Tips for Saving Big Money on Real Food

One of the top questions I get from friends is how we manage to save money on grocery bills.  Our family eats a completely un-processed, organic and mostly local diet, we also have a super tight budget.  I decided to share some of the tips we’ve learned with all of you!

Tips for Saving BIG money on REAL food– I’m a proponent of shopping locally as much as I can.  However, Costco  helps us save a lot of money and has loads of local products.  The membership is so worth it even if all you buy is their organic salad mixes and olive oil.
-Super Target also is getting a lot more natural and organic items, which you can stack with apps like Cartwheel and Ibotta as well as with coupons.
– If your store doesn’t have what you want, ask them to order it for you.  Even some chain stores will do this for you.  If there’s enough demand then they’ll start carrying it.
– Ask about seconds from the local farmers markets- they’ll often have damaged or less-than-pretty produce for a great deal
– Go towards the end of the market and ask about a sweet deal for buying whatever they have left.  We often have farmers give us things at the end of a market.
– Check Craigslist, a lot of farmers will post deals there.  Never be afraid to ask for a discount or offer a trade.
– http://fallingfruit.org/ is a place where farmers and people w/ produce in their yards will post free you- pick food.  You can also look for a “community food rescue” in your neighborhood
– If there’s a local Weston A Price Foundation group you can go to meetings to connect w/ local producers who will often bring freebies or have awesome deals.
– Start a price book and make note of the best prices you find so you can stock up when something is a great price.
-We put aside $50 a month specifically to bulk buy anything that is a really amazing price.
-We also put $300 a month into an account to save up and be able to pay for our beef and CSA memberships.  This helps us keep our costs WAY down during the rest of the year.
– Treat meat as a side dish and not an entree- most of your plate should be veggies.
– Beans & rice w/ a big green salad is super cheap and healthy.  Just make sure to prepare your beans and rice per the Weston A Price Foundation guidelines to increase digestibility and decrease anti-nutrients
– Tinker w/ substitutions or just leave an ingredient out of a recipe. Keeper of the Home has a great substitution list here
– Look for a discount grocery store or ask the manager of your local grocery store when they do markdowns.  Sometimes you may end up having to go to the store within an hour or so of closing but you can often get great deals that way
– I personally don’t do much online shopping but one of my friends does almost all her shopping from Vitacost.com  and Amazon subscribe & save and she says it is cheaper than shopping at the grocery store
– There are getting be a lot more coupons out there for healthy foods.  These are some good sites:

I hope these will help you to find some good savings during your next grocery trip!  Visit me on Facebook for more healthy and frugal living tips!