A key to healthy eating is stocking plant-based pantry staples in your home. Have you heard about Thrive Market? This is a great way to order healthy foods and help you save time with shopping and preparing meals. I would like to share with you how to use Thrive Market and I think it’s a great way to find healthy foods and order them conveniently.
(Disclaimer: This site contains affiliate links. I receive a small commission from subscriptions at no cost to you.)
Why Do You Want a Well-Stocked Pantry?
It is very useful to have a variety of shelf-stable foods at home. This can help you:
- Find something quick to make for a meal on a busy day.
- Cook when you’re stuck in the house with bad weather or not feeling well.
- Choose a healthier home-cooked meal instead of take-out.
- Save money on gas from shopping.
- Have a food supply if you live in an area subject to hurricanes, tropical storms, or power outages (make sure you have plenty of water, too!).
Basic Plant-based Pantry Items
- Dried and canned beans
- Lentils
- Rice
- Quinoa
- Shelf-stable tofu
- Pasta and noodles
- Marinara sauce
- Canned tomatoes
- Nuts, seeds, and nut butters
- Salsa (medium Thrive Market brand – very good!)
- Cereal and oatmeal
- Dried fruits
- Plant-based milk
- Vinegar
- Oil
- Tamari sauce
- Baking supplies like flour, sugar, yeast, baking soda, vanilla extract
- Snacks: bars, chips, chocolate
- Spices
Just click on this photo to get started!
Products Available from Thrive Market
Pros:
Thrive has lots of healthy foods and a really wide selection of organic foods. This is wonderful because some are just too hard to find in stores. I was just in Wegman’s and could not find any organic dried beans, but ordered some from Thrive for my Easy Spicy Lentil Chili – Instant Pot Recipe.
When you sign in, you can select from a variety of diets including vegan and vegetarian. Then you enter some of your favorite brands, food categories you’re interested in, and how often you shop and the site will let you know an estimate of how much you can save too! According to this, I could save $896 per year.
Thrive Market also has a nice selection of gluten-free ingredients and foods, too! There are lots of alternative flours like almond, tapioca, and oat, plus flour blends and baking mixes. I am going to try chickpea flour in my next order.
So far my favorite find was Mai Kaimal vegan tikka masala simmer sauce. I used this to cook tofu, broccoli, and onions one night and serve over their basmati rice. The next night, I used it with tofu, cauliflower, and peas. This sauce has really complex, delicious flavors and is not something I have tried to make from scratch yet. It was super convenient and tasty and I have already ordered more.
Thrive carries some items that I use often but can be tricky to find in local supermarkets like tahini (great for these tahini brownies!), organic rolled oats, and aluminum-free baking powder. Ordering these online saves me some running around.
They also have a lot of beauty products and non-toxic cleaning products. I found a lot of lip balms I like.
Cons:
There are no fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables. I don’t know if that is in the works, but that would be amazing if they were added. They also don’t sell perishable things like fresh bread. There are a few limited frozen meals that are not vegetarian at this time, but it sounds like there are plans to expand this line. They also have some wine, frozen meats, and seafood.
Unfamiliar brands. I had been excited to buy more of a certain cold cereal I love and have trouble finding in stores. However, it’s transitional organic, not organic, so maybe that’s why they don’t carry it. But the Thrive app has a bar code scanner feature that lets you scan a food you have already or something in a store and find a similar item they do offer.
Cost Savings
The foods at Thrive Market are sold at wholesale: 25 – 50% off what is in stores! You will see how much you save on each order on the site. If you find it for less elsewhere, they do price matching in Thrive cash (which can be used for $ off your next order).
There are also hundreds of Thrive Market brand products – excellent quality and cost savings.
Then they have sales on various items which you can learn about if you opt-in for their emails. I just got one for free chocolate bars!!
Thrive Market cash: look for specials where you can earn this discount off of future orders from buying certain items or brands (for example, 15% Thrive cash when you buy certain Thrive Market brand items). And I just got an email for $10 in Thrive cash when you use the app for your purchase.
If there are products you use regularly save up to 30% by ordering through autoship. This would be great for pet food!
Shipping
Packaging: Your items are packaged in a combination of brown paper wrapping and recyclable plastic bags. I have not had any issues with breaks or leaking. Thrive Market’s website notes that they ship carbon-neutral.
Speed: Even over a busy December weekend, when I was warned there would be delays, an order I placed on Saturday arrived on Tuesday.
Cost: Shipping is free when you spend $49 or more and $5.95 for less than that amount.
Memberships
The cost is $59.95 per year (that works out to $5 a month!). Thrive Market says most customers see at least this amount in savings after just 2 orders! My savings were $71.12 after two medium orders (I spent less than $60 total for these orders).
Check out #2 on this page about their benefits: there is a guarantee that you will see at least the cost savings of the membership over a year. They even let you cancel in the first 30 days if you don’t like it, so it is risk-free. Or, try it for $9.95 monthly:
For each membership that’s sold, they provide a free membership to a low-income teacher, veteran, first responder, or student. how terrific is that? Learn more and apply at Thrive Gives.
To sum it up, I think that ordering from Thrive Market is a good way to lean into your values. It saves money and time, and if a lot of people switch to buying organic foods, we will have more organic farmland and better protection for our environment and water supply. I hope you try it and let me know how you like it!
Related Food Shopping Posts
- Money-Saving Tips on Plant-Based Foods from 3 Discount Grocery Stores
- Farmers’ Market Tips for the Best Produce
- 20+ Free Food Resources in Central Bucks County, Pennsylvania
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What a great list of pantry staples to have on hand whether you live a plant based lifestyle or not!
Oh Vegan tahini brownies!!