Hi there and welcome to the digestive health for women podcast. The show that teaches you how to nurture your gut on your host. Ashley StClair owner and holistic nutritionist at wellness with Ashley today, we're going to talk about having quality foods on a budget. Let's get started.

Okay. So, let's talk about my favorite ways to save money while still eating healthy. So, when I think about eating healthy, there is a scale, a good, better best. So right now, if you think about your diet, A good place to start is making sure you're eating a whole food. You have been everything kind of from the outside of the grocery aisle.

You're cutting down on your hydrogenated oils, such as margarine and, um, canola oil. You are using butter. You. Are making sure that you're staying away from fried food as much as possible. He might not be eating out as often. Those sorts of things are good. Now better, you're still sourcing your food at the grocery store and maybe you've switched your produce to organic or the dirty dozen over to organic, or you have chosen to buy grass fed or pasture raised meat or organic milk.

So, these are all things that are better. They're just a step up. No best is what I think of when there's unlimited resources, such as time, money, and everything that you could possibly want is right there. Very hard for most people. So that would be where the best would be having a relationship with a local farmer or rancher.

And you're sourcing your meat products from them. You've got your local organic farmer, or you are sourcing your vegetables and fruits from them. And you, if you choose to drink milk, you've got like a wrong milk. Farmer. That's hard because where I am, you must drive an hour to two hours out of the city to find the farmers, to find the ranchers.

And sometimes just time is difficult to come by because that's a day trip out of the city to purchase all these things and then come back and produce will go bad quicker than the meat that you can freeze in me. Keep for a longer period. So, when we look at food and eating healthy, good is great.

And we're always kind of striving for best, but there's a lot of gray area in between where you can make good choices and better choices throughout. So, let's talk about ways that you can eat healthy on that. Good, better, best scale while not breaking the bank. Okay, so let's talk about meat first. My favorite place to go for both organic produce and for grass fed or pasture is meats is all di I find very well sourced meat products there.

And. The meat that I can buy it all D is sometimes limited due to their selection. And sometimes I do end up having to go to another store, which, you know, it can be difficult, but. I have found that all these, uh, pasture raised chicken is good and quality meat and the price per pound is significantly less than my local Kroger or sprouts or especially whole foods.

So, it is definitely a great place to find grass fed or pasture-raised meats as well as their organic produce is, is good. So, another option is buying in bulk. So, if you have a Sam's or a Costco near you, you could buy in bulk and then portion everything out and put it in treat deep freeze. If you have it or just using your fridges freezer, this is a great option if you like having things on hand, but.

You don't really want to have to source fresh every week or every few days. This is also great. If you can catch something on sale. So, if you can find grass fed ground beef, that's an awesome time to buy what you can afford and the space that you have and stock up on it. So that way, when it is more expensive, you don't need to buy it.

You have some in the freezer. Speaking of the freezer. Another option that might be overlooked frequently is frozen fruits and veggies. So, these are great options because they're harvested at peak in their season. And then a lot of times they're flash frozen. And so, it helps retain most of the nutrients and they're in season.

They haven't had to. Be shipped from anywhere out of country, typically because sometimes our growing seasons are different and they're an easy, because they don't go bad on you as quickly. So, if you want frozen mangoes, you can buy organic, frozen Mingo slices or chunks for your freezer. And then when you want them, you can.

Follow them out, throw them in a smoothie, enjoy them without maybe like half a mango going bad. So, these are a great option. If you like the frozen veggie and fruit texture and their flavor, another option. Is growing your own produce. So, if you're on my mailing list, you know that I talked about my winter garden this year, and I only grow things that we'll eat.

A lot of times we have an overabundance, and we may pickle the, um, jalapenos or gift produce to people will, can tomato sauce or make our own salsa. I use the onions throughout the year. My dad taught me how to, um, like dry them out, kind of, and make them more shelf stable. So, I have onions from April still because they are still good.

And they came straight from my garden. I know exactly what was sprayed onto them, which was nothing. I know the fertilizer that I used. I know the dirt that we have. You can grow your own and know exactly what has been put into the produce. This is also nice because when you get too many jalapenos, like we got this year, I was giving them away to friends who appreciate them.

I also was slicing in pickling. And canning them. So, we have jalapenos for well over a year. So, they're also great when you have too many tomatoes to throw into the salsa. Now, my winter garden with the carrots and the broccoli and the cauliflower and the spinach, the romaine lettuce, I make sure we use those things that saves us quite a bit of money.

When I get three, four desks. Carrots because our carrots grow well here. I'll pick them and or pull them out of the ground and we'll have, um, throw them into stews. Chop them up and put them in salads, great them and put them into carrot cake. You name it. We will use it. We have so many that typically the kids will pick several for the reindeer at Christmas time, which is always exciting.

So, growing your own produce can be very empowering as well as a money saving. Seeds are rather cheap. They're easy to get started. And like I said, you know exactly what was sprayed on them. If you choose to spray something or, um, the different types of fertilizer that you'll, you might, you might use. So, I know I talked about going to farmers and, um, buying from them is the best sometimes going to your local farmer's market helps you buy in season produce.

That's cheaper than the grocery store and having that relationship with a farmer and knowing them well over week after week of buying produce, you get to know them and it's nice. So, it can still save you money. If you're buying also in smaller quantities than sometimes you can get at the grocery store and they're way better, you'll find that buying tomatoes from your local farmer's market is going to be so much better.

They're going to taste so much better than if you were to buy them at your local, you know, neighborhood Walmart. So, these are just a couple quick tips. Check out all the Wyncote. Um, it's also another good grocery store that has very cheap produce, which is a good on the scale. So just getting more fruits and vegetables is always my first go to buying in bulk when things are on sale, or if you can find a Costco or Sam's something like that warehouse store, and you can get.

Stuff meat to freeze. And it's just, it's awesome to have on hand. Also buying frozen fruits and veggies are a great option, especially if you want something that may be out of season growing your own produce is, you know, I'm a big proponent of that and finding your local farmer's market can also help save you money.

So, what's your favorite? Go ahead and shoot me a DM or an email. Let me know something that you're going to include. Maybe to help you save some money.

And remember I do have my free guide on how to get rid of bloating. You can find this on my website, www.wellnesswithashley.com. The link is also in my show notes. So be sure to check that out. And don't forget I'm growing my free community on Facebook, where you can connect with other ladies, just like you, who are experiencing or dealing with digestive issues where it's sometimes might feel awkward to talk about with friends or family, because they're either grossed out or they just don't understand.

So, my goal is to build a community of ladies where we're working together. You're getting education and you're building great. Relationships and support, um, in a community of people who just totally get it. So be one of my founding members, the link is in my show notes. And I'll talk to you next week.