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- Hey everyone!
So everyone is thinking about their health,
their New Year's goals, all those types of things,
and when you start eating healthy foods
you realize very quickly that it can get very expensive.
It's typically more expensive to buy those healthy foods
that make you look better, your skin better,
make you feel better, help you lose weight and stay healthy
than it is versus purchasing the packaged foods
or the canned foods or even
those junk foods that we all love.
So today I'm actually going to be sharing
my tips to help you guys save money
while you're eating healthy and still stay on your budget.
I've been doing this myself and
it has saved our family a lot of money.
Also in this video I'm actually giving you guys a freebie.
The first 10,000 people to grab this get it.
That's it works, so watch the video
if you wanna grab my freebie.
So let's get started.
(upbeat music)
Alright, if you guys are new to my channel
I would love it if you would subscribe.
That way, you guys won't miss any more
money saving tips that pop up.
I have videos that pop up on Tuesday
and Thursday nights at 5pm Mountain Standard Time
and I don't want you guys to miss those
and by subscribing you won't,
and you'll be able to save
a lot of money this year with your family.
Since my channel is all about
living the ultimate life for less,
I'm hoping that it will really help you guys out,
and don't forget to give this video a like.
Remember, if you guys give me likes on videos,
then I know that you wanna see these types of videos,
and I have so many requests for different types of videos
it really helps me know what kind of videos
you guys really do like so I can do
more of these types of videos in the future.
Alright, so there are a bunch of different ways
you can actually save money on those healthy foods,
on produce, on poultry.
It really, really is possible.
I've done it a lot in our own family
so I thought I'd share those tips with you guys today.
The first way that you guys can save money
is by using produce coupons.
They really do exist,
and they aren't as hard to find as you think they are.
The first way to get produce coupons
is to actually go directly through
the manufacturer or through the brand.
So there's places like Driscoll's, Chiquita,
Doll, Earthbound Farms; all of these different places.
They actually have their own coupons.
You can email them and ask them for coupons,
see if they have any they can send you,
and you can also find a lot of these coupons
on their websites on a regular basis.
You can also sign up for email newsletters
from these companies and they will send you emails
on a regular basis with coupons for their produce.
Another way to find coupons is to
look in your Sunday newspaper.
If you guys get a copy of your Sunday newspaper
you're gonna find a SmartSource
or a RedPlum insert in there.
You can open that up and find coupons
for frozen vegetables, frozen fruits,
even canned fruits and vegetables,
and I have even seen coupons for Cuties,
which are those little tiny oranges,
they're mandarin oranges that kids love.
So look in your Sunday papers.
I would also make sure
that you guys are checking your weekly ad
for whatever grocery store you go to.
Certain times throughout the year they'll have
a fill-a-bag promotion or a buy-one-get-one-free promotion
even on the produce items.
You'll notice that some stores like Whole Foods
or Sprouts Market, they even have
their own coupon booklets you can grab
as soon as you walk in the store.
I would definitely look for those.
I believe Whole Foods is every month that it switches,
and Sprouts is the same, so you guys can
grab a coupon booklet and use those at checkout.
It's also a really good idea to check out
what coupons are in there so you guys know
what coupons to pair with which sales
when they happen during that month.
That way you can save even more money.
Another way to actually get coupons
is on the actual product.
If you keep your eyes peeled,
you're gonna see actual stickies,
or peelie coupons directly on the product
that will say, save 50 cents on this item or whatever.
And I've seen it on a ton of healthy items
including produce, so keep your eyes peeled
because sometimes you're gonna see
a pile of some that don't have stickers
and a pile that do.
So have your kids help you if you need it,
when you're shopping say, hey,
we're looking for stickers, or little tags
that are hanging on products.
If you see any let Mommy know.
That will really help you out,
and then you can focus on the important things
and your kids can kind of play a scavenger hunt
in the grocery store for those peelie coupons or those tags.
