people think. For example, you can buy a bag of pasta with chicken, sauce, and a few veggies in it, pre-made and frozen for $8. If you were to spend the same amount on the ingredients and make it yourself, chances are you would have close to four times as much. Pasta is cheap!
By choosing to portion, cut, wash, beat, prepare, etc. yourself, rather than have someone else do it for you, you are going to save between 10-20% or more on your weekly groceries, and you will spend almost the same amount of time to prepare your food.
