Smoothies are more than just a tasty snack on a hot summer day. They have enough nutritional value to substitute for a meal. Smoothies can be a healthy meal option depending on the ingredients used while having little impact on your finances.
Store-bought Smoothie Costs
In general, getting a smoothie from a local business may not seem very expensive. After all, the average cost for a smoothie can be up to $7 – $8 depending on the size you order and the ingredients. This doesn’t seem like much compared to a small meal from local fast-food chains. Especially with it being a much healthier option.
However, when you are looking to incorporate healthy smoothies into your diet daily, you could be looking at spending nearly $50 a week, or $200 a month. That’s nearly half the cost of your monthly groceries depending on your household size.
Thankfully, smoothies happen to be one of the many things that you can easily make yourself at a fraction of the cost.
Is it Cheaper to Make Smoothies at Home?
It can be much cheaper to make smoothies at home. You can even save money depending on the ingredients you use to make them.
For instance, if you have a hankering for banana smoothies, all you would need are:
- Bananas (which at a bundle of seven can cost less than $1)
- Yogurt (with 32-ounce store brands costing $4.50)
- Milk (Let’s round up to $5 for a gallon)
- Honey (let’s say a medium-sized store brand at $7)
In total, you would be paying around $17.50 for all ingredients (This price will vary depending on where you live and what brand/size you buy).
If you are using one banana a day to make one smoothie a day, you’d have spent less than $2.50 a day on smoothies!
Why less? It would cost you even less because you’d still have milk, honey, and maybe even some yogurt leftover to make smoothies the following week.
The Cost Difference
Instead of nearly $200 a month on store-bought smoothies, you’d be looking at less than $70 a month. That’s a big difference!
How Can I Save Money on Smoothies?
When making smoothies at home, you can save even more money on the overall cost of ingredients. For one, buying in bulk can save you money in the long run.
Buy one get one half off coupons or sales at the supermarket will be well worth it. Especially for more expensive ingredients like yogurt, nuts, seeds, and even fresh fruit.
Buying in Bulk
With ingredients such as yogurt and fruits, buying in bulk doesn’t mean you have to worry about the produce going bad. Yogurt is typically good for one to two weeks after the sell-by date but can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
Fruit can be frozen for up to a year if stored properly!
Or you can opt to save money by buying your fruit already frozen! Frozen fruit is often cheaper than fresh fruit, lasts much longer, and can help keep your smoothie colder for longer!
Frozen or Fresh?
There is a common belief that fresh is always better. This may be the case for certain foods, but when it comes to fruits it is simply untrue.
Frozen fruits have the same nutritional value as of fresh fruits. Sometimes they can even have more nutritional value. Why?
Frozen fruit is picked and preserved at its most ripe. As the fruit is flash-frozen, the fruit doesn’t get a chance to begin to go bad, allowing it to retain all its nutrients.
What Ingredients Make Smoothies Expensive?
Nuts and Seeds
One of the most expensive smoothie ingredients would be the addition of nuts and seeds, especially chia seeds. Although expensive, adding nuts and seeds are a great source of healthy fats, fibers, vitamins, protein, and minerals. They are a nutrient-dense ingredient that helps boost the healthy factor in healthy smoothies.
Nuts and seeds added to your diet daily can have a positive impact on your health. Eating them has been known to reduce the risk of serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. Despite their expensive cost, the health benefits you get may very well be worth it.
Yogurt
Yogurt also happens to be one of the more expensive ingredients for smoothies. Thankfully, yogurt isn’t a necessity for smoothies. Juices like apple juice, or simply water, can be used as a base for your smoothie. Using yogurt is simply more filling and a great source of calcium and probiotics to help aid your gut biome.
Final Thoughts – Save Money Either Way
Even when adding the more expensive ingredients into your smoothie, you would still save money compared to buying smoothies at the store. If you want to get the most out of your smoothies, try adding superfoods to them to get the most nutrition out of your meal or snack!
A handful of kale can give you a much-needed energy boost without increasing the cost drastically.
It all depends on what health benefits you want to get out of our smoothie!