Spending Less, Eating Better – A Shopper’s Guide Part 4: When You Get Home

Posted by Michelle Hanson on May 28, 2020

Over the past few weeks we have covered Spending Less, Eating Better – A Shopper’s Guide Part 1: “Before You Go To The Store”, Part 2:  “What To Buy”, Part 3:  “At The Store”.  Today we will cover Part 4: “When You Get Home” to finish this topic series.

Now that you have planned your menus, decided what to buy, written your shopping lists, collected your coupons, shopped at the store, you are now arriving at home with all of your groceries.  Here are a few tips to continue to stretch your dollar, save time, and eat healthy.

  • Do “batch cooking” when your budget and time allow. Cook a large amount of soup, chili, or spaghetti sauce, divide it into family-size portions, label it, and freeze them to eat later this month.
  • Learn how to can food at home. This will save space and provide a way to safely store produce from your home garden.
  • Savvy food storage tips. For a detailed list of tips, see the Fresh & Natural Foods Health Education post for April 22nd Earth Day Celebration:  Ways You Can Help Part 2
  • Pay attention to expiration dates when unpacking bags. Be sure to pull your oldest food items to the front of your shelves and put new food items behind the old.
  • Use leftovers to cut preparation time and save dollars, e.g., prepare a roast, serve half of it, and freeze the remaining half. Use it later with vegetables for a quick soup, or on tortillas, in stir fry, or in a hash.
  • Join a neighborhood food collaborative to share the cost with a friend or find local community gardens or farm CSA’s.
  • Pat yourself on the back for all of our endless efforts to serve healthy food on a budget!!

Be sure to take advantage of Fresh & Natural Foods monthly specials, twice a month 10% off store wide sales (Saturdays), daily discounts, and the loyalty punch cards.  We pride ourselves on delivering local, organic, and natural choices to our customers.

Thank you for shopping at Fresh & Natural Foods!

Author: Michelle Hanson

Michelle Hanson, MA, RD, LD is Fresh & Natural Food’s Registered Dietitian. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics with a minor in Community Health from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. She is a registered dietitian and current member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Michelle has been a nutrition consultant for numerous years as well as a nutrition research director at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Michelle is passionate about food and nutrition and believes in helping people find simple, realistic ways to make healthy eating a part of their everyday lifestyle.
If you are interested in meeting Michelle or have questions for her, you can email her at: michelle@fnfoods.com. She will look forward to meeting you!