Everyone wants to find ways to reduce your grocery bill, and these ideas apply even if you don’t follow the ketogenic diet. If you are able to utilize these topics to the best of your ability, you will probably be surprised by the results. These ideas will help you reduce your grocery bill for eating keto.
1. Read your local grocery store advertisements
Read the weekly grocery store advertisements to start. Many times I have been able to go to the store and buy organic vegetables for less than the non-organic. Plan your meals around what is on sale and fresh. Some vegetables only cost slightly more if you buy the organic version, so they won’t affect your budget too much. Buying what is in season will often allow you to buy healthy, fresh, great tasting foods and keep you in your budget.
2. Buy in bulk when possible.
My wife and I will stock up on non-perishable foods when they go on a good sale. For example, we use Lily’s Chocolate for many of our baking recipes. Instead of buying 1 or 2 bags of chocolate at a time from the grocery store, we found a website where we saved $3 per bag by buying in bulk. We bought 2 boxes! 12 bags per box. It will definitely last us a while, but as long as we store it inside it should stay good for a long time. The same can be done for many other items you may want in your keto kitchen. If you have a bulk food store close by or are willing to spend some time shopping the internet for the best deals, it can really save you money.
3. Have a set budget
Have a predetermined amount of your paycheck set aside for buying your groceries. What ever that amount is, stick with it. If you don’t have the money this month in your budget, then you don’t buy it.
If you are able to, put money aside just for the larger bulk purchases. For example, my wife and I will buy a half a beef about once a year. Buying that beef will be a fairly large purchase, but then we will not need to buy meat at the grocery store. The same idea can be applied to buying vegetables when they are in season. If you are able to can or freeze your vegetables, you can buy them when they are cheaper and have them year round. The trick here is to be able to have the money available to make those larger purchases. You also need to have the shelf space or freezer space, so keep that in mind also.
4. Shop the internet.
For most of our non-perishable food items, we will shop online and have it delivered to our door. The convenience factor of having it delivered sometimes makes it worth paying a few extra dollars (but usually it is cheaper). One caution though when buying online. If it is summer time, and the item can be affected by heat, it can cause the food to go bad or melt.
We try to schedule our deliveries for days that we know that we will be home. Of course, mail gets delayed, so that does not always work the way we want. Regardless, shopping online has been great for eating on the keto diet. There are many items that are available on the internet that are not available at your local stores. Many of the items that you can find in your local stores will cost you more than buying online, but remember to check out their sales. Sometimes the sales are worth a quick trip to the local store.
5. The big box stores like Costco.
Costco has quite a few food options that are organic and keto friendly. At any of the “warehouse stores” you will need to compare prices with your local grocery store to see if what you are buying is actually a deal. The hard part is being able to compare the 8 oz that is sold at your local grocery store vs the 32 oz that they sell. With today’s smart phones, this has been made infinitely easier. Many grocery stores have their own app that will allow you to quickly search for products.
A word of caution about buying anything in bulk, it is not a deal if you end up throwing half of it away. In my household, we usually take weekly or bi-weekly trips to the local grocery store for our fresh produce. The idea is to go when we need produce so that the produce is fresh and it will last throughout the work week before it goes bad. We are fortunate in the fact that there is a grocery store a few miles away, so if you are not so fortunate, you may need to buy more frozen than fresh vegetables. Another option for some folks is to grow your own, there are all kinds of options to grow vegetables in small spaces.
I know firsthand that it is easy to spend more than what you intend at Costco. Go into any store with a plan and a shopping list. Leave some budget room for extras, and try to only put items in your cart that stay within your budget. If you see an item that looks good and you want to try, write down the item and the price and put that into your budget for the next trip. It is easy to get sucked into the impulse buys at Costco and other large stores. That is part of what makes them so successful and allows them to keep their prices lower.
Costco does carry a lot of organic foods, and has a pretty good selection of keto friendly foods. As with any store, you still want to compare labels to make sure that the manufacture did not sneak in any ingredients that you don’t want. If you have purchased the item before, hopefully you will know if the price is actually good. You need to keep in mind that just because you are buying it in bulk, does not mean that it is a good deal/price.
I have noticed that the produce that I buy from Costco does seem to go bad faster than the produce that I purchase from my local grocery store. To me that is perfectly acceptable if I have a plan to use it up in a few recipes fairly quickly. If I know that I will not be eating a lot of salad one week, I will buy a smaller bag from the local grocery store instead of buying the large bag from Costco that will just spoil.
*I am not promoting Costco over any other store, and I am not affiliated with Costco. They happen to be one of the store that I personally shop at, and I am writing about my shopping habits. Shop at whichever stores fits your budget, location, personality, and lifestyle.*
Remember, bulk does not always equal cheaper. I have noticed that some items are cheaper at my local grocery store vs a warehouse store. Pay attention and shop smart. It may be worth utilizing your smart phone to compare prices.
6. Keep your meals simple
Especially when you first start out, you will need to keep thing fairly simple. You may try to buy a
few new things (like sugar substitutes) a week or month. As you change your kitchen to a keto friendly kitchen, there are a lot of changes that need to be made. If you simply change a few things at a time, it will fit in your budget more easily. Also, make your meals simple until you get those extras you need for more sophisticated recipes.
7. Plan your meals in advance
If you are able to plan your meals in advance, you may be able to buy foods that are on sale before you are planning on using them. For example, if you know you will need bacon for a meal, you can watch the adds and buy it when it is on sale, freeze it and get it out when you are ready to make the meal.
