Frugal hacks to help you get the most out of your smoothies and your grocery budget. Includes tips on freezing produce (oranges, anyone?), which vegetables go well in smoothies, and more.

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For years, smoothies were a luxury in our home. Drinking a green smoothie for breakfast was expensive for our tiny budget. As a result, I got really good at making smoothies on a dime. Whether you’re trying to eat healthier or save money, I’ve got you covered today. Here is my ultimate guide for green smoothies and protein shakes.

How to Make a Delicious Smoothie Every Time

Obviously, everyone’s smoothie taste varies. If you like following a recipe, Green Thickies is a great resource. However, I’m the type who follows a loose formula rather than a recipe. Following the formula helps me save money by using what we have. Here is my signature Smoothie Formula.

The Best Green Smoothie Formula (1:1:2)

The formula for green smoothies is very simple. It makes your vegetables taste like fruit! And you can adapt it to any size blender.

Just remember 1:1:2 – one part greens, one part fruit, and two parts liquid.

1. Fill half of the blender with smoothie-friendly vegetables – usually greens like spinach, kale, or spring mix (see my full list below)
2. Fill the other half with fruit, leaving a healthy 1-inch gap at the top of the blender – My favorite fruit for smoothies is bananas and berries. But you can substitute the berries for a combination of peaches, pineapple, and mango. Don’t substitute the banana unless you are using a flavored protein powder. Bananas provide most of the sweetness and creamy texture for a good smoothie.
3. Next, fill the blender with liquid (usually milk) until it covers the fruit.

Then add any additional ingredients, like protein powder, flaxseed, etc. Blend, blend, blend. Pour your smoothie into a glass Mason jar, because if you’re drinking a green smoothie, you might as well go embrace your inner hippy.

The Best Fruit Smoothie Formula (1:1)

All-fruit smoothies are simple. Remember – one part fruit and one part liquid.

1. Fill half of the blender with frozen banana and the other half with berries or frozen fruit blends. Don’t substitute the banana unless you are using a flavored protein powder. Bananas provide most of the sweetness and creamy texture for a good smoothie.
2. Next, fill the blender with liquid (usually milk) until it covers the fruit.

Then add any additional ingredients, like protein powder, flaxseed, etc. Blend, and enjoy.

How to Make a Protein Shake

The classic protein shake is simply protein powder, a banana, ice, and milk. Blend it all together, and you’re done. However, if you are trying to save money and eat healthy, you can get creative.

You can add protein to your smoothie in a variety of ways.

1. A scoop of Protein Powder – I personally like this brand of flavored vanilla protein powder and this brand of unflavored protein powder.
2. Greek Yogurt – Plain greek yogurt is great in smoothies because the fruit flavors it for you and adds a nice tang to the smoothie. Plus you get the added benefits of probiotics.
3. Cottage Cheese – Creamy and delicious, cottage cheese is inexpensive and high in protein. It bends well in a smoothie and adds a luxurious creaminess without changing the flavor.
4. Hemp Seeds – Shelled Hemp Hearts are a fantastic vegan source of protein.
5. Flax Seeds – Delicious and fairly inexpensive, flax seeds add extra protein and fiber to your smoothies.

How to Find a Good Smoothie Blender

We used a cheap blender for years, and it worked fine. However, when we added nuts and greens, we wound up chewing our smoothies. Gross.

When I want to chew my food, I make a salad. Or basically anything besides a smoothie.

So if you prefer all-fruit smoothies without adding seeds or nuts to it, a cheap blender will work for you.

If however, you want to make green smoothies or add seeds and nuts and get a really smooth, creamy texture, you will need to upgrade your blender.

For us, even though we have always lived on a budget, this was an easy upgrade because we love smoothies. For years, Chris made one every morning before work. My kids love homemade popsicles (Which are just our smoothies poured into a popsicle mold!). For a few years, green smoothies were the only way I could get veggies into one of my kids.

Our blender has more than paid for itself.

My Favorite Blenders for Smoothies:

• Vitamix – this is a classic high-powder blender. I’ve had one for years, and it’s perfect if you’re make smoothies for multiple people
• Ninja – I know several people who use this and swear by it. I’ve never owned one, but I believe they are a solid choice if you don’t want to invest in a vitamix
• Nutribullet – A personal-size, high-powered blender, it’s perfect for blending nuts, vegetables, and seeds. Because it’s personal-size, you can customize each smoothie, and it’s easy to clean.

The Nutribullet Pro is my very favorite out of all of these. We use it daily, and its small size is really convenient.

The Best Vegetables to Add to Smoothies

Here’s a quick list of the best vegetables to add to smoothies:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Swiss chard
• Beet greens
• Spring mix (yes, really!)
• Broccoli – preferably frozen
• Zucchini or summer squash

Budget-Friendly Tips for Adding Vegetables to Greens Smoothies:

Quality fruits and vegetables get expensive, especially when you add them to smoothies multiple times a week. Here are some of my favorite ways to save money on greens.

• Buy frozen – Here is where a great blender helps you save money. Frozen spinach generally cost less than fresh, and a good blender purees them no problem.

