About once a month as a Friday “bonus” post, I’m featuring an original article written by one of my favorite bloggers. This guest article was written by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits.

The enemy of frugality and simplicity and your monthly budget is the impulse buy.

We’ve all done it, of course, and it can be incredibly difficult to stop the urge to buy once it’s in us. There’s an incredibly cool gadget that we have to have, a great pair of shoes or jeans, a book or magazine or dessert that won’t cost much.

If you’re in the store, or at an online site, the forces of advertising and marketing are sometimes too powerful to overcome. And yet, they can be beat, with some simple strategies.

The trick, of course, is to think about it. It’s when the impulse urge is subconscious that it’s most dangerous. If you give it some thought, and realize that you have the urge, you can apply these strategies to beat it.

If impulse buying has been secretly undermining your monthly budget, here are 10 simple strategies for beating the urge. Choose the method that works best for you, or use them in combination.

1. Create a 30-day list. Make a new rule: you can’t buy anything (except necessities) until a 30-day waiting period has passed. Put a 30-day list on your refrigerator, and when you have the urge to buy something, put it on the list with today’s date. After a month has passed, you can buy the item. Many times the urge will have passed and you can just cross the item off the list. This works if you stick to your rule. The only exceptions would be groceries and other similar necessities.

2. Don’t go to the mall. You only get the urge to buy on impulse if you’re in a shopping area (or if you’re watching TV). So, prevent the urge from happening in the first place by not going shopping. Don’t go to the mall or Walmart or other shopping areas. Only go to a store if you have a specific necessity to purchase, and go with a list. Don’t buy anything not on that list. Now get out as soon as possible. Don’t just walk around window shopping for entertainment, or you will be sorely tempted. Find other ways to have fun.

3. Don’t go to online retail sites. Just as the mall will create the urge to buy, so will online sites such as Amazon. They make it too easy to buy something. Instead, stay away from these sites.

4. Monitor your urges. Make it a point to monitor your urges, if it’s a big problem. Keep a little piece of paper, and put a tally mark on it every time you get the urge. This helps you to become more conscious of the urge, which is usually something we don’t even notice. Different symptoms can appear, such as faster breathing or a faster heart rate, when we have the urge. By becoming more aware of the changes in our body, we can begin to get the urges under control.

5. Take a deep breath. When you do get the urge, there are ways to calm it down. Deep breathing, self massage, walking around, and drinking water can all help control the urge. Take 10 deep breaths, and the urge will often be diminished enough to resist.

6. Calculate the value in life energy. If you’ve been a reader of The Simple Dollar for long, you know about how to calculate your true hourly wage. Keep that number handy, and the next time you want to buy something, divide the price of the item by your true hourly wage … this will tell you how many hours of your life you had to give up to buy that item. Sometimes the number of hours can be eye-opening, especially for more expensive items. Consider whether you really want to give up that much of your life for that item.

7. Plan your purchases. Making a list before you go shopping is important. If you can make it a habit to stick to that list, you’ll eliminate a lot of little impulse buys. For other purchases, make it a habit to plan them, save for them, shop around, and even see if you can get it for free. Going through this process ensures that your purchases are more deliberate, and less on impulse. Plan ahead for birthday and Christmas gifts, and other large purchases that you know are coming up in the month ahead.

8. Freeze your credit card. If using your credit card is a problem, consider giving it up completely (I did). If that’s not a good option for you, try literally freezing your card. Put it in a Ziploc baggie with water, seal it good, and put it in the freezer. Don’t write the credit card number anywhere. Now, if you want to make a purchase with the card, you’ll have to unfreeze it. That little wait of a couple of hours can be enough to stop you from making many purchases.

9. Ask questions. Before you buy anything, ask yourself a series of questions. Is the purchase going to improve your life in some important way? Is the purchase supposed to make you feel better? Does it help you meet one of your life goals? Will it simplify your life? These are useful questions to help you evaluate the value of a purchase, and why you’re making it. Be honest with yourself — don’t try to sell yourself!

