Healthy Food Shopping Tip – Saving $$
SheriWhen shopping for natural/healthy foods, I’m always looking for ways to save money. Even though I think our total food bill is the same or less since we gave up Pepsi, potato chips, and other highly processed foods, some purchases can be pretty pricey. One of these items is spices. I’ve been switching over to organic spices gradually as the old bottles run out. The organic spices are usually a lot more then the non-organic ($3 -$6, depending on what it is), but yesterday I found a great way to save on them.
When I went grocery shopping at Sunflower Market, I stopped by the bulk spice counter. I remembered that we were out of basil & onion powder, so I decided to try buying from the bulk jars. I was a little hesitant because I didn’t see a scale around and I had no what the bags I filled would weigh. I was able to fill my jar of organic sweet leaf basil for .30 and my organic onion powder for $1.55! As an added bonus, I put one less, perfectly good, glass bottle in the recycling bin! So, don’t throw those spice bottles out next time they run out. Most of the natural food markets have these bulk spice counters. I’ve seen them at Sunflower Market, Whole Foods, and some health food stores, so next time your out shopping, check it out.
If you’ve come up with ways to save money stocking your healthy kitchen, please share!
I’m so glad to have found your blog! It’s so hard to find affordable organic substitutes if you don’t live somewhere with a good organic coop.
One thing you can do if you can’t grow your own herbs (although in a sunny area like AZ you may be able to have a window herb garden in your house or grow them in the winter in pots) is buy large bunches of them at the grocers and dehydrate them yourself. Use that AZ sun to your advantage and let them dry in it, or hang them in your garage upside down until they are dry…then just store them in recycled jars or spice tins.
By letting some plants go to seed when the weather warms up you can save the seeds to start your next year’s herb garden for next to nothing. To save the seeds you simply cut off the stalks with flowers, dry those and store them away once dry. You can plant the whole flower when you are ready to start over.
Keep up the good work with you blog!
This is an awesome tip! I love this blog because it is so practical. Thank you