Tips for Saving Money at Whole Foods
About a month or so ago, I received an email from Whole Foods asking me about partnering together to create a one-week meal plan for me and Ryan that included two meals each day for the two of us for $125. (Full disclosure: I was provided a $125 gift card.) Since getting a little creative in the kitchen is one of my favorite things, I was more than game and immediately started brainstorming ideas for a healthy and delicious meal plan.
The first step in my meal plan journey involved attending a value tour at my local Whole Foods led by Jennifer, the regional marketing specialist at Whole Foods in Charlotte. Jennifer and I walked around the store and chatted for about an hour while she pointed out lots of money-saving tips and tricks.
Some key takeaways:
- Check the bimonthly Whole Deal brochure which features more than $45 of savings per issue on average (you can also find these coupons at www.wholefoodsmarket.com/coupons) and check out weekly sales fliers, One Day Sales and sale items throughout the store.
- Sign up for your local store’s newsletter and follow them on Facebook and Twitter to receive bonus coupons, budget-friendly recipes, and notices of sales and more.
- Shop seasonally.
- Cut costs, literally. If you need only half a cabbage, sandwich, chunk of cheese, fish fillet, loaf of fresh bread, etc., simply ask a team member to help you get (and pay for) only the amount you need.
- Utilize the bulk bins to buy as much or as little as you need.
- Check out the 365 Everyday Value line for hundreds of affordable organics, including peanut butter, organic frozen veggies, pasta, sauce, canned tomatoes, soups and more.
- Consider purchasing Value Packs to help you get fish and meat at a better price, and allow you to use only what you need.
- Look for budget-friendly pricing on lesser-known cuts such as boneless sirloin, flat iron steak or skirt steak.
- Receive discounted pricing on most items when you buy a full case.
- Make the most of your leftovers with the Whole Foods Market recipes app, which allows you to save recipes, create meal plans and shopping lists, view sales items at your local store and more.
When it was time for me to create my two-meals-a-day meal plan, I opted for breakfast and dinner since breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and dinner is often the meal that requires the most planning in our house. When I set out to do shopping for our meals, there were a few hiccups in my plan. My father-in-law was in town, so our dinners needed to be able to feed three people and I knew we’d likely be going out to dinner once or twice. Whole Foods wanted the meal plan to include two meals each day, but food I bought did cover breakfast, lunch and dinner for me and breakfast and dinner for Ryan. (Ryan actually did bring his lunch to work using food from our grocery haul a couple of times, but he also ate at his workplace cafeteria or out with coworkers during the week as well, so I’m not counting his lunchtime meals.)
And a few important notes: We went out to dinner twice during the week because we wanted to take my father-in-law out to some of our favorite local hotspots, so we did not consume two of the planned dinners on the “correct” days (Tuesday and Friday) but we ate the “dinners” for lunch for two of the days during the week. I hope this makes sense! The meal plan is just a guideline for our breakfasts and dinners, but I wanted to be sure to actually make and eat everything, too, which we did!
As I shopped for our food, I did a lot of price comparisons (buying in bulk ended up being the cheapest every time!) and clipped coupons to save money, like I usually do each week.
I was truly surprised when I went through the checkout line and only spent $69.76! I ended up going through the line again and picking up more food to use to get closer to the $125 total.
Our total for the week ended up being $115.20, but it did not include the jar of peanut butter I also used in the meal plan that we already had at home. (I figured being $10 under budget made up for the peanut butter since that would be an easy purchase within the budget.)
Here is what our one-week meal plan looked like:
- Breakfast: Tortilla topped with banana, peanut butter and cinnamon
- Dinner: Fish tacos with (frozen) mahi mahi, black beans, chopped romaine lettuce and pico de gallo
- Breakfast: Overnight oats made with oatmeal, Greek yogurt, honey and raw almonds
- Dinner: Turkey and ham rollups with romaine, tomatoes and pumpkin seeds, served with apple slices
- Breakfast: Cottage cheese topped with a sliced apple, cinnamon, almonds and pumpkin seeds
- Dinner: 365 Everyday Value whole wheat linguine with steamed spinach and 365 Everyday Value marinara, served with roasted broccoli
- Breakfast: Two waffles topped with a dippy egg and tomato slices, served with a plum on the side
- Dinner: Chopped salad with romaine, ham, tomatoes, black beans, edamame, wheat berries and pumpkin seeds
- Breakfast: Two waffles served with a cup of Greek yogurt
- Dinner: Baked chicken breasts with sweet potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts
- Breakfast: Three-minute egg white oatmeal, topped with chopped almonds
- Dinner: Crockpot lentil wheat berry soup <—We loved this soup!!!
Crockpot Lentil Wheat Berry Soup
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups dry lentils
- 3/4 wheat berries
- 6 cups reduced sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 sweet onion, roughly chopped
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper (depending on taste)
- 1/2 – 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (depending on taste)
Directions
- Combine all ingredients and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve and enjoy!
- Breakfast: Strawberry, mango and spinach smoothie
- Dinner: Leftover lentil and wheat berry soup
Giveaway
Now Whole Foods Market wants to give you guys a chance to shop at their store and create some healthy budget-friendly recipes.
FIVE readers will win a $25 gift card to Whole Foods!
To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post, telling me about some of your favorite Whole Foods finds!
I will randomly select five winners on Friday.
Good luck!
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I like the variety of food and the salad bar. It is refreshing to see so much healthy food!
I do my weekly grocery shopping at whole foods. What keeps me going back is the awesome cheese selection, great coffees and the bulk bins.
