How to Eat Clean on a Budget

With Jared and I being just married and me with a large amount of debt hanging over my head, our budget was, is, and will be tight for awhile. We felt like it was so much cheaper and faster to eat frozen foods - chicken nuggets, pizza, fries, wings, and lots of meat and potatoes.

WE WERE WRONG.

We began the 21 day fix with dread, because the first week Jared had to go to the grocery store 3 times for more fruits and vegetables. We spent over $250 the first week for just the two of us...HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO EAT HEALTHY WHEN IT WAS THIS EXPENSIVE?!

Then, I made it my mission. I made it my mission to buy more ingredients rather than single items (fruits and vegetables make this hard but I'll explain that later). I made it my mission to cut our grocery bill in half if not more! I made it my mission to eat clean and eat clean on a budget that we could afford! So...I went to the grocery store.

Now, you have to realize that I have a love of racing, I love timing myself, seeing how long it takes for me to do things, etc. And normally, my grocery shopping trip can be done in a half hour and I love that! However, this time around I knew I needed to look at prices and really compare in order to make our bill go down. The shopping trip where I discovered how to eat clean on a budget, took me two hours...mainly because it was hard to find things! But now, since then, I'm able to go grocery shopping in my 30 minute time period and get all clean eating foods!

Here are a few things (there's probably more that I can't remember right now..) that I did to allow us to eat clean and on a budget at our local Food Lion grocery store.

1. Fruits and Veggies - Jared and I loved having blueberries and raspberries in our fruit containers...but we each needed 4 fruit containers a day and that meant we would go through 1 box of blueberries and 1 box of rasperries EVERY SINGLE DAY. That's like 8 bucks right there...for our "snacks". And if you look at it weekly, that puts us at $56 already! So, now, I buy a big bag of apples and a big bag of oranges. When you buy them in a bag you get a better price. They typically last us two weeks and we get 1 apple as a snack and 1 orange as a snack each day! I also will only allow myself to get two containers of strawberries when there is a sale going on. Strawberries tend to be the less expensive fruit. We often grab a bag of grapes, carrots, and celery as well. It's been working out great. I now spend $25 on all of our fruit for two entire weeks!
2. Meat - Jared and I love ground beef  and if prepared correctly it can be perfect for clean eating. We also love fish like salmon. Can you say EXPENSIVE?! So, I switch to ground turkey (tastes exactly the same but even better for you) and we use tilapia instead of salmon. We also switched to turkey bacon (that's the only kind of clean eating bacon) but it saves us money as well! A typically pound of ground beef is between 6 and 7 dollars. Ground turkey by the pound is usually $3 or $4! Saving saving saving.
3. Ingredients - Main Dishes - The 2nd week of the 21 day fix, I was already tired of making what felt like "2" suppers because I felt like I could only prepare Jared's food first then mine to get correct portion sizes. BUT, on pinterest, they had these amazing recipes for more than one person that worked for the 21 day fix (and other clean eating things too!) and it told you the portion size and what containers you were using. I was able to make big meals that we could then have leftovers for. Instead of buying multiple items to make main dishes, I bought a few things and made multiple main dishes. This has worked out amazingly! And cut our cost down as well!
4. Bread - Tortillas - We used to use Sara Lee Sandwich wheat thins (healthy enough) which were $3.99 for 8. With both of us packing lunches we were going through definitely 10 a week, if not more for the weekends. Putting us at two packs and costing $8 alone for bread. The 21 day fix calls for Tortillas so we switched over. Tortillas are 99 cents for a pack of 8. NOW, I buy 3-4 packs a week (we use Tortillas for snack time as well) and spend only $3-$4. They last us typically a week and a half, depending on snack choices.
5. Make a plan - In our house, as we run out of things or as we need things we just add them to the list on the fridge. We need toothpaste? Write it down. Zeus needs some kitty food? Write it down. It's become this sort of thing so we always know what we need when we need it and I'm able to go get when I get my groceries.Every Saturday (or Sunday..depending on my busy life!) I sit down with Jared and we make a meal plan for the week. This is detailed down to our snacks. Now, this plan is completely flexible and we have never completely followed it to a T. We often change it around and switch things back and forth depending on how our day goes and if we are eating with other people. But - it helps us keep a frame of reference of what we have to eat for the week! I print these off and then take them shopping. I now have a plan and my fridge list and I'm not straying from it at all. If it's not on my list, I don't buy it! I'm serious, even if I think I need it, I refuse to buy it, I know I'll survive!
6. Brands - this brings me to my last tip. I don't know what grocery store you use, I really like Food Lion for this reason, but your store probably has similar perks. We are MVP members at Food Lion and they cater our coupons to us. I can go online before I go shopping and load my card with the specific coupons that I want. In the mail each month I get a flyer filled with coupons of things I buy (they can see what I buy often through my MVP card) AND they have their own brand of things that gives MVP members a discount. I know it looks like a knock-off but is it really that different? Go for the cheaper option, look for the cheaper (and still healthy) brand! You'll save money big!


Our first week of the 21 day fix, I think we spent $260 on food and we were cleaned out by Saturday. On week two of the 21 day fix, I spent $90 and we still had food leftover. It takes some planning, it takes time to figure out what you'll eat, how much you'll eat, and if you'll even like it. Consider these things before you go shopping! Keep in mind our grocery trip is more than just food, but it's also our pet stuff, cleaning supplies, toiletries, bathroom stuff, the whole 9 yards!

In reality, you can definitely eat clean on a budget! It takes some hunting, some scouring, and a grocery shopping trip that seems to take hours. Once you know where everything is, it helps so much more! The rumor is that the healthy foods tend to be on the outside of the grocery store, around the edges, and I'd have to agree! Look there first!

If you need ideas, I literally just typed clean eating into Pinterest, and look what came up! The images in this post are all from a pinterest page!