Making These Popular Salads At Home Saved Us WAY More Money Than We Expected

Salads are the ultimate go-to for a convenient lunch. They're fast, fresh, healthy, and easy to access, whether we want to order one in for at-desk munching or run out to pick one up for a quick outdoor picnic. The popular chains and their ample green offerings seem readily available and offer a seemingly endless number of flavors — and we are here for it, five days a week.

But, as much as we love our Kale Caesars from Sweetgreen, our budgets do not share the sentiment. Buying a salad from one of these tasty chains for an entire week's worth of lunches could cost us close up to as high as a whopping $50 (and our wallets are not having it).

Since we aren't ready to kiss our Mexicali Vegans from Chop't goodbye, we decided to try out a money-saving alternative: making our salad chain favorites at home in our kitchens. What we discovered with picking up a handful of groceries to recreate these green lunches was shocking — we were able to cut those high weekly costs nearly in half with our home prep. Scroll on to see how you can make your copycat versions of three popular menu options from Sweetgreen, Chop't, and Just Salad — and save some major $$$ in the process.