One sneaky expense of cooking from scratch is those darn little bottles of herbs and spices. We love cooking a lot of different ethnic food, which means lots of lovely flavors, but we’re a big family and the costs of all those seasonings add up!

The good news is, you don’t have to pay for those pricey grocery store bottles. Here’s my best advice on how to approach spices, where to shop for them, and how to store them to maximize your money.

Start at Costco

If you have a Costco (or Sam’s Club?) membership, start there for spice shopping.

Cinnamon is practically a food group around here because we use it so liberally on oatmeal and muesli. One of the principles of lowering your grocery budget is pay attention to the things you eat/buy often, because savings there move the needle more.

We also buy dried onion, garlic powder, ground black pepper, and a salt-free seasoning blend at Costco. Pretty much anything they sell that we use often is a good candidate.

To give you an idea of how much you can save this way:

Today at Safeway, I could buy a 2.37 oz bottle of cinnamon for $3.49 (McCormick), $2.49 (Private Selections), or $8.49 (Morton & Bassett).

Today at Costco, I could buy a 10.7 oz bottle of cinnamon for $3.49. It’s great cinnamon, and even if Morton & Bassett is better, I don’t value it as 11x better. Yet, it’s 11 times the price per ounce!

Find Your Local Ethnic Food Stores

I don’t know where you live, but chances are there is a Mexican food market and/or an Asian food market somewhere in your vicinity that you might not even be aware of. They tend to be located in non-descript strip malls, so they can be easy to overlook.

They are a GOLD MINE for inexpensive spices.

Today you can buy ground cumin from Safeway for $3.99 for a 1.5 oz plastic bottle. That same $3.99 price tag bought me a 14 oz bag of ground cumin at Apna Bazar. Even the big bulk bottle of ground cumin at Safeway is $9.49 for 4.5 oz. I paid essentially $1.27 for that amount simply because I ventured into an Indian grocery store instead.

Is there a difference in quality? Maybe. I haven’t found personally found that to be the case (except for the superior quality of Penzey’s, mentioned later).

For most people, the only different in quality they might notice is if a spice is less fresh or potent. The solution for a spice that is less potent is simply to increase the amount you use. The cumin I bought from Apna Bazar was lovely and flavorful, but if I theoretically did need to add more if it, it certainly wasn’t 9 times more! 🙂

Look for Bulk Bins

If you’re trying a new recipe and only need a little of a spice, purchase it in the bulk bins! You won’t need to buy a whole bottle of something you won’t use again, and the price is often less per ounce. This is a cost saver, as long as you aren’t too heavy handed. You can even bring a tablespoon measurer after you’ve put some in your bag to help you estimate if you’re in the right ball park.

Remember to Shop at YOUR Grocery Store

Take the time to create a price list of your local grocery stores, so that when you do your regular shopping, you’re continually reaping the savings. It wouldn’t make sense to include every spice you use on your price list, but if you just compare a handful of spices from store to store, you’ll find a pattern that points to YOUR best store to shop for spices.

I compared my local Winco with my local Safeway and found that Safeway was often twice the price for the little spice bottles:

Look all the Options (and Check the Cost per Ounce!)

Even if you’re at the right store, you’ll likely have a flood of options.

Of course the store doesn’t line up all the bottles of turmeric next to each other so you can compare. You have to check for every brand and every size bottle! Fortunately the cost per ounce is listed on the label, so it takes less than a minute and can save you a dollar or more per spice. I don’t make $60/hr while grocery shopping very often, so it’s worth my time to scan the shelves a bit!

In this photo, you can see that a bigger bottle of fancy-pants organic nutmeg was almost half the price per ounce of the more standard McCormick nutmeg (185.7 cents vs. 349.1 cents per ounce):

Don’t forget to check the ethnic sections even within the store: At Safeway, the cheapest curry powder in the spice aisle is $7.49 for 1.75 oz. If you look with Mexican food, however, you’ll find a baggy of curry powder for $1.99 for 1.5 oz. That’s a much better price, and definitely worth getting to see how you like the flavor! If you try it and like it, you’ll save $5 every time you buy curry powder.

Consider Penzey’s Spices

This is not a sponsored post at all. Penzey’s doesn’t know I exist!

We used to live just around the corner from a Penzey’s Spice Shop and I loved walking over there with my little kids to peruse the gorgeous arrays of flavors from around the world. They have samples to sniff and cool descriptions to help you distinguish between Turkish Oregano and Mexican Oregano, or Sweet Paprika and Half-Sharp Paprika. They often throw in free bottles and stickers with your order and ours had the sweetest older ladies working there.

