Frugal high quality spices $0.99 each

[VirginiaBob]

Was at the Save-a-lot this morning and I realized how inexpensive their spices are.   Ground cloves, whole cloves, ground ginger, whole cinnamon sticks, whole bay leaves, etc.  For comparison sake, the ground cloves were 5.98 at Walmart.   

[Gone Fishing]

Good to know.  I've bought a few things there but tend to stick to ALDI as their prices seem better on the whole.  Aldi's spice selection is a bit limited though.  I used to buy bulk spices at a local chain, but their prices have gone up significantly.  If business takes us to Atlanta we try to make a run and stock up at the international market.   

[RunningWithScissors]

There's a large east Indian community where I live and the ethic supermarkets are incredible:  great variety of produce and spices for low prices.  Plus, I always buy one thing that I have no idea what it is just to expand my culinary horizons.  Mango lime pickle = great...durian = not so great.  And the Indian sweets are fabulous!  Mmmm..

[NCGal]

I just discovered a large Asian supermarket with good prices, especially for spices in bags, but I`ve noticed the deals at the dollar store too. Here`s a tip if your supermarket had an ethnic section. The Food Lion chain I go to sells a spice brand called Badia. I buy the dill weed which is $2-something, compared to McCormick which is over $5 for a similar size.

[RootofGood]

Good tips so far.  We gave up the crappy $6/tiny bottle stuff years ago.  Ethnic stores sell the same quantity (a few ounces) for $.99, often in a bag.  Or you can buy huge quantities of it, like a quart IIRC (32 oz IIRC) of black pepper or garlic powder for $6-7.  We also buy bulk curries at the asian store.  $6 or so for a tub of ~2.3 lb of green, yellow, red, or massaman curry.  It keeps years in the fridge (last stuff we kept 1 yr past expiration date without adverse effects). 

Walmart and Aldi are also great for most of the common spices.  They sell fairly large containers (usually 2-5 oz) for $0.88 or $0.99 respectively and there's probably 12-15 different spices available. 

Amazon and ebay also sell bulk spices.  We paid $9 for a pound of fennel seeds because they were $6.50 for a 2 oz bottle at the grocery store and I figured I might use more than a 2 oz bottle before they go bad.  I wish I had a "spice buddy" to share these hauls...  :)

Anyone have good tips for buying Indian curries like butter chicken curry in bulk?  Do the Indian stores sell big containers?  Right now we usually buy from Amazon and pay $1.59 or so for enough curry paste for 1 lb of meat (Kitchens of India brand for the curious).  Might be worth a 15 minute drive across town to the Indian "ghetto" to try to find better or cheaper options.  :) 

[Lian]

Wish I knew this a couple months ago! I recently replenished several things in my store of spices, and was kind of shocked at how expensive some of them had gotten. I googled Sav-a-lot, and there are a couple in my city. I'll know next time. Thanks for the tip!