Inexpensive Vitamins and Supplements

We can look at the challenge of finding inexpensive vitamins and supplements from two different angles:

Which vitamins and supplements are the least expensive?
How can we get the vitamins and minerals we need from the least expensive sources?

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First of all, it helps to know what you need. Taking more supplements than you need means you are paying for more than you need, and of course, you do not want to take less than what you need, either!

A professional naturopath is not cheap; but personally, based on my experience, it’s worth a visit or two to your friendly local naturopath if you’re not sure where you stand nutritionally.

The best source of vitamins and nutrients is whole foods. The better your food’s quality, the less additional supplementation you will need. Of course, good food costs money – but not too much, if you do it right, as we’ve previously established.

Supplement Quality

We could – and should – look at the quality of the vitamins and supplements we buy. If we only look at the cost in dollars, we are assuming that all vitamin and mineral tablets, capsules, etc., are of identical quality.

There is no reason to assume that this is the case!

It’s quite likely that you get what you pay for.

It’s very hard to set hard and fast rules, but here are a few things to consider:

Is there any assurance that the supplements have been manufactured using GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices)? GMP is a system that consists of procedures, processes, and documentation that ensures that the manufactured products are produced and controlled in accordance with certain pre-established quality standards. These standards include
- The condition of the building and facilities
- Sanitation at the plant
- Inspections and quality audits.
How “natural” is the source of the supplements? Is the supplement a dehydrated or in some way a concentrated form of a naturally occurring food – or is it synthetically created? In some cases, this doesn’t really matter all that much – but in others, it could make the difference between whether or not your body is able to absorb the nutrients that the supplements contain.
If possible, buy from a reputable brand whose reputation would be seriously impacted if the quality of their products were compromised.
There’s no substitute for doing your own research.

Some Vitamins (and Minerals) Are Just Less Expensive

Vitamin C. Vitamin D3. These are very inexpensive vitamins that most people would probably benefit from, have a potentially phenomenal impact on health, and are very inexpensive!

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant. Vitamin D is the “sunshine” vitamin.

Maybe – and please just take this as my non-expert opinion! – those two vitamins are the primary supplementation you need. I don’t know, do your research – but they are very powerful!

Multi-vitamins and Minerals

One way to potentially save money in the supplement category is to take a multivitamin and mineral supplement. Many people do this to make sure get a “complete” array of both vitamins and minerals all in one – or two – or three – or six (!) not-always-that-easy-to-swallow capsules or tablets. But by having it all in one tablet, you are saved from having to take 15 different tablets.

Also, “complete” is in quotes, because nobody knows for sure exactly what we need. There are micro-nutrients that might not be included in any multivitamin tablet – but especially not in the cheaper versions. But at least they cover “the basics” – the primary nutrients that have well-established research behind establishing our need for them.

There are really a lot of different brands of multivitamin/mineral tablets with different levels of different nutrients, though; we couldn’t begin to go in-depth in a short article like this; there are books written about these things!

Less Expensive Sources for Supplements

OK, here is my “humble” opinion (if such a thing exists). I don’t get any commission on sales of supplements from Costco, but if you know what supplements you need, and are going to be taking them consistently over a period of time, check Costco out! If you live near a Costco, of course.

I personally buy all the supplements I can from there.

They have some of the very best prices on vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements. So check if it makes sense for you to buy 300 or 500 or 1000 of anything at one time.

Of course, you need to be sure that any given supplement is what you really want before you buy a very large quantity!

Also check out online retailers that sell all over the USA, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom – or whatever country you may live in. At least in the United States and Canada, the countries I’m most familiar with, there are a number of reputable companies that sell vitamins and other supplements online.

Often these companies will run specials – “Buy two, get one free” for example. You can save money through these specials – and by comparing prices and details of products from the comfort of your couch!

If you want “less expensive,” in most cases the products sold by MLM (multi-level marketing) are not the least expensive You may have other reasons – the quality of the product may be good, for example – but it’s not usually the way to save money on supplements – in my opinion.

Just be sure you consider the quality of any supplements you buy. Do your own research! It seems like maybe I’ve said that before, but just in case…! I bear no liability for any supplements you take or don’t take; I’m not a professional!

To Recap…

The bottom line is…well, you know your own bottom line; it’s probably the bottom of your bank account! But to summarize:

Get the supplementation you need – neither more nor less, ideally.
Eat good quality food, which doesn’t have to be expensive.
Make sure the quality of your supplements is good.
Try to find sources where you can buy in bulk (Costco, for example) or online stores.

That’s pretty much it! If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to share them in the space below.

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