How Expensive is Juicing & Is It Worth It?

Juicing is a trendy, enjoyable hobby, and many juicing enthusiasts bring out their juicers on a daily basis. It’s easy to see the appeal of creating your own fresh, flavorful juices from home – but how expensive can this be?

In this article, I’ve broken down the costs of juicing based on several important factors, including your type of juicer, produce costs, and more. I’ve also answered your frequently asked questions at the bottom of the article.

🧃 How Much Do Pre-Made Juices Cost?

You might think that prepackaged juices are cheaper than those from juice shops or a juice bar, but there really isn’t that much difference in cost.

Your average bottle of store-bought juice can set you back $5 to $10 per bottle, depending on the ingredients and the brand.

Some of the most widely-known juice brands can get away with setting sky-high prices for their products, because, admittedly, they taste great – even if they’re not as fresh or healthy as a juice made in your own kitchen.

Below, you can find prices from some of the more popular juicing brands for a 16-ounce bottle of green juice, which typically contains the costliest ingredients. Note that plain apple or orange juice would be cheaper, as would a smaller bottle.

Lumi– $7.99
Whole Foods Juice Bar– $7.00
Daily Greens– $7.99
Suja– $7.99
Blueprint– $7.99

While you do pay for the convenience, it’s hard to justify these prices. You could spend less than this on a full meal.

It’s more affordable to make juice at home. You’ll just need to make the extra effort of prepping the ingredients and making the juice yourself.

🥤 How Much Does it Cost to Make Fresh Juice at Home?

Again, it’s hard to put an exact price on a homemade batch of juice. The size of the batch you’re making, the ingredients you use, and other factors will affect overall cost.

However, I’ve put together a couple of examples of green juice recipes for you to get an idea of how much more affordable it can be to make a 16-ounce glass of juice.

Recipe 1:

1 lemon – $0.50
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger – $0.25
1 cucumber- $1.00
Half a bunch of kale- $1.00
3 carrots – $0.50

Total cost: $3.25

Recipe 2:

1 lime- $.50
1 apple – $0.50
1 cucumber- $1.00
Celery, 4 stalks – $1.00
Half a bunch of kale – $1.00

Total cost: $4.00

You can see that making your own juice is around half the price of buying the same quantity of juice from the store. Homemade juice is also healthier and tastier, supplying more vitamins and minerals per batch.

Some ingredients are cheaper than others, and price can vary depending on a number of factors, which I’ve covered in more detail below.

📝 Considerations When Figuring Out the Cost to Juice

When working out how much juicing from home will cost you, considering the following factors:

Type of Juicer

The type of juicer you own will determine your initial and long-term juicing costs.

To begin with, buying a costlier juicer will mean you’re spending more upfront. However, costlier juicer models, like masticating or cold-pressed juicers, will actually reduce your cost to juice over time. Here’s why.

Masticating juicers work slowly to squeeze more liquid out of your fruits and veggies, producing a drier pulp. This means that you can use fewer foods to create the same batch of cold-pressed juice that you’d get from using more produce in a cheaper juicer, like a centrifugal juicer.

So, in the long run, you can spend less per batch of juice when you pay for a more expensive type of juicer.

Produce Costs

Your produce costs can be affected by a whole host of factors, including:

The type of produce itself (for instance, berries green juice ingredients tend to cost more than citrus, carrots, and pears)
The liquid volume in your fruits and vegetables (you’ll get more for your money from an apple or cucumber than you would from a bunch of kale)
Whether your produce is in or out of season
Whether you’re buying fresh or frozen (frozen can be cheaper or costlier, depending on the ingredients)
Whether you’re bulk-buying ingredients, which can cut down on costs
Whether you’ll be buying many of your raw ingredients for other purposes (like eating), which will mean the cost won’t fully apply to your juicing

Where You Buy Your Fruits and Vegetables

If you purchase your fruits and vegetables from Whole Foods, you’re going to spend at least $0.20 extra per ingredient than if you bought your produce from Aldi. The store that you buy your produce from can have a big impact on the overage cost of your juicing hobby.

Buying from a cheaper store is a good idea if you plan to use your ingredients within the next couple of days. But some ingredients, especially leafy greens and berries, will have a significantly shorter lifespan if you purchase them from more affordable stores.

A great option for spending less on fruits and vegetables is to purchase from your supermarket’s “imperfect” section, where you’ll find foods that look a little funny, but still taste great. If your local supermarkets don’t have this section, consider subscribing to an ugly fruit and veg company to receive boxes of imperfect foods on a weekly or monthly basis.

Organic vs Non-Organic Fruits and Veggies

Organic produce is tastier and better for you in many ways, but these benefits come at an extra cost.

Organically grown food costs up to 20% more than the same produce that isn’t organically grown. The type of organic item you buy, and where you buy it from, will determine exactly how much you’ll pay.

If you’re concerned about the health impacts of consuming ingredients that may have been treated with chemicals, pesticides and GMOs, buying organic produce may be a must for you.

This does mean paying more, which isn’t ideal if you want to reduce your at-home juicing costs as much as possible.

If you are on a budget, I recommend at least buying organic versions of the “dirty dozen“. These foods are said to be the most contaminated:

Spinach
Pears
Celery
Cherries
Potatoes
Sweet bell peppers
Strawberries
Nectarines
Apples
Peaches
Grapes
Sweet bell peppers

Extra Liquids

Occasionally, you may want to add extra liquids to your fresh juices. This could be to enhance the flavor of your juice or improve its consistency.

The cheapest liquid to add to your juices is water. You could simply use tap water and pay nothing at all, or buy bottled mineral water for an extra cost.

The options that will cost more are those that you’d need to buy from the supermarket, like different types of juice, coconut water, and milk.

These liquid elements can cost up to $3-$5 extra, based on the brand you buy from, and how much you need. There are more affordable options for most liquids. For instance, if you’re looking to add non-dairy milks to your juices, soy and almond are typically cheaper than oat and hemp.

❔ Frequently Asked Questions

Is Juicing Expensive?

The cost to juice from home varies based on the factors listed above. Generally, I would say that juicing is fairly costly, but not expensive. Most people wouldn’t think twice about paying $3-$4 per day on coffee, so the same should apply to spending this amount of money on your own (much healthier) juice.

If you want to keep costs down, make juice from cheaper fruit and vegetables, and only buy organic when you feel you need to. Green juice is the most expensive to make from home, so perhaps save this for special occasions.

Is Buying a Juicer Worth It?

It depends on how often you plan to use it. If you think you’ll get your juicer out once per day, then yes, the initial investment will pay for itself over time.

If you’ve never juiced before, I recommend buying a lower-cost juicing machine to begin with. These juicers are still capable of blitzing your food items into healthy, delicious juices. You can consider spending more on a more expensive juicing machine when you know for sure that juicing is a hobby you’ll stick to.

Can I Reduce Costs By Making Bulk Batches of Juice?

Yes, but keep in mind that your drink will lose its health properties the longer it is left out. I recommend freezer-storing your batches of juice, which will give them a longer shelf-life. That way, you can still enjoy your juice’s full range of health benefits when you come to drink it.

What Is the Cheapest Juice to Make from Home?

There isn’t one type of juice that is cheapest, but if you use high-yield fruits and veggies, you’ll get more back from your purchase. Some of the best high-yield foods to include in your juices are celery, beets, cucumber, tomatoes, apples, pineapple, pears, melon, and oranges.