Save Money on Groceries: How We Saved $700 Last Month
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Times are tough and grocery budgets are getting tighter. I feel it too! As a stay-at-home mom, I feel it my personal job to find a way to save on groceries as much as I can. However, I don’t want to compromise the health of the food we’re eating, and it seems to save money on groceries usually doesn’t seem to mix well with healthy…am I right? But read on to see how we saved $700+ last month on our groceries while keeping our diet healthy too!
As soon as the doors closed behind us at the market, we turned and looked at each other with “holy shit” eyes… you know the eyes… eyebrows perched high, eyeballs bulging out of your head…
Nick and I were majorly nerding out on the grocery finds we just scored at the market. We lost our damn mind on grassfed ground beef and Adele’s chicken apple sausage (my kids personal favorite).
Last month Nick and I save over $700 in groceries just by doing 2 things differently…
- Taking free groceries that our church gives away each week from the local Hannaford before it goes bad. This is good all the way around. The produce specifically is usually a few days away from being tossed and we get to rescue it and nourish our family with it. Often times too, the produce is glossed over in the rummaging frenzy post-church for the starchier, more glutenous goods (aka cakes and breads from the bakery) …so I’m happy to give a home to the produce each week.
- The other thing, the biggest thing of all, is that we discovered a salvage grocery store near us in Maine (we live super close to the Maine border). The market is run by Mennonites and everything they sell is either approaching the “best by” date, the product company had too much product and couldn’t sell enough, or the packaging was damaged or outdated. These are not reasons to not eat food! Because we love obscure healthy brands, we find so many amazing finds (of things that we usually pay full price for each and every week!).
Here are a few examples of the amazingness…
I am fully aware that not everyone who reads this is local to my area, but there are options for you all over the country! Check out this amazing resource that will let you know about salvage grocers near you! It really is a win win…
Not to be a downer, but check out this stat I read:
So, with the cost of food being more and more expensive too, this is a great time to drop any preconceived notions we have about these stores and give it a shot! I was so shocked after my first visit, and I continue to be each and every week!
Salvage Grocery Store locator
A couple of other ways you can save money on healthy groceries:
- I keep hearing everyone freaking out about the cost of eggs (specifically) right now. They are going up and up. A great way to save money on groceries, support local businesses and increase the health and vitality of the foods you’re eating is to find a local farmer and buy from them! We are buying our eggs from a small-scale local farmer down the street from us for $4 a dozen.
- If the health of your meat is important to you, and you can’t find any grass-fed healthy meat on sale at a local market, something to consider would be going in on a cow share (or pig share) with a few friends. Buying a whole or half of an animal straight from a farmer greatly reduces the cost per pound! And you’ll get all kinds of different cuts that would typically cost a whole heck of a lot more!
- Grow your own food! It’s about that time of year to start thinking about buying seeds if you are into that sort of thing. The current economic situation may be just enough of a nudge to get you to start a garden this year (however small it may be to start!). You know, we haven’t really had ANY success so far, but I’m feeling hopeful about this year. Learning new things is continuing to fail and try again, so I am not giving up! Growing your own food is a great way to save money on groceries, start a new hobby, get more sunshine, and teach our kiddos more about where our food comes from!
- Make your own bone broth! Bone broth is full of amazing nutrients, like collagen, calcium, magnesium and potassium and essential amino acids. It’s wonderful for helping to repair the gut lining, too. But it can be really expensive to buy in the stores. Make your own and use it regularly for soup stocks, yummy hot drinks, or to drink alone with a pinch of salt.
- how to make: after picking a whole chicken clean, put remains of the chicken carcass into an Instant Pot
- Fill with water just to cover the bones
- Add a splash of apple cider vinegar (this helps to draw minerals out of the bones)
- Add 3 crushed cloves of garlic
- Add 5-10 whole peppercorns
- Add half of a cut onion
- Add 1/2-1 tablespoon of salt (depending on your taste)
- Pressure cook for 2 hours. Then strain into jars to use later!
- Buy in bulk sections. Food in bulk sections are usually bought as wholesale and are much less expensive due to the large amount the store is buying added together with the fact that there isn’t packaging that needs to be paid for. It’s better for the environment and much less expensive. My biggest frustration with bulk though is it’s mostly only grains and snacks in most places. But this is a great place to get staples like raisins, nuts, seeds, sometimes even peanut butter, honey or olive oil.
- Use those scraps. My husband grew up having every little bit of food saved after a meal (even if it’s a tiny amount). I have grown to learn different ways to use those little scraps to create a whole other meal out of them. A few of my favorites are:
- soups
- pizza toppings
- hashes (meat and veggies)
- stir fry
- egg scrambles
What are your favorite ways to save money on groceries these days?
[…] I started writing in this post about the amazing finds we found at a local salvage market, and it ended up turning into an entire post. You can read it here… […]