Make your own salsa

You really should.

D and I eat a lot of chips and salsa. Like, a real lot. And I am constantly trying to find ways to make things cheaper/making things myself. I once briefly worked in a restaurant that made their own fresh salsa and squirreled away their recipe for use in my daily life. It's totally easy. You can do it too.

All you need is:

Vinegar (regular white, though apple cider might work too.)

Tomatoes (fresh, canned, whole, diced, whole, whatever.)

Cilantro

Jalapeno (or two if you like it spicy)

Garlic

Onions

Spices

And a blender.

We use Spike brand spices because that is what they used in the restaurant I worked in. Also, Spike has like a 37 ingredient list on the back, all of which are amazing, and none of which I have in my every day spice cabinet. Plus, it tastes awesome.

We usually make an entire blender full. We use one bunch of cilantro, two smallish white onions, four or five cloves of garlic (because we like it!), one seeded jalapeno (because I don't like it), two small cans of whole tomatoes, and one large can of diced tomatoes (this ratio changes depending on what we have/remember to buy), a healthy dollop of vinegar, and a nice big sprinkle of Spike. Ta-da! Salsa! Then we freeze half of it to be eaten later (usually later this week, if we're honest).

I was trying to calculate how much this costs us, but I'm not very good at this whole "math" stuff. Jalapeno, 3 cents. Cilantro, 24 cents. Cans of tomatoes, buck fifty. Onions . . . a dollar? Garlic, nothing? A couple of cents? How much does a garlic clove cost? Spike is pricey, about 4 dollars, but you're only using a little at a time, so it doesn't really effect the thriftiness of this recipe. I'm going to say under $3. And it makes a ton. Plus, its super good.