First, let me just say I have never had so many people compliment me on the contents of my grocery cart before I started juicing. I have also found myself wandering the produce aisles wondering, “Can I juice that? … How much juice would I get from that?” I swear I could throw a rock in my juicer and out would come a delicious beverage. Hubs won’t let me try, though.

Second, let me remind you that I just shop for two people. I work at home so juicing during the day is perfectly convenient for me, as is cleaning my juicer. But, as juice starts losing nutrients immediately, it would be hard to brown bag it. (You can, though, if you use a container you can’t see through and fill it all the way up so no air gets in.) Also, hubs and I eat fairly cleanly and not that much since we became empty nesters. Hubs has never demanded meat-and-potatoes and he’s perfectly amenable to drinking juice for dinner. Sometimes we do feel the necessity for popcorn in the evening, but that’s partly because of our new popcorn popper. (So easy! No oil! Three minutes!)

Third, you do not have to juice all your meals and in fact, if you do, you need to have a conversation with your doctor first. But juicing one meal a day will give you plenty of health benefits and possibly save you money.

So, take everything I say and plug it into your lifestyle. Your mileage may vary.

Here goes. This is what I bought at the grocery store for juicing: 10 oz bag spinach, 5# bag carrots, 1 bunch kale, 2 bunches of celery, 4 cucumbers, 2 zucchini, 2 green peppers, 3 mangoes, 5 Roma tomatoes, 1 lemon, 6 oranges, 6 Granny Smith apples, and 3 pears. It cost me $30.31.

I still had 3 yams, ginger root, and 3 limes. This cost $2.28.

Grand total of $32.59.

From that I made 11 meals + 2 fresh OJs for dessert. I also used spinach on 1 sandwich, 2 omelettes, and 4 salads. I still had at least 2# of carrots.

The math is yours to do.

The zuchini I normally would not have bought because it was out of season and expensive … $2.19 for 2. And just this week I was making a recipe with kohlrabi. I only needed one, but my store only sold bunches of 3 for $2.99.

The juice drinks were plenty filling for me, but about half the time we had popcorn. Me because I like it, hubs because he was hungry.

One thing I haven’t figured out yet is storage. The thought of going to the grocery store more than once a week makes me wail like a puppy on a rainy porch.

But that’s what my refrigerator looks like when I get home from the store. I am getting better about what keeps longer. For instance, not parsley. And I’m learning what doesn’t taste good to me. I’ve learned I’m not a fan of radishes or beets in my juice, although beets make a gorgeous drink. Hubs asked if I liked it and I told him, waving my hand in front of my face, “Too beety.” (I’ll try beets again. I think I just used too much.)

My store doesn’t have a huge supply of organic produce so I don’t buy organic very often.

Now that I have a handful of go-to juice recipes, I can buy what’s on sale. And frankly, most produce is pretty cheap. I wanted kale one day but it was on sale for $1 so there was only one bunch left. I bought it, but the next week needed some more. It was only $1.29!

I’ve been keeping my grocery receipts and the final tally over 7 weeks is that I’ve averaged $98.81 at the grocery store. For comparison, I pulled out last years grocery costs. A year ago, over almost the same time period with the same two of us, I averaged $179.74 at the grocery store.

That’s a big difference. It surprised me too! Saving money along with the surprise weight loss tells me I’ll continue to juice on a regular basis. Simply juicing for dinner would make a huge difference. Not only is that where we spend the most money, but it’s also where we take in most of our calories.

So, what do you think?