Rodney

Buy dairy in smaller containers; it's more expensive by the ounce than a half-gallon, but not if you're going to throw out or waste most of that larger carton.

Find a good natural food store and buy spices from the bulk bins, and never buy more than you need (at 1/10 the price, too). Buy fresh spice bottles from a kitchen store, wash and reuse as necessary.

-- Edit -- also, natural food stores often carry staples like pasta, beans, cereal, and more in bulk. You can buy as little as you need.

Buy all meat, including lunch meat, from a full-service butcher. You can buy in precise and small quantities. Again, prices may be higher than the average supermarket, but are more than compensated for by lack of wastage.

Buy produce from stores who do _not_ prepackage it. Find stores that sell loose "salad mix" that you can ladle into a plastic bag." You take only what you want. This stuff sells for $4 a pound, but a one-pound bag of that stuff is about the size of a horse's head, and with no leathery leaves or core that nobody wants to eat. Or, buy varieties of lettuce that come in smaller heads.

The funny thing is, high-end, more expensive food stores are more likely to sell food in these ways. But since you really only have to buy what you want, they can actually be _less expensive_ than stores who sell at lower prices but only in bigger bulk -- if you don't really need all that food.