The rising cost of groceries can be concerning, particularly for parents with growing children struggling to put consistent healthy meals on the table. There are tips to help you get the most nutrient-rich calories at an affordable price for your family.

A study showed that parents, especially those on a limited budget, considered many factors when deciding what foods to buy. Here's a look at what themes the researchers noticed and a roundup of our A-list advice:

How likely their child is to eat it

Sometimes children, including picky eaters, will need to see a food 10 to 12 times before they'll accept it. But buying all that food just to have the child reject it gets expensive and wasteful. With that in mind, parents in the study saw it as a better value to purchase familiar foods, such as milk and cheese, they knew their children will accept instead of introducing them to new foods.

Nutritionist tip: Introducing new foods is still important to expand children's range of nutrition and food preferences. However, dairy foods like milk, cheese and yogurt are full of nutrients — such as calcium, protein, fats, vitamin D and vitamin B-12 — that contribute to kids' growth and development. Cost analyses data shows that dairy foods were by far the lowest-cost source of dietary calcium and were among the lowest-cost sources of riboflavin and vitamin B-12. Another study found dairy foods were among the least expensive sources of calcium, vitamin D and calcium – three nutrients Americans don't get enough of in their diets. Consider pairing child-accepted nutrient-rich foods alongside a new food to support nutrition and food exposure.

How long the food will last

Study participants said it was important to make sure the food they bought lasted until their next payday or grocery shopping trip. If the bananas are going to turn brown on the counter or the lettuce spoils in the back of the fridge, they saw it as a waste of money.

Nutritionist tip: Buy frozen, dried or canned fruits and vegetables. They last longer than fresh and are ready to serve quickly. If you have room in your freezer or pantry, stock up when they're on sale. In addition, check the sell-by dates on items like milk and meat to make sure you're buying the freshest products that will last as long as you need them to. Freeze milk, shredded cheese or yogurt if they are close to their expiration date.

Whether the family will eat the food too fast

This was a common issue with ready-to-eat packaged foods purchased in bulk. Some families saw it as more affordable to buy smaller packages more often as a way to limit overall consumption, rather than saving on the per-serving price by buying in bulk.

Nutritionist tip: Buying larger-size containers is still probably a better value, if it works for your family. For example, you can make yogurt parfaits for your whole family out of a large yogurt container in a few minutes. The kids are more likely to eat the parfait and be done, rather than finding the easy-to-grab squeeze pouches of yogurt and eating them all in an afternoon. But you can have some flexibility, too. You could make a house rule that individually packaged snacks are for lunchboxes and road trips to Grandma's house. And when you're at home, you eat from the big container.

How many servings are in the package

Going to the store for ground beef, buns and cheese might cost around $12. Compared to this, it might not seem like a bargain to go to a fast-food restaurant and buy cheeseburgers and fries for the whole family. However, with the grocery store purchase, you'd end up with eight extra slices of cheese, and four extra buns and no ketchup. While many people can find ways to use leftovers, for families in the study, getting the right quantities at the fast-food restaurant meant not having to pay for unused items.

Nutritionist tip: With some planning and creativity, you can easily use those extra ingredients for another meal. You could use the extra cheese with scrambled eggs and veggies for breakfast, make grilled cheese sandwiches, or use it to top bowls of lentil chili. You also could challenge your kids to come up with ideas.

If the food will fill their child up

Some families looked at the per-calorie cost of a food item. For example, macaroni and cheese with a creamy cheese sauce cost three times more than macaroni and cheese with powdered cheese. But the one with cheese sauce provided twice as many calories to fill a child up. One research participant explained that her kids are just going to eat three boxes of the inexpensive one.

Nutritionist tip: Don't forget about the other food groups. Serve the mac and cheese along with fruits and vegetables. The fiber in apple slices or baby carrots will help fill tummies plus they give kids additional nutrients.

You also can choose milk, cheese and yogurt with some fat in them. Fat adds filling calories and nutrients, and dairy’s protein helps us feel full. Plus, a serving of milk, based on the average price of a gallon, is only about 22 cents - that's a value for the 13 essential nutrients that milk provides, including calcium, protein, zinc, selenium and vitamins A, D and B12.

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April 02, 2025