Tips for Epic Juicing on a Budget

Juicing can be a fun and easy way to get those important vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables. I love juicing and this love can come with a pretty hefty price tag. If you are looking to start juicing or looking for healthy and budget friendly juicing alternatives, I'm here to share all my tips for budget freindly juicing!

1. How to start Juicing on a budget​

Juicing should not be intimidating and it can be custom tailored to fit into most budgets. The first thing you need to start juicing is a juicer. You can start looking for a juicer on Amazon or your local declassified ads. I recommend getting a new juicer from Amazon or another retailer because you don't know how well a stranger has cleaned their juicer or if all the parts are functioning properly. You don't need to spend a lot of money to get a good quality juicer, and while there are lots of "top of the line" juicers, we can get good juicers for a fraction of the cost. Here are a few good quality juicers that are budget  friendly. All of these are available for purchase on Amazon and you can click the images to view reviews and get more information on the products. Budget to spend between $30-50 on a good quality juicer

$30 Range

Gourmia GJ-750 Wide Mouth Fruit and Vegetable Centrifugal Juicer Juice Extractor

Available on Amazon

4.0/5 Stars and 106 Reviews​

$40 Range

BLACK+DECKER JE2200B 400-Watt Fruit and Vegetable Juice Extractor

Available on Amazon 

4.0/5 Stars and 2,853 Reviews​

$50 Range

Hamilton Beach 67602A Big Mouth Juice Extractor

Available on Amazon (This is the Juicer I Use)

4.0/5 Stars and 2,900 Reviews​

If you are really on a budget, you can use a blender for "juicing" although you will get a different effect, you'll still be getting the nutrition! But i highly recommend using a juicer for juicing. I have the Hamilton Beach juicer and I've had great experiences with it so far. I've been using it for over a year now and it's working great. It's also very easy yo take apart and clean. Once you have a juicer the only other thing you need is fruits and veggies and an imagination is a bonus!

Budget Juicing Tip #1: Buy Seasonally/Whats on Sale

Seasons bring forward a new variety of produce to juice. You can also check out local farmers markets and buy locally grown items. For example, fall is a great time to start adding apples to your juicing recipes and summer is the time for berries. Browse through your local grocery store ad's each week for information on sale items. Store managers might also have "Manager's Specials" on certain fruits and veggies near the produce department.  

Some stores will also let you buy items in bulk for a discount if you ask. You can ask the store manager when they get their deliveries and if you can order a full or half case with the next delivery. You can juice in bulk and store extras in your freezer. When you are ready to enjoy it, simply take it out of the freezer and let it thaw in the refrigerator the night before. Even though some nutrients might be lost in the freezing/thawing process, it's still better than nothing! Juicing is a great way to increase the amount of fruits and veggies you consume.

Budget Juicing Tip #2: Buy Lasting Ingredients

Having to think about what's in the fridge and what might go bad soon is a pain in the butt. Like we all really need another thing to occupy our minds. Buy ingredients for juicing that have a longer shelf life. Examples of items that have a 2-3 week range would include romaine lettuce, carrots, lemons, ginger, green apples, celery, and zucchini. These are actually some of the tastier ingredients for juicing. Having these on hand is great and you won't end up having to use a bunch of different ingredients all at once for the sake of not letting them spoil. You can also buy these ingredients in advance so you always have produce on hand for juicing.

Budget Juicing Tip #3: Choose Veggies over Fruit

​

I have nothing against using fruit to juice and it can add great sweet flavor. While they are great for you, they can really raise the cost of juicing.  Also, fruit does have a lot of sugar so you are better off eating it rather than juicing it. I personally love fruit and if I'm going to spend the money to buy it, I rather eat and enjoying it. Veggies have just as much, if not more nutrients, plus they are much lower in sugar. Green apples are an exception to this and they are relatively low in sugar and offer malic acid which has been shown to stop tumor growth. Apples are great to add a natural sweetener but try to only use half an apple. Not just for budgeting purposes, but also to keep the sugar content down. Another cheap alternative to use as a sweetener is carrots. Carrots are a great addition to juices and have health benefits such as reducing inflammation, improving immunity and improving your skin.

Here is a list of fruits and veggies that will give you the most juice for what you pay:

Veggies for Budget Juiceing

• Celery
• Swiss chard
• Carrots
• Sweet potato
• Beets (any color)
• Romaine lettuce

• Parsley
• Broccoli
• Mint
• Cucumber
• Tomatoes
• Zucchini

Fruits for Budget Juicing

• Apples (any kind)
• Pears
• Pineapple (no need to peel!)

• Watermelon (juice the rind, too)
• All citrus
• Melon

Budget Juicing Tip #4: Juice When You Can

Juicing is expensive and don't feel like it's something you should be doing every meal or even every day.  Juicing isn't a all or nothing game. Even if your budget/schedule allows you to juice one of twice a week - it's still worth doing it. Juicing should really only take 5 to 10 minutes including clean up. You can also try juicing daily but not as much in term of quantity. You can juice 8oz and split it into two servings so you have two days of juicing covered. When it comes to ingredients, you don't need to have that many. One of my favorite juicing recipes is as follows:

• 1/2 a green apple, 3 stalks kale, 1/2 a cucumber, 1/2 a lemon or lime
• 15 Carrots, 7 Stalks of celery, 1 apple (1bout $1.65 per serving)
• 1 beet, 4 apples, 1 lemon (About $1.40 per serving)

Budget Juicing Alternatives

If you think juicing is still not something you can fit in your budget or schedule but you still want to experience the health benefits juicing can provide there are other options. You can buy "Green Juice" powders that contain a heap of natural ingredients. You'll get the benefits of juicing without the pain of shopping/juicing/planning/clean up. There are a number of powders out there but the top two I would recommend are Athletic Greens or Organifi Green Juice. Both are quality products and have their merits. Athletic Greens with a coupon comes out to $1.60 per day and Organifi $1.39 per day. You can view a complete side-by-side comparison of the two here.

Video About Juicing on a Budget