And the very last way that you guys can
actually find coupons is in magazines.
If you guys get any magazine subscriptions,
which I've talked about before in the past
and how you can get those for free,
a lot of those magazine subscriptions
actually come with coupon inserts now.
So I've seen a lot of coupons for cleaning products
and things like that,
but I have also seen coupons for produce
and for healthy items, even frozen items.
So keep your eyes peeled for coupons
when you're looking in those magazines.
Alright, when it comes to healthy foods
and those items that are staples in your healthy food diet,
maybe it's the quinoa, maybe it is the steel-cut oats,
whatever it is that's healthy in your diet
or in your family's diet.
Those are your regular pantry items or staple items
that you're gonna have to buy on a regular basis, right?
The only way to really save on these and to be aware
is to start writing down your prices.
So get a cute little notebook,
or put it down in a note thing in your phone,
and actually write down what prices you are seeing
for that same exact item
when you go to the store every time.
Very quickly you're going to notice a base item
or base price for that item.
Then you can quickly make a spreadsheet
that will show you the store, the item,
the regular price, the best price I ever saw,
your unit cost, and the month that you saw the sale price.
This helps so much.
I know it's a little bit of work,
so if you don't wanna do this,
you're not ready to do this or jump the line
you don't have to.
But if you do this it actually will help you know
what is a great price for these items
that you're always buying.
So if you're always buying brown rice,
or you're always buying almonds,
you'll know exactly when to stock up
and when to buy more of that item.
If you're paying full price for that item
every single time you go to the store,
then you're not really saving money.
But if you can see, oh hey,
almonds are actually on sale this week.
I'm gonna buy two bags instead of one
because it's on sale and I have room
in my budget to do that.
Or you can say, wow, I'm gonna buy four bags of that
because I have room in my budget to do that.
And then you can actually have enough
to last you until the next sale happens.
And this works really well for those dry or packages goods.
Obviously it wouldn't work very well
for like, the fruits and the vegetables
because they'd go bad,
but it works really well for those packaged foods.
Alright, another way that you can save money
when you're trying to eat healthy on a budget
is to grow your own herbs.
This might sound like a lot of work,
but it totally isn't,
and a lot of these herbs you can actually grow in your house
like, on your windowsill in front of your kitchen window
if you have one of those.
They are very inexpensive to make,
and the cost from buying those herbs to growing them
is ridiculously different.
For example, basil, if you were to buy it per ounce,
it's about $3.33 per ounce where I live.
And if you wanted to grow it, it's only 24 cents an ounce.
That's a drastic difference between buying it
versus growing it, and you can even, again,
get your kids involved.
Have them help you grow the herbs.
Put one of them in charge of watering them every day,
make it their job or their chore to help
with the family little garden
that you have inside your house.
I am not a huge gardener, I know some other people love it.
I hate it, I hate doing it,
but something like that I can handle,
because it's inside the house.
When you have those herbs,
you can actually freeze them.
You can put them in little ice cube trays to freeze.
You can put them in baggies to freeze
and use them throughout the whole year,
so it's not like you're going to be wasting
any herbs because you're growing them too fast.
For those of you who do love to garden,
or want to start a garden,
planting your own garden will save you a ton of money.
And it saves so much money versus the grocery store,
and again it gets your family and your kids involved,
so it might be more of a life lesson
than it is necessarily saving money.
But it can easily be a little bit of both, right?
So things that a lot of climates can grow
in their gardens without issues
are things like lettuce, garlic, tomatoes,
winter squash, bell peppers, peaches or strawberries.
We can grow almost all of those
where I live here in Utah.
These are types of food that grow basically anywhere,
but obviously you wanna adjust that a little bit
depending on if you live in a more humid climate,
or a more dry climate.
But think about starting your own garden.
And this is the thing,
seeds don't even cost that much money.
I have seen seed packets for 25 cents at the Dollar Store.
You guys should actually probably see those right now,
or pretty soon if they aren't there yet.
