When I stopped buying plastic to go green, I ended up slicing my grocery bill in half

I've found everything from peanut butter to olive oil available (and cheaper) in the bulk section.

One of my latest examples: Organic cocoa powder was $3 for about half a pound, where even the Hershey version retails for around $5 for the same amount.

This week, I needed garam masala and turmeric for a recipe. The packaged spices would have cost me well over $12 for both. Instead, I brought my own containers and filled them for less than $6.

Individual five-pound bags of flour go for as much as $6 per bag. I opted for a lower-waste option and bought a 25-pound bag at Costco for about $8 — saving on more than individual packaging.

How much do you think you're paying for the actual oats, and how much for packaging?

Instead of buying individually wrapped cheese sticks, I buy blocks of cheese, then cut and stash them in the refrigerator for easy snacking. My block was about $3.75 and made around 24 cheese sticks. Buying 24 pre-packaged cheese sticks would be $10 or more.

Packaged snacks are out of my routine, too. A $2 pound of popcorn kernels from the bulk section will make months of popcorn for less than the price of one bag of pre-popped popcorn or a box of microwaveable popcorn bags. Popcorn is an easy, no-package snack and easily costs pennies per batch.

Bread loaves are ridiculously easy to make, too. In addition to that flour I mentioned above, I bought yeast for about $4 in bulk. Other ingredients commonly needed are oil and sugar, which are also available in bulk. Then, all you need to do is mix, knead, let it rise and bake. I make several batches at a time and freeze extra dough before the second rise. Then, all I have to do any time I want fresh bread is pull it out of the freezer and let it defrost and rise.

Compare that to the $2 a loaf generally costs, and it's a pretty significant savings.

If the thought of having fresh-baked bread at the ready isn't enough, perhaps the fact that packaged bread commonly contains palm oil — a major cause of deforestation — will entice you to pull out your baker's cap.

They haven't paid off yet, but these adorable dryer balls from Amazon are also way cuter than a bunch of dryer sheets.

When I realized how much I was paying for packages I'd just end up tossing, I was astonished. I'm a bargain hunter, and while I also often buy store brand items and look for sales, I'd been missing out on the best deals all along.

While I'm far from truly being "zero-waste," shopping this way for even a month has completely changed the way I think about buying things in a store. It's not only halved my grocery budget, but it's also shown me just how much I used to spend on single-use packaging.

Find me in the bulk section from now on. I don't think I'll be buying much in packages ever again.