Grocery shopping on a budget: 7 ways we eat well and save money
Food kinda scares me a bit.
^^ Weird thing to say, but it’s true.
I lost my dad to colon cancer, a condition he battled (like an absolute CHAMP) for 11 years.
Watching him go for his bi-weekly chemo sessions and various surgeries, there was one thing plaguing me in the back of my mind: I don’t want this to be me someday.
So at age 23, when most people are living on frozen pizzas and cheap beer, I started looking for the best ways to eat for health.
I did my first nutritional cleanse, then went vegetarian, (then vegan…then back again…and now, I don’t know what the heck to call myself 😂) and I discovered a true love for being in the kitchen. Making something out of nothing and taking care of myself and people I love through food, it’s just the best. 🤗
I want to eat the best food possible but Joe and I aren't gazillionaires. While we can't afford organic, local, free-range everything...we CAN stretch our food dollars further by being smart + strategic.
So let’s dig into it and talk about the 7 painless ways we consistently save money on food (plus one trap I’m no longer falling for).
As with all things on Westwind Journal, this post isn’t a what-to-do, just a what-I-do. It’s surely not an exhaustive list but these are tips that I use every week to eat as well as possible within our means.
Stick to a food budget
Left to my own devices, I’ll spend an unreasonable amount on food. 😂
Sticking to a monthly food budget helps me find a good balance. It means I’m more mindful while meal-planning and forces me to get creative to eat healthy and delicious meals without spending an arm and a leg.
I might be alone on this (am I??) but I actually really love budgeting. It’s like a puzzle to squeeze the most enjoyment out of the money we've got and it’s a great monthly exercise in deciding what matters most.
And when I do buy more expensive ingredients, it’s without guilt, because I know it's still working within our food budget and not throwing off our financial goals. 🤘
We use the YNAB app to keep track of our finances and truly, truly love it! It’s the only budgeting system that’s ever stuck and we’ve used it for years.
You can get a free 34-day YNAB trial if you want to give it a go for yourself. They also have fantastic, non-intimidating money content on the YNAB blog, if you want to learn more about budgeting.
Prioritize your spending
In a perfect world, everything in our kitchen would be organic, free-range, and local. (Here’s a great interview with Dr. Mark Hyman about why that stuff matters so much to me.)
But in reality? Eating that way would cost more than we want to spend.
As a healthy middle ground, I prioritize what matters MOST to buy organic, free-range, etc...and compromise on the rest.
At this point in the journey, the things I focus on buying organic and/or free-range are:
Meat
Dairy
Eggs
Soy (miso paste, tofu, edamame, etc.)
Produce from the Dirty Dozen list — list of the most chemical-laden foods
Flour
I prioritize spending more on the items above...then fill in the rest of my meal plan with more affordable ingredients.
Your list of priorities may be different, and that’s cool! It’s so helpful to know which “expensive” foods matter most to YOU so you can prioritize them, whatever food budget you’re working with.
Buy groceries online
I first tried grocery delivery a year-ish ago, thinking it was a total luxury. I don't have my English driver’s license yet — I work from home and these narrow country roads are intimidating, okay? 😜 — and I felt bad that Joe had to drive to the shop every week with my persnickety grocery list.
(Let it be known that this decision had NOTHING to do with the fact that he’d always come home missing at least one key ingredient and everything to do with the fact that I am a loving, selfless super-wife. 😂)
So imagine my excitement when I realized that doing an online shop wasn’t a luxury at all; it actually SAVES us money. Here's why:
I only buy things I need. No cruising the aisles means I get in and get what I need without being tempted by things outside the list.
I quickly compare options to choose the best quality ingredients for the lowest price.
I can see my cart value in real-time. If I’ve overspent, I can easily swap out items or re-jig my meal plan.
I filter what's on sale. Most stores have sections for deals or allow you to choose from what’s discounted that week. (More on this in the next section!)
When you factor in all that, PLUS the petrol and mileage saved (our nearest big grocery store is a 15-minute drive) it’s a powerful way to save money on healthy food.
It’s also not just big grocery chains that offer this service. Here in the UK, we use and love Abel & Cole as a convenient way to buy from small farmers around the country. They take back their packaging each week so it’s a lower-waste delivery option, which is awesome.
Plan meals strategically
Planning out meals saves so much waste (which saves money!) but you can go even further by planning around what’s on sale or in season. ← Online shopping is a big help with this.
