I’m often asked where I shop and where I buy certain specialty products that I have in recipes. Well, it isn’t a quick answer. We shop at a lot of places to find all the products and foods we need and to try and keep our costs down. I tried to break it down for you below as simply as I can. I hope you find this information useful in your clean eating and food shopping purchases. I’ve also detailed some of what I buy where.
In store purchases:
- Dekalb Farmer’s Market
- Large selection of organic and conventional produce
- Typically, the best prices on organic produce
- Great quality produce (usually not locally grown)
- What we buy here:
- Organic and conventional veggies (We buy as much organic as possible but some conventional too.)
- Organic and conventional fruits (They always have green and yellow plantains. All stores do not. I haven’t found organic plantains anywhere. )
- Numi Tea by the case
- Freshly made organic green juices
- Occasionally, baked goods made in house-gluten and dairy free muffins for my hubby and daughter
- Sparkling, flavored water
- Other miscellaneous items
- Whole Foods Market
- Excellent quality produce with a great organic selection
- A lot of their produce is locally grown.
- Typically, in our area, we find higher prices on produce and some other products here. However, as the saying goes, sometimes you get what you pay for. Their produce quality is great and paying a little more sometimes is worth it for the quality received.
- What we buy here:
- High quality grass fed, organic, pastured meats including beef, turkey, bison and fish
- Some organic and conventional produce
- Some organic and conventional frozen produce
- Miscellaneous specialty items such as pumpkin seed oil (use in my salads), my husband’s favorite barbecue sauce, organic jarred diced tomatoes, etc.
- Food off of their hot bar (instead of fast food) mainly for my husband and daughter about once a week; many stores have Paleo options on the hot bar now.
- Occasionally, we buy organic rotisserie chickens here.
- We use our Amazon credit card here and now get 5% cash back.
- They are planning to offer more incentives at Whole Foods to their Prime members too in the future. In case you didn’t know, Amazon owns Whole Foods now.
- Sprouts Farmer’s Market
- Great prices on organic produce that can compare to prices at Dekalb Farmer’s Market. The selection can be limited though.
- I’ve often told my husband that Sprouts is my BFF. I spend so much time at grocery stores. I’m often at Sprouts several times a week. We are lucky that it is very close to our house. It is convenient to run over and quickly pick up a few things.
- What we buy here:
- Good quality grass fed ground meat and roasts and organic chicken breast
- Great prices on other miscellaneous items in the store such as oils, palm shortening, tomato sauce, sunflower seed butter, tigernuts, etc.
- Pasture raised eggs and organic pasture raised eggs (they usually have the best prices for the brands we like: Vital Farms and Handsome Brook Farm)
- Healthy snacks such as sprouted pumpkin seeds, Lara Bars, RX bars, etc. (I shop around for best prices on bars.)
- Frozen organic fruit
- Organic frozen cauliflower rice
- Frozen Paleo pizza crusts
- Miscellaneous vitamins, supplements and personal products such as Inner Eco coconut water kefir water and Renew Life probiotics
- Trader Joe’s
- Good prices but limited selection of organic produce
- What we buy here:
- Precut butternut squash (conventional not organic but it is the best price I’ve found on cut butternut squash.)
- Organic frozen cauliflower rice
- Various nuts; My husband has a peanut allergy, and many bags of nuts give a warning that they may contain peanuts. Frankly, that means that they often contain fragments or peanut dust, which my husband and daughter cannot be exposed to at all. At Trader Joe’s most of their nuts don’t indicate this warning. Please eat them at your own risk depending on your allergies, but thus far my husband hasn’t run into cross contamination. So, my husband loves the pistachios and macadamia nuts from there.
- Lara Bars (I always shop around at multiple stores for these and buy them at the lowest and best price.)
- Flowers to buy for others (Gerber daisies are my favorite.)
- Publix or Kroger
- Limited organic produce. Prices can be favorable at times depending on items.