I love the 365 products and bulk bins!!
I was shocked that Kind Bars were a lot cheaper at Whole Foods than anywhere else (excluding the Kind website). I always stop by to pick them up when I’m in the area!
What’s not to love at Whole Foods? We live for their coffee beans (and cookie bar station). I also love their flowers!
It’s a pretty amazing store. The best cheese selection and bulk bins hands down. Love it!
I love their hot/cold bar. As well as their desserts, they have this delicious sea salt carmel chocolate cake. They also have great meat substitutions for vegetarians! So many yummy foods!
I love the bulk bins!
I love whole foods brand organic peanut butter!
Love the bulk bins- like when I tried another one of your wheat berry recipes and couldn’t find them at my regular grocery store! Its nice to grab a small amount of stuff to try.
The Health Starts Here products and the Salad bar are to die for!
Thanks for hosting this giveaway, Julie! I do a ton of shopping at Whole Foods, so I’ll try to narrow down the list of favorites…
Hmm…I really like their juice bar, and the Green Lemonade is probably my favorite juice of all time, so refreshing.
I also love that they sell some cool local finds; for one, the Atlanta Fresh greek yogurt. I know it is available more widely now, but when it was first introduced, I discovered it at Whole Foods. I would think they sell it at the ones in Charlotte, since you are so close to Atlanta? The Vanilla Caramel flavor is amazing.
This last one is kinda random, but one of my staple purchases is the 365 Brand Organic Chicken Broth. I love making soups, and this one doesn’t have any of the odd flavors or aftertastes that most boxed/canned/purchased stocks have.
The best find at Whole Foods are their artichokes! Those things are like the size of my head!
Whole Foods is just so yummy, although I know it’s not cheaper than the Sprouts that I usually shop at. It’s definitely a regular stop for me to pick up produce and a few other basics when they’re on sale!
I LOVE Whole Foods!!! My all time favorite things are the summer kale salad and tuna Fuji apple salad- both in the prepared food section. I also love stocking up on the 365 brands canned beans and soups and their frozen pizzas.
I love the freshly ground nut butters!!!!!! And the hot bar always blows my mind with all the unique and delicious creations!
The bulk bins are awesome for oatmeal and nuts. Also love the fresh nut butters and salad bar!
Hands down, the bulk bins! And the cookies from the deli;)
I love the Whole Foods cheese and wine aisle, but the thing I love most their is the olive bar. I buy peppadew peppers from there to make my husband’s favorite dish: http://twoforksonelove.com/the-chicken/
I love their coconut oil and almond butter!
I LOVE their produce (they have the best fresh fruit!) & of course their hot bar & salad bar!
I love going to Whole Foods for lunch and getting a smorgasbord of food from the hot bar! Besides the hot bar, my favorite thing to do is make my own nut butters.
I have never been there. I hope that is an okay answer 🙂
I love their fresh produce!
Whole foods is my home away from home. Love their salmon burgers!
So funny that you posted this because I just recently found a whole foods store close to my (small) town and am planning a grocery stop there soon! So, I don’t know what my favorite products from there are just yet, but from reading other comments, the freshly ground nut butters sound like they’re right up my alley! 🙂 Can’t wait to go!
I love the bulk bins!
I love Whole Foods! One of my many faves there, the all natural Italian pomegranate soda, YUM! We also love the Angus beef and cheddar burgers as well as the sea scallops.
I love their hot and cold ready-made food selections. So delicious!
I always buy the bag of 4 avocados from whole foods, and I LOVE their cilantro pesto tofu.
I love Whole Foods so so much. I love the hot bar and the olive bar. Plus all of the soups. And the cookie bar.
Can’t go to Whole Foods without hitting up the cookie bar.
I am a dried fruit and nut junkie, so I LOVE their bulk goods section. Their chocolate selection isn’t two shabby either 🙂
I love the bulk bins at whole foods!
Love WF!! They have the best produce!
I would have to say the bulk bins are great for grains and seeds and such. Also, Whole Foods is one of the few stores that I’ve been able to find the Gin Gins Ginger Chews.. so addictingly good!
We love the freshly ground peanut butter!
I love all of the nut butters!
I love their vegan general Tso’s and the peanut butter dipped pretzels!
Hot bar is a fun “date night” with our family
I absolutely adore the bulk bins. I also like to buy a lot of their store brand dry goods: pasta, beans, lentils, and the organic pasta sauce (my favorite!). I also find the frozen veggies to be extremely affordable. Cheaper to buy organic here than the local grocery store.
I’ve never actually been to Whole Foods and I’d love to try it out!
Our local whole foods has cold pressed juices which are fantastic! We stopped by one weekend afternoon and sampled all of them 🙂 Best. Day. Ever.
I love the bulk bins for nuts and dried fruit! Especially dried mango!
I love the bulk bins…I will drive out of my way to go to one that has them!
Love Whole Foods! We always stop and get some fresh fruit when we’re traveling so we have healthy options in the car with us. Of course we usually pick up a cookie or two also…
After living in Africa and loving eating at Nandos, I was pumped to find Nandos peri peri sauce at a Whole Foods!
Whole Foods is my go-to place for buying brown rice syrup and coconut oil! Great deals on great items.
I love their fresh produce! And their chocolate chip cookies, of course 🙂 All about balance, right??
We finally just got a Whole Foods in our area this year! Love the bulk bins and the awesome 5 for $25 meat deal they offer!
What’s not to love. LOVE their variety of nut butters, dark chocolates, and the bulk bins 😀