The good news for my budget was that although their prices are top-quality, they are very affordable when you buy them in bulk bags, rather than in the glass jars.

We don’t have one close by anymore, but we still often choose to stock up on spices by buying them online (they even sometimes have sales!) through penzeys.com .

Ten years ago we spent $50 getting a whole bunch of square tin containers from Specialty Bottle in two different sizes. The bigger size was reserved for spices we used most.

With a little label making magic, these have been work horses for over a decade. I can tell at a glance where things are without alphabetizing.

(I do have a cardboard box in my pantry with all the bulk bags for refilling the containers every handful of months, and I go ahead and just keep the big Costco bottles next to the cute containers because I don’t want to mess with refilling those.)

Here is a price comparison:

Safeway McCormick Oregano is $3.99 for .75 oz, Spice Island Oregano is $6.99 for .6 oz. Penzey’s is $6.69 for .8 oz, but it’s $14.95 for a 3.2 oz bag. So when I purchase a large quantity, it’s slightly cheaper than I could buy at the grocery store, and the quality is outstanding.

Spice Inventory List

I don’t consider myself a highly organized person. At all, actually.

But I do have a piece of paper taped inside my cupboard that is alphabetized. I can quickly check our status on the obscure spices we have accumulated and easily note the ones I’ll want to purchase the next time we place an order at Penzeys, so that I will order enough to qualify for free shipping of course!

I’ve been marking this particular copy up for several years, just erasing and re-writing as needed.

Proper Spice Storage and Shelf Life

There is a lot of information out there about how to pamper your spices.

Here’s your dose of reality from a real mom: I keep my spices in a dark place at room temperature AKA my kitchen cupboard and a cardboard box in my pantry, because heat and light will shorten their shelf-life. However, I don’t sweat expiration dates. We tend to use up most of our spices within a year or so, but the more obscure ones might sit around longer and lose some potency. I just add a slightly greater amount to the recipe for more flavor if I need to!

Buying whole spices and grinding them fresh (for things like cumin and coriander, for example) will extend their shelf life. Storing spices in the fridge or freezer will extend their shelf-life. But I just keep mine in the cupboard and it’s worked great for over a decade.

So, there ya go. Make delicious food, save money, and stress less.

You’re not going to like it. I’ve got lots of tricks up my sleeve to keep our grocery budget trim, but this one is going to hurt a little.

The very best way to save money on vegan groceries is….

Waste less food.

See? No one likes to acknowledge the wilty lettuce that got shoved to the back of the fridge or the questionable cooked brown rice that overstayed its welcome, and we certainly don’t want to think that we paid money for them!

Of course we don’t buy things intending not to eat them, yet a recent study estimates the average American household as wasting around 30% of the edible part of food they buy. That percentage is statistically higher when the household is eating a “healthier” diet. Ouch.

When you eat a whole food plant-based diet, that often means a lot of produce.

Lovely, vibrant, fresh and crisp produce. At least, it is that way when you bring it home! Give it a few days, especially when you store it improperly, and that produce is not looking as lovely. It may even be giving you some guilt trips whenever you open the fridge.

Not wasting food is easier said than done, but here are 5 simple, actionable ways to reduce the food you waste, and hence cut your grocery budget. Every bit of food you throw away is like tossing money in the trash, so it’s worth upping our game a bit.

#1 Store Your Produce More Carefully

This deserves a whole blog post on its own, but suffice it to say that many people are halving the life span of their produce just by not taking care when they get back from the market. Here are some quick tips:

1. Pop your fridge produce right in there as soon as you get back. Any time spent at room temperature will take a toll on your most fragile food (leafy greens!)
   
2. Cilantro will last a week if you take a minute to unbunch it and toss all the slimy parts as soon as you bring it back from the store. You can leave it in the produce bag as long as it’s not wet in there, or store it in a tupperware.
   
   Here’s 7 days left in a bunch (wilty and has slimy and yellow bits, though still salvageable):

This bunch was bought at the same time but stored properly and it looks better after a week than when I brought it back from the store!

3. Apples go in the fridge. They’ll stay crisper much longer.

4. Bell peppers stay in their plastic produce bag, but make sure it’s not wet in there!

After a week sitting on a fridge shelf:

If instead, you make use of the humble produce bag:

5. Green onions that are starting to look a little peaky can easily be put in a glass of water by a kitchen window and start growing again. (Remove any dodgy bits first.)

6. Limp celery? Droopy (but not brown) lettuce? Put it in cold water and watch the magic happen. They’ll re-hydrate and be right as rain.