- We rarely shop at either store.
- What I buy:
- Plainville ground turkey from Publix
- Organic veggies or fruits
- Malk unsweetened almond milk only at Kroger
- I’ve recently learned that some Publix stores carry duck and quail eggs! I plan to try these soon.
6. Homegoods/TJ Maxx
- Snacks such as plantain chips (we only buy the ones with clean ingredients such as plantains and palm oil or the sweet plantain chips with cinnamon and palm oil with no added sugar. Artisan Tropic is a great brand to look for here when they have it. My husband also likes avocado oil potato chips, which we sometimes find there. They are still processed food, and I don’t recommend them for every day consumption. However, they are healthier potato chips when cooked with avocado or coconut oil instead of other inflammatory oils.
- Chosen Foods avocado oil
- other allergy friendly and healthy items
- Pink Himalayan Salt
Online shopping:
- Amazon www.amazon.com
- Largest selection of products. I feel like you can find anything and everything on Amazon. They don’t always have the best price, but the convenience and selection is unreal. I shop around and do my homework before making a purchase.
- We have Amazon Prime. It’s a service I’ve come to really love. I keep telling my husband that Amazon is taking over the world.
- What I buy here:
- Miscellaneous and unique food items such as oils, almond butters, flours such as tigernut flour, snacks such as Artisan Tropic chips and Wildway grain free granola (I price check first on these items.)
- Miscellaneous vitamins and probiotics
- Gifts
- A million other things!
- I use my Amazon credit card for all of my purchases, and they give 5% cashback. Woohoo!
- Vitacost www.vitacost.com
- I love Vitacost! The prices make me happy. I definitely believe we save money using this site. Their customer service has been excellent as well.
- Great prices for miscellaneous clean eating and clean living products, personal items, baby items and more
- Smaller selection than Amazon
- Free shipping on orders of $49 and up, usually 2-day shipping
- They have a lot of sales on top of their already great prices. I get emails it seems like weekly with a promotion. I try to take full advantage of the promotions and buy in bulk when I have a 20% coupon.
- What we buy here (non-perishable items):
- Miscellaneous home items such as clean dish washing detergents and organic white vinegar
- Miscellaneous snacks such as Larabars, RX bars (my husband loves these), tigernuts, and more (I always price check these.)
- Miscellaneous vitamins and supplements
- Miscellaneous oils, palm shortening, flours (Tigernut flour), sunflower seed butter, etc.
- Miscellaneous personal care items
- U.S. Wellness Meats https://grasslandbeef.com/
- High quality meats (grass fed, organic and pastured); another example of you get what you pay for, so you’ll pay higher than grocery store pricing for the meats.
- There is also a minimum order required.
- Grass fed burger patties, sausages, ground meat, roasts and more
- Their grass fed sirloin burgers and grass fed roasts are fantastic. My husband and daughter love the premade sausage sliders both pork and beef.
- Otto’s Naturals http://www.ottosnaturals.com/
- I typically buy Otto’s Cassava Flour direct. I’ve only found it priced better on Amazon once, and I purchased it there.
- I buy the 5 lb bag to save money per pound.
- They don’t charge a shipping fee.
Other online options we are currently not using:
- Butcher Box https://butcherbox.com
- High quality meat delivery (grass fed, organic, pastured)
- Nature’s Garden Express https://www.naturesgardenexpress.com/
- local and organic grocery delivery service in Atlanta and surrounding markets including Newnan, GA (check their site for your area) with local produce, high quality meats, and more
- Thrive Market https://thrivemarket.com
- This requires a membership, so I decided not to join since I’m an Amazon Prime Member. I did the free trial for a while though. They seem to have a good selection of products and prices.
I hope this gave you some insight into how and where we shop. My goal was to provide some possible new ideas for you for shopping and hopefully, provide some money saving advice too. Eating healthy can be hard and expensive at times, but it is worth it my friends! Trust me. Happy Shopping!