The Convenience Tax

Last night, our family took three small steps towards freeing ourselves from the convenience tax.

It was hard, but necessary.

Baby step 1: Buy a head of lettuce, rather than the pre-cut, pre-washed, ultra-convenient bagged lettuce available everywhere. I can make the time to wash and chop my own lettuce. Honestly. (Anyway, this is just an interim step until the lettuce in the garden gets big enough to eat.)

Baby step 2: Block cheese instead of pre-shredded. OK, we still aren't convinced of the value here, since we buy our shredded cheese at a discount bulk grocer; but for the regular store, it's definitely cheaper to go block.

Baby step 3 (and the hardest of them all): Buying ground coffee by the pound at the store, instead of the individual K-cups. See, I got a Keurig coffee maker for Christmas, and it is AWESOME! But a 20-pack of the K-cups (pre-filled with grounds) it uses to brew the coffee generally costs $10. Maybe you have a coupon so it doesn't cost as much; but they don't sell them at the regular grocer so you have to make a separate stop for them. I also received a fill-it-yourself contraption, that lets you basically create your own cup. It's a pain because instead of just tossing the used cup in the trash you have to clean it out for the next time. However, a pound of ground coffee on sale costs less than a box of cups with a coupon, AND lasts a lot longer.

Do I think thumbing my nose at the Convenience Tax will make a huge difference to our weekly grocery budget? Not really. But hopefully we get in the mindset where we look for other, less obvious examples where we pay at premium for convenience. Baby steps...