7. Perfectly ripe avocados will only last a few minutes on your counter (am I right?) but in the fridge they’ll stay perfect for a week or two.

#2 Store your leftovers better

Does this poem resonate at all?

Deep in Our Refrigerator

Deep in our refrigerator,

there’s a special place

for food that’s been around awhile…

we keep it, just in case.

‘It’s probably too old to eat,’

my mother likes to say.

‘But I don’t think it’s old enough

for me to throw away.’

by Jack Prelutsky

Get Decent Storage Containers

I used to have a tupperware shelf that was full of mismatched, oddly shaped and often opaque containers. I invested $50 in nice, uniform, clear rectangular containers that nest, stack, and allow me to easily grab them and see what I’ve got stored in them. It has made such a difference! I don’t dread packing up leftovers anymore, my fridge is neater, the dinner I made two days ago looks appealing and obvious on the shelf, and everyone wins.

The brand I bought is now pricier, but they’ve worked beautifully for us. This is a similar set by the same brand that gets rave reviews (affiliate link):

They come in different sets and I specifically got one that includes lots of 9 cup containers in it, to better match our big family.

Freeze Wisely

Never put anything in the freezer you don’t want to eat. Seriously. If you fall into the trap of “optimistic freezing,” your freezer will become scary and you won’t want to open it. If you truly aren’t going to eat something, cut your losses and toss it. If you DO have fruit going a little soft (smoothies of the future!) or you aren’t eating the black beans fast enough (chili next week!), by all means freeze them and be sure to label them.

If your freezer has only good, clearly labeled foods in it, you’re far more likely to open it and use food from it.

#3 Organize your fridge & freezer

We have a dedicated spot in our fridge for leftovers to use up. (Spoiler alert: It’s not in the back!)

I glance there first when I’m planning a munchy lunchy or trying to decide whether I need to make a new dinner or we can eke out our leftovers.

In my experience, most wasted food at our house is food that made its way to the back of the refrigerator and got forgotten about. Having a designated space keeps that from happening (as often).

In the freezer, we have different areas for frozen veggies, frozen fruit, frozen breads, frozen nuts, and… you guessed it, frozen leftovers!

We also have a spot for “produce to use up” in the fridge and “ingredients to use up” in the freezer. When something is nearing the end of its life, I’ll stick it there and pull it into the next flexible dish I make, usually a stir fry, vegetable soup, curry, or tofu scramble.

#4 Make leftovers yummier

Be smart about how you use your leftovers. Here are some quick ideas to get you started:

• Fire up the oven or heat up a skillet. If you warm a burrito up in the microwave and then toast it in a skillet, it will taste miles better than just microwaving it alone. I love the microwave, but going the extra mile can make a big difference in the yum factor.
  
• Add guacamole. Or homemade tortilla chips. Or cornbread. Or a side of fresh fruit. If a certain dish is becoming a little tired, shake things up.
  
• If your brown rice is dry after being in the fridge, toss a couple of ice cubes on it when you warm it up in the microwave. It’s miraculous how quickly it’ll be moist and fluffy again.
  
• Steel-cut oatmeal is better leftover when you add water or plant-based milk to it, because it tends to absorb liquid as it waits in the refrigerator.
  

• When you make a big salad, don’t dress the whole thing. Dress half and serve it for dinner. Store the other half in the fridge separate so that you can dress it right before eating.
  
  For this salad, I chop up romaine and keep it separate in the fridge, then I toss the whole thing together fresh when we eat the leftovers:
  

The exception is salads with a hardy green like kale. It can usually handle a few days of fridge time already dressed and massaged:

The same principle applies to anything with avocado on it. Don’t add it to the whole thing. Add it to half, keep that avocado in the fridge, and cut it up for the next night.

#5 Get Creative

Challenge yourself to use up (almost) everything perishable before hitting the grocery store again.

Maybe you’re out of bananas and leafy greens, and you’re itching to hit up the produce section, but you’ve got some potatoes, some broccoli and a few fresh tomatoes still at home. Curry!

Use it all up, then hit the produce section. Or, you can plan a “catch all” meal for the day you go grocery shopping and round it out with what you buy. So you can go ahead and shop. Grab fresh cilantro to add to the top of your clean-the-refrigerator curry, and you’ll have a fresh slate when you unload those lovely groceries.

Throwing away food is like throwing away dollars, yes, but think about it the other way round.

You have lots of FREE food available in your fridge, freezer and pantry right now. Choosing to use up those odds and ends rather than letting them continue to age is like finding dollar bills everywhere and sticking them in your wallet.