People often tell me that they can’t afford to eat whole, natural foods.

Telling them that they will save that money back in the form of fewer medical bills and prescription medications isn’t always enough to convince them. So, I’ve gathered up a few of my favorite ways to make my food budget go further to inspire you to save both your money and your health.

It does not have to cost you a fortune to create healthy meals for your family. You just have to know some of my tricks and tips for saving money on healthy food.

Believe me, if you put these tips into practice you will see a BIG savings! Just start simple, pick your favorites from my list and take it slow. As you master your new skills, add in more. In time you will be a savvy shopper and chef. Along with the financial savings, you will also find my tips to be time savers too! Who couldn’t use more time and money?!

Eating Healthy on a Budget: 10 Tips for Saving Money on Healthy Food

10. Make a weekly menu plan ➜ Having a plan almost always saves time, but in this case, it saves money too. Plan recipes that call for similar ingredients, preferably ones that are in-season. This saves waste and makes it easier to buy in bulk without worrying about having the extra food going bad. If you need help planning a weeks worth of meals ahead of time, I love THIS meal prep service. They teach you how to prep an entire weeks worth of meals in under one hour! Honestly, this one is KEY. They save you, on average, $600 per year!!!

9. Shop the sales ➜ Just like buying anything from back-to-school clothes to a new washing machine, watch the ads that your local natural food store puts out. Use the sales listed in the weekly ad to help plan your weekly menu to get the most bang for your buck. Menu plan as you look through the weekly flyer!

8. Batch cook ➜ Cooking up extra helpings not only saves money, but your time and health. It’s a time saver because you are already making it, so making up more to put in the freezer means not having to cook another night. It saves money because it reduces the need to keep convenience foods, which are much more expensive than homemade, and saves your health since you won’t be tempted to pick up take-out when you haven’t had time to cook. I batch cook most of our meals and either freeze them in glass containers like these, or I vacuum seal them using this handy tool.

7. Use coupons ➜ Yes, even whole food brands have coupons available. Do an online search for brands you use a lot. Sign up for their free email offers and follow them on social media to grab coupons and enter giveaways. When I want to find sale items, I search the name of the item along with “coupon code”. You will be amazed at how many you find!

6. Reuse “waste” ➜ This isn’t as gross as it sounds. Our grandparents grew up doing things like saving meat bones to make homemade bone broth and bacon grease for future cooking. Have some veg that’s looking a little limp? Rather than pitching it, add it to tonight’s casserole or soup. You can even freeze the ends and pieces of vegetables that you have cut up to save for flavoring future batches of soup! Once you start paying attention, it’s hard to believe how much food waste we typically have.

5. Buy in bulk ➜ Less packaging means less manufacturing costs, which saves the company and you money.

4. Shop at ethnic grocery stores ➜ Many ethnic groceries offer a range of whole foods that are staples in their country, even though they aren’t in ours. If you have to drive to a city to get to these shops, stock up while you are there and then freeze what you don’t plan on using immediately.

3. Buy in season ➜ Ever noticed how cheap strawberries are in June verses in September? Fruits and vegetables that are in season are always more reasonably priced. If you don’t want to buy berries, for example, at premium prices in the winter, buy a large amount in the summer and freeze them in smaller packages to use all winter long. Again, I make easy work of freezing berries by using this handy tool.

2. Keep an inventory ➜ Take stock of what you have in your pantry, fridge and freezer and keep the lists hanging up where you can easily refer to them before shopping. This will save waste, since foods tend to get pushed to the back and then thrown away once they are finally “unearthed.” You can even put a white board on your deep freeze to keep track of whats inside and how long its been there!

1. Shop online ➜ This is my not-so-secret method of saving big bucks and still providing my family with only the best quality whole foods. Ready? Thrive Market. Why do I love Thrive? So many reasons, including the fact that I save up to 50% over shopping retail! It’s like Costco meets Amazon Prime. Wholesale prices shipped to your door for free!

These huge savings are possible because Thrive is a membership community that uses the power of direct buying to deliver the world’s best healthy food and natural products to their members at wholesale prices. You can get a free trial HERE, to see how much you can save with just this change in your buying habits! Thrive is my number one tip for a reason! I truly believe this company is changing the way we eat. It makes healthy food accessible. Plus, you can do it from the convenience of your couch, ordering online in your yoga pants. I do it!

What are YOUR best money saving tips when it comes to eating healthy food? I would love to hear about them in the comments below! I always love learning new tips and tricks! 

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