With this great money saving idea, you just may be able to afford a bottle of wine to go with your cheese! (Or at least a better quality wine to cook with...)
Today's subject is cheese shopping. To be more precise, shredded cheese shopping.
Next time you are in the grocery store and reach the spot in the dairy section where the shredded cheese bags are located, instead of reaching for your normal purchase or even the "store brand" at the lower cost, take a moment and look down. Normally under the shredded cheese bags are in the same cooler as the 8 to 16 oz blocks of cheese wrapped in plastic - and from the same companies that make the shredded cheeses!
The reason you need to look down is because if you don't mind taking a few minutes while you are cooking to shred your own cheese, you can save yourself quite a bit of money over a year's time. (Okay, only if you purchase shredded cheeses, if you don't eat cheese at all, stop reading now and skip to the next posting because you won't save any money with this idea.) The reason you will save money is because shredded cheese in the bag comes at a premium price. The manufacturers know that we are a convenience drive society. It is more convenient for us to open the bag of preshredded cheese than for us to shred our own cheese with a grater.
I say, stop the madness! Send those companies a message! Purchase the block of cheese (of your own choosing of course - ours are normally 1 of cheddar, 1 of mozzarella and one of another variety depending on what I feel like having my husband cook with the coming week). It can save you usually in the neighborhood of a dollar or more per each item purchased to choose the block instead of the bag of shredded cheese. If you multiply the dollar savings times each bag of cheese you would normally buy over a year's time, it really adds up! (For us it was a savings of $156 a year from our grocery bill.)
Here are some added benefits:
* The cheese will be fresher at the time of use when you shred it yourself (when I used to purchase the bags of shredded cheese, many times I could tell by looking at it that it had been shredded a long, long time ago - yuck)
* You will only usually shred what you actually need for the recipe, rather than dumping in the entire bag o' shredded cheese (more $$$ savings!)
* You can choose other varieties of cheese which are not available already shredded and enhance the flavor of your dishes with new and exotic tastes!
So enough about cheese, just remember look down when you get to shredded cheese section and watch the savings add up!
The Frugal Queen
PS - You can usually find an inexpensive grater at the dollar store. If you take care of it, you should be able to get your money's worth out of it!
