With auto insurance payments, mortgages, and monthly minimums being fixed financial obligations, most of us have to find our savings in the frozen pizza freezer and deli counter.

The average shopper has plenty of fat in plain sight within their grocery store receipts, and it’s time to trim. 14 groceries in particular continue to fly off shelves, only for shoppers to lament their withdrawn accounts and rising debt at the end of the month. 

Here’s a disclaimer: You won’t find the word “organic” on this list. More than ever, it’s important to look out for your health, and we’re not going to shame anyone who chooses to splurge to avoid carcinogens, GMOs, or seed oils. Even if you buy organic, you may have glaring holes that are unnecessarily draining your grocery budget.

1. Beverages

That’s right, we’re wiping out the entire category of beverages from your shopping budget. If you want to save money, your money is almost always better spent on food. 

Chilled coffee. Sprite. Celsius energy drinks. Sweet iced tea. Gatorade. Kombucha. With the exception of coffee beans, tea bags, Crystal Light, and other items that require a bit of effort for you to bring to their final form, beverages are typically a money drain for shoppers. Water is a suitable alternative to virtually every bottled drink you can buy at the store, and it’s free.

2. Candles

Candles can transform the dingiest squatter hovel into an idyllic country scene in autumn. There are simply more affordable options that will deliver the same nose-tickling scents without releasing potentially harmful hydrocarbons as most candles do.

Consider purchasing an essential oil diffuser that will last you far longer than candles, keep your home free of lingering smoke, and cut down your grocery tab. With U.S. retail candle sales totaling more than $3 billion annually, don’t stress about putting Big Candle out of business, either.

3. Soup

Canned soup is an easy meal, and its long shelf life makes it a no-brainer purchase for many. If you’re anything like me, though, Progresso and Campbell’s tend to lack both the taste and heartiness that you envision when you purchase them.

Purchasing individual ingredients and making your own stew or soup in the crock pot will provide you much more filling meals with substantially more flavor and far fewer undesirable additives.

4. Pre-Prepared Fruits and Vegetables

How much value do you place on the flex of someone else’s wrist? Because grocers place a premium on someone else cutting your fruits and vegetables for you. 

There are arguments to be made for purchasing pre-prepared meals. A couple rotisserie chickens could save you an hour or more of cooking and cleanup, making it a relative bargain. Few, though, can justify paying $4.28 for cut-up pineapple when the whole fruit costs $2.75. Over time, the extra cost of pre-prepared fruits and vegetables will cost you more than you should be willing to pay.

5. Fresh Herbs

From a purely economic standpoint, does it make more sense to shell out four bucks for a few sprigs of rosemary every time you need it, or purchase a couple rosemary plants for $15? The average rosemary plant has a lifespan of ten years.

Purchasing fresh herbs is one of those most short-sighted, laziness-driven mistakes a shopper can make, and I’m guilty of it, too. Consider becoming a (very) amateur gardener and save yourself hard-earned money in the process.

6. Kid-Sized Snacks

Buying in bulk is typically a recipe for savings. While small individual bags of Cheetos are far easier to pack in the kids’ lunchboxes, they cost as much as three and a half times more than the larger bags.

You’ll be far more economical if you invest in snack-sized Ziplocs and break down the family-sized bag of Cape Cod chips. Skip those massive boxes of pint-sized Doritos and pretzels.

7. Beef Jerky

Beef jerky is expensive for a reason. Meat shrinks as you extract the juice during the jerky-making process. This means it takes a substantial portion of meat to produce a filling amount of beef jerky. Plus, the labor involved, and the fact it’s a meat-based snack, makes a bag of Oberto quite costly.

You might replace jerky with a more economical alternative. You might consider purchasing a dehydrator if you are intent on eating jerky with any regularity. A lean cut of meat, some soy sauce, a handful of other ingredients, and a healthy dose of patience will spare you the markup you pay when purchasing pre-bagged jerky.

8. Charcuterie

An elegant tray of prosciutto, salami, and gouda instantly elevates the consumer into the upper class, if only for a few minutes. One reason why charcuterie (which is French for “cooked meat”) feels like such a classy snack, though, is because it’s expensive. 

Even purchasing your own cheese and meats should save you some money—there is always a hidden cost with pre-packaged food. Adding dried fruit, cost-effective cheeses, and other accouterments to the more cost-intensive cured meats can make for a visually eclectic and economical charcuterie board.

9. Snack Bars

Americans consume about 20% of their energy through snacks. We have to ask whether that is a positive statistic, as snacks are one of the purchases that tend to reach the belly the quickest—too often, on the couch at 10 p.m. or later. 

If you can commit to consuming more filling meals, a 30-cent banana instead of paying a couple bucks per snack bar, your bank account will be better off for it.

10. Your Local Supermarket’s Prepared Meals

If you’re headed to the NFL tailgate, youth soccer game, pool party, barbecue, or other gathering that requires you to procure a quick meal, nobody will shame you for buying a box of your local grocer’s wings or sandwiches. Exceptions aside, if you have the time to cook, it’s almost always cheaper to forego the store-brand Chicken Cordon Bleu in favor of a homemade version.

Back in 2018, not-too-serious researchers found that the average household lost $100 per month by purchasing pre-prepared and pre-packaged grocery items, which are notoriously poor values. The losses are likely significantly greater now, due to inflation.

11. Non-Essential Sauces and Dressings

You’d be surprised how many salads, meats, and other sauce-craving dishes taste just fine with lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, butter, and other low-cost ingredients. If you can find a nearly universal sauce you can use across greens, meats, and even pasta dishes, you may be able to obliterate your sauce and dressing budget almost entirely. 

12. Brand Name Products with a Suitable Store-Brand Alternative

With food prices rising 28% over the past five years (and that’s probably conservative), now is not the time to look down your nose at store brands. While some store brands are chalk-full of questionable ingredients and are truly of lower quality than the name-brand alternative, in many cases they’re virtually the same product at substantially different price points.

If you can swallow your pride or brand allegiance and opt for the store brand, your savings will mount over time.

13. Pre-Popped Popcorn

Like all grocery items, purchasing pre-bagged microwave popcorn bags in individual shrink wrap costs notably more than purchasing a larger container of kernels. To be precise, the pre-wrapped bags cost about 29 cents more per 100 grams.

If you can learn the art of stove top popping (which requires an oil with a high smoke point), you will be saving money. Plus, you avoid whatever artificial butter and other additives that exist inside those microwave bags.

14. Paper Towels

This one might sound crazy, as most of us cannot fathom a life without Brawny in it. To be clear, we’re not saying you should never buy paper towels again—just cut down your consumption with one strategic Amazon purchase.

You can buy a package of 150 rags for about $35 on Amazon. These rags are washable and reusable, a key distinction from paper towels. While there are always jobs best suited for Bounty and Scott, investing in a trove of rags will allow you to shrink your paper-towel budget significantly.