Pro tip: Stop buying pre-shredded cheese for budget meals

I keep seeing people post their meal preps with bags of shredded cheese and it drives me nuts. A 2-pound block of cheddar at my local Aldi costs $4.50, but the same amount pre-shredded is almost $7. I noticed this about a month ago when I was comparing prices while stocking up. The pre-shredded stuff also has anti-caking agents that make it not melt as smooth. Takes me maybe 5 minutes to shred a block for the week. Has anyone else done the math on this and switched?

3 comments

3 Comments

hugos461mo ago

drove back to the store mid-cooking" - that's a bit dramatic, don't you think? I mean, sure, pre-shredded cheese isn't perfect for everything, but is it really worth making a whole extra trip for something that's like a minor texture difference? Look, I get the price thing, blocks are cheaper. But is the time and effort of grating a block every week really saving you that much in the long run? Like, if you're already cooking a bunch of meals, five minutes here and there adds up. And half the time people are just dumping it on tacos or nachos where the anti-caking stuff doesn't even matter that much. Not saying blocks are bad or anything, but the whole "it ruined my pizza" thing feels like a stretch. A little grainy cheese isn't going to ruin a meal unless you're some kind of food snob. Some of us just want to get dinner on the table without turning it into a whole project.

jadej501mo ago

Three hours of extra prep on the line every shift taught me that a dull box grater makes you hate your life, so having a sharp one at home changes everything. @hugos46 the real time killer isn't grating, it's digging that crap plastic bag out of the fridge and fighting to open it.

emmam891mo ago

and my buddy dan swore by pre-shredded until he tried to melt it on a homemade pizza and ended up with this grainy, weirdly dry mess... he was so annoyed he actually drove back to the store mid-cooking to grab a block of mozzarella, just so he could shred it himself and save the pizza. he told me later it took him under ten minutes to grate the whole thing, and now he's fully converted, even keeps a cheap box grater in his drawer at work for lunch.