5 Tips for Saving on Salad Items + Easy Summer Salad Recipes

It’s the Summer and many of us don’t want to heat up the house to make dinner – at least we are trying to conserve electricity.

We ALSO need to eat better, and with summer comes Summer Salads. This is the PERFECT opportunity to eat BETTER, without heating up the house – incorporate sales on meat (Chicken and Beef, even Shrimp) with Garden Salad for a healthy meal that won’t break the bank (and won’t bust your diet!)

Here are 5 tips for saving money on Salad.

AVOID Pre-Packaged Salads

In most cases it’s MORE expensive to buy prepackaged salads — maybe not ALL the time but we said MOST times.

Pick up fresh lettuce, and tomatoes at the store & make the greens yourself. Have eggs on hand for hard boiled egg topping, and pick up your raisins at the $.99 store for toppings too. Always look for sales on sunflower seeds so you can keep those in the pantry for those nights you want salad, and scope your local store for clearance Feta. Albertsons ALWAYS has clearance Feta Cheese almost every other day – marked to 50% OFF.

Paired with coupons you can pick up a pack as low as $.50 – I do this often and it works super if you use it that same day.

Write to OrganicGirl or EarthBound Farms, even Tanimura & Antle

ALL 3 of these manufacturers WILL send coupons to you – Tanimura & Antle Lettuce can be picked up at Walmart, and EarthBound Farms can be found at Target. In some cases, their coupons might be FREE – so you can have a few salad nights for MUCH less.

Read our last post to learn how to write to companies to request product coupons.

Make your OWN Croutons

AVOID buying them in store at all costs! It’s SO MUCH CHEAPER to make your own! Use day old bread and cube it in squares…

Then melt a stick of butter in the microwave until melted. Stir in the bread cubes (1/4 – 1/2 loaf), and coat with the butter. Then spread on a foiled baking sheet, and sprinkle seasoning on top – pop in the oven for 15- 20 minutes. Keep them in a Hefty OneZip Bag.

Make your OWN Dressing

Dressing is SO easy to make – so if you can’t find a sale on bottles, you can try the $.99 store (where it’s $.99 ALL the time). OR make your own dressing – All Recipes has some amazing Dressing Recipes you can follow.

Incorporate Sales on Meat

Use inexpensive Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast to dress up your salad, Strip Steak, or even London Broil to enhance your salad and make it a FULL meal.

Grow your OWN Lettuce

Lettuce is SO easy to grow! Pick up a pack of seeds & throw them in your backyard, clip as needed. There are many videos you can watch on You Tube to help you get started… OR grow it from a stump.

OR, visit your local Ranch Market – we usually pick up Romaine 3/$1.00 every week at ours, which is a FRACTION of the price of a small 10 oz. BAG of Salad at the store ($2.50 and up!)