10. Keep the end in mind. It’s useful to have clear goals in mind at all times. What do you want to do with your life? Do you have financial goals that you’re trying to accomplish, in the long-term and medium-term? Keep your savings goals in mind, and know when you’re about to make a purchase how the purchase will affect your goals.

Leo Babauta blogs about simplicity, frugality, productivity and happiness at Zen Habits.

This post is part of The One Hour Project, in which you can spend just one hour to put your finances in a better place without a big lifestyle change, through frugality or other financial choices.

A while back, I mentioned how I build my own price book. While this is a great idea, for most busy people it would take a lot of extra work to execute it. However, I know from personal experience how much money a price book can really save you.

Here’s what I recommend instead: use the basic framework of the price book idea to just identify which local grocery store is cheapest on the items you buy regularly, then stick with that store. For me, identifying the store with the best prices for my purchases saves me about $20 a week over the average store - and it wasn’t the store I thought was cheapest, either.

Here’s what you need to do.

First, identify all of the grocery stores that you’d be willing to shop at. For me, the nearest town with any competitive shopping has a Hy-Vee, a Dahl’s, a Fareway, a Super Target, and a Wal Mart Supercenter, among the ones I would be willing to shop at.

Next, make a list of the twenty or thirty (or more) items you buy regularly. This includes basic food staples like bread, eggs, and cheese to toiletries and other such supplies. List produce, list beverages, list prepackaged meals - whatever it is that you buy regularly. For me, this list ended up with about thirty items on it.

Once you’ve done that, make a regular shopping trip to each of those stores. While there, note the price on each of these items in that store. I found it useful to print off several copies of the list of items, then take a copy of it to each store as I went, so I could jot down the prices. Take down the price of every item on the list - if a store doesn’t carry a particular item, find the closest substitute and note that.

When you’ve done this for each store, just add up the prices of all of the items to get your total for each store - and then you should do your regular shopping at the store with the lowest total. I’ve done this myself, and I discovered that the least expensive store for the items I buy regularly was not the store I expected it to be, and when I switched my regular store I found that my average grocery bill dropped noticeably - about $10 a week. Week in and week out, that adds up to $520 a year, even if you’re focusing entirely on basic ingredients and fresh foods, as I do. I can easily see how the difference might be much more if you buy a lot of prepared food items and sodas and such.

Admittedly, this one will take more than an hour - perhaps as much as two - but the rewards over the long haul can be tremendous.

Many Americans (including many of my friends) are conditioned by many years of marketing to select name brand products at the store. They’ll skip right by the generic rice puffs and buy the identical Rice Krispies for a dollar more per box. They’ll skip by the 100% store brand juice and pick up Juicy Juice, the same thing with a fifty cent markup.

It’s completely understandable that people wish to choose the product they’re most familiar with, but it’s also an expensive choice in many cases. Generics are often prepared identically to name-brand products or are only slight variations on the name brand, but the cost is far less. Why? Advertising - with the name brand, you have to support the company’s marketing budget as well.

Yet, for many, there still remains a certain “taboo” about buying generics. If you feel that way, I encourage you to try the following things the next time you’re at the grocery store.

Find the “generic” parallel for some of your purchases. Many canned products, breakfast cereals, and so on have generic forms that are very similar. Quite often, people rush through the store and grab the name brand on instinct without actually bothering to find the generic item.

Compare the ingredients in the generic and the name brand. I was shocked when I first did this - many times, the ingredients in the two are identical - no difference at all. In a few cases, the generic was more healthy - it would have the same ingredients, but in a different order, indicating a smaller proportion of high fructose corn syrup, for example.

If there is a noticeable difference, decide whether the cost difference is worth it. Quite often, you’ll find the generic’s ingredients are just fine compared to the name brand one, even if there are some differences. For example, you might find that the name brand tomato paste has no salt in it, while the generic has a tiny amount of sodium in it. Is it worth $0.50 for that difference?

If it brings comfort to you, use the non-generic packaging at home. Something my mother used to do to reduce complaints in the morning is put generic cereal in the name brand box. I didn’t realize this for years, but if I didn’t actually witness my mother buying the cereal at the store, it was usually the generic form in the name brand box.

