Having recently gone through our pantry (and throwing stuff out! egad!), we decided that we needed to do some rethinking about what we buy. It does not save money to buy things that you don't eat, no matter how much they are on sale.
For instance, we used to buy many different types of cereal based almost solely on what was on sale. But our family of teenagers and adults have developed different tastes. They eat more variety, yogurt, waffles, bagels, toast, eggs, etc. We sat down a wrote down the kind of cereal that gets eaten around here. Wheaties, frosted miniwheats, cheerios, raisin bran, old fashion oats, and cream of wheat. Many of those can be purchased at Aldi's or in store brand. We are revising other things that we buy as well.
Having had to throw out stuff in the past too I'd like to add that you should critically evaluate new recipes as well. While I'm all for trying new things buying a bottle or pack of an ingredient for a new recipe that uses 2 teaspoons is not very frugal if you never use the rest and have to throw it away. You can either substitute with something you have on hand or choose another few recipes that use this ingredient as well. You have a better chance of finding a recipe you like and using up the ingredient rather than it taking up space in your cupboard until its thrown away.
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