The NUMBER ONE concern I hear when it comes to eating healthier is cost. “It’s SO expensive to eat healthy!”. While it may seem a bit pricier up front, there are several ways to cut down food costs while still eating high quality foods. Here’s 7 tips to help you with your next grocery trip:

1. SHOP THE OUTER SECTIONS OF THE GROCERY STORES. This will include your produce, eggs/dairy, and meat (if you do not buy from the local butcher, which we will discuss in #3). With that, you’re quite literally set. Yes, you may have to do more frequent trips as we all know produce doesn’t last forever, however, with a proper menu plan (see #6), you’ll make the most of your groceries and save good money. Avoid doing the majority of your shopping in the aisles.
2. AVOID BUYING PACKAGED FOODS. I’m not talking about your odd bag of flour to make homemade bread (try and keep it organic if this is the case) or the odd can of corn. I mean the ultra-processed crackers, cookies, ready-made muffins, and granola bars. Not only are these riddled with added ingredients and a ton of sugar, they’re priced at top dollar. The packaged foods that are marketed towards adults or labelled ‘high protein’ are actually not even close to high-protein and you’re paying a huge amount of money for it. Leave these at the grocery store and make your own, it’s much easier than you think.
3. ORDER MEATS FROM YOUR LOCAL BUTCHER. You will often have access to bulk sales, much higher quality meat, and you are supporting local. All wins. BONUS: if you notice you have digestive difficulties, you may find that sourcing your meats from a local butcher vs large chains may help improve this.
4. EAT SEASONAL. Here in Alberta, we aren’t growing watermelons and mangoes in February. Heck, we don’t even grow mangoes here. We are bringing these in from all around the world! These foods travel FAR – that’s why they’re costing you what seems like a portion of your liver. Stick to what you know grows in your area within the season. Which leads me to…
5. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FARMERS’ MARKETS. You’re going to get local, seasonal food. You’re going to get the FRESHEST, most beautiful, local produce. You cannot go wrong. Plus, most of these are outdoors in the summer, so you get to spend some time outside.
6. MENU PREP/MEAL PREP. Making a menu for the week can help you then go do a shopping trip, knowing exactly what you need, and you’ll find yourself buying less ‘random’ things that don’t get used and therefore get tossed. Doing a solid meal prep for the week also helps utilize the food you are buying AND saves you a TON of time throughout the week. Furthermore, for the busy ladies and gents out there, it removes decision making for the week, which is a beautiful break on the brain.
7. STOP EATING OUT. Yep. This is the one no one wants to hear. Your 7$ Starbucks latte adds up… really fast. Even just ONE PER WEEK, in one year, is 364$ (and that’s without adding the tip you feel kind of forced into leaving). You can make your own fancy coffee at home. It’s so much easier than you think. Buying take out for two for ONE NIGHT is easily 70-80$. Eating in a restaurant, for two, will EASILY land you over 100$, especially if you each have an alcoholic beverage. Add kids and/or a tip on there and you’re up over 150$. For one meal. Most, if not ALL meals you can enjoy in restaurants, are simple to look up online and recreate at home. You can almost always make that meal FOR THE WEEK for the 150$ you spent in restaurants. BONUS: you can choose much healthier ingredients, remove inflammatory ingredients, and make exactly everything to your liking.

These 7 tips are the basics to saving hundreds of dollars on your grocery bills. Run out of ideas for your meal prep, or want some fresh ideas for fun family meals? Make sure to check out my Instagram page, which I’ll link below!

https://www.instagram.com/peakholistichealth_/