Saving Money and Eating Healthy

Last Updated on September 23, 2020 by Ellen Christian

One of the biggest complaints I hear is that saving money and eating healthy just aren’t possible to do at the same time. I have to disagree.  With a little bit of time and a few tricks, you can certainly eat healthy on a budget. Our food budget is fairly strict. We’re feeding my husband, myself, my 17 year old son that eats more than I do, my 22 year old daughter and her 25 year old boyfriend. That’s a total of 5 adults on a budget that isn’t huge. This post has been sponsored but the story and opinions are mine.

Saving Money and Eating Healthy

So what’s my secret? There is no secret. It’s a matter of following these few tips each week when you grocery shop. It doesn’t take loads of time, either. I’ll share the handy tool I use at the end of the article.

• Check the circulars – Every week, stores list their sales and specials in their circulars. By purchasing these foods over others that aren’t on sale, you’ll be saving money. Are peaches on sale this week? Buy those instead of higher priced strawberries.
• Always shop with a list – You will be much less likely to overspend if you stick to what’s on your list. Don’t add in a soda or candy bar at the checkout. Don’t be tempted by the things on the endcap that aren’t generally on sale anyway.
• Price match – Don’t be afraid to compare circulars from different stores. You can pick up the best deals at a few different places to save the most money.
• Meal plan – Find recipes that will use the ingredients that are on sale. Then create a meal plan for the week that lists what recipe you’ll make each night. Now stick to it.
• Cook from scratch – Instead of buying a ready made biscuit mix, you can make biscuits from scratch with flour and a few other inexpensive ingredients.
• Check the mark down areas for marked down vegetables, fruits and produce. Some stores even have mark downs on crushed boxes!

I’ve been using a free app called Flipp to help me save money while shopping for the healthy foods I like to feed my family. Flipp allows you to plan ahead, input your shopping list, and buy the ingredients that you’re shopping for, for specific recipes, without making impulse buys! Impulse buys can be the downfall of my grocery budget.

Simply download Flipp (for iOS or Android) and enter your zip code. You then pick your favorite stores from the list they offer.  It’s not just grocery stores though. You can look for savings at drug stores, craft stores, big box stores like Walmart and even home improvement stores.

Flipp allows you to search the flyers based on featured stores, alphabetical listing or the latest flyers. You can mark your favorites, search for a specific food, create a shopping list and “clip” sales to keep track of specials you want to take advantage of. Flipp is really easy to use. You just look at your favorite flyers and tap an item to add it to your shopping list. You can even get notifications of when the items you’ve clipped are getting ready to expire.

Each time you add an item to your shopping list, Flipp shows you the deals available from your favorite stores. When I added coffee to my list, I learned that Shaws has it on sale for $4.99 but that I could get a larger size at Dollar General for less per ounce. I don’t normally shop at Dollar General and we don’t get a flyer in the mail. If I hadn’t checked out the deals with Flipp, I never would have known about this.

Now that you’ve got your list made for each store, just stick to it. As you’re shopping, Flipp allows you to check things off as you buy them. That way you don’t forget anything and you don’t add things to your cart that aren’t on your list. Flipp is definitely making saving money and eating healthy a lot easier for me! It’s the perfect too for busy moms everywhere!

Download Flipp today from iTunes or Google Play and start saving.