Okay, I admit to quit the grocery store 100% is not likely BUT don’t leave yet! There are a LOT of realistic ways to reduce frequenting the grocery store. In this post, you’ll learn some ideas for quitting the grocery store. Some ideas can be done right off the jump, others will take time to plan and budget for. Read on to learn how you can plan your exit from the grocery store.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Always shop small, local, and/or direct when you can, though!
To start…
I personally don’t believe I’ll ever be able to quit the grocery store unless I win the lottery, buy big acreage, and convince my family and closest friends to create a Friends and Family Compound in which we all work together to provide all our own foods.
Since that’s not likely to happen any time soon, there ARE ways to reduce your use of grocery store chains. Think bulk ordering and homesteading.
And no, you don’t need to be Ma and Pa Ingalls to do this!
Values-based decision making
This is an important topic before we move forward.
I will not speak for you or anyone else, only for my family. I do not share any of this to shame anyone for their decisions. Our family is not perfect either! We eat out. Our family participates in covered dish lunches at church… where we know the food quality usually is poor and the sweet tea is mostly sugar! We make the best decisions we can for our family majority of the time.
Values-based decision making is deciding what move to make based on what you and/or your family values as important.
Living in 2026 is tough. Many of us are trying to survive… financially or otherwise.
Our family doesn’t take luxury vacations. We don’t drive brand new vehicles. And we don’t have an impressive stock portfolio. We choose to spend our money differently is all.
Our family and yours too has to eat to live! So we simply choose to invest in our health now in hopes we not of paying for it later. That means a huge portion of our monthly income goes towards food.
Baby steps
While this post won’t allow you to quit the grocery store 100% tomorrow, it will encourage you to do what you can in small baby steps.
Removing one item at a time from your grocery store list.
Quit the grocery store #1: Azure Standard or Coop
If you’re ready to make the jump, mentally and financially, then ordering from Azure Standard (or another similar grocery or health foods distribution/coop source) is one way to go to quit the grocery store.
Mental plan: because it’s a monthly order, not as needed. You’ll need to plan ahead and buy in bulk such as 6 pack of sour cream for the month and a 5 lb block of cheese.
Financially plan: because Azure has high quality standards with organics and those farming practices are not cheap in costs. Many of these prices can be higher than the grocery store. Buying in bulk brings the price per ounce or pound closer to the grocery store prices, oftentimes beating the grocery price for a comparable quality item. There’s also a delivery fee depending on where you live.
Based on my research and notes taken over the 2 years it took me to finally start using the Azure Standard account I made in order to see pricing, here are things I know I can buy in bulk cheaper than at Wal-mart (at the time of this writing in summer 2026):
- organic all purpose flour (about $5 for 5 lb bag at Azure vs. $8 for 5 lb bag of the brand I prefer from Wal-mart)
- organic raw cane sugar ($1.44/lb for 4 lb bag at Wal-mart vs. $1.32/lb for 50 lb bag from Azure and I don’t have to buy sugar as often)
- organic Jasmine rice ($2.88/lb for 5 lb bag from Azure vs. $4.40/lb for 2 lb bag from Wal-mart)
Quit the grocery store #2: grow and raise what you can
This is where you don’t need to don your bonnet and become Ma Ingalls to grow and raise your own food.
A lot of food can be grown in very small spaces! Even in town or city living.
- grow vertically in
- grow towers
- cattle panel arches
- containers
- multi-level garden beds/stacked beds
- micro greens and herbs inside with grow lights and heating mats
Pro tip: only grow or raise what you actually eat! Radish are fast and fun to grow but if you don’t like them, don’t grow them.
- Grow as much of your own food as possible and preserve it:
- dehydrate (by dehydrator or oven)
- freeze dry (a homesteader’s luxury expense item, I assure you!)
- shelf stable by water bath or pressure canning
- dry root cellar storage, if applicable
- Raise your own protein
- Laying hens for eggs, if your ordinances allow.
