Homemade food tastes better, is healthier, and is almost always much less expensive to make. Sure, it takes more time to make, but the benefits far outweigh the time spent, in my opinion.
Take a look at some of the packaged foods you eat on a regular basis. If it can be mass produced, it can be made at home. Even specialty recipes can be recreated at home – just Google the food you want and you will probably find a recipe that tastes very close to the real thing.
Crackers, bread, cereal and other baked items are perfect examples of food you can make from home to save a ton of packaging.
Another good idea is to opt for frozen juice concentrates instead of bottled juices – concentrates of any kind will use less packaging and still give the same results.
When you can, choose cardboard packaging over plastic, such as in milk, and buy what you can in bulk. Buying from the bulk bins will also help keep some packaging out of the landfill, but remember that those items in bulk bins had to be packaged at some point too.
As you walk around your pantry, take note of things you can create on your own and start to eliminate packaged foods one by one.