Guess the word is out. We're... vegans... Sorry. Choosing to follow this diet and, ugh, 'lifestyle' was made several years ago and it makes shopping for groceries interesting. We eat a lot of veggies and a lot of fruit - but mostly we just eat a bunch of snacks. One of our favorite snacks is hummus or as Dylan's grandmother called it once "yummit". She's adorable.
We do the majority of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. It's fine... The portions are great, the prices are low and every once in awhile it's good to indulge in an entire box of Joe's O's on the car ride home. As great at TJ's is, there are limitations. Produce can be an issue there - sure it's cheap but it's also cheap, you know? The one thing we have found is that making our own versions of our favorite TJ's food is more rewarding and often MUCH cheaper (in the good way).
Take for instance our old friend "yummit". Trader Joe's offers several different flavors ranging from the usual garlic/chickpea to the Edamame variety. They sell buckets of this creamy dip and they are delicious - but they also range from $3-$6. We've been able to duplicate these recipes for a fraction of the cost, not to mention all the earth we're saving by not using their throw away plastic containers.
It's maybe the world's easiest recipe. There are only four simple ingredients and two simple instructions - grab a pen to write this down. Dump it all in a blender. Blend. Done. We've broken down the cost of the items below:
- 1 can of chickpeas ($0.89)
- Juice of 1/4 lemon ($0.13)
- 1 garlic clove ($0.15)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce ($0.10)
That's approximately $1.27, gang. That price is much more appetizing than $2.99. And if you're like us you probably buy hummus every week... so this could save you quite a bit over time - almost $100 a year!
We're not huge fans of the term "life hack", but we're totally interested in money saving hacks. This is one of them. Do you have any ideas that we can steal? What do you do with banana peels? How many times can you use a tea bag? Who let the dogs out? Help us out, we know we're not alone. We don't know how to end this other than sharing the video below. Okay, bye.