Lyndi’s Grocery shopping tips
- Skip the expensive powders and supplements and fill your kitchen with simple and affordable health foods.
- Buy from the imperfect picks or wonky produce sections to get big savings on your grocery bill.
- Meat is often the biggest contributor to grocery bills. Eating less meat and adding more whole grains to your diet is a simple way to save money and eat well.
- If you find a good discount on meat, buy twice as much as freeze half for when meat is more expensive.
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Brown rice // Cost per serve: $0.27
- Brown rice is an incredibly healthy, versatile and cheap wholegrain to include into your diet daily.
- Brown rice is naturally gluten-free, a good source of fibre and nutrients. Brown rice is also naturally low in fat and sodium and has no added sugar.
- Add a cup of cooked brown rice to your meals for a nutritious serve of carbohydrates.
- Buy in bulk to get the most value for money.
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Tinned tomatoes // Cost per serve: $0.40
- This pantry staple is an underestimated superfood. Tomatoes are a good source of fibre and vitamin C, key for your immunity, skin and eye health.
- Tomatoes contain high quantities of lycopene, an antioxidant that may boost heart health and wellbeing.
- Lycopene is actually the pigment that makes tomatoes and other foods red. Look for bright red tomatoes.
- It’s easy to add a tin or two of crushed tomatoes to your main meals. This trick will help you get more mileage from your meat and add plenty of nutrition – without the price tag.
- As tomatoes are seasonal, tinned tomatoes are far cheaper than fresh and nutritionally – they are similar.
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Lentils // Cost per serve: $0.40
- Meat is often the highest cost ingredient in your shopping trolley. Add a tin or two of lentils to your bolognaise or shepherds pie and you’ll stretch your meat – and budget – further. Lentils are also a great source of fibre, helping to fill you up and keeping you satisfied for longer.
- While it’s cheapest to buy dried beans, even tinned options are very affordable.
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Frozen berries // Cost per serve: $1.00
- Fresh berries are 2.5 x more expensive than frozen varieties.
- Berries are snap frozen meaning they return almost all of their nutritional value.
- Berries are an excellent source of antioxidants and contain fibre.
- Add frozen berries to your smoothies, stir through yoghurt or cook into a saucepan with chia seeds for a healthy homemade jam.
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Frozen carrot, peas and corn // Cost per serve: $0.23
- All vegetables are good for you. Frozen vegetables are almost just as healthy as fresh.
- This healthy convenience food is a simple way to add nutrition to plenty of meals. It’s a wonderful ingredient to add to shepherds pie or a homemade fried rice.
- Dietitians often encourage you to eat the rainbow because different coloured foods give you different nutrients. In this tri-coloured mix of vegetables, you can add a variety of nutrients to add to your meals without much hassle at all.
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Plain Greek yoghurt // Cost per serve: $0.39
- Plain Greek yoghurt is the best food source of probiotics. Probiotics are live, good bacteria that can help support a healthy gut.
- You don’t need to spend big money on supplements to get the health benefits of probiotics.
- Yoghurt is also a fantastic source of calcium which is important for healthy bones.
- Enjoy yoghurt as a snack with some frozen berries, as an ingredient in smoothies or for breakfast with some rolled oats and seeds.
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Plain rolled oats // Cost per serve: $0.15
- Rolled oats is an affordable health food staple in my pantry.
- Plain rolled oats are naturally low in fat, sodium and sugar. Rolled oats are an excellent source of fibre.
- Oats is also incredibly versatile and can be made into healthy muesli bars or enjoyed for breakfast as hot porridge or bircher muesli.
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Eggs // Cost per serve: $0.70 (for free range)
- While protein powders have become trendy, eggs are naturally high in protein and cost far less per serve.
- Eggs also have a longer shelf life than other fresh food so they’re also very convenient.
- Ignore outdated nutrition advice to only have egg white omelets. The majority of the nutrients in an egg are found in the yolk.
- Get the best value for your money by using the whole egg.
- Boil eggs a head of a busy week and enjoy one or two as a high protein and affordable snack.
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Seeds // Cost per serve: $0.26
- A kilogram of sunflower or pumpkin seeds is half the price of a kilogram of almonds and other nuts.
- Swapping seeds for nuts works for many recipes.
- Sunflower seeds are also a good source of vitamin E, which helps support healthy skin.
- Like nuts, seeds contain plenty of heart-healthy fats and plenty of fibre to help support a healthy gut.
- Add seeds on top your salad or toast for a nutrition boost, include a serve on top of oats or in your smoothie. Make an affordable trail mix with your favourite dried fruit and a mix of seeds like sunflower, pumpkin and linseeds.
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Sardines // Cost per serve: $0.65
- Salmon is well recognised as a health food thanks to it’s high quantity of healthy fats – however it can be too expensive for many.
- Sardines are another type of oily fish that are much more affordable than salmon. Tinned sardines are 1/3 the price of tinned salmon.
- Sardines are a very good source of omega-3 fatty acids, protein. Sardines are also an excellent source of selenium and b12.
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Note: Lyndi used Woolworths Online to find the cost per serve for each ingredient
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