Saving Money and Eating Healthy In the Winter With No Coupons

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Are you trying to save money while still eating healthy foods in the wintertime? Here are some simple ways to do that!

Fresh food on a wooden table with snow in the windows in the background.

Saving Money and Eating Healthy in the Winter

I’ll admit that one of my “go-to” sayings is that if you want to eat healthier and save money, you should grow a garden.

While I believe that anyone can grow a garden no matter where they are or what their climate is, it’s hard (or impossible) to grow all of the foods that your family would eat year-round, especially if you have to garden indoors in the winter.

My family eats a pretty healthy diet. We enjoy fresh veggies and fruits, pasta, stir fries, and meat. Because of many different allergies, we can usually not eat processed foods.

That can make it hard on a budget.

This is a long post so if you don’t have time to read it, here are the main points.

  • Create meals and snacks from scratch.
  • Buy inexpensive ingredients.
  • Make simplistic meals.
  • Start a price book and only buy when the unit price goes below your “buy price.”
  • Buy from a co-op or a bulk store.
  • Can in the summer to be ready for the long winter.
  • Buy in season.
  • If you cannot buy in-season, buy frozen.
  • Buy cheaper cuts of meat and watch the markdown section.
  • Prepare food ahead of time, and make a few freezer meals.

Keep reading below for all of the details on how to really dive in and save money on food in the winter!

Homemade Saltine Crackers

Make Your Own

Or at least that’s what I always thought before doing the math. When I started making my own crackers, I did the math and figured a typical box of crackers from the store costs at least $2- $3. And if I had a coupon and got lucky, I might be able to get them for $1 a box.

Even with the more expensive flour I buy I figured that my saltine crackers cost less than .25 to make. And the cheese crackers cost about .75 – $1 to make depending on what I can get cheese for.

That’s a nice little savings, and I get a healthier product(and, in my opinion, yummier!). So if I generally buy 2 boxes of saltines and 3 boxes of cheese crackers each month, I’m saving about $7.25 a month, just on crackers, by making them myself.

That’s just one thing I’m saving on, but that a tiny thing I save money on saves me $87 a year.

Cookbook

Stop Relying on Fancy Cookbooks

When you start cooking from scratch, resist the urge to pick up a cooking magazine. Start with a church cookbook or an Amish cookbook. They tend to have simple recipes with inexpensive ingredients.

You can make healthy and nourishing dishes that are inexpensive and simple. All of my recipes in my ebooks, Frugal Gluten Free, 30 Days of Skillet Meals, 10 Minute Meals, Make Your Own Mixes, and in my paperback book, Little House Living, contain easy to find, inexpensive ingredients as well.

Price book

Make a Price Buy Book

Another way to save more money on groceries in the winter is to start a price book.

Write down the prices of items that you normally purchase. Write down the regular price and a price it generally goes on sale for. Write down how large the item is in terms of weight or units. When you are purchasing groceries, don’t think so much about the price of the item; think of the unit price. When an item goes on sale for less than the sale price that you have written down, buy it and stock up.

I have free printable price book pages in my Everything You Need to Know About Buying in Bulk article.

Bulk Food in galss jars.

Shop for Bulk Foods

Occasionally, the sales are hard to come by at the regular grocery store. They might not have something you need or there may not be any good prices. Something that’s a big part of our budget is buying from our co-op and buying in bulk.

You don’t need to be a part of a co-op to buy in bulk; you could also look for a Sam’s Club or Costco or whatever bulk store is in your area.

I utilize Costco when I can, but buy most of my bulk foods from Azure Standard. Grab my cheat sheet here on how to get the best deals from Azure.

I buy organic whole chickens at Costco for $2.29/lb. There are two chickens per bag. I go home and cut them up immediately in the following: 2 bags of 2 chicken quarters, 2 bags of 2 chicken breasts, 1 bag of 4 tenders (you can make this 6 if you have huge chicken breasts). Then I boil all leftover bones (except back bone). I let cool then pull off all chicken in pieces and use in meals like chicken spaghetti or stir fry. So for about $20, I made two whole chickens into 6 meals all for less than $3.50 a meal!

Erin, Little House Living reader
Canned apple pie filling in jars.

