Want to save more money at grocery shopping while eating healthy? Try these 4 creative tips and the free video series below!
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Do you want to save money and eat healthy? I know saving money and eating healthy usually feel like complete opposites. But I want to show you how you can do both at the same time.
In order to save money and eat healthy you have to be willing to try new things, you have to get creative, and you have to find what works for you – not what works for that girl on Instagram, or on that YouTube video or in that blog post. You. You are your most powerful asset for saving money and eating healthy.
So I want to challenge you today with 4 weird but powerful grocery shopping tips. If you’ve never heard of them, I dare you to pick one and do it this week. If you have heard of them, pick the one you haven’t tried yet.
(Psst: Need simple baby steps to saving money and eating healthy at the same time? Join our free classes!)
Grocery Shopping Tip 1: Ignore the Sales
“I couldn’t pass it up because it was on sale.”
How much money have we wasted on items we don’t need – and then end up not using? Just because food is on sale, doesn’t mean it’s a good purchase for us. Maybe it’s perfect for someone, but before you snap up the next hot deal, consider these questions:
- Would I buy it if it wasn’t on sale?
- Do we love this food?
- Does it support our current food goals?
There’s no right or wrong answer here. If you wouldn’t buy chia smoothie pouches at full price but you’ve always wanted to them, go for it! Ask these questions and let them help you discern if this purchase is a good idea right now or not.
2. Use Your Freezer for Grocery Shopping
Let’s say you want to eat more veggies, and you come across a sale on baby greens. Yay! You drop a box into your cart. But next week, they aren’t going to be on sale, and you’ll have to pay full price if you want baby greens in your smoothies or soup.
This is where your freezer can save your grocery budget.
You can freeze baby greens! And bananas! And celery! And tomatoes! And cream cheese! And milk! All kinds of food can go in the freezer. Use it to help you stock up and save money.
3. Take A Grocery Inventory
Before you go to the store, before you meal plan, before you even make your grocery list, take inventory of what you already have in your kitchen. I explained how we do it on Instagram recently.
Here’s a quick rundown:
- Grab a sheet of paper and write down everything in your pantry, freezer, and fridge. All of it. You don’t have to get super detailed, but writing it all down will give you a far better picture of what you have than simply glancing through your food.
- After you create a list of all the food you have, you’ll probably notice that you have the bones of some really good meals. For example, maybe you have some leftover pasta sauce, that markdown box of baby greens, cream cheese, and a box of pasta in the pantry. It sounds like the beginning of an Italian-style dinner! Make a list of meal ideas.
- After you have a list of meal ideas, decide what you need from the grocery store to round out these meals (a side salad, a can of diced tomatoes, some olives, whatever).
- Chances are, you can find a lot of meal ideas with your inventory list. Keep your meal ideas and inventory list handy over the next few weeks and you’ll have most of your meal planning (and grocery shopping!) done!
If you use this method, you will spend far less on your groceries and will start systematically eating through anything stashed in your pantry or freezer.
4. Don’t Shop at the Grocery Store
Did you know that the supermarket is still a fairly new invention? Before grocery stores, people got their food from a variety of sources. Finding local farms and growing your own food isn’t as convenient as we’re used to, but both can save you money, depending on your food goals.
Here are a few ideas I’ve shared in the past:
- How to Eat Grassfed, Pastured Meat on a Small Budget
- 5 Ways to Save Money on Quality Fruits & Vegetables
- How to Grow a Pallet Garden
- My Thoughts on Square-Foot Gardening (So Far)
- Why You Shouldn’t Grow a Garden
What You Can Do Now:
Do you have a unique or creative way you save money grocery shopping? I’d love to hear it!
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