Is it cheaper to make your own salad?

As more and more of us are trying to stay healthy and still eat cheap too, salads are the perfect lunch option! Not only can you customize a salad to your exact specifications, but they are also so simple to make and take anywhere you need to go.

I used to be a huge fan of the salad kits that you can grab at any grocery store, but then I started noticing more and more recalls. This made me start to wonder if it is cheaper to make your own salads rather than buying a kit. Let’s look into the numbers and see what kind of savings we can get by doing it ourselves!

Are salads expensive to make at home?

According to a recent survey, the average American eats about 4 salads a week. I know in our house we definitely eat a lot of salads as meals like lunch and as side dishes for dinner.

Making salads at home is not as expensive as most people think. The ingredients that are needed are easily available and don’t require many skills to make them salad ready.

There are 3 types of salads that you can buy at the grocery store: salad kits, prepackaged salads, and individual ingredients. Let’s price these out to see which option comes out cheaper.

Precut Salad vs Head Lettuce	Price	# of servings	Cost per Salad
Marketside (Walmart brand) Classic Iceberg Salad	$1.58	4	$0.39
Marketside (Walmart brand) Premium Romaine Salad	$4.98	6	$0.83
Green Giant Iceberg Lettuce (Head)	$1.62	5	$0.32
Romaine Lettuce (Head)	$1.98	6	$0.33
1lb bag of carrots	$0.98	x	x
Red Cabbage	$2.58	x	x

This first part is pricing out the difference between pre-cut lettuce bags and buying head lettuce. If you like classic iceberg lettuce, then it looks like there is only a slight difference in price of cutting your own lettuce.

If you like a more premium salad with romaine or leafy greens, it looks like buying the head yourself and cutting it at home will be a much bigger savings.

Most precut salads also include shredded carrots and red cabbage. These add a little color and crunch to your salad. I’m not a huge fan of these and can really take it or leave it.

If you wanted to add these to the lettuce you cut at home, simply buy a small red cabbage and a bag of carrots. You won’t need a lot of the cabbage, so you can use some for your salads and use the rest for a colorful side dish or stir-fry for a weeknight dinner.

Same with the carrots! You probably won’t need a whole pound for your salads, so you can cut the carrots into sticks for snacks or sauté them for an easy side dish with a dinner.

Now let’s compare salad kits and prepackaged salads:

Type of Salad	Price	# of servings	Cost per Salad
Marketside Southwest Chopped Salad Kit (no meat)	$3.98	3.5	$1.14
Taylor Farms Fiesta Salad with Chicken	$3.27	1	3.27
Marketside Ceasar Salad Chopped Salad Kit (no meat)	$3.98	3	$1.32
Taylor Farms Cesar Salad with Chicken & Bacon	$3.27	1	3.27

As you may have noticed one of the biggest differences between salad kits and prepackaged salads is that the kits usually don’t come with meat. Most have cheese included in them, but they are mostly just lettuce and some additional toppings. You would have to add meat yourself.

How do you save money on lettuce?

Now that we know that you can save a significant amount on making salads by cutting our own lettuce, we should see if there are other ways to save more.

Before we go shopping for lettuce, we should check the sales flyer first. Lots of times you will notice that they have a section just about produce and there is usually something salad related on sale.

Some weeks they may have iceberg lettuce, mixed greens, or spinach on sale. The key to picking lettuce is to remember the average salad usually starts with 3 oz of greens. If you want a salad without meat, you may want to go with 5-6oz of greens.

Now how you store your greens once you get home will also save you a lot of money. Have you ever reached into the fridge to grab lettuce and it is already wilted or turned brown?

This super simple tip will help you store your lettuce for almost a week without it going bad. First lightly rinse your lettuce and give it a good shaking to remove as much water as possible.

Then chop your lettuce how you like it and put it in a large Ziploc style bag. The trick here is to roll the bags as tightly as you can to get all the air out. When the lettuce is exposed to a lot of air, it will start to go bad quicker.

I regularly buy lettuce, and by using this method I am able to make one head of leafy green lettuce easily last a week. Whether we want to have salads, use in tacos, or put on a sandwich it is super convenient.

Why do salads cost so much at restaurants?

If you currently are buying your lunch every day at work, you can easily spend $8-$20 for decent salad. This may seem crazy high compared to the above prices for lettuce.

The reason restaurants charge so much for a salad is not just because of the ingredients. They also have to pay their overhead costs and pay someone to chop all those pieces for your salad.

Yes, chopping vegetables and meats can take a while so doing the labor yourself can be a huge savings.

The other reason that salads are expensive at restaurants is because most salads are “money makers”. The profit margin on salads is very high compared to a lunch with the main part being grilled chicken or fish.

This is why a lot of restaurants offer lunch specials on salads, because even with a discount they can still make a decent profit.

Should I buy prepackaged salads?

Prepackaged salads are definitely a huge time saver. Most of them are individually portioned with your salad dressing, cheese, toppings, and meats.

The downside is that you may not like every item in the salad. I personally can’t stand blue cheese, so I won’t be able to enjoy a prepackaged salad with it included. (If you have ever tried to remove blue cheese from a salad, it is truly impossible to remove it all.)

On the other hand, even if you purchase a bargain salad for $8 at a restaurant or deli, by changing to the prepackaged salads at the grocery store, you could save almost $5 a day!

If you are like other Americans that eat 4 salads a week, that is a super easy way to save $20 a week. That small change could save you $1040 a year! Now that is a big savings, and I don’t know how many people wouldn’t want an extra $1000 in their pocket.

Is it cheaper to make your own salad?

Salads are one of my favorite meals and one of my favorite ways to use up leftovers. It really doesn’t take that much to have toppings for a super yummy salad.

Tonight, I am making large salads for dinner, and I used half of a tomato leftover from hamburgers, a cucumber from our garden, and a leftover grilled chicken breast.

The leafy head of lettuce that I bought ended up being a little over 11oz by weight of cut lettuce, so it should easily make 4 very large salads.

You can also add deli meats like chicken, turkey, ham, or salami to your salad for protein. Eggs, beans, and cheese are super cheap and add protein as well.

I love to check out what is on sale and on manager special in the produce section. We might end up with some broccoli, cauliflower, or mushrooms to add to our salad.

If you like croutons, you can use stale bread to make your own croutons for pennies. Other fun toppings can be dried cranberries, raisins, and any nuts that you have on hand like almonds or walnuts.

For more ideas for stale bread, check out “What happens if you eat expired bread?” and we share 10 unique ways to use up bread before it goes bad!

See how easy it could be to make a gourmet salad on a budget by getting creative with items you might already have in your fridge and pantry.

I recently found little squeeze dressing containers at the dollar store that have a flip lid. These cute little things are perfect for lunch because the lid can’t accidently come undone and spill salad dressing everywhere.

To keep your salad crisp for lunch, always put your salad dressing and croutons on the side, and just mix them in when you are ready to eat! I also recommend prepping all your salad pieces but not combining in a container for lunch until the night before.

For more money saving tips about food, check out “Will HelloFresh save me money?“