For most purchases, I buy the store brand - there are very few name brands that I purchase over the store brand, and the only reason I do in those cases is that I’ve tried both and the name brand has enough of a quality difference to make it worthwhile (diapers come to mind here). I also put in an effort to pore through the ads for the store and also the Sunday coupons to see if I can get a deal on the name brand that’s even cheaper than the generic - and it happens more often than you might think.

Over the last week, my cell phone has slowly been dying. The screen goes black randomly and it ceases to accept button input until I remove the battery and re-insert it. This phenomenon has happened with more and more frequency as of late, reaching the point where it’s killed phone calls in the middle of the call. It was time to get a new cell phone.

I looked at my options. My wife and I have been using the same cell phone provider for the last four years and have been very happy with them. We had heard rumors that their service in the area of our new home was bad, but the service has actually been even better since we moved - I haven’t seen anything less than four bars at home or in any place that I go to regularly. Thus, my wife and I wanted to stick with the same service provider.

I went to the cell phone store today with my tactics for buying a new cell phone in mind. I wanted to make a change to my service plan (upgrade my text messages and my minutes because I’ve gone over the top on both of these recently) plus get a new phone. I had decided that I wanted a RAZR because of the feature set that it had and the size of the phone itself, but I did not want to walk out of the store paying more than $100 for the phone, a car charger for the phone, and any other fees.

Here’s exactly what I did.

I walked into the store, briefly surveyed the people working there, and grabbed the one who was not involved with anyone at the moment. I told her that I was potentially interested in a new service plan (my old one had expired and I was just paying by the month) and specifically what I wanted with the plan. I also told her I wanted new equipment and walked away to look at it to let her think about it for a bit.

I knew better than to negotiate the service plan because it’s usually set by national carriers, but I knew that basically anything in the store was negotiable, especially fees. I also knew that I’d be able to get several things from this person, whose eyes were already calculating their sweet commission on the sale.

I went for a RAZR, just as I wanted. I asked for details on all available rebates and the person actually filled out the rebate form for me to get $30 back - literally, I’ll go home and drop the information in an envelope and send it.

There were also two different fees that the person attempted to ding me with. I directly asked for each fee to be waived and, although the lady helping me seemed a bit startled at the request, she said “Sure” and waived them without hesitation.

I also asked if there were any discounts on accessories for the phone and ended up with a 50% discount on the car charger.

The end result? I got my plan changed, a Motorola RAZR, and a car charger for less than $70 after I drop the rebate (already filled out) in the mail. Easy as pie.

Three real keys if you are getting a new cell phone: ask for all possible rebates, ask for fees to be waived, and ask for discounts or coupons on accessories. Remember, you’re the person in the store spending money - don’t feel bad about asking for such things.

As regular readers of The Simple Dollar know, I’m a food junkie. I enjoy preparing food from scratch, presenting it well on the plate, and using sturdy, quality kitchen implements to prepare the food. I have a library of cookbooks (even though I really stick with just a few of them for everyday use) and I’m unafraid to occasionally spend a lot of money on things for the kitchen that I know I’ll use, like my long lusted after KitchenAid stand mixer (which is my next “splurge” purchase - someday).

In other words, if you take me to a store like Williams-Sonoma, I can mill around for hours and easily find a dozen expensive things for me to spend my money on.

This past Friday, I found myself in such a position unexpectedly. My visiting family wanted to go wander around the new mall in West Des Moines, a mall that I had only visited once before, briefly. I knew where it was and I knew about four of the stores in it, but that was about it. I figured I would go with them and just mill around wherever they went and I wasn’t planning on buying anything at all. Until I discovered that it had a Williams-Sonoma, that is.

The second I walked in the door and started to look around, warning sounds began to blare in the back of my head as I could immediately spy about seven things I would love to have in my kitchen, from a KitchenAid stand mixer and an interesting cookbook to a particular knife sharpener and several food ingredients. I knew that if I was not careful, I would end up spending a lot of money that I didn’t need to spend.