If carrots are on sale, for example, I’ll look for a good recipe that uses carrots and slot that into the weekly plan. This also makes choosing meals easier than staring into the abyss of food blogs on the internet and saying, “Hmm, what should I cook this week?”
I use the Trello app to make my meal plans and it’s fair to say I’m OBSESSED with it. I store all my recipes in there and the best part is, they’re searchable. 🙌🏻 So I can type in things like “carrots” or “rice noodles” or “roasted tomato pesto" to filter all the cards that fit that criteria.
Then I just drag and drop the cards to create my weekly list. ✔️
I also categorize everything so I can easily pull together balanced meal plans — like one salad, one soup, one meat dish, one veggie bowl, and one pasta or noodle dish per week.
Trello truly makes it so simple; I use it to organize so much of my home + work life. Click here to sign up for an (always free!) Trello account.
Rethink the “meal”
When I heard the stat that the average UK household wastes £355.68 per year on food (£9.7billion nationwide) I was stunned. That's bonkers, right?
That’s why I factor in space for at least one throw-together meal into my weekly plan. ←This is tres important! Unless I PLAN for this kind of meal, I’ll easily skip it…and waste food (and money) in the process.
I’ll look at all the perishable stuff we have kicking around that week (veggies, cheese, and meat) and see how to pull it into a new meal.
I usually rotate between:
Omelet or scramble
Stir fry
Curry (Thai or Indian)
Pasta bake
Soup
Risotto
Pizza
Rice and veggie bowl
Ramen soup bowls
Or sometimes, it’s not a new meal at all and we just cobble together whatever leftovers we have. However we do it, being flexible with what we consider a “meal” is key to USING all the food we buy.
Find clever uses for "scraps"
This tip makes me feel like a frugal prairie woman and I love it. 🙂
We invest a lot in good food so I try to use almost every bit of it...even the parts we'd normally throw away.
A few things we do with “scraps”:
Sourdough starter — we keep sourdough discard in a mason jar in the fridge and when it fills up, we make pancakes, crumpets, and other bready deliciousness
Almond pulp — I’ve made quick breads, muffins, and oat cookies from leftovers after making almond milk
Bone broth — using veggie scraps plus bones our farm shop offers for free 🤗
Soup — I keep a bag of leftover veggie bits in the freezer if I can’t cook them in time, then turn them into a blended soup
Smoothies — same as soup, I throw about-to-expire fruit in the freezer
Jam or fruit compote — to have on toast or over oatmeal bowls
Brody’s food — I home-cook his food and this is such a great way to use up the scrappiest of veg scraps!
Know your cheapies
Inside my meal-planning Trello board, I have a special section for cheap meals. When I’m running out of food budget for the week/month, I’ll plan our meals from that list.
It’s nice to have variety in the meals we eat, rather than doing something boring (and not particularly healthy) like beans on toast every time we need to save money.
One of our favorite cheap, healthy meals lately is this rice and beans recipe. (Here’s a slow cooker version if you don’t have an InstantPot.)
I always add extra garlic powder to bump up the flavor, use dried black beans (they’re cheaper than canned and produce less waste), and mix sautéed peppers and onions and/or wilted greens in with the cooked rice.
It’s affordable, delicious, and healthy…and I’ve got a pile of whole-food recipes like this for times when I want to stretch our food budget without eating crappy food.
NOT on this list: Buying in bulk
I used to be someone who had eight bottles of olive oil in her basement because it was on mega sale and it didn't expire for two years.
But now? I’m doing it differently. (At least for a little while.)
I found that buying in bulk actually hurt our food budget more than it helped. That £200 Costco trip (it’s humanly impossible to spend any less than that, right??) ate up a huge chunk of the monthly budget…and all I had to show for it was a six-month supply of nuts and frozen fish. 😂 So I’d usually end up overspending.
It might come out cheaper in the long run to buy in bulk. But for now, I only buy what we need each month. (I’ll report back once I have a solid conclusion on which system works better!)
Healthy eating on a budget admittedly takes more thought and effort. But if you’re willing to spend a bit of time, it’s actually pretty simple to save money on healthy food AND waste less in the process.
If you want to take the next step, here are three resources I use + love myself and highly recommend:
Free 34-day trial of YNAB budgeting software — the only budgeting app that we ever stuck to!
Sign up for Trello account (always free!) — where I plan my weekly meals
[UK only] Try Abel & Cole online grocery delivery — from farmers around the UK
