3 More Tips for Buying Smart on a Budget

With tax season wrapping up this week, money seems to be on everyone’s minds. It would be ideal if money were no object when it comes to personal health, humane treatment of the animals we consume, and our impacts to the environment, but the reality is we all have budgets and limited finances.

Last year, when I first introduced the idea of making major life change in regards to meat and animal product sourcing, I also talked about some of the ways that I revised our purchasing habits to ensure our new contemplative lifestyle could fit into our budget.

Not much has changed when it comes to what we do and don’t spend our money on, but upon closer observation of what the average American spends grocery dollars on, I realize that there’s a few things we’re doing differently to keep those costs down.

In that spirit, here are a few more ideas for how to buy smart on a budget so you can splurge on humanely-raised meats, eggs and dairy this year:

1. Keep snacks to fresh fruits and veggies

Although fruits and veggies can be a bit more expensive than pre-packaged snacks, booting the boxes and sticking to fresh items can save big. I stick to items that are very affordable – carrots, celery, oranges and bananas. I generally don’t buy organic for any of these, which really helps keep the costs low – usually around $1 per pound – so my total spend is about $6-$8 for the week. We just throw several in our lunch bags and either eat them for lunch or spread them throughout the day if we get hungry.

The biggest payoff for this is that we are only eating fresh foods for snacks, which means we get closer to reaching our daily dietary needs AND our bodies no longer crave the salt, sugar and fat found in pre-packaged snacks. But from a financial standpoint, those $2 and $3 boxes of crackers, cookies, granola bars and fruit snacks all really add up at the grocery store – often to far more than my measly little $6-$8 of real food.

2. Reduce beverages to your top three

Beverages are one of the biggest wastes of money and one of the easiest things to eliminate to save money and a heck of a lot of calories and sugar. We drink three things in our house: filtered tap water, milk/soy milk and two varieties of juice (orange and tart cherry). There are no sodas, sports drinks, vitamin waters or sugary juice drinks. There is no coffee. There is no bottled water. Alcohol is a treat – we keep a few of our favorites tucked away in a cabinet, but no beer or wine unless we’re entertaining guests. I also keep a few boxes or tins of my favorite teas for steeping on the weekends, but no bottled teas.

For those of you having a heart attack at the very thought of giving up all your precious fluids, just take it in steps by eliminating one item each week or simply not replenishing them when they run out. And start drinking water instead of all that other crap – you’ll be amazed at how great water tastes when you’re saving tons of money and losing weight by drinking it. 

3. Make “kitchen sink” meals

When I have a week or month where I’m especially trying to save money, you can bet the menu will be loaded with things like soup or stir fry where you can throw in everything but the kitchen sink and it tastes delicious. Meals like these mean I can buy the cheapest on-sale veggies that week, use up the veggies I already have on-hand, go meatless or throw in just a ½ pound of whatever I have from our farmer, and call it dinner. If you get sick of soup or stir fry easily, try this concept with pasta, burritos, casseroles or omelets to mix it up a bit.

Saving money to enable us to buy humane has taken some creativity over the years, and some pretty intense scrutiny of our dietary habits and purchase behavior, but the payoff has been huge. I encourage you to keep finding good, contemplative solutions to free up extra grocery cash for those humanely raised eggs, milk and meats and share your tips here!