Money Saving Tips From Our Family to Yours

Transitioning to a real food diet can come as quite a shock to the pocketbook.  And while you may be fully convinced that making the switch is necessary for the health of your family (and indeed it is), figuring out how to make it work can be quite overwhelming.

Over time, we’ve learned to make eating real food affordable for our family, but please note – I did not say that we are able to make it cheap.   Read here to learn more about why real food doesn’t actually cost more to grow, but ends up costing an awful lot more at the grocery store.

The following money saving tips have helped our family to ease the transition and shrink the gap between conventional and organic prices.  Over time we’ve been able to mold a way of life that actually supports our wellness ideals.  Just remember, all changes take time and adjustment.

Buy in Bulk and Save for Later

This is the very best way to get real food at low prices.  You can buy anything in bulk that can be canned, frozen, or otherwise stored for later.  The more options you have for buying bulk items, the more affordable it will be for your family to eat real food.

Here is a list of the things we buy in bulk:
Grains
Beans and Other Legumes
Unprocessed Sugars and Honey
Spices – Oh my goodness!  Buy your spices in bulk!  Do NOT keep paying for
those little bottles! … even if you have to put them in baggies while you save up for your own jars.
Tea – Ditto!  Get a reusable strainer so that you can buy loose tea in bulk.
Seasonal Produce that Stores Well – Winter squash, for instance, will keep
through most of the winter if kept in our basement where it is cool and dark.
Nuts & Seeds – Store them in the freezer to keep them fresh.
Meat – Buying a 1/4 or 1/2 of a cow, or a whole hog, can be a big out of pocket
expense, but it is the very BEST way to get a good price on high quality protein.
Consider setting aside a bit of money each month throughout the year so that you are able to purchase your meat when the time comes.  If even that isn’t possible (it wasn’t for us at first either), find a friend who might be willing to share a 1/4 with you.  Remember that Facebook group?  Great place to find a meat-sharing friend!
A Garage Freezer – Okay, this obviously isn’t a bulk item, but a garage freezer may be necessary if you are able to get your hands on lots of good bulk meat/frozen veggies.  No need to buy it new.  You don’t care too much what your garage freezer looks like, do you?  As always, garage sales and Craigslist are the way to go.  We couldn’t do without our, um… 3 garage freezers, ahem.

Simple Meals & Simple Ingredients

One of the best ways to trim down your spending on food is to learn how to feed your family without relying on recipes that include too many complicated (and likely expensive) ingredients.  Learn to make simple meals out of whatever you happen to have in abundance, or whatever might have been on sale at the store.

Soups

Boil a chicken, a cheaper cut of beef, or a ham hock (leave the bone in for flavor and minerals) with a little salt and pepper.  Once the meat has been cooked, separate it from the bone and put it back into the broth.  Now throw in whatever veggies you have on hand and add some noodles or wild rice, or bake up a loaf of sourdough bread to go with it and you’ve got a very nourishing, satisfying meal… no recipe required.

One Pan Meals

Scramble some eggs, or brown a little ground beef or sausage in a pan, add in an onion and whatever veggies you have on hand.  Once it’s all cooked through, add some cooked rice, beans, lentils, quinoa, or potatoes.  Season it up and you’ve got a meal.  Over dinner let your kids name it.  You’ll make lots of good memories.

Easy Lunches & Snacks

Consider combining quick whole foods to make simple lunches and snacks.
Soft boiled eggs + avocado + carrots = meal
Homemade kefir or yogurt + berries + seeds or coconut flakes = meal
Granola + raw milk = meal… even better, don’t bother mixing and baking 10
ingredients to make granola.  Try just mixing up several varieties of seeds and nuts, drizzle some honey, and add milk.  The crowd may be just as pleased as if you’d labored over it or hours.

Eat Your Leftovers!

Don’t just eat them, extend them.  Often times we have leftovers from the night before that can become soup for lunch the next day.  Homemade bone broth is extremely nourishing, full of minerals and fatty acids.  We might take a leftover Mexican dish (ground beef + beans + corn + diy taco seasoning) and add a jar of broth to it.  Now we’ve got Mexican soup!  You would not even believe the amount of meals that can become soup for tomorrow’s lunch!  Even just some warm broth with a little of last night’s sourdough and butter can be a great, simple lunch.

