The Whole Deal

We've come a full-geographic circle in this week's blog posts:

• Monday's 10 money-saving tips came from the blog Summer Tomato out of San Francisco,
• Tuesday's cash-strapped-student tips came from UK blog Beyond Baked Beans, and on
• Wednesday, I featured 11 terrific tips from Table Talk, written by two Australian food writers.

Today, I'm back on U.S. soil featuring Whole Foods Market's blog, The Whole Deal an online forum where customers of Whole Foods share their tips for saving money on their groceries and tricks for preparing low-cost healthy meals.

Here are just a few of the tips posted on The Whole Deal:

1. Amanda: As a single professional, I recommend cooking a meal big enough for 4-6 then eating the leftovers as brown-bag lunches. And use ingredients from WF's bulk section; they're great value!
   
2. Emily: Spaghetti is a great low-cost meal to make. It's even more low cost when you make you're own tomato sauce with .... (check out her recipe under The Whole Deal)
3. Renee: For healthy snacks, the kids love to make their own dips using yogurt as the base or avocado. And to dip, we make sweet potato or regular potato, baking them in the oven with a little oil till they're crisp.
4. Naomi: I'm saving money by drinking more water instead of bottled juices and or milk with meals and snacks.
5. Lyn: My husband and I are eating out less, but for a treat we buy ready-made snacks at Whole Foods, perhaps a beverage and a dessert. We take these treats home and make a meal -- and it's less than a meal out!
6. Liz: Everyone knows not to grocery shop when you're hungry! But sometimes it's not possible, so if I'm hungry when I go to WFs to shop, I stop and get something at the hot food or salad bar since I know it's healthy, good food.
7. Kristen: There are great brand name products in the middle aisles of WFs that I love, like, Amy's, Ezekiel- Food for Life, Kashi. I save money on these brands by sending emails to the manufactures and requesting coupons!
8. Holly: During these economic times, people fill their shopping carts with cheap junk food just to fill up their bellies. But junk food is full of "junk" and you just end up eating more to fill up. Save money eating fruit and veggies, they fill your belly cost-effectively and are healthy.
9. Karen: My money-saving tip is to buy only what you need for the week. I plan my week's meals based on what produce and money-saving deals are available at Whole Foods.
10. Viv: My husband and are carnivores, but meat is expensive. We stretch our meat dollars by adding beans and grains using a 50 / 50 ratio, which cuts our meat bill in half! Casseroles, pasta, rice and veggies stretch chicken, tuna and cubed beef much further.
    

If you have money-saving tips you want to share, visit The Whole Deal and participate in this terrific community forum.