How to Save Money on Awesome, Healthy Groceries

Saving money on food doesn’t have to mean settling for low quality meals full of harmful additives. 

The key to saving money on groceries, and still eating healthy, is to replace convenience foods with those which you cook for yourself. “Healthy” convenience foods tend to be even more overpriced than the traditional versions. The savings you reap by cooking will be large enough to buy quality ingredients, while spending less money on food. 

Cooking doesn’t have to be fussy. What you see on food shows and social media is not created to teach you; it’s designed to keep you enviously watching.  Read on for ideas from a real mom, which will put healthy food on the table and leave more money in your wallet. 

Table of Contents

• Fewer Convenience Foods Equals Greater Savings
• Cooking from Scratch: like Diamonds in the Rough
• Multivitamins: an easy way to make your food healthier
  • Is Food as Nutritious as in the Past?
• Cut Back on Added Sugar and Salt: how less can be more
  • Reducing Sugar in your Cooking
• Herbal Tea Money-Savers: healthy hydration
• Trader Joe’s: great for those little luxuries
• Guess Who Else Sells Organics?
  • Suggested Stores for Healthy Options
• When are Organic Vegetables Worth the High Price Tag?
• Resources for Further Exploration 

Fewer Convenience Foods Equals Greater Savings

Convenience foods tend to be less healthy and more expensive than those you prepare yourself; so buying fewer convenience foods is a simple way to save money, while eating healthier foods.  

What about “healthy” versions of convenience foods?  Those aren’t always that healthy, either; and they always cost more (and contain less product) than the regular kind.

Some of the convenience foods you love can be stretched out with healthier ingredients.  This makes them serve more people for less, with healthier results.  Stretch your favorite brand of spaghetti sauce by adding a 28 oz. can of tomato puree to it.  A box of mac and cheese serves more if you add a handful of macaroni to what’s in the box, and a little cheese from the fridge.

Cooking from Scratch: like Diamonds in the Rough

You’ll save a lot more money and eat healthier by doing more of your own cooking from scratch.  

For example, my infographic (below ) illustrates incredible savings from simply making pancakes, instead of buying them…and this is just with one food. You don’t necessarily need to make every food from scratch; just imagine multiplying your savings by applying this concept to just a handful of favorite foods. 

Multivitamins: an easy way to make your food healthier

Did you know that taking a multivitamin will automatically make the foods you are already eating more nutritious?  The reason for this is: some nutrients need certain other nutrients, or your body can’t absorb them. For example, Vitamin D needs Vitamin A. The newsletter from the Natural Health 365 Store explains it best:

“Vitamin A and vitamin D are cofactors that help your genetic code.  In other words, without enough vitamin A, vitamin D cannot do its job efficiently.”

Natural Health 365

Taking a vitamin does not replace healthy food, of course, but it is a good use of your money.  Food, in general, is not as nutritious as in the past; so taking a daily vitamin is a good investment in your health. 

Is Food as Nutritious as in the Past?

An article in Scientific American discusses this trend, citing a study conducted by Donald Davis of the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry:

“The main culprit in this disturbing nutritional trend is soil depletion: modern intensive agricultural methods have stripped increasing amounts of nutrients from the soil in which the food we eat grows.”

Donald Davis, Soil Expert

As I said, while taking a daily vitamin doesn’t excuse you from getting your vegetables; it does make it easier to take a hard pass on turning over your paycheck to Wholefoods.

It’s taken a while, but I finally have every member of my family taking their vitamins.  Each realized that, when he does, he catches fewer illnesses, and feels more energetic and happy.  In other words, they got sick and tired of feeling sick and tired!

Cut Back on Added Sugar and Salt: how less can be more

This will automatically make everything you eat healthier, and it costs nothing!   Simply add less salt and sugar than your recipe calls for.  You can start by making sure that you “level off” all of your measurements when you cook (in case you’ve never done that, it means after you scoop up a spoonful or a cupful of an ingredient, run a flat blade – or even your finger – across the top, so that you have a level measurement).

