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How to Save Money on Grocery Shopping
This is the year we’re all trying to get our budgets back on track. That means learning how to save money grocery shopping in Bend, Oregon. Despite what you think, it’s actually pretty easy to drastically reduce your grocery budget just by following a few simple guidelines. These guidelines also have the added benefits of making your meals healthier (mostly because the unhealthy stuff is more expensive).
Our Tips for Grocery Shopping in Bend, Oregon
Emphasize Vegetables
The first thing you can do is emphasize vegetables in your cooking. Vegetables are the least expensive thing you can buy and the most nutritious thing you can eat. It’s a win-win. If you want some good ideas, try recipes from Love and Lemons or Oh She Glows, both of which use plant-based recipes to cook delicious meals. To learn how to cook more inexpensively, try the free cookbook Good and Cheap.
If you can make vegetables the centerpiece of every meal, it will drastically cut down your grocery bill. After all, meats, canned goods, and prepared foods are the most expensive items at the grocery store. Just remember, anything that has been prepared and packaged has an added processing and packaging fee. Vegetables are not prepared, and not packaged, and thus the price to purchase them is extremely low.
Buy in Bulk
If you have the opportunity to buy in bulk, this can be a complete game changer. Go to the bulk foods section of Food4Less to purchase flours, grains, dried fruits, nuts, granolas, and even candies. Because you are packaging the food yourself, you avoid paying extra for pre-packaged foods. Not to mention, because you are buying the food in bulk, the price per ounce is far lower than their pre-packaged counterparts.
The same goes for fruits and vegetables as well. Trader Joe’s has bagged produce that can save you a small fortune throughout the month. Choose their lemons, potatoes, onions, and other bagged produce for a killer deal.
Cook From Scratch
Pre-made sauces like tomato sauce, curry sauce, and pesto sauce cost much more than sauces you make yourself. Similarly, purchasing dried beans and chickpeas is much less expensive than canned beans and chickpeas. Though it may seem like it is much less convenient to do all the work yourself, choosing a weekend to batch cook all of your sauces and canned goods from scratch can make the process a lot easier.
For example, spend a Sunday making homemade tomato sauce, curry sauce, and pesto sauce from scratch. Then put them in plastic containers and store them in the freezer until they are needed. This way, you’ll save a lot of money, and you’ll still have the convenience of being able to whip up some spaghetti when you don’t want to spend the entire evening cooking.
These tips will help you save money and stick to your budget while grocery shopping in Bend. Stop by Food4Less and Trader Joe’s at Cascade Village to stock up!