Here’s what I did to keep my spending under control and still allow myself to wander around to my heart’s content.

I immediately set a spending cap. I knew that I would likely buy something there and if I wasn’t careful, I might buy several things, so I set a firm spending cap and made it a challenge to spend less than that. This cap made me carefully consider the items and how much I wanted them or not. My spending cap was $20, by the way, and it enabled me to buy two jars of pasta sauce (on sale) and a container of potlatch seasoning.

I whipped out my trusty notebook and noted things of interest. This way, I could decide later if the impulse to buy the item was actually worthwhile, plus I could do research and find other options for the items I liked. I ended up writing down several items on the list in great detail, along with some recipe ideas that popped up while I was in there.

I spent a lot of time there, meaning I spent less time in other places. Since I spent all of my time at Williams-Sonoma instead of in other stores, and I spent that time there with a tight spending cap, I ended up only spending $20 on the entire trip, by far the least of the people in my group. Stores in malls are designed to maximize impulse buying and by sticking in one store, you minimize the chances to act on such impulses.

I went home and did comparison shopping on the items of deepest interest. I fell in love with a cookbook there (if you’re curious, it was this one, from which I pillaged several ideas in just a brief browsing - I typically use cookbooks for ideas, not for detailed following of recipes), but I decided to wait until I was at home to research it. Good thing, too, because I found it for 40% less on Amazon. That doesn’t mean I bought it, just that I confirmed the fact that I could save quite a bit of money. I also found a virtually identical drink mixer for 75% less than the price at Williams-Sonoma.

In short, I let my impulses roam without whipping out the credit cards. I allowed myself to carefully examine all of this stuff I wanted, but by instituting a spending cap, I kept the spending down, and by keeping a list, I was able to research items of interest further. One could use these techniques at any store that tempts their worst buying impulses.

On a lighter note, the idea that I bought pasta sauce at a shopping mall amused my nephews to no end, and I also predict a gift certificate to the store in my future from some bemused relatives.

About a week ago, I made an offhand mention of a price book in my detailed review of The Complete Tightwad Gazette. I compressed several ideas down into a single paragraph, mostly commenting on Amy Dacyczyn’s suggestion on how to do it from the book itself. Several readers wrote in and asked how I do it, so I thought I’d explain how we use a price book in our shopping.

First of all, I’ll say that this procedure is a little bit different than picking a grocery store when you first move. That’s a nice rough procedure for finding a place to shop at for your first few months as you settle in, but when your life is in a normal flow, you’ll want to really dig in and assemble a true price book to help with your weekly shopping.

Where I live, there are four grocery stores (that I’m willing to shop at) within a reasonable driving range - a Dahl’s, a Fareway, a Hy-Vee, and a Super Target. I wanted to discover which store offered the best prices on particular items, so I assembled a price book to compare the prices on specific items.

First, I made a list of our thirty or so most essential items. These are items that we buy very regularly at the store - milk, cheese, etc. It was pretty easy to do this based on our regular shopping experience.

Then, for four shopping trips in a row, I visited the four stores, writing down prices on all of the items on the list, regardless of whether or not I was buying them. I was often buying at least some of the items on the list, but it was worth the effort to find the prices on our top ones.

Now, each week, I make up a grocery list, grab the flyers for all four stores, and figure out which store is the cheapest for our list. I usually identify a few sale items from each store to pick up and use to make a few meals that week, like fresh asparagus on sale, for example - these items are obviously different from store to store. I also note any of the items on the grocery list that are on sale at each particular store that week. Then I total them up using Excel and go to the store that will give me the cheapest bill.

What do I save by doing this? There’s usually a $20 spread between the cheapest store and the most expensive store for a given list. Even more interesting: the ranking of the store varies quite a lot. Roughly 30% of the time, either Dahl’s, Fareway, or Hy-Vee is on top; the other 10%, Target ends up on top. Given that, an average week saves me $10 for about twenty minutes of work.

