Is Juicing For Health Expensive? 16 Tips To Slash Your Juicing Bill.

Juicing is possibly one of the healthiest things you can incorporate into your diet. Adding massive amounts of vitamins and nutrients into your diet from real food can never be a bad thing.

Whether you are adding a juice here and there or doing a complete juice cleanse, some people find it hard to keep up with the extra cost of juicing for health. Let’s be honest, if you want to juice, then you’re going to need a lot more fruits and veggies.

If you’re here, then you probably already believe in the benefits of juicing for health, but just want to find out how to cut the cost a bit.

Let’s jump into my top 16 tips to slash your juicing bill in half.

1. Buy A Used Juicer To Slash Your Juicing Bill

There are 2 main kinds of juicers out there, centrifuge and masticating juicers. Centrifuge juicers use blades to cut up your produce and spin your juice through a strainer. Masticating juicers chew up your produce and squeeze the juice out.

Centrifuge juicers are cheaper, extract faster, but don’t get as much juice out of your produce. Masticating juicers are more expensive, take a little longer to juice, more chances of getting clogged, but they get more juice out of your produce.

The good news is that there are a lot of good quality used juicers out there. We found our Breville centrifuge juicer on KSL (for Utahns) for $50 that is $150 brand new. Jennifer has a kick butt Omega 8003 masticating juicer that she found out a great price that she loves.

2. Buy In Season To Slash Your Juicing Bill

When fruits and veggies are in season they are often much cheaper making this a great way to save on your juicing bill. For example, during winter, strawberries can get to $5/lb while in the summer I’ve seen them for less than $1/lb! Plus, when you buy veggies and fruits in season they taste a lot better and usually have more nutrients.

3. Buy Local at Farmer’s Markets, CSAs, and Pick Your Own Farms

When you buy local produce you’re not only helping out your local economy but you’re saving money on juicing for health. The produce you’re buying is usually freshly picked, which have more nutrients, and they don’t travel thousands of miles which saves on cost.

Plus you’re able to ask all your nosy questions about the farming technique that was used. Many farmer’s could be considered “organic” but simply don’t want to bother with or can’t afford the government label.

The internet is your best friend when you’re trying to find these services. Pick Your Own Farms can be a lot of fun if you have little ones and want to teach them about where their food comes from.

4. Make A Shopping List

First, look up the produce sales for that week. Jump on Pinterest and you can find a bazillion juicing recipes you want to try with that produce, or check out my favorite juice recipes. Then write down all the fruits and veggies from those recipes you will need for the week.

This way you don’t buy too many of one thing, and have to throw it away because it spoils before you get a chance to throw it in the juicer. Trust me, it’s easy to buy too much which only increases your juicing bill. Not ideal am I right?.

5. Plant A Garden for Juicing For Health

Planting and harvesting your own garden is definitely a lot more work than buying it, but it’s much cheaper. A garden is a great way to teach your kiddos where their food comes from, and harvesting can be a fun activity to do together. I love those pictures of the kids eating fruits and veggies straight off the plant and are covered in dirt.

6. Juice More Veggies Than Fruits

Fruits are almost always going to be more expensive than veggies. Try to juice mostly veggies and throw in a fruit just to add a little more flavor and sweetness. This will cut down on the sugar content of your juice too if you’re concerned about that.

7. Buy Lasting Produce

I feel like my cucumbers start to get slimy the moment I put them in the bag at the store. But a beet will last for months at a time. This article has a great printable about how long produce lasts.

This is where making a grocery list becomes important. I can’t tell you how much produce I threw away the first time I did a juice cleanse because I bought way too much, and didn’t plan out my meals. My juicing bill was ridiculous as a result.

8. Don’t Buy Organic, At Least Not All Organic

I’m all about buying organic, but sometimes it’s just not reasonable. Standing in the produce aisle and having to choose between the same type of apples that are $2.50/lb or $.60/lb is just ridiculous. Some produce hardly requires any pesticides anyway.

If you are doing a juice cleanse to get rid of toxins, then you don’t want to introduce pesticides into your system. Just do what you can and try sticking to the buying organic from the dirty dozen list and don’t stress about the rest.

