I know eating whole foods can be a bit more expensive than shopping from the dollar menu. But at the same time, you need to know that your health is worth it! Your wallet will sincerely thank you down the road when you don’t have to shell out thousands in medical bills! Trust me, your life will feel exponentially better.

That being said, I still don’t expect you to break the bank. After years of shopping and trying to find the most affordable way to buy ingredients from the grocery store, here are a few shopping tips that will help you out as well:

1. While going all organic is excellent I know that a lot of people cant afford. Follow to the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen lists below to see what vegetables and fruit are the safest to eat nonorganic.

Knowing which produce has the most pesticides will help guide your shopping.

Dirty Dozen

Strawberries, apples, spinach, celery, nectarines, peaches, grapes, pears, cherries, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, and potatoes.

Clean 15

Sweet corn, avocados, pineapples, cabbage, onions, frozen sweet peas, papayas, asparagus, mangoes, eggplant, honeydew melon, kiwis, cantaloupe, cauliflower, and grapefruit.

2. Shop local. Check out your local farmer’s market near you. If you live in a warmer climate, you will have the farmers market all year long. If you live in a climate that has all four seasons, you can shop your local farmer’s market from spring to fall, excluding winter. This will help you save big, and it supports your local farmers who grow clean food without herbicides and pesticides.

3. Stick with one-ingredient foods. Stick to the basics! Buy vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and meats.

With all of the fancy snacks overflowing the grocery shelf, it’s easy to spend a small fortune.

4. Buy in bulk. Instead of paying $12 for a little box of almonds, scoop into the bulk bin. Vitamin Cottage is a great place to buy in bulk. You can find some fantastic deals!

5. Buy only ingredients on sale, which are usually seasonal vegetables. You can get the best nutrient value from them because they are in season!

6. Make a list before shopping. Without grocery list, you are going to end up with way too many extra groceries, especially if you are hungry. Make a list and stick to that list.

7. Clip coupons. Most of the stores have in-store flyers with coupons, and you can also search online for coupons from the distributor.

8. Shop sales at multiple stores. I know that this time consuming but you can save big if you do that. Trader Joes, King Soopers, Safeway or Whole Foods usually have very different sales going on, and you can benefit from both all of them. Don’t forget about Costco- they have great deals on organic food and meat.

9. Cooking at home and preparing your meals will also save you time. I love to dedicate a couple of hours twice a week for batch cooking. I like to make turkey burgers or bake my chicken on Monday and save it in the refrigerator depending on when I plan to eat it during the week. This type of cooking is great for adding clean protein to a salad for lunch or dinner.

10. Save and use your leftovers. Leftovers are great to toss into a soup mix! The best soups can be made from leftovers! Try yourself!

11. The water filter is a great investment so you can stop spending money on bottled water, which we all know is not great for the hormones.

12. Make it a point to eat at home and avoid eating out as often as possible. When you cook at home will, you have the benefits of knowing what are you putting in your dishes, where your food came from, and you save money because you aren’t paying for the chef. You can use a slow cooker if you don’t want to slave over a stove all day. I love them!

13. Eat seasonally. Eating seasonally is one of the healthiest choices you can make plus the seasonal food is more affordable than one, which is not. Buy in bulk, place in the freezer or the fridge, and you can eat them all year long. Join a CSA in a local farm.

14. There are also some great websites that can help you save money. I shop at many different websites for my staples. I always buy my coconut oil, protein powders, and supplements online, which saves me tons of money. You can check out retailmenot.com and dealcatcher.com to search for online coupon promo codes.

         Here are my favorite websites to shop and save:

• vitacost.com
• amazon.com
• herbspro.com
• bulkapothercary.com
• vitaminshoppe.com
• iherb.com
• nuts.com
• thrivemarket.com

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In Health

Angie