How Natural Eating Saves You Money

This one way of looking at our food saves us hundreds of dollars per year on groceries.

There are so many grocery budget hacks and tips online these days, and while “eat out less” and “buy in bulk” are great advice, there is one often overlooked way to eat that is both healthy and free (or dirt cheap). Let’s take a look:

Eating Natural

Eating naturally is more of a philosophy than a strict set of guidelines. It’s about eating actual real foods (no highly processed or refined foods), eating locally (within your local climate) and eating seasonally. Let’s explore each of these principles in detail.

*DISCLAIMER: I do not pretend to be perfect at this! I am still learning and striving for the ideal scenario!

Real Foods:

The way I’m defining “real foods” is foods that are minimally processed in a way that adds nutritional value to the food. The American diet mostly consists of eating highly processed foods (HPFs) that are so concentrated, refined, and combined with additives that there is next to no nutritional value left. This even goes for food that is plant-based!

Look at the ingredients of the food you are eating. Generally speaking you want only whole fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, meats, dairy, herbs, oils, grains, natural sweeteners, or fungi. Anything else should be carefully considered.

Local Foods:

On average, the food on most American’s diet travels 1,500 miles before ending up on your plate.

In the US, 31% of our vegetables, 24% of our fruits, up to 20% of our meat, 60% of our spices, and 70% of our honey (not to mention our cooking oils) are all imported.

This is a huge issue. Not only are we wasting valuable resources by making our food travel so far, but we are putting our food system in the hands of other nations (many of whom are not on good terms with us!) Without getting too political, this is dangerous.

A benefit to eating locally is that food retains nutrients better than food that has traveled in a truck (or on a boat) tends to. The freshness also guarantees better flavor since most fruits for example are picked underripe (hence why homegrown strawberries and tomatoes taste far better than supermarket ones!)

Another key benefit is that your money goes to directly supporting your local producers and isn’t eaten up by several middleman distributers.

There are a few solutions here: Get produce directly from the producer (not always very cheap), grow your own food (can be cheaper), or forage wild food (one of the cheapest options).

Seasonal eating

The third principle is to eat seasonally.

This means you eat whatever is normally in season while it’s in season, and avoid it when it isn’t.

This not only means you’ll be eating locally, but it also means you’re supporting your body. Some recent studies suggest that your gut bacteria actually change with the seasons (link below.) This means what nutrients your body needs will change depending on the seasons.

>ARTICLE HERE<

Avocado oil and maca root are great, but they might not really be what your body needs if you don’t live in a tropical climate! Peaches are amazing, but you’ll only get the full range of benefits when they are in peak season.

This obviously doesn’t mean there’s no flexibility, but it’s an ideal principle to work towards, not a ridged rule to abide by. I will definitely eat preserved peaches if my grandmother cans them for me. (I know you read this, I love your canned foods!)

Ok what are some practical ways to eat a natural diet? And more importantly for many of you, how do I eat for free?

To answer the first question, here are some great first steps to get you started:

• Learn to Cook. This is a basic skill you need to start eating more naturally. If you can’t cook, work with a friend or family member who can! Sharing meals is completely acceptable.

• Master Recipes. Master recipes are recipes are a fundamental basic recipe that can be used to make a wide variety of dishes. One of my personal favorites is the “____ Bowl”. You see these all over Pinterest and Instagram these days (“Autumn bowl”, “Spring rice bowl”, “budda bowl” etc) I like to take a starch (like potatoes, rice, sweet potato etc) cook it, add a vegetable (wild or homegrown), and a protein (eggs, chicken, pork etc).

• Foraging. If you’re subscribed to this newsletter chances are you’re already taking this step! Foraged food is free and often takes little or no time to gather. If you search for the common staples (leafy greens, fruits, nuts) then they are almost always in abundance.

• Gardening. For anything that doesn’t grow in the wild (or for things you just want closer to home) plant them in a garden. This doesn’t have to be big. It could simply be several pots on a patio. You’d be surprised at how much food can be produced in a small space!

• Learn to Preserve Food. Learning to preserve food in even the most basic ways will save you a lot of money. It’s also a great activity for children and can be a lot of fun. When you eat apples, do you know how to use the peels and cores for vinegar? Do you know how to juice them and use the pulp for fruit leather? Do you know how to dry herbs?

• Community. People are so individualistic these days that they forget about the great sense of community we used to have in the US. Take advantage of the fact that you have family and friends. Trade foods with them that you can’t produce yourself! Make deals to help each other garden. Cook and eat together. Preserve and meal prep together. All of these things save costs.

Before I answer the question of how to eat for free, let me break down an example rice bowl meal that I’ve eaten this summer. This is a meal that fed 2 adults and one toddler. (I didn’t have a picture of this specific meal so there’s a different one pictured above).

*For reference, going out to eat costs at LEAST $10 per person per meal in most places.

**I am using the grocery prices near me from the summer of 2023, this does not reflect every area of the United States

1 Cup of Rice - $0.50 (We used 1 cup out of 3 cup bag)

2oz Balsamic vinegar - $0.58 (We used like 2oz being generous)

Kale - $0 (I grow this myself and do nothing to take care of it. I spent a couple dollars on seeds 4 years ago and have eaten so many meals with it that the cost would be less than 1 cent)

3 Eggs - $0.66 (Our landlords let us have eggs from their hens while they were on vacation, so this was free for us, however I’ll list the average cost.)

2tsp Sea Salt - $0.32 (That’s a generous estimate.)

TOTAL: $2.06 (or $0.68 per person)

Considering most people have 3 meals a day, that equates to around $64 in groceries each month assuming that’s all you ate.

This is obviously an ideal scenario, but you can see how little it costs to eat pretty healthy. Even if you spent double that amount, that’s still worlds better than the average grocery bill.

“Ok but how do I eat for free completely?”

Ok ok so let’s take some of those ingredients and swap some of them out starting with the most costly.

If you hunt or know a hunter, or forage your meat (yes that’s a safe and legitimate thing to do! I may write a newsletter on that subject in the near future) you can eliminate the cost of the protein. (If you’re a vegan then you can always grow your own beans or forage for mushrooms instead).

You can easily make your own fruit vinegar from fruit that’s in season using nothing but the fruit scraps and water. Now that cost is gone.

In many areas you can forage for or grow your own starches. In the south and warmer climates this would likely be sweet potatoes (although you can grow them in colder climates too) and in colder climates this would be traditional potatoes, cattail, or wild rice.

In coastal areas (or in arid regions) you can often gather wild salt, but in colder climates like mine, you can replace salt with salty spices and herbs that can be grown (paprika, garlic, onion powder etc).

Boom! Free meal from a master recipe.

If you’re interested in getting a list or ebook of universal master recipes like this or if you just have a comment, hit reply and feel free to share your thoughts on ANY of my newsletters! I’d love to hear from you.