Even more interesting is that by doing this regularly, over time you get a strong innate sense of what sorts of items are cheapest at which stores and you can often use that sense to save time. For example, the meat prices are almost always lowest at Hy-Vee, partially because they have their own meat cutting within the store, so if my list has several meat products, I can basically assume I’m going there.

Another tip: update that price book once a year or so. There is quite a bit of drift over time at the various stores and you’ll find often that your earlier notions are no longer true. I know people who swear that Dahl’s is the cheapest, and they are on some items, but I believe that a big part of this is just habit based on something that may have been true years ago.

The vast majority of Americans are trapped in a cycle of “work and spend” and simply don’t know how to escape. We’re surrounded by an enormous abundance of incredible material goods, but these goods don’t really mean anything - they leave us with a hole that’s only partially filled by this stuff and we have to work at an incredible pace in order to pay for it. The Overspent American argues that the real root of this is a desire for things we don’t actually need.

The author of the book, Juliet Schor, has written other books on similar topics, including Born to Buy, a deep look at the effect that consumer culture has on young children that I read shortly after having my own child and found quite interesting and insightful. So far, the only television that my child has watched was a few Baby Einstein videos - we basically don’t turn on the television when he’s around.

I’ll admit to being a little afraid to read this book for several reasons, the biggest of which is that the last time I looked at a more socially-oriented book dealing with personal finance issues, it turned into a complete debacle of preconceived notions and liberal guilt without true understanding. I was concerned that this book would be much the same, turning quickly into a lengthy anti-consumerist rant without looking at the real causes and how to fix them.

Was this concern founded? Let’s dig in and find out.

Examining The Overspent American

This book, interestingly enough, is directly targeted towards middle class and upper middle class Americans, people most susceptible to spending more money than they can afford and thus the people most susceptible to debt in today’s society. I find myself in that group, and I’m also currently in a significant amount of debt, having just purchased a home.

1 - Introduction
The Overspent American starts off with a litany of explanations for why Americans, particularly those in the middle and upper middle class, tend to spend far more than they earn. Some of them are obvious (the competitive desire to keep up with others and not let ourselves or our family “fall behind”) while others are much more interesting (the growing disparity between the income of the top 20% and the bottom 20%). Just combining those two factors alone (not wanting to fall behind when the income gap is widening) paints a pretty clear picture of how the middle class can often run up incredible debts.

2 - Communicating With Commodities: How What We Buy Speaks Volumes
Here, Schor establishes the idea that particular items indicate that you’re a member of a particular group. People at certain income levels, for example, are often expected to dress a certain way and own certain things - an upper middle class family kitchen may be expected to have granite countertops, for example, or that middle class teenagers should have an iPod. These statements seem ridiculous when I type them out, but when I pause and think about the experience of people in these groups, they suddenly don’t seem ridiculous at all. Granite countertops are a way for a middle class family to state that they meet a certain income threshold and thus are of a certain “class.” iPods tell other teenagers that this person is not one of the “poor kids.”

3 - The Visible Lifestyle: American Symbols of Status
When you carry forth that symbolic nature of consumer goods to the next logical step, it makes sense that people would covet the items that represent a group that they wish to be a part of. Let’s say you live on a block where many of the people drive Lexuses and your Ford pickup sticks out like a sore thumb (not that I’m in that situation or anything…). There’s a subtle social pressure to purchase a Lexus or an automobile of similar quality so that you fit in with the group on your block. Thus, advertisers often look for people who are trendsetters and get the ball rolling by focusing in on them - if two or three of the most social people in a group suddenly have a particular item, it begins to spread throughout people in that group.

4 - When Spending Becomes You
While that step is still not too bad, it becomes dangerous for all involved when the spending becomes competitive. I live next door to a family that owns a Lexus LS 300. Even though I rationally know that I really have no interest in owning such a car, part of me wants to purchase something better to “one up” them. Why? Although we are in the same social grouping, I would have prestige within that grouping for owning a higher quality item. Rather than merely seeking acceptance, I’m looking for prestige - a sense that I’m somehow slightly ahead of the other person simply because of this purchase. All of these ideas are constantly encouraged by marketers, who rightly see such societal pressure as an enormous assistance to their effort.

