055: Katie Kimball on Real Food Shopping Tips & Tricks

Eating healthy food on a budget can be hard, but in this episode, Katie Kimball of Kitchen Stewardship shares some great money saving tips for moms and families.

Katie is a teacher, a mom of four and the author of 8 ebooks. She is also the creator of the awesome Kids Cook Real Food course, which provides an easy-to-learn class for kids to learn how to cook real food on their own at all ages.

Budget Friendly Real Food Shopping Locations

Katie shares her favorite places to shop for real food and how often she shops to maximize her food budget and minimize shopping time. These are the places Katie likes to shop and some of the best deals on natural foods that she finds at each stoer:

1. Costco, once or twice a month for non-perishable organics in bulk, cheese and bulk greens.
2. Aldi, once a week for produce canned goods like spaghetti sauce, salmon, salmon, beans, fruit and nut bars and gluten free foods.
3. Country Life Natural Foods (Michigan) for occasional bulk items.
4. Farmer’s Markets when available for meats, seasonal produce, etc.
5. Meijer once or twice per quarter for more obscure produce or items not found at the farmers market.

Taking Kids Grocery Shopping

As a mother of 4, Katie Kimball has a lot of experience taking kids along to the grocery store. Here’s how she not only manages it, but her tips for making it a worthwhile experience for kids.

• Give the older kids jobs to do, delegating things like, “get 7 cucumbers”
• Teach about the food you’re choosing
• Talk about numbers and counting
• Practice the skill of organizing and categorizing
• At a self checkout, have kids “beep” the groceries past the scanner and see the math
• Give them something to look forward to afterward, to avoid the “gimme’s” at checkout
• Just talk! Kids are always learning from their parents, and the grocery store is a great place to teach

Meal Planning

For those on a tight budget, Katie Kimball’s last important tip is to plan your meals for the week ahead of time. This helps reduce waste and prevent overspending, especially on meat.

Resources

• Kids Cook Real Food Course
• Real Plans Meal Planning Service

Kitchen Skills for Kids!

Katie Kimball has offered her 3-video series for teaching kids how to help out in the kitchen. It’s called, Kitchen Skills for Kids, and it’s for free to listeners of the podcast. Click here to get access now.