For the past little while I've been buying already cut up fruit from the grocery store because I knew I wouldn't eat anything that wasn't just ready for me to eat. Well this worked, but it was extremely painful on my bank account.

So tonight, I went crazy and bought a Musk Melon for $0.99. Not only did it produce atleast four times more melon for the price then already cut up food, but I found that I really enjoyed cutting up the melon. I really enjoyed the process, and now I have my grab and go food.

Not to mention being able to cut it up myself made me really crave it, and it's good to crave healthy foods.

Are there any other benefits to doing it yourself?

Well, processed foods are much more likely to have added preservatives (especially things like cut up fruit) which you can avoid by doing it yourself.

You mentioned the cost, that's a big one. And, also, for anyone who cares about the environment - packaging. It uses up a lot more paper products, plastic, etc. to package precut/processed foods.

There's also the whole mentality of it... The thing that makes a lot of people fat is the "convenience" mindset(easy, fast foods, already done for you, etc). Breaking down and deciding to do it yourself can help people get out of that mentality.

The list is endless, really, but those are the first things that I thought of.

the produce section of the grocery store often has pre-cut up veggies and fruits for convenience - I've long suspected that the fruits and veggies that are cut up are those bits and pieces of product that are bruised, damaged or otherwise starting to go bad, and would have to be tossed -so to increaase the store's profit margin, they salvage the good part and sell it at a premium cost.

So buying the whole fruit you're getting much better quality..