Are Fruits & Vegetables Really Expensive?

I hear it a lot. “Eating healthy is expensive.” While it might not be as cheap as scoring free boxes of a convenience food, purchasing produce is essential to a well-balanced diet which can keep you away from the doctor’s office and save you costly copays.

Everyone knows that eating fruits and vegetables is good for you. I am not telling you anything you don’t already know. But, is it really as expensive as you think?

I want you to pull out your most recent receipt from the grocery store. Look at it and mark the most expensive items on it. Look for waste. What were those impulse buys that snuck their way into your cart?

Then, think about your purchases as a whole. Where did you spend the most money? Was it the produce department? The meat department? The snack aisle?

Hopefully, what you will realize is that shopping is all about choices. If I walk into a grocery store and notice a pounder bag of potato chips on sale for $3.00, I can choose to toss it into the buggy or I can browse the produce section for in-season items that will be at a low price and use that same $3.00 to purchase 2 pounds of grapes or 3 bags of carrots.

In all honesty, sometimes… I buy the chips. What can I say?I like my salty snacks. But, in hindsight, I realize how much further my money would have gone if I had made a different choice.

Are you making the best choices possible with what you have to spend?