How to Grocery Shop Wisely

Here are some insightful suggestions from the supermarket guru, Phil Lepert. With the ethanol problem, cooking oils, corn, and gas prices are high. So it's more important now more than ever to buy produce in season because when it isn't, the costs are higher because of the long distances its traveled. When produce such as blueberries aren't in season, it's cheaper and more tasty to buy the frozen versions because they were packaged during the season's peak. And since the out-of-season produce arrive from long distances, the cost of gas is factored into the final retail price. Cheese in the dairy aisle is most affordable, 20% less than the deli cheeses and 30% less than the cheese table. For pasta sauces, buy canned stewed tomatoes rather than pasta sauce which is filled with tomato sauce, canola oil, corn syrup, fructose, and many other ingredients that increase its value. Tomato paste can be added to stewed tomatoes cheaply. You can also buy basil and garlic infused stewed tomatoes for the same price. Stewed tomatoes are also packaged during the peak's season, so they can have a richer flavor than fresh tomatoes, which is pricier and require more assembly. When you're buying fish such as salmon, the frozen packages are almost half the price and worth the bargain since "fresh" salmon has at one point been frozen previously and recently thawed anyways.