The most common dilemma when it comes to getting in shape and eating better is that healthy food is TOO dang expensive.

Which I can confirm, is quite true unfortunately.

There are many ways to get more bang for your buck though when shopping which we will go over in this blog post.

Plan ahead/meal prep

If you meal prep for the week, that means that you are using the same ingredients for most of your meals. That is LESS ingredients that you need to buy over the course of the week. Less things to buy=more money saved.

This will also make it much easier for you to prep your meals. You can cook everything all at once in batch instead of having to cook a new meal each day (time saver too!).

Not only this, but it may stop your from ordering out when you’re in a pinch. No one wants to cook when they are hangry. I don’t know about you, but I do NOT have the patience for cooking when i’m hungry.

If you don’t like meal prepping (and eating the same meals each day), totally understandable! I like a bit more variety too.

Another great method is simply planning out your meals ahead of time for the upcoming week.

Planning ahead helps to come up with a variety of meals using similar ingredients so that you’re still purchasing less ingredients overall (genius, huh).

When you go to the store, bring a grocery list with ONLY those ingredients (ok and maybe a sensible snack too).

Here is a grocery list of common items I get.

You can hit file -> make a copy to save it in your own Google drive and add and remove items as necessary and print or just keep on your phone as a virtual list.

Make sure to save your leftovers too! It doesn’t hurt to cook multiple servings so you have a meal for the next day. This way we are only eating the same meal twice a week instead of 5-7 like you would with meal prep.

Buy in bulk

Another method which goes hand in hand with meal prepping would be to buy ingredients in bulk. When you buy in bulk, the prices are lower. If you didn’t go to business school, don’t worry. I did. I have a *Master’s Degree* in Business Administration so let me explain to you how this works.

Suppliers PREFER to sell items in bulk for a series of reasons. One being that instead of individually packaging items for single sale, they can put multiple products in 1 package which reduces the overall cost of getting the product to shelf for you. It also requires less distribution which also means more reduced costs. They can THEN sell products in bulk to wholesalers at super discounted rates because the wholesaler buys in large minimum order quantities (MOQ’s). Suppliers are happy to reduce prices of their products to sell to Wholesalers like BJ’s, Costco & Sam’s Club which are basically just giant warehouses for storing bulk products on shelves because that’s less inventory they have on hand, they are still making a profit (at a smaller margin) and they have a loyal customer who keeps coming back to buy their products which means more money for them in the long run. Since wholesalers are able to buy the products at a reduced cost, they can they sell them to consumers at a lower cost and still make a reasonable profit.

If you’re confused, don’t worry. It’s not important. I just went on a little nerd tangent and thought I’d put my degree to use.

ANYWHO, NOT ALL ITEMS ARE BETTER TO BUY IN BULK. When it comes to cost checking, divide the total price by the quantity of products in the package to get price per unit. You may find that sometimes the prices are comparable or even more than you’d find them for in a store for a single unit. This is why it’s best to shop by overall price per unit. If you use Amazon, it generally tells you the price per unit when buying multiple things in one package. I always look at that price compared to the total price.

Buy frozen fruits and vegetables instead

We all know that fresh fruits and vegetables are usually extremely expensive and they go bad QUICK!

It can be a struggle to buy them and use them all before they go bad. A lot of the time we end up throwing away once fresh fruits and veggies before we use them all.

Frozen fruits and veggies get a bad rep for “not being as nutritious” but its been proven in multiple studies that it’s not necessarily true since they are frozen at their peak nutritional value/ripeness stage.

Just make sure to look at what you’re buying. You don’t want anything with added preservatives or sugars, salts, etc.

If you still don’t want to believe it, you can still buy fresh fruits and veggies and freeze them yourself to at least preserve the life.

Another tip is to shop local. Local fruit & veggie markets will have reduced prices opposed to a chain grocery store because the cost of transporting the products to the store is cheaper (less traveling). As we learned above, reduced production costs = reduced prices on shelves.

P.S do not buy pre packaged fruits regularly! They are such a scam and are usually 3x the price for a small serving of fruit opposed to buying the entire fruit and chopping it up yourself.

Discount shop

Everyone loves a good bargain. If your grocery store does BOGO discounts, you may want to take advantage of those sales weekly and stock up! Keep on the look out for weekly flyers.

Many stores also have coupons you can clip, including wholesalers like BJ’s.

Be careful what stores you shop at. Some prices are outrageous compared to another store with the same exact product. For example, Whole Foods is a lot more expensive than Walmart. You may be able to find some of the same products for cheaper at Walmart.

There are various sites and apps you can use such as Flipp, where you can compare weekly flyers and prices for products in your area.

Buy store brands

This may not be a popular opinion, but it is an option.

I personally refuse to buy the store brand for many products BUT they are usually a lot cheaper and most of the time taste similar enough.

If you’re not super picky like I am, opt for the store brand on products to save some do re mi.

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store

Generally, all the healthy stuff is on the outside perimeter of the store. Skip the middle isles to avoid over purchasing items you don’t need UNLESS you’re looking for a specific ingredient. Less is more!

Cook instead of eating out

This may be an obvious one but sometimes people need to hear the obvious.

“There’s food at home” – said every mother ever.

That’s because it’s significantly cheaper to buy and make food instead of eating out at a restaurant or even fast food places regularly.

-Says me, who orders a $7 cup of coffee everyday from Starbucks.

Conclusion

Eating healthy is a very important part of not only getting into shape, but living a long life! We need healthy foods for our skin and organs to function properly, to reduce risk of disease, support our immune systems, bones, muscles and much more.

Don’t skimp out on the healthy food selection because it is too expensive. You can work it into your budget. Remember HEALTH IS YOUR WEALTH!

Until next time,

Coach Emily