• Freeze your own – If I have a bag of fresh spinach or kale that we need to eat but I didn’t make plans for it, I toss it in the freezer. No need to prepare it in any way – simply close the bag to limit the amount of air that can get in.
• Buy a lot when it’s on sale or in season – Now that you know you can freeze it all, you can get the best price possible and keep it for months.
• Spinach and kale aren’t the only vegetables you can blend into smoothies – You can use swiss chard, beet greens, zucchini (like the core from making zoodles), summer squash, frozen broccoli, and avocado.
• Cucumber leftovers – If you want to go really frugal, check this. Sometimes I freeze cucumber peels and add a few to smoothies. Only 1-2, so it doesn’t monkey with the taste. Cucumber smoothies taste good, but I recommend you use a specific cucumber smoothie recipe. I just add a few peels to my regular banana and berry combinations
• Squash seeds – When you scoop out the seeds to roast a winter squash (butternut, acorn, pumpkin, spaghetti, etc.), try flash freezing them on a baking sheet, then break them into chunks and store them in a freezer bag. Another frugal way to add more plants to your diet, and it only takes 5 minutes.

The Best Fruit to Add to Smoothies

Here’s a quick list of the best fruit to add to smoothies:

• Bananas
• Blueberres
• Strawberries
• Mixed berries
• Mango
• Pineapple

Generally speaking, you always need to add a banana to your smoothie. It adds a lot of the sweetness and creaminess that we love in smoothies. However, I’ve found that if I use vanilla-flavored protein powder, it adds enough sweetness and creaminess that I can skip the banana.

Money Saving Tips for Fruit for Smoothies

Here are some of my favorite ways to save money on fruit for smoothies.

• Buy a lot when it’s on sale or in season – Flash freezing is my friend. When bananas go on sale because they’re overripe, I buy all of them. When we pick strawberries, I don’t bother taking off the green tops (more green, right?). I simply wash, flash freeze, and store in a freezer bag.
• Pick local – On our area, picking local, unsprayed berries is less expensive than frozen organic berries. You can find a Pick-Your-Own farm near you here.
• Price shop – Generally speaking, I find the best prices on bananas and berries at Aldi, Costco, and Trader Joe’s.
• Orange juice concentrate – Let’s be honest. Orange juice likely isn’t even actual oranges (go watch that video – it’s hysterical), so why pay for expensive bottled juice when we can just use concentrate? I prefer the taste of bottled when I drink it straight. But in a smoothie, it really doesn’t matter. To save money, I buy a can of concentrate, open it, then reseal it and leave it in the freezer. When I make a smoothie I simply scoop a teaspoon of concentrate out of the can and toss it in with the fruit or liquid. No one can “accidentally” drink it, and a $1 can of concentrate lasts for weeks.
• If you want real oranges – Snatch them up when they’re on sale and flash freeze them. Simply peel, chop, and freeze on a baking sheet until hard. Store in a freezer bag and toss a few pieces into your smoothie.

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What Kind of Liquid Should I use in Smoothies?

This is perhaps the most flexible and cost-saving area. I’ve used all these ingredients in smoothies with great success. Each has its own unique flavor, so find one that works for you.

• Vanilla or fruit-flavored yogurt (contains more sugar than other options) and water
• Greek yogurt and water
• Homemade yogurt (very inexpensive)
• Cottage cheese and water
• Milk
• Almond milk
• Coconut milk
• Cashew milk
• If you have a high powered blender, try using just a tablespoon of raw nuts and water. It will make a sort of nut milk while you blend. I use this method because it’s extremely frugal!

Budget-Friendly Smoothie Extras

People love adding fun things to their smoothies. I’m no exception, although I try to keep it frugal. The cost of powders, nuts, and seeds adds up quickly. Here are a few of the most inexpensive additions we use:

• Leftover oatmeal – Seriously. Assuming you didn’t add anything like cinnamon and raisins that will create a strange flavor, leftover oatmeal tastes great in a smoothie! It’s creamy, easy to blend, and can keep you full longer.
• Raw oats – You could also soak them in some yogurt overnight and add them to the smoothie.
• Beans (garbanzo/chickpeas or great northern beans) – Sounds crazy, but these mildly-flavored beans also add a creamy texture and more bulk to your smoothie. If you use vanilla or fruit-flavored yogurt, you probably don’t need to add any additional sweetener. Otherwise, I would add a drizzle of honey or extra fruit.
• Flaxseed – buying whole seeds is cheaper than ground flaxseed meal, and freshly ground flax is better for you than stale!

A few slightly more expensive additions we like:

• Quinoa – rinsed (important!), then cooked in water or milk
• Hemp hearts
• Chia seeds
• Nut butter – Almond and cashew are my favorite. With the Nutribullet, I can toss a few roasted nuts in the blender, and they turn into nut butter as I blend.
• Collagen powder
• Protein powder – I don’t love protein powder, but we use Vega or Orgain right now. It’s delicious!

Smoothie Lids & Straws

We’ve received a lot of questions about the lids with straws that screw onto our Mason jars (they show up all the time on Instagram and Facebook Stories).

For years, we used whatever we had – cups, mugs, etc. A cup is a cup, my friend. When we started drinking smoothies more regularly, we bought a few reusable straws to make them more kid-friendly (read: less-spillable).

Then we found sturdy screw-on lids with straws for glass canning jars. These are amazing, convenient (read: even less-spillable), and you can use any size wide-mouth jar – a pint or quart jar. They also come in a small mouth size.

You don’t need these lids to make good smoothies, but they do give you extra hipster points.

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