One of the complaints I hear most often from clients who are committed to more healthful eating is that healthy food is too expensive. While my natural instinct is to deny that assumption, I have to admit that sometimes it is absolutely true – but not always. I recently experienced two shopping trips that left me with ample evidence for both sides of the argument:
Shopping Trip #1 – Costco
I was running behind schedule one evening and wanted to throw together a quick dinner for my family with enough leftovers for lunch the next day. On my way to the store, my hubby texted me with a desperate plea for a package of cupcakes – his all-time favorite. After quickly scoping out my options (and scooping up samples along the way, of course), I settled on a rotisserie chicken ($4.99) and a large container of organic mixed greens ($4.29). I then went by the bakery section to grab the cupcakes, only to find that they were a whopping ($6.99)! Seriously??? That’s a lot of dough for some sugar-topped sugar bread. I knew better than to come home empty-handed though, so I grabbed the package and headed out the door.
On the drive home, what had just occurred really hit me: I paid $7 for six giant pieces of ridiculousness while the chicken and the salad were closer to $9. Now, one could argue that the cupcakes were still cheaper, but I would beg to differ. Here’s what I made for that $9 investment:
Meal #1 (Monday’s dinner) – Simple green salad with pulled chicken breast – added homemade vinaigrette, tomatoes, and cucumbers- Meal #2 (Tuesday’s lunch) – Chicken breast sandwiches on whole wheat bread – added tomatoes, dijon mustard, and some of the salad greens
- Meal #3 (Tuesday’s dinner) – Curried chicken salad served over a bed of salad greens – pulled off more chicken and added curry powder, lite mayo, dried cranberries, apple chunks, and walnuts
- Meal #4 (Wednesday’s lunch) – Curried chicken salad with whole grain crackers and yogurt
- Meal #5 (Wednesday’s dinner) – Chicken tacos – added salad greens, canned black beans, avocado and salsa to tortillas topped with the last of the pulled chicken
I got FIVE meals out of that $9 investment, and I still had plenty of salad greens left over. Now I know that you may be thinking, “Yeah, but she added a bunch of other ingredients to make those meals.” That’s true, but I used fridge and pantry staples that I already had at home. Also, I used very little of each thing, and the only semi-expensive ingredient was the walnuts which I get from Trader Joe’s and keep on hand to throw into salads, yogurt, oatmeal, etc. One package lasts me a really long time.
And ultimately, it was still apples to apples because my husband used nearly an entire half-gallon of organic milk to wash down that sickeningly sweet buttercream icing. The price of that milk definitely washes out the additional cost for the few small items I added in throughout the week.
So, what’s the conclusion here? It was vastly more cost effective to invest in a couple of healthy staples that could be reinvented during the week vs. wasting money on the cupcakes that hubby ate IN ADDITION TO the food that I prepared.
Shopping Trip #2 – Kroger
We were at the park with the kids one morning last week. We’d planned to only be there for a short while, but we ran into friends, and our kids were having a blast. Lunchtime quickly approached, and I knew that my kids were headed into full meltdown mode, so I left to grab something that they could eat at the park. I took the youngest with me, so I was really hoping to not have to get out of the car (carseat drama!). With this in mind, my options amounted to the typical fast-food drive-thru fare…and I was super duper tempted to go with that. However, there was this little voice in the back of my head that said,
“You don’t eat that yuckiness, so why are you going to feed it to your babies? Stop being lazy, go to the store, grab something healthy, and call it a day.”
Crabby Baby in the flesh
OK. Got it. So I pulled into Kroger, got Crabby Baby out of the carseat, and headed in. I quickly grabbed two individual containers of mandarin oranges, a package of hummus, two individual low-fat milks, and a package of pretzel crisps. I hustled over to the cashier and almost passed out when she said my total was $11.81. What the heck??? I’m just grabbing a quick little lunch for a couple of toddlers! Had I gone through the greasy drive-thru, I could have walked away with two orders of 4-piece nuggets, two sugar waters (soda), and an order of French-fries from the dollar menu for 5 bucks.
I felt bamboozled.
How am I supposed to feed my family well when I’m getting hit with what feels like a “healthy choices” tax?
This was an unsuccessful shopping trip, and I drove away feeling discouraged and frustrated. I tried to figure out the difference between this trip and the experience at Costco, and I decided that it basically came down to timing and forethought. There were plenty of healthy things at Kroger that I could have gotten for a total of $5. However, I would have had to go home and prepare lunch before returning to the park, and that wasn’t an option. In the case of the Costco fare, I had time to give the food a little TLC before eating, and that made all the difference in the world…to my wallet.
Lesson learned: Eating healthfully is more expensive if you don’t plan ahead and try to wing it on the fly. However, with a little bit of planning and forethought, healthy food wins out in the end.
If you’d like to learn how to grocery shop for your health, consider having us come and deliver our awesome lunch and learn that goes through the basics of how to avoid “healthy food sticker shock.”
