AMNA NAWAZ: If you have been to the grocery store lately, it's hard to miss.

Consumers are having to eat the cost of higher food bills.

While overall inflation is down after hitting a decades' high last year, grocery prices were still 11.3 percent higher this January compared to the same time in 2022.

To help consumers make the most of their food budget, digital video producer Casey Kuhn decided to put together some tips, including a quiz.

Hi, Casey.

It's good to see.

CASEY KUHN: Hi, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, tell me,why did you decide to do this?

CASEY KUHN: So, to be honest, when I saw my husband bringing home brand-name items from the grocery store, in this economy, I said no.

So, I thought, we have covered inflation and higher food prices, but I really wanted to make something that would be engaging and help our viewers have some news you can use.

And my mom taught me these shopping tips, but I turned to some experts to help.

This video is for people who hate to go grocery shopping, people like my dad, my husband, and my boss.

Grocery shopping is an acquired skill, at least for some.

For others, it's a miserable chore, putting you in competition with other shoppers looking for the ripest avocado.

But it is how we put food on the table.

Beth Moncel started the cooking blog Budget Bytes after the 2008 recession.

BETH MONCEL, Founder, Budget Bytes: I had nothing left that I could cut back other than food, so I started really breaking down the costs of the food that I was cooking and eating.

CASEY KUHN: She has a lot of advice on how to navigate shopping at the grocery store, where prices fluctuate and always seem to be getting higher.

BETH MONCEL: It's a really easy way to save money or manipulate your budget.

It's just based on what you choose to buy and what you choose to cook or not.

AMNA NAWAZ: OK, Casey, so you, along with others on the digital video team, put together this quiz, right?

CASEY KUHN: Right.

Huge shout-out to Jenna Cohen and Megan McGrew, who helped build this quiz from scratch.

AMNA NAWAZ: Shout-out to them.

To be clear, I have already taken this quiz.

I got four out of five right, which kills the perfectionist in me.

But let's kind of go through this.

Now, the premise is, I'm going to make a homemade pizza, I have to buy the ingredients, right?

And the first question is how to pick the base.

CASEY KUHN: Right.

So you have the option of choosing raw pizza dough or a premade crust.

AMNA NAWAZ: OK, and I picked the premade crust, right, the frozen one, which was wrong.

Why?

CASEY KUHN: OK, so that was wrong because it's the more processed option.

And when you're buying something that's more processed, you're paying for that convenience.

And if you buy the raw pizza dough, it's kind of one more step to make it to a crust.

I will say, this was a very divisive question on the Internet.

A lot of people really would prefer to pay more for the convenience, rather than save the money.

AMNA NAWAZ: Which is often the case, right?

OK. Now, on the next question, we want to add the cheese, right?

And I chose the block of cheese, which is correct.

I was thinking I could get more of my money there, right?

But tell me why.

CASEY KUHN: Well, you're exactly right.

Yes, you get more cheese per dollar if you buy the whole block vs. the process shredded cheese, kind of like what we were talking about before.

And kind of a big giveaway for this quiz is, if you look at one item, one thing on the sales tag, the price per ounce, you're always going to get it right, because if it's a lower price per ounce, it's going to be a better deal.

And that's true in the grocery store too.

So that's kind of one big takeaway I'm hoping people have, is, if people start comparing the price per ounces in the grocery store, it's - - it really does make a huge difference.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, even if you pay more, the item is more expensive, you're getting more for your money.

CASEY KUHN: Exactly.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that's the point, right?

CASEY KUHN: Exactly.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's a great quiz.

I hope more folks take it.

Digital video producer Casey Kuhn, thanks to you and your team so much.

CASEY KUHN: Thank you, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: And you can watch the entire video and take the quiz yourself by going to our Web site.

That's PBS.org/NewsHour.