There was a time, in the not so distant past, when I really struggled with grocery shopping. I wanted to buy only organic fruits and vegetables, pasture-raised, hormone and antibiotic free meat, and speciality things found only in Whole Foods or Earth Fare. That sounds terrible, doesn't it (insert eye-roll here.) This is the way I want myself and my husband to live, eat, and fuel our bodies, however; we're not made out of money and I was spending approximately $800 a month on groceries for two people. Yep, you read that right. TWO PEOPLE. You're probably thinking, "girl, you were doing something wrong! You weren't cutting coupons or shopping the sales!" and to that I say to you, "I tried, I promise!" 

I stress (and still do) over what to do and how to fuel our bodies with affordable and sustainably farmed products. I struggle with the desire to eat only organic and hormone/anitbiotic free and paying the rent. If this is what you're feeling, look no further. I have a few tips and tricks for you to try when it comes to Healthy Grocery Ballin' on a Budget. I would like to say though that I am not an expert at this, at all. This is just what I've done to try to feed myself and my husband a good diet on a budget. And it's working.

A few tips to get you started: 

1. Start by asking yourself what is is you're trying to accomplish. Are you trying to eat more "whole foods," "real foods," less "is that actually a food, foods?" Determine what it is you're looking for in a grocery store and move on to step two. 
2. Pick out the items you are not willing to budge or compromise on. As you've seen in a previous post, I have a few essential wellness items that I won't replace: collagen, grass-fed butter, cashews, pasture-raised eggs, hormone and antibiotic free meat, etc. These, and a few others, are items I am not willing to give up or lower my standards for. Yours might be different and that's totally cool.
3. Find a local grocery store that runs pretty good sales and also stocks your speciality items. For me, I used to shop only at Earth Fare. They recently opened an Earth Fare about 5 minutes from my house so it was easy and quick and I knew all of the products I was buying there fit with my vision of how I wanted my husband and I to eat. Earth Fare has a pretty good organic produce selection, a stellar meat selection, and a beautiful Kombucha selection. BUT, it is very expensive, even when they run sales, it's expensive. So I had to get creative. I decided to try out Walmart's online grocery ordering service. 
4. Make a meal plan and a list and stick to it, no matter what. Even if you see something delicious on BOGO and you've never tried it before, don't buy it. You're trying to save money, remember? 

Now that I've given you my four simple tips to help save you money, let's talk about my Walmart online grocery shopping experience. 

To start, the one thing that really drew me to this idea was the fact that I could do all of my shopping from the website and then I just had to go pick it up. I did not have to step one foot inside of a Walmart and y'all, that's a blessing within itself. The website is pretty easy to navigate. I just typed in what I wanted to purchase and added it to my cart. The free Walmart Grocery App is even easier to navigate, just sayin'. My first order was placed on March 30th and I purchased bananas, apples, green beans, Kerrygold grass-fed butter, clementines, butternut squash, chicken thighs, and ground beef all for less than $60! This is what a normal weekly grocery haul looks like for me and it was about $40-$60 less than what I was spending elsewhere. My husband picked up our first order and reported that is was very simple: he arrived, called them to let them know he was there, they came out, loaded the car, and he left. So easy. I was very pleased with my groceries. I was a tad bit iffy about ordering produce but they seemed to do a pretty good job of picking out good looking bananas and apples. Overall, I was very pleased with my order so I decided to try it again, and again, and again. At this point, I've been placing weekly orders through the Walmart Grocery App for about 4 months now and I really like it. 

 Some of my favorite Walmart Grocery Products:

• Harvestland Chicken Thigh Filets, $10.20 (These are hormone and antibiotic free and they also have chicken breast and drumsticks.)

• Kerrygold Grass-Fed Salted Butter, $3.18

•  Wild Planet Wild Albacore Tuna, $2.96 (sustainably pole and line caught)

• Betterbody Foods naturally refined organic coconut oil, $7.56  

• Jif Natural Peanut Butter, $3.42 (only 5 ingredients for a great price)

• Aidell's Smoked Apple Chicken Sausage, $4.58 (A great Whole30 compliant staple!)

• LaCroix, 3.48 

• Green Giant frozen Riced Veggies, $2.48

• Victoria Trading Company Tomato Basil pasta sauce, $3.32 (delicious, Whole30 compliant, no sugar added pasta sauce!) 

• Barney Butter Bare Almond Buter, $6.88 (this is my favorite Almond butter!) 

• Nellie's Free Range Large Grade A Brown Eggs, 12 count, $4.24 (while these aren't my beloved Vital Farms eggs, if I'm in a pinch and I know I won't make it to Publix or Earth Fare, I will buy these to make it through, such a sacrifice--insert second eye-roll here.)

• Marketside Grass-Fed Ground Beef, $5.98

• Their organic produce selection is also pretty good.  

Some of my favorite Walmart Grocery Features:

• You can mark any product as a "favorite." So, if you're like me and tend to buy the same things each week, you can easily go to your favorites list and add things right from there, making shopping quick and easy.
• No excess or emotional shopping! I don't feel the urge to throw things into my cart when I'm online grocery shopping like I do when I'm in the store. I'm not talking myself into purchasing everything I see. 
• Free pick up. You call (or check in on the free Walmart Grocery app) when you arrive, they bring it out to you and they load your car. Easy and so convenient! 
• They will substitute any of your items for something similar. Note: You can choose what products you do and do not want substituted. For example, I would allow substitutes for coffee but I would not allow substitutes for my Kerrygold Grass-Fed butter because that is one of my "not willing to budge on" products. Another positive here is if what you added to your cart gets substituted and the only thing they have to substitute it with is a larger size of your product, you will receive it for the same price as the smaller size! Win. 

Now, let's get one thing out of the way, they do not have all of my speciality items available. I can't buy my Vital Proteins or my Tessemae's or my raw bulk cashews or my Rxbars here, but I've found ways around that. I use Amazon to purchase my speciality items that I can't find at Walmart and I do buy my Vital Farms eggs or anything else (Tessemae's) from Earth Fare, if needed. But all of my weekly shopping is done through the Walmart Grocery system. 

Using these grocery shopping tips combined with the Walmart Grocery ordering system, I went from spending roughly $800 a month on groceries to roughly $200-$300 a month! In the month of May, I fed myself and my husband for $215!  

If ordering your groceries through the Walmart Grocery ordering service sounds like something you're interested in, use this code http://r.wmt.co/fTqHt to get $10 off your first order! Note: make sure you click the link to receive your code.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about how I feed my family and stay Fully Well using my grocery buying tips and Walmart Grocery!  How do you save money and feed your family? I'd love to know! Leave a comment or shoot me a message! And don't forget to subscribe to stay up to date on all of my posts!

With love,

Emily

Note: This post was not sponsored by Walmart Grocery. I wrote this post because I really needed to save money on my groceries and found a way to do that and wanted to share it with you. I hope this helps you save money as well!