Everything at the grocery store these days seems pricey, so eating healthy is basically a choice in picking the right foods regardless of cost. If you compare organic carrots to regular ones you won’t really see that much of a cost difference. Thus, there is really no excuse not to make healthier choices when grocery shopping and when eating.
There are many health benefits when it comes to eating a healthy diet, from helping your body recover from addiction to helping avoid certain illnesses, like diabetes. With so many great reasons to eat healthy, it makes sense to take a little time to learn how to shop better and how you can save money while you do it.
Try The Farmer’s Market
Produce isn’t all that cheap, even if you’re not buying organic. One way to save money, at least part of the year, on produce is to shop at local farmer’s markets. You get fresh foods and you are giving money back to your own community and the farmers in that community.
The food at farmer’s markets is most generally in season and you can get it for a lower price than at the grocery store. You also know it’s fresher than the stuff at the local store, unless your grocer works with local farmers for stock in the produce area.
Shop Fresh
If you want to eat healthy your best bet is to shop for fresh foods. That doesn’t mean you need to become a vegan or even a vegetarian, it just means you don’t want to shop in the frozen food section and you want to avoid the center aisles with all the sodium filled boxed foods.
Instead, shop the outer limits of the store. Buy fresh produce, and only enough that you’ll use it before it goes bad and becomes wasteful. Buy fresh meats, and look for lean cuts. Try to shop in bulk when it comes to grains, and always go for whole grains.
Grow Your Own
You can also grow your own vegetable and even fruit at home. It takes a little money to get started, but it can be very rewarding. And, depending on the laws where you live, you could sell the extras you grow, or simply just give them away to friends and family to help them save on their own grocery bills.
You can garden indoors, container garden on a porch (covered or not), or actually till up a part in your yard to garden. Much like farmer’s markets, what you get will depend on the season.
Join A Co-op
Lastly, you can save money on many types of foods by joining a food co-op. These places order large quantities of different food items and divvy them up among members that pay a monthly fee to be part of the co-op. You can find ones that do this with organic only foods as well.