If you think eating healthy and organic foods means sacrificing in other areas of your budget, starve not. With these shopping tips, you can stock your shelves with organic, free-range and whole foods -- and still have money for a night out on the town.
1. Troll the aisles of price-busting warehouses. These retailers are carrying more and more organic items. The Pentagon City Costco, for example, sells organic lettuce mix, baby carrots, pasta sauce, coffee, chickens, frozen vegetables and more. If you don't have the space or need for bulk items, split the membership fee and the 25-pound bag of rice with a friend. And, traveling together saves gas. Don't forget that Costco only provides empty product boxes for transporting your goods home.
2. Shop at stores that have bulk sections. Who needs to pay for excessive packaging?! Bulk grains, cereals, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and even chocolate-covered espresso beans are a lot cheaper per pound that items that come in a box, 1-pound bag or can. Compare, for example, the price of 1 pound of organic brown rice in the bulk section of Whole Foods at $0.99 against the 1 pound packaged bag for $2.49. You can save almost $1 per pound on granola.
3. Ask your favorite natural food store to order you an entire case of your favorite products. Generally, retailers will give you a 10% discount on a case order because there is much less processing for them and no stocking required. If they don't offer, ask or go some place else!
4. Ask to review the distributor's sales catalogs. Natural food distributors provide retailers with monthly sales catalogs, offering an incredible amount of products at savings of 25% and some times more. Buy a case of what's on sale and ask to get the sales discount - split with a friend if needed.
5. Buy the store's brand name products. If you really want to save money, forget clipping coupons for the designer labels. Trader Joe's brand soy milk, yogurt, cereal, toilet paper, coffee, etc. is a consistently much lower price than any of the other brand names sold in the store. Of course, compare sugar and other nutritional information - that's something you don't want to sacrifice. Then, treat yourself to a few higher cost products that have gained your loyalty due to their incomparable quality.
6. Don't buy primarily organic at Giant or Safeway. The prices are much higher than at natural food stores or Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
7. Learn to create menus out of what's on sale in the produce section. The most costly shopping trips are the ones that entail a pre-planned and inflexible menu and shopping list. Instead, buy the 10 produce items at the highest sale price and create then go home and plan a menu. Most likely, these items will also be in season and fresher.
8. Stock up your pantry when things are on sale. Why buy the same pasta or olive oil every shopping trip regardless of what price it is. Before you put any item in your cart, walk the aisles and make a list of what's on sale. Then, go back and buy 10 of the items you use regularly. Having a well-stocked pantry will also allow you to go back home and find recipes for produce sale items without having to go back to the grocery store for missing ingredients.
9. Keep a fully stocked pantry. How often have you spent a ridiculous amount on a pizza delivery, and then felt sick the next day, simply because you didn't have anything at home to eat and you didn't feel like going to the grocery store.
10. Don't forget your tote bags. Most stores offer a 5 cent refund per bag. Put each of those nickels in a piggy bank and you'll see that it does make a difference!
11. Negotiate at farmers markets. Make friends with the farmers and learn their names to better your negotiations. Let them know to bring brusied or slightly wilted or bruised produce for you to buy at a reduced price, there are a lot of recipes where you'll never know the difference - like tomato sauce or cobbler. Learn to come around at the end of the market when they'd rather sell at any price than lose the produce and have to take it home (beware that most markets have strict rules about not selling a minute after closing time). Try to negotiate at the supermarket as well - it couldn't hurt!
12. Learn which foods are most susceptible to pesticides. Do all the foods you buy need to be organic? When money matters, you should prioritize by which ones could be most effected by pesticides and most harmful to you. Bananas and onions are among the produce items least susceptible to pesticides, and the most vulnerable include strawberries, bell peppers and potatoes. Download the Environmental Working Group's guide at www.foodnews.org.
13. Try to create healthy meals for $5 or less per person. Keep your receipts and then figure out how much each meal cost you according to how much of each item you used. Keep the least costly menus of the week and share them with friends. Make a challenge or game out of who (if you eat with others) can create the least expensive meal of the week.
14. Grow a garden. Focus on the more expensive produce items at the supermarket.
15. Learn to can. You can order a couple of cases of produce from your local farmer at great savings and have that produce items throughout the winter. Save money at Christmas too by giving the canned food as gifts.
16. Take Healthy Living's class "Eating Healthy for $5.00 or less". See www.healthylivinginc.org for upcoming dates.