So go to Dollar Tree, grab those.
Walmart has them for super cheap too.
So you can even find the heirloom seeds
that haven't been processed or anything like that
that are just like, what do they call them?
Are they,
like purebred?
It's like a purebred dog, but,
it's like a purebred seed?
I don't know how to explain that any different.
So for those of you who care about that,
they have those for super cheap too.
It's a lot cheaper to grow than it is to buy.
However, after all said and done,
one of the easiest, easiest ways to save money
when you're going to the grocery store,
especially if you don't have a plan in place,
is to buy the foods that are in season.
Now, I don't know if you guys
have thought about this concept before or not,
but every single produce item
is in season or it's not in season.
If something is not in season,
then that means that it has to be produced
in a greenhouse, or it has to be produced
in a different part of the world
that can produce that item,
and then it has to be shipped.
And what happens to prices when all that happens,
the prices get jacked up.
And when there is less of something,
let's say grapefruit for example,
if there is less grapefruit or less places
that are growing grapefruit,
what can that farm or that manufacturing facility do?
They can raise the price of grapefruit, right?
Because the stores want it in their stores
and they have to pay a higher price
which means they have to charge you more money.
Now, if grapefruit is in season,
we have tons and tons of different farms
and different manufacturers bringing that grapefruit in
from all over the place.
And so what happens?
There's a lot of competition,
so the price of grapefruit goes down,
because the grocers are able to get better prices on it
which means they're able to give you better prices.
And grocery stores love when things are in season
and they're able to promote them in their ads
because it makes you come in the store
because you see something is on sale.
See how it all works?
It's a little bit complicated.
It's more of a marketing thing,
which I absolutely love,
but it's great to try to understand how that all works
and I'm hopefully making it clear enough to you guys
so you guys understand how it works too.
So, right now it is January when I'm doing this video.
So January is technically still winter.
So there are foods in the wintertime that are in season.
And if you go to the grocery store right now,
you are gonna see these types of food in season,
and most of them will be on sale.
So, if you're able to plan your meals, or your snacks,
around these foods that are in season,
you're not gonna drop or pay an arm and a leg
for healthy foods that you guys can eat
with your kids or with your families
or throw into your family dinners.
So just a few ideas of items that are in season right now.
Brussels sprouts, clementines, dates, grapefruit,
kale, mandarin oranges,
regular oranges, passion fruit,
pear, pomegranate, sweet potatoes, tangerines, turnips.
Those types of things are in season right now.
So you can go to the grocery store,
grab those, and plan meals around them.
Okay now, this is where the freebie comes into place.
About a year and a half ago, I created an eBook
with some friends of mine, superhealthykids.com,
and we wanted to come up with something
that was super helpful for families
and for moms in general
because it's so hard to eat healthy and save money.
They are all about eating healthy,
and I was all about saving money,
and I thought, let's do something crazy
and let's do it together.
Let's come up with an eBook
that will really help people out.
So we put together an eBook that has a list
of all the foods that are in season all year-round,
and it also has a list of all the foods
that are always in season,
and it has recipes for every single season
that you can cook with with those items that are in season.
So there are some really yummy recipes in there
that Super Healthy Kids has come up with for the eBook,
things like butternut squash lasagna,
barbecue chicken and sweet potatoes,
Rotini pasta and chicken,
broccoli, orange, and almond stir-fry.
There's a lot of things that use all those products
that are in season right now.
So ultimately, your meals are always
going to be less expensive.
Why am I telling you all this?
Because when we sold this eBook, it went for $9.99.
And I thought it'd be really fun to give away
the full eBook, which is 75 pages, full of more information
on ways to save in your everyday life,
and eating in season, and ways to save on a budget.
I'm gonna give that away to 10,000 of you.
Now, we have 100,000 subscribers right now on YouTube,
and I have about 50,000 over on Instagram,
so I can give away tons of them.
But I would love to give away 10,000 of them to you guys.
