With so many of us trying to find ways to save money at the grocery store right now, we wanted to showcase how it is still possible to plan healthy and affordable meals that your family will love. That’s right – even with the rise in food prices, even if you are on a budget. To prove this, we put The Dinner Daily to the test at our local Whole Foods Market. We shopped for a week’s worth of dinners for a family of five based on the weekly specials at Whole Foods. The menu and shopping list were automatically created by The Dinner Daily for that current week.
And just to be clear, this was not an austerity meal plan of beans, rice, and pasta. Not even close. The meals on our menu used high-quality meats, seafood, and lots of healthy fresh produce, including many organic items. We also took advantage of the 365 in-house brand whenever possible to save money without sacrificing quality. A snapshot of our menu is shown below.
Whole Foods Meal Planning: $5.69 per person per dinner
The cost of these five healthy dinners, including one to two sides, for a family of 5 came to just $5.69 per person per dinner, or $142.30 (the register receipt is shown below). Considering what else we casually spend $6 on (such as the daily Starbucks run or a quick fast food meal), it would be hard to argue that this was an expensive meal plan for the week. Add to that the impact healthy fresh food has on your body and mind, we think under $6 for a healthy meal full of high quality food is pretty amazing!
What was on the menu?
As mentioned above, our meal plan for Whole Foods was hardly what one would consider a “budget-buster” menu. Our menu offered lots of variety and was based on my family’s food preferences and dietary needs AND the weekly specials at my local Whole Foods Market. Here’s a snapshot of our menu:
As you can see, there is a wide range of main ingredients, cooking styles, and cuisine types. Also, the dinners were not complicated to make (we don’t do complicated at The Dinner Daily); best of all, they tasted great. My family’s favorite was the Mexican Shrimp & Avocado Salad, and we all agreed we would need to double the recipe next time we make it. So it’s now saved as a Favorite in our account.
Having a meal plan that meets your family’s needs and food preferences is the first step in consistently eating better and saving money at your grocery store. However, you can employ some other tactics today to make the savings go even further, while keeping your planning time to a minimum.
5 Ways to Save on Your Groceries:
Whether you are meal planning for Whole Foods or another grocery store, saving money and eating really well is absolutely possible. Below are five tips that, when followed consistently, will keep your food costs in check and keep you eating healthy:
- Have a plan: planning your meals for the week and preparing an organized shopping list before you enter the store (or shop online) is a critical step in saving money. Yes, it takes some time but it is well worth it. Knowing exactly what and how much you need saves you time in the store, minimizes unnecessary purchases, and costly food waste. If you are committed to saving money on food and eating better, you just cannot skip this step.
- Plan meals around what’s on special: leveraging the power of the sales flyer takes your savings to the next level. It also means you are most likely taking advantage of seasonal produce. This takes an extra bit of time, but our research shows that planning meals around the weekly sales flyer can save you between 20% and 25%. When you consider the savings over the month and year, it could add up to a significant amount of money.
- When planning your meals, consider what you have in your freezer or pantry: are there items you can use this week to create a meal that may only require buying a few additional ingredients? With The Dinner Daily, you can search for recipes using a collection of ingredients (i.e., chicken, black beans, frozen corn) to quickly find a recipe that uses up what you have.
- Buy the store brand or generic option: during our shop at Whole Foods, we selected the store’s 365 brand whenever possible. We knew we were still getting a quality product and saving money at the same time. Using a store’s in-house brand goes a long way when it comes to saving money. If you are skeptical about the quality of generic or store brand products, you can read more about this topic HERE
- Limit the mid-week grocery run: if you follow tip #1 this shouldn’t be too much of an issue. If you do end up running out of an essential item during the week, such as milk or bread, try to pick those items up at a smaller convenience store. Otherwise, that $4 loaf of bread can quickly turn into a $40 expense at the register (especially if you are hungry on the way to the bread aisle!).
And in case you wanted proof on our total spend for this meal plan, the register receipt is below:
Need help with meal planning?
Each week at The Dinner Daily, we prepare personalized and healthy dinner menus based on our members’ food preferences and dietary needs (gluten-free, dairy-free, reduced carb, Heart Healthy, and more). Our ready-to-go menus save our members hours of time each week as all the planning and thinking around “what is for dinner?” is done for them. We do this every week for thousands of members nationwide for multiple grocery stores.
You can sign up for a free trial here and have a personalized meal plan for the week within minutes!
It will truly be the end of the “what’s for dinner?” dilemma!
