Grocery Bill Out of Control? Buy More and Stay Healthy!
By Erin Giebler Hill, for Revive Your Life
Photo by AlaskaTeacher
Normally, the word wholesale isn’t the best word to inject into a conversation about healthy eating, but it always seems to be the best tip when trying to save money on groceries. Why not put the two together and search those big box wholesale stores for healthy foods that keep your wallet large but not your waistline?
A major factor in watching your diet is proper portion control. When you bring home a huge box of cereal from one of these wholesale stores, it’s so easy to chow down like there’s no tomorrow because you have a plentiful stash. One of the top tips to take away from this article is to take advantage of your freezer, food storage bags or containers made for freezer storage, and a food scale. It is much easier to take a single serving, enjoy it, and move away from the table.
Meat and Poultry
One of the largest meat sections you’ve ever seen awaits you at a wholesale grocery store. Refrigerator cases usually lining an entire side of the store are filled with chicken breasts, pork and lean beef in packages of three pounds or more. However, most recipes require just a pound of these proteins. When you come home from the store, portion out one pound servings into large food storage bags, placing what you plan to use within the week in your refrigerator and the rest in the freezer. Then, you’ll have what you need for your planned menus and some for the next week or two.
You’ll find meat in the freezer section, too. Most of this meat has been individually frozen so you can still easily portion out servings. Look for boneless, skinless chicken breast or tenderloins, lean ground beef, pre-made hamburger patties made from lean beef, ground turkey breast, seasoned pork tenderloins, pork chops and other leans meats. Make sure you check the nutritional information because what seems healthy, for example ground turkey–not turkey breast–might not be.
Deli meat and sliced cheeses are available at wholesale food stores in large containers. If a container has more than one kind of meat or cheese, they’re usually separated in their own packaging. Decide what deli meat and what cheese you’d like to have that week and place the rest in the freezer. If you like the variety, open up and portion out what you’d like for the week and put the leftovers in food storage bags and into the freezer.
Produce
It might be a little overwhelming to see the large produce sections wholesale stores have and it might be easy to pass by thinking you would be more of a waste than a savings, but think again. Apples and pears will last longer than berries. Carrots and asparagus will last longer than tomatoes and cucumbers. Just think about what you’re buying in this section and make sure you will use what you buy within the week and that the items you pick are not fully ripe. Other fruits and vegetables that might only last a few days should be bought in smaller quantities to avoid spoilage. Unless you have a large family, it’ll be difficult to consume a six pack of tomatoes before they go bad.
Also, take a look at the bagged salads and lettuce. These packages have freshness dates on them. Again, if you think you can eat three pounds of romaine before the due date, go right ahead and save on that bag. With produce it is very important you store the things you buy properly. The refrigerator is a good place to slow down the ripening process on some fruits and vegetables and putting produce in resealable storage bags will help it last longer.
Breads and Cereals
At a lot of wholesale food stores, bread loaves are sold by twos for a discounted price. Take advantage of these deals by putting a loaf in the freezer and one in the refrigerator. The bread tastes no different after it’s been thawed and keeping the loaf you’re using throughout the week in the refrigerator will help it last longer. English muffins and bagels are also often sold the same way as breads. Take advantage of the choices you have and grab up two varieties of English muffins or bagels and split them up so you have a variety for the week in the refrigerator and the same variety for the next week or later in the freezer.
Popular cereals are available at wholesale stores and come in boxes with two or sometimes more separate bags. The bags are the same size as the single bags you buy at a regular grocery store. As long as you keep the bag you’re not using sealed, they should last until the date on the package. Make sure you read the labels and pick cereals that are low in sugar and offer some dietary fiber. Oatmeal and other hot cereals are available in larger containers and instant oatmeal and cereals are available in larger boxes with usually double (or more) what you’d buy in a regular store for less than double the price.
Canned and Boxed Items
If you read the labels carefully, you can find healthy choices in the middle aisles of wholesale food stores. Canned vegetables and fruits are good choices, but watch for added salt. Also, you’ll most likely find pasta sauce, canned tuna and chicken in these aisles along with some healthy soups. Don’t forget the giant bottle of salsa!
Beverages
Wholesale food stores are great places to get your bottled water. Typically, they come in much larger packages for much less than regular stores like all the other items at bulk stores. Also, you’ll find juice in bottles and in individual juice boxes in many varieties.
Snacks
Yes, snacks! Pretzels and nuts are healthy options available at wholesale food stores, but sometimes you just have to give into your cravings. If you want chips and allow yourself ONE serving when you want them, you likely won’t go crazy from deprivation. No where is portion control more important than with snacks. Read the label to see the nutritional information and servings size and deal out that much in individual bags. Then, have it in your mind that one bag is it, and you’ll satisfy your cravings without sabotage. Do this also with bags of candy that aren’t already portioned out, but avoid the large packages of full sized candy bars. Nothing good will come out of that purchase.
Health and Wellness Items
Wholesale food stores also carry vitamins and other health and wellness products. Make sure you check the expiration dates on these before you throw the two-pack of vitamin E caplets in your cart. If you don’t think you’ll take 1,000 capsules by around when the due date is, it’s not worth it.
What to Avoid
- Usually any prepackaged meal. These are typically found in the freezer section in huge boxes. There are several portions in each box that contain a lot of calories, fat and sodium. Use the tips above and make your own chicken parmesan or stir-fry and you’ll be much better off.
- The snack bar! You’ve spent so long in this store reading labels and doing your math that you have to be famished, right? Well, keep on walking. Giant sodas and 99 cent hot dogs are NOT recommended purchases at wholesale food stores!
Bulk food stores are a great place to shop to save money on groceries. The cash outlay is more initially, but when you do the math, it’s cheaper in the long run. Read the labels, choose wisely and portion out your servings right when you get home. You’ll be contributing to your healthy lifestyle and saving money!
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This is something we have done since the kids were toddlers. Now they are married, on their own, college. But, we still shop there and shop wisely for two.
One thing we did find was that a lot of the time, even if I bought a huge bag of spinach or mesculine, bananas, etc they were still cheaper then buying a smaller amount at the grocer! Then what I do is give it to friends if they like it and want it and if it does go bad, then it goes in the compost pile. Not much does since we are huge salad, fresh fruit eaters. Plus, if you make your own sundried tomatos, (REALLY easy to do) they will last like, forever! You can do this with other perishables also and then I add olive oil for either marinades or dipping for bread. Great article. The amount of money we save when we had kids was in the thousands, now maybe half that, depending who is visiting. My son eats a lot since he his in sports. We would have to buy Milk, 2 gl. twice a week that cost as much as 1 from the store. We spend enough that our yearly membership is paid by the cashback program plus we usually have between 50-200 bucks extra to spend. We pay using the AMX card also where we pay it off each month per our budget allowence that we spend on food, etc and get money back on this also, we get back different percentages depending on what we buy. But, nothing goes over what we budget for. Some things we buy once a year (toothpaste) every three months, (cereal) then every week, (perishables) We really had to learn our budget at first, then we got the hang of it.
I finally convinced my husband and son that buying iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value, and is just as expensive as the very nutritional spinach or mesculinfor for our salads and sandwhiches.
@ Michele - Thanks for sharing, very insightful and I see you have great real-world experience in shopping at wholesale food stores. Watching the grocery budget is a must when you have big eaters in the house!
Jake
Great list here! I totally neat help especially in the snack area, sometimes we go to the store and we spend over 100 dollars and have barely three bags worth.
Other times we can go in spend 100 dollars and make out like bandits! It all depends on how you shop.