Just figured out my bean soup was costing me way too much

I used to buy the pre-cut mirepoix mix from the store, which was about $4 for a tiny bag, but now I just chop a single carrot, onion, and celery stalk myself for maybe 75 cents total. The switch happened after I saw my grocery bill hit $120 for just me, and I needed to cut back hard. What's your cheapest trick for cutting veggie costs in a recipe?

4 comments

4 Comments

daniel14017d ago

Man that's a huge price difference. Good catch. So do you find that prepping your own veggies actually saves time in the long run, or is it just about the money? I'm trying to figure out if the convenience is ever worth it when things are tight.

ray_martinez8210d ago

Actually think miles is a bit off on the time math. Chopping a week's onions might take me twenty minutes, but that's active work. Driving to the store is twenty minutes of lost time where I can't do anything else. So prepping at home lets me multitask, like listening to a podcast or keeping an eye on dinner. The real time save is getting back that useless drive time.

miles_hall17d ago

It's more about the money for me. The time part is a wash. Chopping a week's worth of onions takes twenty minutes, same as the drive to the store for the pre-cut bag. When cash is tight, that twenty minutes of work feels worth it to save eight bucks. The convenience only wins if I'm truly in a rush.

mary_west17d ago

Yeah the "time is a wash" thing only works if you live right next to the store lol. For most of us, the drive is way longer than twenty minutes round trip. Prepping at home saves the whole trip, not just the chopping time. So for me, it saves both time and money, unless I'm already out for something else.