5 - The Downshifter Next Door
This chapter (with the title parodying The Millionaire Next Door) focuses on telling the stories of various individuals who have moved away from this incessant societal pressure to spend - the variety of the stories is compelling, from people who have bought heavily into voluntary simplicity to people who have simply made commitments to stop buying. I actually find myself in this group - although I still do occasionally buy consumer goods (like my recently-purchased Wii), it was a carefully calculated buy based entirely on what I wanted to do, not based on anyone else’s influence. I’m also very big into frugality and I’ve been thinking about making a few very large lifestyle changes (such as a complete career shift and also going back to school, funded in part by the income from The Simple Dollar).

6 - Learning Diderot’s Lesson: Stopping The Upward Creep of Desire
The final chapter includes nine wonderful points of advice for anyone wishing to escape from this consumerist mentality (without withdrawing from society and becoming a hermit, of course). These principles really cut to the chase of escaping consumerism, so I thought I’d spell them all out here. This chapter is excellent reading for anyone whose stomach was turned by some of the material described above.

Principle 1: Controlling Desire Stay away from malls and other places where you may be tempted to spend. When you go to buy a product, think about the durability of it as well as how much “more” you’ll need to fulfill that purchase (more games for that game console, more decorations for the redone kitchen, etc.).

Principle 2: Creating a New Consumer Symbolism: Making Exclusivity Uncool Whenever you see a symbol of excessive spending (like, for instance, my neighbor’s Lexus), look at it for what it is: successful marketing. If you lust for an item, ask yourself if you actually need it.

Principle 3: Controlling Ourselves: Voluntary Restraints on Competitive Consumption Not only encourage yourself, but encourage your friends and social groups to put caps on spending. Get involved in group decisions and suggest spending caps - you’ll quite often find that others are relieved, too.

Principle 4: Learning to Share: Both a Borrower and a Lender Be Consider sharing expensive purchases (like a lawnmower) with your neighbors. Look at rentals or secondhand shops for sporting equipment and other narrow-use items. Use your local library, not only for books, but for DVDs and CDs.

Principle 5: Deconstruct the Commercial System: Becoming an Educated Consumer Deconstruct every ad you see. When you see a product you superficially want, research it and understand it before making the purchase (and that means more than visiting the product’s website).

Principle 6: Avoid “Retail Therapy”: Spending is Addictive If a particular mood or event triggers a desire to shop, do something (anything) else instead.

Principle 7: Decommercialize the Rituals Don’t view Halloween, Christmas, or other social occasions translate into a reason to shop. Look for non-commercial alternatives to celebrating these societal rituals.

Principle 8: Making Time: Is Work and Spend Working? Look for ways to reduce the time you spend working so you can increase the time doing things more valuable to you. If you choose activities with that extra time that don’t involve spending and consumerism, you’ll still be financially fine.

Principle 9: The Need for a Coordinated Intervention Look for larger societal solutions to this issue. Get involved in organizations that focus on consumer issues and reducing spending.

Buy or Don’t Buy?

The Overspent American is a fantastic book that should be read by every middle class American. It addresses rampant consumerism, takes it apart effectively, and provides a bevy of solutions that are applicable to almost anyone in the middle class. It’s a tremendous book, well worth reading for anyone, and is among the best books related to personal finance I’ve ever read.

Having said that, I have a few minor nits, the biggest being that compared to many personal finance books, the writing is simply at a higher level. It’s intended for an educated audience and while that doesn’t mean that it’s not readable by everyone, the writing here is going to be a bit slower to digest than, say, Dave Ramsey. The advice really applies to people with at least some significant earnings potential, though, so many of the people who might have a hard time with the tone and language of the book would be self-excluded from the topic (i.e., children and people with no interest in self-education). If you’re reading this review, though, this book won’t be a problem at all.

If any of the material in this review really spoke to you, or you find yourself in a situation where buying stuff isn’t really filling up a hole you feel inside, this book is an absolute must-read.

