9 Ways to Save Money on Organic Groceries

Today, I’m sharing 9 ways that we save money on groceries. Our grocery bill is still astronomical, but every family has their priority when it comes to how they spend their money. I have several friends who travel, and their kids have the most incredible experiences. Others are really into entertainment or nice cars. In this house, we stay home a lot and drive super old cars because we are into food. Specifically, nutritious food. While there are no cutting corners, and we have the sting of spending literally DOUBLE for organic eggs, we have found a few ways to save:

1. Do Not Buy Snacks

I’m still bewildered between the cost difference when I buy prepackaged snacks, vs only buying whole foods. That’s the nutritional ideal as well, but these sneaky companies…making better quality snacks and throwing me off track! Go shopping with the pre-decision that you will NOT be buying snacks under any circumstance! Snacks we love to make are dried fruit, no bakes, granola, popcorn, healthy cookies and occasionally sourdough crackers.

2. LOAD UP When Something You Buy is on Major Sale

My kids love apples, so when we saw organic apples on sale for $.75 per pound, we nearly bought them out! Apples do go bad, so in buying the lot of apples, I was signing us all up for a lot of work. The stockpile that we have now of ready to go snacks is such a gift! We frequent the Grocery Outlet, and when they have things that we normally buy (like canned tomatoes) on major sale, we load up. Even when we don’t have a “normal” place to put it all. Put a note on the last box in the pantry reminding you of where you’ve stashed it! (Under a child’s bed? Random tote in the garage?)

3. Buy In Bulk

If it is at all possible, purchase your beef directly from the farmer, buying 1/4, 1/2 or a whole cow at once. It is a lot up front, but if you can save up or spend some of a tax return on good quality meat, you get a great price per pound.

Buy bulk grains and legumes from Azure, or even amazon if you don’t have a drop near you. **I have learned that 25 pounds is the max to buy from Azure in grains for human consumption. Both 50 pound bags that I have bought were loaded with chaff, and even bugs! But the 25 pounders have all been excellent quality.

And PLEASE, don’t ever buy herbs in the little glass jars. You can buy 4oz, which, depending on the herb, can be quite a large bag full for the same price! I buy mine from Azure and Mountain Rose Herbs.

4. Be Aware of Prices

I’m guilty of buying what I know I need and never looking at the prices. But it’s important to know when things have jumped significantly. A two pack of organic chickens used to be $30. Overnight, it seems, they are $40. Now, instead of buying 4 chickens per month, I stretch it to only using 3, letting the fourth one fall into the next month so I only buy one pack that second month. I do not buy strawberries out of season. Give yourself a few guard-rails as to what your boundaries are and stay within them to save money!

5. Buy Whole Food

…and I’m not just talking natural foods that are grown in nature. Buy the whole chicken instead of breasts. Buy an extra turkey around holidays, and prepare that one just for lunches. Cook a roast instead of buying lunch meat. You can freeze them in the portions you’ll be using and pull them out for a few months. Quality lunch meat is so expensive! Aside from the meat, a side effect of cooking a whole bird or roast is the beautiful broth that we get on the other side of it, which will save you money on a completely separate product!

6. Make What You Can

It costs me about $1.50 to make a loaf of delicious, moist, organic sourdough sandwich bread. The quality of anything organic you’d buy in the store doesn’t even come close, and it is at least $6.00 a loaf here. Organic, seed-oil-free-mayonnaise is hard to find and expensive in specialty stores, but my homemade mayonnaise costs about $4.00. Same with organic sour cream and yogurt! You can save a lot of money by making simple staples at home.

7. Grow What You Can

I’m talking sprouts / micro greens here! If you’re like me and LOVE them on a sandwich, you need to be growing your own sprouts! You can make a whole quart jar full of sprouts for just a few cents, compared to 8-12oz for $4.00 in the store. Sprouts and micro greens require no land, no grow lights, and not a lot of space. It’s the perfect way to try your hand at growing something delicious that carries a massive nutritional punch, and a key way to save money.

Herbs are another thing that are over priced at the store that don’t require much to grow at home. As nomads, we have two citrus trees in pots. It’s a sweet gift being able to grow something that should be stationary! If you have the space, grow more. One of my favorite things about downtown Boise was the smattering of front yard vegetable gardens—people making the most of the space they had!

8. Try a “No Spend (Month)”

Whenever I do a “No Spend November,” (or whatever month) I do still allow $30-$50 for fresh fruits and veggies per week. (Family of 6, San Diego pricing.) But this requires us to be creative, use some of those half-used bottles of sauces in the fridge, and spares us from any impulse buys in the store! It will lock me in on some of those other tips, like growing greens or preparing a roast for lunch meat.

9. Utilize Instacart

I know this one is controversial, because you’re actually charged a little more per item. However, since I started using Instacart, my Costco bill is significantly lower than it used to be. It makes it easier for me to lock in on not buying snacks—there are no “healthy” samples luring me! Plus it saves me on gas (old suburban, San Diego gas prices). As a busy homeschooling family with extra-curriculars we’re running around to, I would rather any day have someone do my shopping over providing a service like cleaning my house. I know this is a luxury, and definitely not something we could afford at different times in our marriage. They have a free trial, so try it out and see if it’s something that ends up saving you money, too!

Please let us know in the comments if you have any other tips to share! I will take all that I can get!