Scores of magazine articles tell us how to save money at the grocery store. Near the top of practically every list is a warning to avoid costly convenience foods. You know -- the dinner-in-a-box, salad-in-a-bag, and breakfast-in-a-bar variety. How they tempt us with their promises of a nutritional home-cooked meal in five minutes. We’re warned to keep a clear head and stay on the outer perimeter of the grocery store to avoid the nutritional “tourist traps."



In an effort to save money for my family, I made a vow to banish as many of these convenience foods as possible from my shopping cart. I would make our dinners from scratch, whip up my own treats for the kid’s lunches, pickle my own pickles, and even bake homemade brownies for my coworkers over the holidays.

Why pay $3.99 for a box of cereal bars when you can make your own at a fraction of the cost? With a new zeal, I went through the grocery store picking up the many items for my cereal bars. I had to ask the grocery store clerk a few times to point me in the right direction in my scavenger hunt for ingredients. But, I found everything without losing either of my kids in the store.

Making the bars was the easy part. Cutting them and handling them was a different story. They were more like cereal globs than cereal bars. My son said they tasted “weird." My five-year old liked them, but their sticky consistency helped her take the term “messy eater" to an entirely new level.

Still, I was not deterred. The next week I made pickled pearl onions with basil vinegar. My husband deemed them not bad, but a little too “basily." After peeling 100 of those tiny onions, I wanted to hear that it was the best thing he ever tasted.

As the holidays approached, I decided that, instead of buying expensive gourmet treats for my coworkers, I would make my own. But, it’s one thing to make a batch of brownies on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It’s quite another to attempt six batches on a Tuesday night after work while cooking dinner and refereeing the kids’ arguments. The brownies would have been good if not for the burnt crust at the bottom of every last one of them.

I began to realize that the professionals at the convenience food companies really know what they’re doing. They’ve spent countless hours developing their perfectly shaped cereal bars. I imagined them in lab coats saying, “It’s too sticky. Try again. It’s too chalky. Try again. Kids wouldn’t like it. Try again." Who am I to challenge millions of dollars worth of research in state-of-the art test kitchens?

I made a new vow -- to use convenience foods when it made sense without feeling like a bad mother or a free spender. Yes, those meal-in-the-box dinners cost more than homemade. But, they’re always there, sitting quietly in the cabinet waiting for the night when you’re just too tired to cook and they’re a lot less expensive than ordering takeout.

It may seem silly to buy a bagged salad. Who can’t make a salad? But, when all you have to do is dump it in a bowl and pour dressing on it, you’ll never put off eating those nutritious greens. My friends Betty Crocker and Mr. Kellogg are always there to help at dinnertime. How can I refuse?