9. Buy Low Priced Staple Produce

Some produce is dirt cheap to buy and fortunately are the base of your juices. Celery, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, spinach, apples, pears, citrus, and melons are usually pretty cheap especially when they are in season and will help you save on your juicing bill. We can buy a 25 lb bag of carrots for $15 at our local Sprouts.

10. Use Frozen Fruits and Veggies When Juicing For Health

If the produce you are wanting isn’t in season, and the fresh stuff is uber expensive, another option is to buy frozen fruit. Many companies will flash freeze their produce. Usually this is done relatively soon after being picked and has many of their nutrients preserved.

Just make sure that you let your produce thaw before throwing it into the juicer.

11. Buy In Bulk/Talk To Produce Manager

When produce is abundant, farmers want to get rid of their produce. The more you buy, the happier they are so they don’t have to throw away spoiled produce. Go ahead and chat it up with your farmer and see what deals you can come up with.

I’m not ambitious enough, but I’ve heard of some people getting discounts at the grocery store after talking to the produce manager about buying in bulk. Once again, they are more than happy to get rid of their produce before it spoils and you save on your juicing bill.

12. Cut Back On Other Food You Don’t Need/Don’t Eat Out

For the first time ever, Americans are spending more on eating out than on groceries. Think of the money you usually spend eating out in a week and put that money toward healthy produce.

Next time you go grocery shopping, tally up what you spend on cookies, chips, candy, snacks, drinks, and any other “extra” food you buy at the store. You might be surprised at how much you can save. For me, most of that extra food is usually junk food that is making me fat and I don’t need it.

13. Keep Discarded Parts of Fruits and Veggies

Many fruits and veggies have parts that are discarded after preparing them. Stuff like apple cores, pineapple cores, cucumber ends, and broccoli stems usually end up in the trash. Save those odds and ends in a sack to throw in your juicer after. If you’re planning on doing a full on juice cleanse, then you can save it in your freezer.

14. Use the Pulp in Other Food

I feel a little bad about this one. I haven’t experimented with doing special stuff with the pulp and usually ends up in the trash. The pulp is full of nutritious fiber that can be used for many different things. Check out these 20 smart uses for leftover pulp.

If you’re doing a juice cleanse, then this won’t be an option right away because you’re giving your gut a rest from digesting all the fiber. Throw it in the freezer to save it for later.

15. Use Produce that Gives Lots of Juice

I remember that I really wanted to try a certain recipe that called for a mango. First of all, mangoes are TERRIBLE to chop up. Second, after I finally chopped it all up and put it through the juicer, it only gave me a tablespoon of juice. Not worth it if you ask me… plus it was expensive.

Some produce is pretty much only for taste while others are for actually making enough juice for a meal.

If you’re looking to really save money, use produce that will give you a lot of juice. Use veggies like celery, cucumber, carrots, beets, big leafy greens. We like to use fruits like apples, pears, melons, grapes, and pineapple to name a few.

16. My New Favorite – Produce Couponing!

Before we switched over to real food, we took up couponing. Of course, those coupons are 99% for processed food and never for fruits and veggies.

I’ve recently discovered that there are all kinds of free apps for produce couponing. See what’s available that meets you needs to save even more  money on your juicing bill.

We add a juice a couple of times a week into our diet and do a full 7 day juice cleanse at least once a year (except now that I’m pregnant). We see benefits from juicing such as:

• Stubborn pounds coming off
• Healthier skin, hair, and nails
• Less pain from arthritis
• Disappearance of your craving for junk food
• Better mental focus
• More energy
• Better management of chronic disease
• Help reverse “uncurable” diseases, such as allergies, eczema, ADD, and even cancer.

There is a right, and a wrong way to do a juice cleanse. Make sure you have all the information you need to do a juice cleanse the right way.

Don’t have time to make your own juices? Simply don’t want to? Still interested in getting all the health benefits from juicing?

I HIGHLY recommend you look at Your Super! They have the cleanest, most nutrient dense powders. Their 5 Day Detox plan is the best I have ever tried!