10 Ways You’re Wasting Money At The Grocery Store And What To Do Instead: Saving money on groceries doesn’t mean living on instant noodles. Becoming a smarter and more flexible cook will take you to another level beyond noodles.

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10 Ways You’re Wasting Money At The Grocery Store And What To Do Instead:

Saving money on groceries doesn’t mean living on instant noodles. Becoming a smarter and more flexible cook will take you to another level beyond noodles.

Food has gotten expensive since Covid, and every few months we see wild swings in various products. However, eating well doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune. With a few consistent, timeless tricks, you can power through the market swings without even putting a dent in your budget, all while eating like a chef (although most chefs eat cereal after a shift).  

One of the biggest mistakes people make at the grocery store is assuming higher price means higher quality. In some cases, this is true, yet most of the time, you’re paying for convenience and marketing.

As a chef and restaurant owner, it’s imperative I spend a majority of my time obsessing over food cost. In a restaurant, a few dollars wasted here and there eventually add up and become the difference between making money and closing your doors. Your home kitchen isn’t much different.

Here are 10 places I think people routinely waste money at the grocery store and what I’d buy instead.

1. Stop Automatically Buying Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Yes, they’re convenient, but remember, a false sense of convenience will cost you a lot of money in this market. Instead, look at chicken thighs, drumsticks, leg quarters, and whole chickens. Buy whichever gives you the best value that week.

As I have mentioned many times in the past, dark meat also has more flavor and is much harder to overcook. So if you are a beginner cook, or just someone who prefers flavor, you can use it for tacos, rice bowls, soups, pasta, sandwiches, and casseroles.

Keep in mind, if you buy bone-in chicken, don’t throw away the bones. Simmer them with an onion, carrot, and celery, and you’ve turned dinner scraps into tomorrow’s chicken stock. You can also just throw in whatever vegetable scraps are hiding in your fridge, partially cut, alone and waiting for a flavor bath. 

Chef rule: Bones are never garbage.

2. Stop Thinking Good Steak Means Expensive Steak

You don’t need a $25 ribeye to have steak for dinner, and I would even suggest you are paying for a lot of fat when you purchase that ribeye. Look for chuck eye, flat iron, Denver steak, sirloin, flap meat, and even eye of round depending on what you’re making. The difference is in the technique. Salt it properly ahead of time, don’t overcook it, and use the same technique for most steaks regardless of the cut. Be sure to slice tougher cuts thinly against the grain; then finish with butter and herbs.

Learning how to make inexpensive cuts taste expensive is one of the most valuable skills you can have in a kitchen. I’ll take a properly cooked $8 steak over a destroyed $25 ribeye every time.

3. Stop Paying Someone Else to Cut Your Fruit

This one drives me crazy. Look at the price per pound of a whole pineapple or watermelon. Then look at the little plastic container of somebody else’s chopped pineapple or watermelon. You’re paying a huge premium for a few minutes of knife work. The same goes for chopped onions, sliced peppers, and a lot of pre-cut vegetables.

Certainly, convenience has value. If buying chopped vegetables means you’ll actually cook instead of ordering $70 worth of DoorDash, buy the chopped vegetables, but understand what you’re paying for. It’s usually not better food, it’s overpriced labor.

4. Buy the Ugly Produce

A crooked carrot tastes exactly like a straight carrot — a bruised tomato might not belong on a beautiful Caprese salad, but it can make a fantastic tomato sauce or pico. Overripe bananas are perfect for pancakes, smoothies, or banana bread (and no, that podcast rumor about bananas ruining your smoothie is not true).

Look for markdowns on produce that needs to be used quickly. This is where knowing how to cook becomes a financial superpower.

5. Stop Being Afraid of the Freezer Aisle

Frozen doesn’t mean inferior — most frozen food is frozen at peak ripeness. Frozen peas, corn, spinach, broccoli, berries, and other fruits and vegetables are fantastic values. Use exactly what you need and put the rest back in the freezer; then you won’t have to deal with CNN math, where they assume you throw away what you don’t use in a recipe. 

Compare that with the $6 container of fresh spinach you had great intentions for on Monday and discovered turning into green soup in the back of your refrigerator Friday.

Always remember — food you throw away is the most expensive food you buy. 

And check the seafood section. Plenty of seafood sold as “fresh” at the grocery store was previously frozen. Sometimes buying it frozen lets you get essentially the same product, keep it longer, and thaw it when you actually need it. Read the labels and compare the price per pound.

6. Don’t Get Married to One Ground Meat --->READ MORE HERE

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