It isn’t that recipes are bad, and if you follow along with the blog, you’ll receive lots of our favorites.  It’s just that they aren’t always necessary.  And sometimes following a recipe can cause us to buy expensive ingredients we wouldn’t otherwise need.  When you eat whole foods, meals (even snacks for that matter) don’t have to be complicated.

Other Tips

Less Expensive Cuts of Meat

If purchasing meat in bulk is out of the question, consider focusing on the least expensive cuts of meat and use them sparingly.

Read here to find out why high quality protein is so important.

Less Expensive Sources of Protein

Remember too, that raw milk, eggs, organ meats (like liver), fat (like lard) and bones (for making broth) have high nutritional value for a much lower price. Buying these less expensive animal products is a GREAT way to get some of those important fatty acids and minerals that we cannot get from plants.  Just make sure your buying from safe, non-toxic sources!
Raw milk is probably the most nutritious food on the planet.  I’ve heard it said that you could actually survive on raw milk alone (babies do, after all).  So even when times are tight, I make sure my kids have gotten a glass of raw milk or a hard boiled egg.

Even Better

Do you live in a place where you might be able to raise chickens and/or goats? These low-maintenance creatures give highly nourishing gifts!  They also make delightful backyard friends.  What kid doesn’t want to play outside with the hopping baby goats?  Many cities are now making allowances for small chicken coops and backyard goats!  Check your local ordinances.

Use Whole Chickens

Instead of buying cuts of chicken, purchase the whole bird.  We throw ours in the instant pot with salt, pepper, and a bay leaf till it’s cooked up and falling off the bones.  Separate the meat from the bones, then use the meat in the meal you’re preparing.  Throw the bones back in the instant pot to make a gallon + of your very own chicken broth.  Simply let it cook on high pressure at least 2 hours and then strain it into jars and stick it in the fridge.  Read more about bone broth here.  Have you checked the price of canned chicken broth???  Definitely make up you’re own.  Easiest thing ever.

Batch Cooking

Soak, cook, and freeze dried beans in large batches.  That way you’ve always got beans in the freezer for adding to (and extending) a quick meal.  When you find a good price on a large quantity of berries, make up a big batch of freezer jam for the year.

Ask for Seconds

By that, I don’t mean an extra helping of dinner.  This term refers to produce that isn’t spoiled, but isn’t at its freshest either.  This is a great way to get a big discount on items you plan to preserve, like canned tomatoes, strawberry jam, or spaghetti sauce.

Eat Seasonal Produce

as much as is possible… which is not a whole lot if you live in northern climates.
I know.

Grow a Garden

Get out there and grow your own food! – even if your growing season is relatively short, you can get an awful lot of produce from one packet of seeds.  If space is limited, consider planting a few pots on the back patio.  Even a few herbs, a couple tomato plants, and a pot of lettuce can make a big dent in your summer grocery bills!  More and more families are choosing to turn their lawns into gardens.  That way instead of mowing, you can be harvesting! Check out Food Not Lawns more information on how and why to make the switch.

Buy Frozen

Frozen is better BY FAR than canned food and sometimes even less expensive than fresh.  Keep a look out for sales and stock up when you’re at Costco.

Use Cloth Instead of Paper

We keep a set of colorful washcloths in a kitchen drawer to be used as napkins for the kids.  Have you ever noticed how many paper napkins a kid can blow through in one meal?  One washcloth can last them all the way through + mop up any spills.

DIY Whenever Possible

This can be true for everything from personal care items and cleaning supplies, to expensive specialty items that your family may need, such as almond milk or ghee.

Get Creative

Where else can you pinch pennies to put toward your real food budget?  Maybe line dry your clothes when weather permits?  Or buy some clippers, a nice pair of scissors and learn how to give your family simple hair cuts at home?

Real food is not only more nourishing, it’s more satisfying!

Personally, we’d rather go without quite a bit than eat what is currently being marketed as “food” at the grocery store.  And don’t forget that real food is MUCH more nourishing and satisfying.  It also isn’t addictive.  You really can eat quite a bit less on a real food diet, without feeling deprived.

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