The Overspent American is the thirty-eighth of fifty-two books in The Simple Dollar’s series 52 Personal Finance Books in 52 Weeks.

Most food purchases at the grocery store boil down to one of four factors:

Is it healthy? Is the food low in fat and provide good nutritional quality? Is it devoid of chemicals of mysterious origin? I also include ethical issues here, such as buying from local traders and such - healthy in a different way.

Is it cheap? Is the price reasonable compared to other similar food options? Is this item going to bend my food budget?

Is it tasty? Does this look like an enjoyable item to eat? Could this be part of an enjoyable dish?

Is it quick? Is the preparation time for this food relatively small? Will preparing this food interfere with other activities in my life?

Most people in the first world will take these four factors into account when considering a food purchase, but in varying degrees. For example, I focus on healthy above all when buying food that my toddler will eat, but I often focus on tasty for myself. During my earlier years, quick was the top factor.

However, I like to find items that manage to hit as many of these areas as possible. Here are eight techniques that I use to find home run food purchases.

Read through the sales flyer before going This takes care of the cheap, letting you use the other criteria to make a judgment on the food. For example, if I see produce at a great price in the flyer, I’ll often make a point to look up a recipe for it (making it tasty and possibly quick) - this turns into a home run purchase because produce on sale is already healthy and cheap.

Stock up on herbs and spices Herbs and spices are magical - they manage to turn a bland but healthy food into a tasty concoction. It’s worth an investment in some jars of quality herbs and spices of various types because of their amazing ability to take food that is healthy and make it tasty, too. Here’s an essential collection of herbs and spices to get you started.

Figure out how to make salads you like Salads are incredibly quick to make and are also very healthy (and lettuce is often cheap), but for me they’re often lacking in the tasty department. To make this a grand slam, I spent a lot of time trying various salad dressings and toppings until discovering the things that really make a salad pop for me (mushrooms, a sprinkling of cheese, onions, homemade garlic croutons, and a touch of vinaigrette dressing). It was worth the effort - now I have a staple food that hits a grand slam for me.

Use prepackaged foods as a template Prepackaged convenience foods are very strong in terms of tasty and quick and usually cheap, but they fail terribly at healthy. Instead of grabbing your favorite convenience food, try using it as a template for preparing your own. Match the ingredients with fresh and healthy versions and make several batches at home in advance so you can prepare them quickly when it comes time.

Try unexpected things This usually comes into the cheap realm: look for inexpensive and healthy items and give them a shot. Because of this, I’ve truly discovered the joy of cucumbers and onions - just slice a few cucumbers and an onion into a bowl with one parts water and four part vinegar (plenty to cover the onions and cucumbers), dash in just a bit of salt (to taste, you can add more if you like), and put it in the fridge. This is a delicious quick snack that’s very healthy, too, and it works as an appetizer before meals - my son even loves them and will munch on a cucumber slice before the main meal.

Look for recipes adaptable to the crockpot / slow cooker (or designed for it) This somewhat solves the quick aspect by allowing you to actually prepare the food whenever you’d like. One technique worth doing is to grab one of those frozen crock pot meals from the freezer section, reading the ingredients in it, then picking them up separately (making it more healthy) - in other words, use the template tip in conjunction with the crockpot. Another one is to find some crock pot recipes in advance. Here’s a primer on the crock pot and five great recipes for it.

If you’re picking up a canned item, see if it’s fresh Looking at the canned vegetables for an upcoming meal? See if that vegetable is fresh. The same goes for fruits and for meats as well - if you can get the item sans preservatives, you’re basically making a healthier choice, likely a cheaper choice, and also likely a tastier choice.

Buy lots of staples For me, chicken breasts and tomatoes are the two best staple foods one can get. You can make chicken marinara one night, then have chicken tortilla soup the next. Using such staples is quick (you can often prepare them all at once - making tomato juice or boiling the breasts) and also healthy (you’re starting off with the basic food). Plus, they’re so adaptable that you can make all sorts of delicious dishes from them.

A bonus tip: don’t be afraid of leftovers. Instead, learn how to use spices and other techniques to rejuvenate them.