Money Saving Tips for Buying High Quality Foods
Growing up the Sunday newspaper was my mom’s highlight of the day. It held the secrets to saving money on your groceries.
I remember the pile of discarded coupon trimmings, ink-stained hands and my mom’s little brown canvas, coupon organizer with dividers for every section in the grocery store, she kept in her purse.
Now adays with digital coupons, the cost of newspapers, eliminating excess paper use, and each store having their own ‘perks’ for shopping, it makes my head hurt thinking about it. And lets be honest, it’s not common the foods my family chooses to eat are on sale, so I just don’t bother putting all the work into clipping coupons.
So, here are my tips to save money on high quality groceries.
Use what you have first… I know, the whole point is your trying to replace the foods you currently eat with better options. But if you completely purge your fridge and pantry then try to replace everything at once, you’re going to get discouraged very quickly. Take. It. Slow.
Understand portion sizes and limit how often you each certain food. This works well with kids’ lunches and snack options.
Tip: Create a weekly lunch menu. This will allow you to designate what’s eaten throughout the week and portion it out to last.
Tip: I cut the portion size of our favorite almond crackers in half because a whole portion size is a lot to consume for lunch and gets wasted and restrict granola bars and other high-quality snacks to 1 per day or even 1 per week.
Tip: We don’t include sweet snacks in lunches. Here are some examples of the kids lunches.
Meal plan for the week and include a night for leftovers. This will prevent waste and save you a night from cooking.
Buy in Bulk when things are on sale and stock up (pantry and freezer items). Like with mayo, ketchup and other pantry items. Cheese and lunch meats freeze well.
Tip: Invest in a small (or large) chest freezer – it’s worth it!!
Buy in bulk from your local farmer. You can save up to 20% from your local pasture-raised meat farmer (hint, hint… click here to shop our ‘Buy more, Save more. Bulk & Bundles’).
Try using Thrive or Misfit Markets to find organic foods at a cheaper price. We use Misfits throughout the winter for our organic fruits and veggies.
Buy in season (or start your own garden) and learn to can, preserve and freeze your foods. Buying in season from your local farmer gives you the best quality product at that moment. Learning to can and preserve your food gives you a sense of superpowers when your elbow deep (literally) in providing food for your family.
Tip: Buy the chest freezer!
Skip the little cute containers of yogurt or prepacked cheese/meat containers. You’ll save money buying the quart size container of yogurt and portioning it out yourself. Buy blocks of cheese and cube or shred it yourself (cheese freezes well).
Pay attention to prices if you shop multiple stores. I’ve found by making quarterly trips to Whole Foods, I can stock up on certain items cheaper than my local stores.
Tip: Whole Foods 365 brand, almond flour tortillas (found in the produce section) are $3 cheaper per pack than the name brand ones at my local Kroger.
After 5 years of learning to shop for high quality foods for my family, it can be hard knowing where to start when trying to swap out foods. The information above has really helped me stay in budget and still provide foods I’m proud to feed my family.
I know you will to if you put them to use.
My heart and prayers are with you on this journey my friend.
Let us help by providing your family the best pasture-raised meats around. Shop our online store to see all the products we carry.
-Gina
Through transparency and regenerative farming practices we steward God's creation so the meat we raise for you is better for your body, provides a better life for the animal and a better future for your children and our land.