Make Your Own Canned Goods

Another BIG part of our food and what we eat is produced by home canning. I have no need to purchase jams, soups, pizza sauce, salsa, BBQ sauce or even fruits from the grocery store.

Canning and preserving is becoming more popular lately so it’s a little difficult to find canning supplies at the moment. Here’s Where to Find Jar Lids right now.

And I know that canning is mostly summer/fall, but you do it in the summer so you can have fresh food in the winter that you don’t have to pay for. I have a few how to canning and preserving videos on YouTube and hope to add more this summer, so if you haven’t done it before but you’d like to learn, it will be a great time.

Fresh Frugal Turnips

Shop Fresh in Season

Ok ok, I know what you are thinking. That’s all fine and great for next year and next summer but right now it’s winter and I’m hungry for healthy, fresh, cheap food.

Personally, I don’t pay any more for fresh veggies and fruit in the winter than I do in the summer. The key is to buy in season!

Watch for those things to go on sale throughout the month. As much as you want fresh strawberries in December, it’s just not the smartest thing to buy. Apples and oranges will be around $1 a pound in December, whereas Strawberries will run around $5 or much more per pound.

If you really want that specific fruit or veggie, buy it frozen. Frozen product is much healthier for you than canned because it’s frozen at it’s peak freshness. I love strawberries but I won’t pay $5 a pound for them. I will pay less than $1.75 a pound, which is what I can get them for frozen.

This list of Frugal Vegetables that you can buy year-round might also be helpful for your planning. I also have a list of the Cheapest Groceries at the store.

Salad greens pretty much stay at a constant price year round and if you have Aldi they are always a great price there. Bags of baby spinach are $1.69 and romaine hearts 3 packs are 1.99. A package of each makes a large daily salad for hubby and me. Raw spinach is a nutrient powerhouse and we try to eat it daily.

Lana, Little House Living reader
Vegetable Soup in a white bowl with a spoon.

Go Meatless on Occasion

I mentioned in a comment on the site before that we are not vegetarians, but we do not eat meat for at least 2 meals a week. This is a big cost-saver since meat is so expensive. At this time, we buy all of our meat in bulk.

We eat a lot of meat since it’s one of my hubby’s things, but I have noticed that including less meat in the meals is a money saver. So, if I’m going to make chicken and rice, I use less chicken (maybe a half pound instead of a whole pound) and include frozen veggies as supplements in the rice. Hubby eats his veggies and we save money!

Heather, Little House Living reader
Chicken drumsticks in the crockpot.

Find Markdowns and Cheaper Foods

Something I used to do when I was in the grocery store was to check the mark-down bins to find cheap meats that were close to their sell-by date. I just stick them right in the freezer when I get home. You can also try to stick with the inexpensive cuts of meat, and you won’t really feel like you’re sacrificing anything.

If you can barely afford to buy chicken breast, instead, go for legs or thighs. When I get the more inexpensive cuts, I cook it all up in the crockpot, use some for the current meal I’m making, and stick the rest in the freezer. Ready to go for the next meal.

Soup is one of my biggest money-savers in winter. I live in California, so getting fresh produce cheap isn’t as much of a problem for me, but we still have limitations. I use the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey bones to make stock and freeze it, and use it to make a ton of soup over the winter.

Also, I love dollar stores. I go to our local 99 cent store when they stock on Tuesdays, and they often have really great stuff like organic Romaine hearts, portobella mushrooms, half and half, eggs, mangos, red bell peppers, etc. that would all be pricey in regular stores. It’s almost all name-brand stuff that other stores just didn’t have room for. They also have a great brand of bread that is tastier than most store-bought bread. You obviously have to be choosy in dollar stores, but it’s almost always worth a trip.

Ella, Little House Living reader
Frozen beans in a bag.

Cook for Later

Think about cooking for the future. I’m not a freezer cooker. I’d love to be, but I don’t have the time or space. However, I do like to challenge myself to have at least one meal in the freezer at all times.

We tend to slip up on our food budget when we get hungry but feel too tired to cook. It’s so much more tempting to just stop at the grocery store or stop at a fast food place and grab a meal. If you can, take part in one day out of each week and create some things for food for the week. Make bread, crackers, and some snacky things; then you don’t have to worry about it throughout the week.

