Our grocery bill dropped $80 a month when I stopped buying pre-cut vegetables

Six months ago I realized we were spending almost $120 a month just on pre-cut veggies and bagged salads. My wife and I decided to try buying whole vegetables and doing the chopping ourselves. First month was rough, I won't lie. I cut my finger twice and everything took way longer. But by month three I got the hang of it and now I can prep a week's worth of onions and peppers in about 20 minutes. Our grocery bill went from around $150 a week down to $130, plus the veggies actually last longer in the fridge. The biggest change was ditching those pre-made stir fry packs and switching to bulk carrots and cabbage. Has anyone else found that just one habit shift made a bigger difference than you expected? I'm curious what other people's biggest single win was.

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_scott20d ago

Oh man, cutting my own onions was a game changer too. I used to buy those frozen chopped onions and they always went mushy. Now I just sweat it out with a sharp knife for five minutes and save like four bucks a week. The real win for me was stopping buying pre-shredded cheese. Block cheese grates way better, doesn't have that sawdust coating, and we save probably $10 a month just from that.

masondixon20d ago

The pre-shredded cheese thing is huge, I switched to block mozzarella for pizza night and it melts way better without that weird dry texture. I'd add shredded lettuce to that list too, that bagged stuff goes brown in two days but a whole head of iceberg lasts over a week. My wife timed it once and found we save about 15 minutes a week just from grating and chopping ourselves, which adds up to like 13 hours a year. Plus you end up with way less plastic waste, our recycling bin is half as full as it used to be. The only downside is I got a nice box grater and now my knuckles have permanent calluses, but small price to pay for saving forty bucks a month between the cheese and veggies.