That $3.49 bag of spinach made me rethink my entire grocery trip

I was standing in line at the Safeway on 5th Street yesterday, staring at the produce section from the checkout. This woman in front of me had a cart packed with pre-chopped veggies, bagged salads, and those tiny single-serve guacamole cups. She spent $14 on stuff I could have prepped at home in 10 minutes for maybe $4. I started adding up what I was buying versus what I was paying for convenience. My own cart had a bag of spinach for $3.49 and a rotisserie chicken for $6.99, both easy shortcuts. But that guacamole cup got me wondering how many of us are throwing away money on packaging instead of buying whole ingredients. Has anyone else done the math on what their convenience buys are actually costing them per month?

3 comments

3 Comments

gibson.robert2mo ago

Honestly I just pretend those guacamole cups don't exist so I don't have to deal with the math. Convenience tax hits different when you're hangry in the checkout line though.

hugo_craig11d ago

My buddy Mark used to buy those little plastic containers of pre-cut fruit all the time. He swore up and down it was the only way he'd actually eat healthy stuff. Then his girlfriend made him add up the receipts from one month. It was like $80 just on overpriced cut melon and pineapple. He told me he felt sick realizing he could've bought a whole watermelon for the price of three of those little cups. @gibson.robert you're right, that convenience tax is real in the moment. He still buys the guacamole cups though, says some habits are just too hard to break.

robert_hayes2mo ago

Man, that guacamole cup really hit me too. I did the math once on bagged salad kits vs just buying a head of lettuce and some dressing. Turns out I was spending like $15 extra a month just on the convenience of pre-washed greens. That's almost $200 a year for something that takes two minutes to rinse yourself. Have you ever tried adding up all your shortcuts for a single week?