Over the weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to challenge the notion that you have to spend tons of cash to eat healthy. Since becoming vegan, I have learned that this works well for your body and your bank account. I also know that my grocery and food bill CAN get expensive, but that is mainly from convenience foods or grabbing food/snacks/lunches on the run. But I figured that if I wrote out my meal plans, created my shopping lists, and tracked my spending, I could actually stay on budget. My budget is $400 for the month (with a $100 cushion because we do workout A LOT! We definitely workout more than the average person…so our food intake will be more than regular folks.)
My results so far: $86.71
- Aldi- $46.81
- Trader Joe’s- $21.79
- Jewel- $3.50
- Whole Foods- $14.61
As you can see I went to several stores. My strategy was to get as many items as I could from Aldi’s as I could (considering they are fairly inexpensive) and grab the rest from Trader Joe’s. Well sometimes TJ’s doesn’t have everything, so I end up at other stores…but these excursions were not all in the same day.
So far this process has not been daunting, nor has it been any more of a hassle than my usual grocery shopping trips. (I usually shop at multiple places.) The only difference is that I planned better instead of winging it once I got to the store. A great benefit of this challenge so far has been me NOT impulse eating or shopping. I work right near Whole Foods. So any given week, if I have not packed enough food for the day, I can easily eat from there 3-5 times (buying meals or just snacks.) I have only grabbed food once, and it is included in the total above…so I think I am doing spectacular. We will see how this works out next week!!
BurbNBougie 
I believe if you have a grocery budget and stick to it you can eat healthy but it’s all about the right choices. Some of my fans have asked about how people who use coupons can eat healthy. It’s true alot of items can be convenience items but the point I try to get across is planning. If you know what you want to eat and shop the sales and Price match the flyers along with coupons you can eat very healthy for cheap. Good luck and I look forward to your ventures in the budget! Come check out my grocery game.. would love to have you play along with us! Cheers Mr.CBB
Thanks, and I will check it out 🙂