10 Foods I Don’t Buy To Cut Costs and Stay Healthy

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Want to simplify your purchases at the grocery store? This list, made up of the 10 foods I don’t buy to stay healthy, cut costs, and produce less waste will support your own health, and actually save you money!

Price Per Vitamin

When you buy less processed foods you’ll naturally buy more whole foods. Whole foods are not convenience foods, which means they’re also less expensive – foods like: sweet potatoes, oranges, apples, romaine lettuce, brown rice, grapes, tomatoes, carrots and bell peppers! It also means, they are wrapped in less plastic. In fact, you can mostly avoid plastic, if you buy whole foods.

Consider price per vitamin. How many vitamins and minerals are in the food? How much fiber? Even simpler: Will this help or hinder my personal health? Most foods can be put into either category.

A bag of Doritos for $6 is expensive! Why? Because it has no nutritional value! It will give you nothing in return for you consuming it, except the feeling and need to eat more processed foods, and the trash it created. By contrast, Romaine lettuce for $6 is affordable because eating it benefits your personal health. Plus, you can skip the plastic produce bag.

I get it. If you have three screaming kids in the back of your car, you’re exhausted, and you have no time to make dinner after you get home from work. Convenience foods will be purchased, but at least realize that convenience foods are never “cheap” or “inexpensive.” They serve to save you time, but not save your health, and they create excess waste.

Less Waste

We’re all trying to create less waste, and we’re tired of the plastic packaging covering every “food product” at the store. Cutting out these 10 foods will also drastically reduce your plastic consumption. You can say goodbye to: the plastic bag in cereals, individual plastic yogurt containers, plastic packaging around cookies and sweet snacks, plastic soda bottles, plastic containers featuring cut veggies or fruit, and plastic salad dressing bottles.

Instead, you can buy bulk or larger quantities, avoid the purchase, or make your own at home. Simplify the foods you buy to save money, stay healthy, and say goodbye to excess plastic!

10 Foods I Don’t Buy to Cut Costs and Stay Healthy

One of the first steps in creating a healthy plant based whole foods diet is to cut out processed foods. I did this slowly by refusing to buy them. What I noticed is that not only did we save a ton of money each week at the grocery store, but I found myself not craving these foods anymore. Here is a list of foods I no longer buy at the grocery store.

1. Cereals

Even if the box says ” healthy” or “made with whole grains” don’t be fooled. The cereal aisle is trying too hard. Almost all cereals are marketed to children with brightly colored packages, cartoon characters and activities on the back.

Meanwhile, they’re full of sugar to keep kids addicted to it. If they’re not marketed to children they’re marketed as “healthy,” but in most cases oatmeal would be just as healthy, less expensive, contain less sugar, and usually comes in a recyclable container, or can be bought in bulk.

2. Flavored Yogurt

Based on the sugar content, flavored yogurts are really a dessert. Plus, you’re buying a plastic container for one serving every time!

One way you can have the sustenance of a yogurt without all the random flavor ingredients is to buy the full fat Greek yogurt and then add strawberries, or blueberries to the top. It’s a delicious treat that is very satisfying!

3. Red Sauce

Forms of pasta sauce or red sauce are usually full of preservatives, and added sugar.

Making your own red sauce cuts out the preservatives, and added sugar. Even better, it gives you an opportunity to use up that full harvest of tomatoes from the garden this summer!

4. Flavored Chips/Snacks

Flavored food product snacks are addicting, full of salt, with a long list of confusing ingredients.

Instead you can still buy those tortilla chips and pretzels, but nothing flavored. Tortilla chips go great with plants like salsa and pretzels go great with fruit! You can also refuse the package by buying these from the bulk food section.

5. Cookies

There are so many varieties of cookies and sweets at the store, with a variety of confusing ingredients to go along with them!

If you really want something sweet, make it at home. You can buy simple ingredients, make a batch, and freeze the rest for future convenience. This way, you have to actually work to make sweets, instead of just opening up a package. Plus, you can avoid the excess plastic that cookies and sweets are wrapped in.

6. Soda

Soda is addicting, full of sugar, and doesn’t provide any nutritional value. You can completely avoid this purchase, and also refuse the single use plastic container.

Feel free to check out this blog post on other drinks you shouldn’t buy.

7. Granola Bars

Most granola bars are really high in sugar, but are advertised to be “healthy.”

You can easily make your own granola at home. It’s super easy!

8. Candy

Again, if you want something sweet, make it at home. Candy easily spikes your blood sugar, and is wrapped in plastic.

9. Cut or Prepped Fruit or Veggies

Cut or prepped fruit or veggies are more expensive.

It doesn’t take much time to batch these tasks and cut veggies for the week. In fact, meal prepping is a great way to reduce your food waste, because you are better able to assess the foods you already have in your fridge. It helps you avoid making purchases that are unnecessary, which saves you money and time. Plus, you avoid the plastic it’s packaged in.

10. A Variety of Salad Dressings

Salad dressings are usually full of preservatives, sodium, and added sugar. It is really easy to make a simple salad dressing by mixing balsamic and olive oil.

You can easily make other varieties by adding spices, or herbs from the garden. In doing so, you’ll skip the plastic bottle too.

Honorable Mentions

Meat

If you don’t have access to organic meat, first consider just eating less of it. Even cutting out meat one day of the week can cut costs substantially. You can also make friends with a hobby farmer, or a hunter. Many times when butchering meat it may be too much for a single family. You can ask to trade services, or buy meat directly from the source. This way you know exactly where you meat is coming from, and you can skip the plastic packaging too!

Organic Produce

A major way to cut down on plastic packaging with produce is to grow your own produce, or buy directly from a farmers market, or a local farm. This practice is also healthier, as you know exactly what chemicals (hopefully none) were used on the plants. You reduce your carbon footprint as well, since produce is being transferred locally, as opposed to across the country.

During the harvesting season in the PNW, May-October, we buy very little produce from the grocery store and instead buy locally from a small scale farm 3 miles from our house.

If you have farmer markets near you, this is a great place to buy produce since it is local and fresh. You can opt to avoid the plastic produce bags by bringing your own, or reusing one.

Final Words

The foods we eat either help us, or hinder us. In this regard, food choices are pretty simple. Variety is produced to make us buy more, become addicted, and continue to purchase processed foods. Not to mention, all the plastic that is manufactured to ship, and hold a variety of food products. Simplify your food choices by following this list of foods I don’t buy to stay healthy, cut costs, and produce less waste.

You can check out how to eat more whole foods here. You can also check out this blog post on how a plant-based diet leads to a higher quality of life, or this post on how to reduce plastic in your kitchen.

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Join the Discussion

How do you eat healthy without spending a lot of money while avoiding plastic?

Author

Maria Halcumb is a teacher, reading specialist, and mother. You can find her reading books, being in nature, minimizing her life, and spending time with family and friends in the great PNW or Northern MN. If you want to learn more about Maria, check out the About page.