For the one extra freezer meal, don’t stress about making special time to make the meal. While you are cooking during the week, just make a double batch of something you are cooking and just put it in the freezer. No extra fuss and no extra mess.

Bulk apples in a box.

I hope this helps and gives you some healthy grocery shopping tips for the winter that you may not have considered before!

Meal Planning Made Simple

Do any of my readers have any other tips? How do you shop and try to be eating healthy in the winter without coupons?

Me and Kady

Merissa Alink

Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.

This article on Eating Healthy in the Winter was originally written on Little House Living in January 2011. It has been fully updated as of January 2024.

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19 Comments

  1. Salad greens pretty much stay at a constant price year round and if you have Aldi they are always a great price there. Bags of baby spinach are $1.69 and romaine hearts 3 packs are 1.99. A package of each makes a large daily salad for hubby and me. Raw spinach is a nutrient powerhouse and we try to eat it daily.

  2. Soup is one of my biggest money-savers in winter. I live in California, so getting fresh produce cheap isn’t as much of a problem for me, but we still have limitations. I use the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey bones to make stock and freeze it, and use it to make a ton of soup over the winter.

    Also, I love dollar stores. I go to our local 99 cent store when they stock on Tuesdays, and they often have really great stuff like organic Romaine hearts, portobella mushrooms, half and half, eggs, mangos, red bell peppers, etc. that would all be pricey in regular stores. It’s almost all name-brand stuff that other stores just didn’t have room for. They also have a great brand of bread that is tastier than most store-bought bread. You obviously have to be choosy in dollar stores, but it’s almost always worth a trip.

  3. Great article again Merissa Thank you

    We are doing fairly well at budgeting but still eating well… and so far its going ok… will have to get more fresh produce end of this week or beginning of next but spent….. 120.00 in one week :S not good, normally we are at about 45-50 a week lol so if i am gong to stick to this i need to be strict lol

    1. It takes work to switch over to a more frugal food budget and I don’t think it can happen overnight because then you are left feeling deprived. Take it one step at a time and you will get there!

  4. We eat a lot of meat since it’s one of my hubby’s things, but I have noticed that including less meat in the meals is a money saver. So, if I’m going to make chicken and rice, I use less chicken (maybe a half pound instead of a whole pound) and include frozen veggies as supplements in the rice. Hubby eats his veggies and we save money!

  5. When Kroger puts their organic greens on clearance I blanch them in organic vegetable broth (bought on sale) then freeze them in cubes with the broth. I can then use them in soups all winter long. I get the benefits of organic really cheap.

  6. I buy organic whole chickens at Costco for $2.29/lb. There are two chickens per bag. I go home and cut them up immediately in the following: 2 bags of 2 chicken quarters, 2 bags of 2 chicken breasts, 1 bag of 4 tenders (you can make this 6 if you have huge chicken breasts). Then I boil all leftover bones (except back bone). I let cool then pull off all chicken in pieces and use in meals like chicken spaghetti or stir fry. So for about $20, I made two whole chickens into 6 meals all for less than $3.50 a meal!

  7. I have an awesome canner. A few years ago I bought a stove and found out too late I can’t can on it. Help!! I really want to can!! Any ideas?

      1. We got an induction stove top burner recently and it awesome! We are able to pressure can and water bath and it is SO Fast and Efficient. About $70 w/ free shipping on Amazon, fantastic investment.

  8. I like to stretch meat by adding beans. Lentils in tacos, red beans in chili, i even found a recipe for cannellini beans in quesadillas, and they were really good. I cook a whole lot of them at once and then freeze flat in ziploc bags. They fit better in the freezer and it’s easy to break off a small bit to add to anything.

  9. I can’t eat beans but I can have mushrooms, so I use them a lot for things like this. Tacos, spaghetti sauce, pretty much anything that they can bulk out.

    1. I use mushrooms to bulk up ground beef dishes. My boys would always request extra “meaty” spaghetti sauce and the like. I had some mushrooms to use up and decided to chop up in the food processor and add to half the amount of hamburger I would normally use for sauce. They were never the wiser and actually raved about the “meaty” sauce 🙂