You can often cut the stated amount of salt and sugar in half, and the food still tastes fine.  A notable exception to this is the amount of sugar called for in a baking recipe.  Sugar often is a key ingredient in achieving the desired texture in pies, cookies, breads, muffins, and cakes.  Domino Foods’ website explains it better:

     In addition to providing sweetness, sugar adds flavor, bulk, and structure. In cakes without shortening, sugar helps delay egg coagulation and allows a cake to ‘set’ properly.  It also retains moisture in baked goods. And, as it’s heated above its melting point, it caramelizes and takes on an amber color with a wonderful aroma and flavor….Sugar reacts chemically with proteins during baking and browns the food surface. Higher sugar content in baked goods results in a darker brown surface.”

Domino Foods

Reducing Sugar in your Cooking

Even in baking, though, some recipes are much too sugary…but, of course, you’ll find little guidance for this from Domino Foods (as a leading sugar producer), so I will leave a link below to the King Arthur Flour website.  I find their recipes often call for too much sugar, as well; but if you scroll down to the users’ comments under the recipes, you will find the specifics on how they successfully reduced the sugar, and the fat, as well.

Don’t try to cut salt and sugar back all at once, or you’ll soon abandon your efforts.  You’ll get a lot of complaints from your family, too, that things don’t taste right.  Reduce it very gradually, over several months, or even a year, and they won’t even notice.

Herbal Tea Money-Savers: healthy hydration

I adore tea of all kinds, and I have three ways of keeping my habit affordable:

Trader Joe’s: great for those little luxuries

No, this is not a paid endorsement!  I just happen to like Trader Joe’s.  They have healthier versions of everything, and they try to keep their prices lower than competing healthy products.  

Restaurants watch Trader Joe’s new products (and vice-versa) for cues in developing trend-setting, new menu items.  As a result, Trader Joe’s can satisfy the craving for healthy take-out, but at a lower price point.

Their prices for milk and eggs tend to be very good.  It’s also a good place to pick up those multivitamins we were just talking about. Be careful of their milk, though – It never seems to keep as long as it should; probably due to the open refrigerator case they use.

Guess Who Else Sells Organics?

You may be surprised to find that your local big-box store has some darned good healthy foods at bargain prices.  How is it that healthy foods are finding their way to our more afforadble stores?  It’s because shoppers are clamoring for them!  According to the University of Florida, 

“Sales of organic products in the United States have been increasing, and economists project that this trend will continue to increase. To secure a position in the organic food market, producers must find ways to innovate and deliver quality products.”

In other words, what used to be a niche market has expanded to the mainstream, much to our benefit. 

Suggested Stores for Healthy Options

I get my yeast and King Arthur Flour at BJ’s, so I can make premium bread at great prices.  I also get coconut oil, organic honey, and natural peanut butter there for a good price.  I am not a Costco member, but I hear that they have good healthy offerings, as well.

When WalMart first started having groceries, I was stunned to find that I could pass through multiple aisles filled with all stuff that I would never feed my family.  I’m glad to report that they have been working hard to add healthy foods to every aisle.  They, too, have King Arthur flour, natural sugar, and many other products I use every day.

When are Organic Vegetables Worth the High Price Tag?

Some would answer “always,” but then you’ll have to work your budget around the extra expense.  For the rest of us, a balance of carefully-selected organics mixed among your regular produce purchases can keep you eating healthy.

The EWG (Environmental Working Group) cites fifteen items in your produce aisle that are not all that bad in their non-organic versions:

“Avocados, Sweet corn, Pineapple, Onions, Papaya, Sweet peas (frozen), Eggplant, Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Kiwi, Cauliflower, Mushrooms, Honeydew melon, and Cantaloupe.”

Environmental Working Group

I do find some organic vegetables worth the splurge – The frozen organic fruits and vegetables from BJ’s are very good, and affordably priced.  I can really taste the difference with the peas, mixed vegetables, and strawberries.  

BJ’s also sells organic carrots in the fresh produce aisle, which are much better than the huge, tough, supermarket carrots.  It’s only in the last few years that I’m seeing these huge, cudgel-sized carrots in the store.  My mother used to call lunkers like these “horse carrots!”

Resources for Further Exploration