Healthify your supermarket choices.
Top Ten Tips for Nutritious Shopping in a Recession
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1. Before going to the supermarket, make a shopping list. And then stick to it. Market research shows that 1 in 2 products in our shopping carts are an impulse buy. Many times these are not items we really need. Supermarkets are designed to lure us to into buying more more more in the 24 minutes we spend on average roaming the aisles. The enticements during our seven minute wait at the checkout counter are also unnecessary most times, yet expensive at all times.
2. Stop buying soft drinks! Hard to imagine, but you really are paying a lot of money for carbonated water mixed with food coloring and heaps of high fructose corn syrup. On average every man woman and child consumes over 50 GALLONS of soft drinks annually. A family of 4 switching to tap water can save over $500 a year! Go ahead, drink a glass of water and watch your piggy bank swell with pride. I this is too drastic, at least switch to 100% fruit juice.
3. Drastically cut down on sugary, salty, and fatty snacks. Limit yourself to 2 or 3 items per grocery trip. If your children protest, practice a revenue share model with them – for every dollar in grocery bills saved, they keep 50 cents.
4. Switch from brand name products to store brands. Whether frozen foods, dairy, staples, or canned goods, a store brand is usually just as tasty and nutritious, but costs 10-25% less.
5. Use coupons. Wisely. Don’t buy a year’s worth of canned prunes to save a dollar when the last time you had prunes was at your grandma’s birthday in 1993.
6. Shop less. Plan your shopping trips for once a week at most. Those short trips to the grocer for one item usually end up with many more items in your shopping bag.
7. Eat more homemade food, even out of the home. Prepare sandwiches for lunch; or bring leftovers in a Tupperware dish to heat in the office microwave.
8. Don’t throw away food. Bananas gotten too mushy? Toss into the blender, add milk honey, and ice cubes to get a wonderful smoothie. Stale bread? Check out some bread pudding recipes.
9. Go meatless a day or two a week. To some this may sound like an abomination, but statistically, vegetarians are healthier and live longer. For protein on your off days, try different types of beans, tofu, lentils, quinoa, and grains, with plenty of vegetables and fruits. Add nuts and seeds to salads, sauces and desserts.
10. Learn to cook. Cooking is NOT heating a canned soup or nuking a TV Dinner in the microwave. Really cook. you’ll be surprised how easy it is to prepare healthier and cheaper a tomato based pasta sauce when you do it yourself. Have the kids join and help you. There’s no shortage of recipe websites today, some include video tutorials.
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We have started to go shopping every 2 weeks it means being super organized but what a savings! My grocery list is always on my cupboard so everyone writes down items that are empty. We also have a family white board where I ask my kids to put down their favorite meals. To make things more fun I even change our table settings so the kids feel it is a treat. We light candles, do fun themes at holidays and the kids help to decorate. Great post!
Buy real food and eat real food. A baked potato is more filling and satisfying than potato chips.Popcorn popped on the stove or a popper is cheaper and more filling, and more nutritious than cheetos. Add real butter, much better than the fake “butter” in the micro bags. There is no doubt about it, real food will keep you satisfied longer than junk. Tried and true in my house with lean,constant eater 23yr. old Son, and lean 19 yr. old Daughter, both athletes and active.
And as they get older they adopt these strategies as their own, and say “see Mom, I was listening to you.”I have always found “real food’, and that is what we call it in our home, to be more affordable than junk, convenience food, already prepared food, fast food, ALWAYS.Try it.For those Dollar Menu items at the fast food joints, substitute, a bag of Brown Rice, $1.23 at WalMart, good for at least five meals w/ some left over, or not, still cheap. Even a reglar brand of brown rice would end up costing less than a disgusting meal from a fast food joint. There is just no comparison, it is NOT cheaper to eat non-nutritious meals. I think people use it as an excuse for lazy. Or, they just do not know anything else as that is what they were raised on. We need to educate and assist. Thank God WIC is getting the idea and beginning in Oct., adding Whole Grains, Fruits and Veggies,
Tuna, Tofu,and more Healthy choices to their program. That is wonderful.Moms need all the help they can get, and this is a good beginning in educating , hopefully these habits will stick.
@Jo
Jo, love your response. Your whole point on “real food” is dead on and solid. Along with your comment on the comparison between the cost of fast food to buying whole food. I feel you would enjoy our site and we would love to hear your feedback on Family Eats. Congratulations on raising some healthy and smart kids. Good luck and keep getting the word out.