Ginger Economics

So, last night, I set out to make a couple pumpkin pies, and in the middle of it all discovered I had run out of ginger. The spices are SO important to this recipe, I simply had to drop what I was doing and run to the grocers.

I am so glad I read this post about spices: Why Spices Are a Complete Rip-Off and What You Can Do About It: The Spice Series Part 1 over on the Casual Kitchen. It's too close to the end of the month for me, and my wallet is very skinny! I am lucky because the closest grocery is one that is geared towards the Hispanic population. So, therefore, a bigger selection of spices like these. If you don't speak Spanish, you will have to be familiar with what the spice looks like. Instead of having to shell out $3.56 for a small bottle (0.8 oz.) of McCormick's ginger, I found El Guapo's pouch, 1/2 oz. for the awesome price of 79 cents!!! After scanning this pic, I opened it and sniffed. Smelled just like McCormick's ground ginger! Tasted some of the pie, and NO DIFFERENCE.

Check out the above article, and Part 2. It saved me quite a bit.