Green Minded Wallet

I tend to do most of my grocery shopping at two stores: a “discount” food store and my local co-op. My goal is to buy as many natural products as possible (no high fructose corn syrup, no preservatives, etc.) while still getting the best bang for my buck. Well I tend to eat a lot of snacks during the day, and one thing that I like to nibble on is crackers and cheese. Over the past few months I’ve been perusing the isles of both stores and I made an amazing discovery: where I live, natural crackers at the co-op are no more expensive than popular, name-brand (sugary) crackers at the discount store, and if they are on sale, they are actually much cheaper. One of the brands that I like is Blue Diamond, which makes a number of nut-based crackers . You can actually purchase their crackers in bulk from their online store at $29.95 for a dozen boxes (which is only $2.50/box). I also like Back to Nature’s Stoneground Organic Crackers. They can be purchased at the company’s website at $9.99 for 3 boxes, or on Amazon for $24.90 for a dozen boxes. Both of these are cheaper alternatives to Triscuits purchased at Amazon. If you have any natural crackers you love, please share.

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I was in the grocery store this evening and decided to get some tortilla chips because I have some sour cream that I need to use up. Well there was a sign in front of the smaller bags that said 2 for $6.00 9-13.5 oz. A bit further down the isle, there was a sign that said 2 for $6.00 16-24 oz. in front of the larger bags. Huh? So I went back and check the smaller ones. Sure enough there were the exact same price and they were the exact same brand. If I hadn’t been paying attention I would have probably just bought the smaller ones since that is the size I usually get. But I got the bigger one since it was the same price, hence cheaper per oz., and well, I have a lot of sour cream to go through. This was one of those times where paying attention, really paid off.

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I’ve found that personal finance advice givers often recommend buying items in bulk (i.e. going to big discount stores or stocking up on large packages). But I have to be honest; I don’t go to big discount stores, and you won’t find huge packages of frozen meat in my freezer or a year’s worth of canned peaches in my pantry (or a pantry at all for that matter). However, I am a big fan of another kind of bulk buying, and that is picking up items in the bulk foods section of the grocery store. I’ve found that most grocery stores, from WinCo to Whole Foods, have a bulk foods section.

If you have a grocery store with a bulk foods section you may want to give it a whirl; here are some of the reasons that I think bulk foods rock! First, bulk foods can be really cheap, even for high quality items. I can buy a pound of uncooked, organic beans for less than a dollar which is roughly what a can of non-organic beans will cost (depending on the type of bean). So if you want to eat more organic foods but shudder at the prices of packaged stuff, this is a good way to go. And bulk foods have a ton of variety in basic foods like beans, rice, trail mix, and granola so you can try a whole bunch because you pay by the pound. If you’re single or like to try different things, pay-by-the-pound is your friend. Since you only buy want you can eat but pay the same price per pound regardless of quantity, you don’t have to feel financially guilty about buying a smaller container (where you end up paying a higher price by ounce/lb) or environmental guilty because you bought the cheaper product on a price by ounce basis, but half of it spoiled and so you had to throw it away.

Bulk foods also rock because there’s a lot less packaging. In some stores there are a number of different sized containers and bags, so you can use the smallest one for your needs. Some places will even let you bring in your own container (aw yeah) so you don’t have to feel bad about using those little plastic baggies and trying to find something productive to do with them afterwards. If you’re not sure if you store allows outside containers, just ask, even if they haven’t before, they might say yes (could be that no one even thought about it). If you do bring your own containers, remember to get tare weights (empty container weights) on in them so you don’t end up paying for the weight of your container (not fun). So the next time you’re in the grocery store, check out the bulk foods section and pick up some rice, beans, dried fruit, or maybe something sweet like peanut butter covered pretzels, yum.

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