Cheese -Sliced and Shredded for a frugal price

As my tag line “ Thoughts on living a frugal life as a single” indicates one of the purposes I had in mind when I began blogging was to share what frugality looks like for a single person. Somehow I haven’t stuck to that plan very well.

Cheese has been a problem for me.

As with most groceries, you get the most value by purchasing the largest package. Living alone a block of cheese will mold before I eat it. So for years I reluctantly purchased my cheese in small packagesDo you see that unit price? $7.06/lb.

Even more expensive is:That’s an 8 oz. Bag so even on special it’s $11.18/lb. 

I was reading America’s Cheapest Family. One of their money saving hints was to buy a chub of bologna and then ask the deli to slice it instead of paying top dollar for sliced cold cuts. I’m not a bologna eater so at first I just passed right over that idea.

Then it occurred to me that what works for bologna would work for cheese.

Now when my favorite Tillamook cheese is on sale I buy two- 2 lb. bricks, ask the deli to slice one. Some stores ask that I pay for it first.

At home I shredded the other brick in my food processor and stored it in a zip lock bag I can easily shake out any amount I want.The sliced cheese is separated by 3” squares of tortilla chip bag (cereal box liners would work too) so I can easily pull out as many as I need.

Then I store the cheese in the freezer.

I always have cheese ready if I want a Tuna Melt:A Taco Salad:Chili:or a casseroleI  pay a reasonable price ($2.98/lb.) for my cheese and have NO waste.

I also freeze bleu cheese crumbles, along with shredded swiss and mozzarella.

(I prefer to use the frozen cheese for cooking as the texture changes somewhat and it isn’t as good for non-melted applications)