Money Monday: The Cost of Juicing

14 days ago, my husband and I decided to do a pure fruit and vegetable juice detox. At first, we were planning on doing a 3 day detox, but, after 3 days, we decided to keep going for a full 10 days.

The detox has been both hard and unbelievably rewarding. We have both lost weight, slept better, and feel healthier overall. We are currently continuing to juice for two meals a day, while eating a healthy sensible meal of salad and lean protein each night.

The lessons we learned from juicing will come in another post later this week, but for now, lets get down to the nitty gritty of our 10 day challenge.

To start, we needed to purchase a juice. We chose to purchase the Breville Juice Fountain from Bed Bath and Beyond. The list price was $149.00, but I found a coupon, and saved $30.00, so we only paid $120.00 (pre tax).

Then, we purchased the fruit and veggies. The first shopping trip was the most expensive, because we were not sure what we were going to like, and spent around $75.00. That first round of produce lasted around a week. Since then, we have done four shopping trips, and each trip has varied in price.

The four shopping trips cost the following (rounded up to keep the math nice and simple):

Shopping Trip 1: 75.00
Shopping Trip 2: 35.00
Shopping Trip 3: 35.00
Shopping Trip 4: 35.00
Shopping Trip 5: 35.00

So here we are, day 14 of juicing, and while we are no longer doing a pure detox. Again, we are still juicing during the day, and eating at night.

The grand total for 10 full days of juicing: $335.00

This is the first time that I have calculated how much we spent on this challenge. Honestly, that number is a bit shocking. That is not cheap at all! But, when you pull out the cost for the juicer, the cost for the produce was around $215.00.

As I stated above, this was not a cheap experiment, but we knew we were going to spend more than we normally would on food this month. But, I am also taking into account the long term effects on our health and our budget. We see food as fuel, and while we are not opposed to taking medicine, we both prefer to take as little medicine as possible. By spending a little more money now, on the front end and improving our health, we are saving money on the back end because we don't have to spend those dollars on health care. Therefore, I have no problem spending the extra money.