So if you would like to grab a copy of this,
all you have to do is click on the link below
in my YouTube description, and then it will let you get one.
The only catch is that you can only get one
if you're a subscriber.
I don't wanna give it away to a bunch of people
who haven't been supporting the Melea Show,
or aren't a part of the family,
so if you wanna become a part of the family,
subscribe, start watching some videos,
that way you can grab the eBook as well.
Just click the link below in the YouTube description,
and then it will have you subscribe
if you're not already subscribed,
and it will give you the secret link
to download that eBook.
So you can either keep a copy on your computer
or you can print it out and have it with you.
Before I close out this video,
I wanna share a handful of other money saving tips.
A few of them are in the eBook,
so if you're not able to get a copy of the eBook
at least I can give you a handful of those tips
to help you guys out.
So one of the tips I wanna share is
if you're not sure if an item is in season or not,
all you need to do is check
the very front page of your grocery ad.
Items that are on the front page of a grocery ad
are called loss leaders.
Those are typically items that the grocery store
is able to mark down significantly
in order to entice people to come into the store.
Again, another marketing tactic, right?
Right now you're gonna see that
grapefruits are on the front page of the ad. Why?
Because they're in season, and they're priced great.
So they're gonna price those types of things
on the front page.
So if you need to find items that are in season
and aren't sure what those are,
check the front page of your weekly ad.
So foods that are in season are things like
apples, avocados,
bananas, bell peppers,
celery, cherry tomatoes,
coconut, lettuce, lemons.
Things like that are always in season,
and you're gonna see prices go up and down
because of what the store wants to do,
because remember the store wants to make money,
but you'll typically always find a store
that has those items on sale.
So check for those, and you can always incorporate those
in and have those with your meals in order
to save money when you're trying to eat healthy.
So I have a lot of people say, okay,
is this really going to save me
enough money to make it worth my time?
Like, does shopping in season really make it worth it?
The answer is yes, it totally does.
Here's a great example.
Strawberries, our family loves strawberries.
When they're in season, I have found them
for as low as 99 cents a pound.
When they're not in season,
I've seen them for anywhere from $4-$6 per pound.
That's anywhere from a 400-600 percent markup
just on strawberries because they're out of season.
So how can you get around that?
When they're in season, buy a bunch of them and freeze them.
Then you can use them throughout the rest of the year.
Obviously it takes a little bit of extra planning,
but when you're trying to eat healthy,
or your kids have allergy issues with foods,
or maybe you do, or you're just trying to lose weight,
or just feel better, because you feel a lot better
when you eat healthy, right?
It truly, truly does make a big difference.
Alright, obviously there's
a lot of information in this video.
But I hope I gave you guys some ideas
on how you can eat healthy on a budget.
It is totally doable.
I have been eating healthy, like crazy healthy,
since November, beginning of November.
Like, no sugar, no sugar substitutes,
like really healthy, clean, kind of like paleo
but a little bit more intense than that to be honest,
because I was so tired all the time
and it has made a drastic difference.
And the only way I've been able to afford to do this
or feel comfortable doing this
is by buying the produce that's on sale,
by buying the items that are on sale,
using coupons when appropriate,
or using a coupon app when appropriate,
and using some of the tips I talked about in this video.
So I hope it helped you.
Again, if you want a copy of that eBook,
that's 75 pages long and gives you more tips
on how to eat healthy and stay on your budget,
then go below into the description.
If you're on your phone, you have to click
the little upside down triangle that's over here.
It'll pop it open for you, and you can click on it.
Again, it's only for subscribers,
so if you're not a subscriber
you can become one to grab the eBook,
or if you don't wanna become one that's totally fine too.
But I'm all about helping you guys
live the ultimate life for less.
That's what I care about, and this will help you do it.
So whether you just take the information from the video,
or whether you grab the eBook too,
I hope it helps you guys out.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll talk to you later.
Bye guys!
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