I often get asked if my weekly food bill has increased since I changed my diet and started including heaps more fresh veg and fruit into my diet. The short answer is yes…BUT there is a BUT in it too. There are tips and tricks to becoming a savvy healthy grocery shopper. Once you learn those tips and tricks, your food bill comes down again to a level which is more than manageable. One of my tips is to buy some of your food from bulk bins. For example, instead of buying a packet of quinoa in the aisles of your supermarket buy your quinoa from the bulk bins. You won’t be paying for pretty packaging and it will be much cheaper. I often buy most of my nuts, beans, oats, quinoa, popcorn kernels and lentils from the bulk bins. Go on…try it, it’s well worth it! Those bins don’t bite you know! 🙂
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Hi Samantha, when you say bulk bins, where do you mean? The bulk bins in the supermarket? Do you know if places like bulk bin shops (don’t want to name the specific one in Chch) are the same quality?
Hi Emily. When I refer to bulk bins, I mean any place where you can scoop your nuts/seeds etc out of a bin and you are not paying for pretty packaging. So yes, the supermarket has bulk bins ‘Alisons Pantry’ and places like Liberty Market on Fitzgerald Ave have very big bulk bins. The bulk bins at Liberty Market will be organic, whereas Alisons Pantry won’t be, so depends if you want organic or not. But you will be surprised as to how much you can save when you buy your grains/nuts/seeds in bulk rather than small packets from the supermarket. Hope that helps!