Rethink your protein source. Beef, chicken, and pork are all super expensive, which is why most countries outside the U.S. consider animal meat to be an occasional luxury rather than an every-night necessity. Do your body and budget a favor by cooking more often with beans, which are much cheaper than even the cheapest hamburger meat. Bored by garbanzos and black beans? These days, you can find just about any legume that grows. Try tiny lentils that, when cooked, mimic a burger’s texture or giant lima beans, which are ridiculously tasty, inexpensive, and fun to make.
Join a CSA. A CSA, or Community Share Agriculture, allows you to buy a “share” of produce from regional farmers that is always local, super fresh, and usually organic, to boot. Because there’s no middle-man grocer, you get seasonal, high-quality fruits and veggies for a lot less than you would at a store. Find one here.
Check unit prices. Most stores have a small red square below items on grocery shelves that shows the unit price. While you’ve undoubtedly ignored this in the past, unit price allows you to quicly compare the cost of products by volume. The unit price is usually the cost per ounce, so for example, while one bottle of salad dressing may be cheaper than another, the unit price could reveal the supposedly “cheaper” dressing just has fewer ounces.
Shop high and low on store shelves. Food manufacturers pay big bucks to shelve their products at eye level so that it grabs shoppers’ attention. They know our tendency to impulse-buy, which happens most often within arm’s reach. But oftentimes the best bargains are near the floor or at the top of shelves.
Buy in-season and freeze. Want to eat organic berries year-round, but can’t afford to? Or simply don’t like the idea of eating imported produce with a large carbon footprint? Solution: Stock up on pricey produce when it’s in season and at its cheapest price, and then freeze some for when costs skyrocket up.
Use your head, not your stomach, when you shop. It sounds obvious, but it’s worth a reminder that we buy more when we are hungry. Even if you just eat a banana before going to the grocery store, it can help stave off the hunger that makes you buy a super-expensive bottle of kombucha you don’t even like.
Buy store brands. Store brands are almost always be cheaper than manufacturers’ brands, which is especially true for staples such as dried beans. Most supermarket chains now offer their own brand of organic foods, so if you can’t get to Whole Foods for its 365 label, don’t worry. Your local Kroger’s, Ralph’s, or Safeway has its own organic line, too.
Adapted from Living the Farm Sanctuary Life
This article was adapted from one that originally ran as “7 Ways to Go Vegan on the Cheap” on OrganicGardening.com.