8. Don’t buy the expensive cuts of meat
Unless you are buying the meat for a specific meal, there is no need to buy the expensive meats. Many times you can find meats that are a lesser cut but will work just fine in the dish you are preparing. There are times when you do want the nicer cuts of meat, and by all means do. But when it isn’t necessary, look for cheaper options. For more information on what to look for when buying meats, check it out here.
9. Farmers markets
If you have a local farmers market, they can be a great place to purchase your vegetables. Many times they are grown organically, you know they are fresh and are typically priced very well. Get on the internet or a local chat group to see if anyone knows of a farmers market in your area. I like supporting my local farmers.
10. Buy in season
Typically if you buy your vegetables in season they are cheaper. Obviously this is not an option year round, but you can take advantage of it when you can. If you have the ability, you can freeze or can these vegetables so that you can enjoy them year round.
11. Buy frozen vegetables
If you are buying when the vegetables are not in season, you will typically pay more. Choose a recipe does not require fresh vegetables, then frozen can be a great option. Watch your local ads, you can even buy them when they go on sale and stock up.
12. Determine where is the best place to buy your food
Spend some time checking the prices at the various stores in your area. Some grocery stores may be cheaper to buy vegetables and another may have better deals on meat. Don’t forget to check out your local butcher shop for meat too. Make sure you read your local ads, one store may have one thing on sale, while another store has another item on sale. If it is not going to cost you too much in gas or time, it may be worth shopping at several stores. Some grocery stores will also have coupons, take advantage of those when you can.
13. Forget the diet soda
Most of us grew up enjoying drinking a soda with meals like pizza. Diet sodas, while they are not a complete no-no on keto, they do not have any nutritional value. Look for other options that are healthier, and just stop buying soda. It is easy to spend more money than you intend if you are buying a soda every morning before work at a gas station. My wife and I substituted soda with stevia sweetened tea (homemade). I also drink about a gallon of water (from home) throughout the day.
14. Have a flexible diet plan
If you were planning on buying a vegetable because it was on sale, and it is no longer on sale, you need to be able to change your plan quickly. Many times I have read the ads, saw a vegetable on sale, found the perfect recipe for it just to find out when I got to the store that they were either out or the sale ended. So, I would look at what they have in stock, and came up with a new plan for dinner.
15. Cook to have leftovers
This is something that I have done for years. I cook up a meal that would feed a small army (well not literally). In my house, it is only my wife and I. So by fixing a meal that is much larger than we need for that one meal, we have leftovers. Those leftovers are what we would take to work for our lunch. It is incredibly convenient to be able to reach in the fridge, put some in a to go container, and head off to work. Also, by preparing large meals, you don’t have to plan as many meals, are able to buy more of the products on sale, and can have more family time.
16. Snacks can kill a budget
While snacking can be fulfilling when you just need a little bit, those snacks can add up really quickly. If you are consistently wanting a snack, try to eat some more fats with your previous meal, that may help you to reduce the urge to snack. When you do snack, try to eat something healthy. If you don’t think you are actually needing food but are slightly hungry, you can drink some water until the urge goes away. I typically will just ignore the slight hunger pains, so that I can keep my fast going. I have noticed that most times it is my stomach being empty, but I am not actually hungry. Try to avoid snacking, which will allow you to not have to purchase snacks.
Typically if I do snack, I will eat some mixed nuts. If you want to know which nuts are best to eat, check out my blog on nuts here.
17. Pay attention to specialty items
Any item that is listed as “keto” or “keto friendly” tend to be more expensive. While sometimes they are usually a product designed to be keto friendly, watch for the items that are just re-packaged. I say usually because I have found some products that will say keto friendly, but when you look at the original version, it is the same thing or very similar and they just changed the packaging. As I said, that is not always the case but worth checking.
Eating keto has definitely changed the way my wife and I shop and our shopping budget. Before eating keto, my wife and I hated the idea of reading labels. Now it has become second nature. It does get easier too because once you have determined that brand X food is a food that fits your budget and dietary requirements, you don’t have to read it each time you go shopping. After a while, you will just know which items you want to buy and will only read the labels of new foods that you are considering adding into your diet. So essentially you will need to read less labels as time goes on.
We have figured out a good system for buying foods from all available sources to get the best bang for our buck. It won’t happen overnight, but with some time invested into the sources available to you, you will also be able to figure out what to buy and where. Some people will also ask their super market staff when they get in the fresh produce so that they can shop on that day and get the freshest foods. You might be able to figure out a pattern to when certain foods go on sale by watching the sale advertisements or flyers.
18. Manage your gas consumption
In this ever changing world that we live in, one thing seems to be constant. Everything costs more
and our paychecks are not going up at the same rate. So, not only do you need to figure out what foods you want to buy, but you need to manage how much gas is used getting to the store. For me, I will try to avoid going to the store for one or two items. I will buy bulk as I state above when I am able to to avoid multiple trips to the store. At the current fuel prices of about $5.00/gallon, it can really change your overall budget. You don’t want to spend $10 to get to the store to buy $3 worth of broccoli, because the broccoli is now $13.
19. Have a grocery list
Probably the most effective and easiest way of reducing your grocery budget is to have a list. If you have a list, it is easier to go to the store and ONLY buy those items on it. The list will really help with impulse buying, and overspending. I have a list on my refrigerator (how cliche, I know) but it does really help with grocery shopping. We are in the kitchen when a food item is used up, so it makes sense to have your list easily accessible in the kitchen. Please don’t be like me and go shopping and leave the list at home, how frustrating it is to forget the main thing you went there for.
I know it may be hard to break old shopping habits, but your pocket book may thank you if you do.
