7 Quick and Easy Tips to Lower Your Grocery Bill

1. Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are so inexpensive, especially in the fall months, and they are so good for you with all the vitamins and nutrients. They are great for your skin, too.

I love to put these in a baking dish with a little bit of water, cover it with some foil, and bake them until soft. Then I can use them to add to pancakes.

I add them to muffins and we make sweet potato bowls where we add chili on top or tofu and steamed vegetables. Start planning a meal each week around a sweet potato.

2. Homemade bread

I make my own sourdough bread, six loaves at a time, and it is so delicious and inexpensive. Fermented sourdough bread is wonderful for gut health and pennies to make.

3. Brown rice

Medium grain brown rice is my favorite. I buy five pound bags and keep them in my freezer to keep it away from pantry bugs. Rice is so versatile, we use it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Rice makes excellent warm rice cereal: heat up the rice, add some milk, a little bit of honey or pure maple syrup with cinnamon, some berries on top, and you have got yourself a delicious breakfast.

At lunch, we like to use our rice and beans to make plant-based burger patties, which work great on sourdough dinner rolls.

For dinner, we make lots of burrito bowls, flavoring the rice with some lime zest, lime juice, and cilantro, and adding our favorite beans on top with some lettuce, olives, avocado, mango, and salsas. It's so good.

Brown rice is so cheap, so creating your meal plan around it is an excellent way to eat healthy on a budget.

4. Cooking greens

Things like kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, mustard greens, or dandelion greens are incredible for your health. To make them last longer, store them in a paper towel.

We especially love kale: we put steamed kale on our sandwiches, in smoothies and muffins, which we call dinosaur muffins. Raw kale is good for salads, but it has a bit of a bigger taste, so you want to add a sweet dressing.

You could puree banana and a little vinegar with it. Raw kale is great for preventing cancer, cooked kale is even better for your heart, and each one of the greens has got its own health benefits, so I highly recommend eating a plethora of different greens to keep your body healthy and nourished.

5. Bananas

Bananas are full of nutrients and best eaten when they have brown spots on them – this is when they are the most digestible and best for your gut health.

Bananas have so many uses, apart from simply eating them fresh. You can make salad dressings with them; broiled bananas in the oven with cocoa powder make an excellent treat.

So this is definitely a food to stock up on. Separate your bananas to make them last longer.

6. Leftovers

If your family doesn't like having leftovers for dinner, like mine, I have a life hack for you. Instead of leftover meals, have leftover ingredients. For example, when you have leftover sweet potatoes in the refrigerator or leftover brown rice, use those ingredients to create something new. This week we had two nights of burrito bowls, but I changed up the type of beans and the rice recipes.

7. Snacks

Snacks are one of the biggest budget busters when it comes to your grocery budget. Everyone loves snacks, and kids especially, so here are some easy homemade snacks that will not cost you a fortune.

Popcorn

Take some brown paper lunch bags, open them up and put in a bag of yellow corn. Add a fourth of a cup, seal up the bag by folding it over twice, and put it in the microwave for two minutes.

Once it comes out, sprinkle some salt and a bit of cinnamon, mix it up, rip it down the center and enjoy!

Breakfast bars

These are only four ingredients. Mash up a banana (I recommend using a potato masher), add a cup of all-natural peanut butter with no added sugar, then two cups of old fashioned oats and a fourth of a cup of your favorite chocolate chips. Bake these in a silicone mold at 350 F for 15 minutes.

Popsicles

I make amazing natural popsicles using silicone molds. Get the unfiltered apple juice, it tastes so much better and does not cost that much more. If you are short on time, just pour the juice in and freeze it.

When you do have a little bit of extra time on your hands, however, get a blender and mix two cups of unfiltered apple juice, a banana or yogurt, one cup of thawed frozen fruit or berries, and a handful of spinach for some more nutrients.

For a fresh taste, add some oranges or orange juice if you do not have any. It comes out perfectly sweet and tastes like apples.

How to lower grocery bill

If you have been looking for ideas on how to keep your grocery bill low, I hope I have helped you and inspired you to make healthy and inexpensive meals.

Remember that you control your grocery budget and not the other way around. What are your household staples? Share in the comments!