Sunny Anderson's Advice For Buying Pantry Staples

Being an industry-known face and name in the world of food, Sunny Anderson has a few secrets to spill when it comes to grocery shopping. Whether you're a broke college student or just want to save some extra money every week, listen up.

The "Cooking for Real," host recommends creating a budget with several staple pantry items that you can buy for cheap prices. These include pasta and grains, which you can store for a long time, and canned beans and legumes. Not only will these items last you a while, but they are also quick to prepare if you are short on time. 

According to Insider, she adds that boil-in-a-bag rice and boxed mashed potatoes are affordable products that come in handy when you're in a pinch. Oatmeal is also an essential of Anderson's, as it is a great "blank palette" that she can easily customize with maple syrup, raisins, and brown sugar.

Anderson stresses the importance of using cheaper ingredients to elevate your dishes. She recommends buying fresh herbs, which usually come at a low price at most supermarkets. As we know, the Food Network star is a big fan of using herbs to add lots of flavor to her recipes, as seen in her Herb-Crusted Roast Beef with Horseradish Cream dish (via Food Network). On the other hand, with a very small price difference between flavor enhancers, like real vanilla extract and imitation extract, Anderson says it's just fine to pay a few cents more on the real deal.

However, she noted that a lot of people frequently prefer doing all of their shopping in one place, without checking out competing stores that may have lower prices. Maybe you can go to Whole Foods to pick up some of your necessary specialty products, but do you really need to go there for frozen veggies? We didn't think so. Doing these little things can greatly minimize your grocery bill.