- Meat chickens
- Quail give eggs and meat and are very quiet (if you’re looking for a sneaky way around ordinances and HOAs.)
- Rabbits are equally as quiet and provide a great protein source, rapidly!
- Pigs- certain breeds only take 9 months to grow out to fill your freezer (if you have the land)
- Grow your own herbs
- in windowsills
- in flower beds around the house
Quit the grocery store #3: buy in bulk
Outside of Azure Standard, you can also buy in bulk these ways:
- From farmers markets with in-season crops to preserve them by water bath canning, pressure canning, dehydrating, freeze drying, freezing, etc.
- Purchase a meat share (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc.)
- This means buying a LOT of meat upfront which comes with a heavy price tag up front as well but the price per pound is significantly cheaper overall.
- The purchase of a deep freezer will also need to be factored in.
This, too, requires a plan of action. It’s not doable to jump all in alone. Seek help from family and friends who want to go in on a meat share, bulk vegetable buy, or a 50 lb bag of rice with you.
Quit the grocery store #4: support local farmers
Local farmers would love to have you buy their vegetables, eggs, milk, or meat from them!
How to find them:
- Seek out local farmers by attending farmers markets
- Search on Facebook Marketplace
- Ask your Facebook friends list for
- local U-pick farms
- people selling bulk produce
- people offering meat shares
Quit the grocery store #5: subscription snacks
Let’s say you have figured out a way to procure your:
- meats
- dairy
- eggs
- bread
- baked goods
- and more
from somewhere other than a grocery store but you still like a potato chip every once in a while (seed oil free, of course).
There are subscriptions for snacks. Sure, you can go to Amazon but you can also support smaller businesses like:
- Thrive Market
- Vitacost
- Paleovalley
to name just a few.
Quit the grocery store #6: start making grocery items
Start small in your quest to quit the grocery store (or not going as often) by replacing store bought items like jams, jellies, yogurt, eggs, herbs, bread, and garlic.
All of these listed are things you can grow yourself and easily! In containers (see number 2 in this post again).
Yogurt is made from milk.
Homemade bread is better than anything you’ll buy at the store and way healthier for you too.
Baked goods like cookies, brownies, cakes, quick breads, and more are not difficult to make from scratch.
Quit the grocery store #7: cook from scratch more often
The main excuse I hear about this one is TIME.
None of us have enough of it, so it seems. Which is exactly why prepackaged, drive-thru, Door Dashed, convenience foods are alluring.
Cooking from scratch at least 2 meals a week is a great start.
Having a well stocked pantry with staples kicks off that great start. Then keeping meals simple: “meat and two” is how I heard it described recently. A meat with two vegetable sides. Or my personal favorite is turning every meal, particularly in the summer months, into a “bowl”.
Greek bowl, Tex Mex bowl, busted burger bowl, stir fry bowl, hibachi bowl, and many others.
Keep it simple is the easiest way to keep it healthy too. Single ingredient foods, meat, fish, eggs, veggies. You’ve got this!
Is it for finances or health?
No judgment either way but whatever reason you want to quit the grocery store, whether to save money or to save your health, quitting the grocery store is a marathon; not a sprint.
Not many of us weren’t raised by parents and grandparents who made do or did without. Nor were we shown the ropes for how to make meals from scratch.
Most of us were raised on TV dinners and ramen noodle packets. All bought at the grocery store. Prepackaged for our parents’ convenience.
There’s something to be said for convenience foods and how, well, convenient it is. But there’s also something even better to be said for real foods prepared in traditional ways.
You can still prepare real food in traditional ways with ingredients from the grocery store, absolutely. In 2026 when the store bought lettuce is giving people an explosive diarrhea parasite and organic blueberries carry E. coli, what better time than now to start working towards quitting the grocery store?
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What are some ways you’ve seen success with quitting the grocery store? Leave it in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas.
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