There is no reason to spend a lot of money to eat better. If you take a little time to think about it, shop intelligently, and get resourceful, it is possible to eat healthy on the cheap. Here are ten money-wise tips and tricks for healthy eating.
Meal Plan and Make a Grocery List
In comparison to other methods of saving money and maintaining a proper diet, one of the most effective strategies is to prepare one’s weekly meals in advance and make a list of ingredients. This helps you avoid getting carried away and buying more items that you may not need thus accumulating more charges on your bill. This is because if you wish to have a certain recipe for breakfast, another one for lunch, and so on, then sit down on Sunday and plan it. It is also important that you check what you have in your kitchen and listing down what you will need to purchase. This means that when you are out at the store, you do not spend a lot of money since everything has been planned out down to the last detail.
Buy In-Season Produce
Cereals and vegetables are a regular component of any balanced diet, but they are rather expensive when purchased in the shops, particularly when it goes about the products that are offered in the middle of winter. To make your shopping budget friendly, ensure that you only buys fruits and vegetables that are available in your region during the season. It is often much cheaper if there is a lot of it available. Before shopping for these products, you can consult your nearby grocery store to make sure that what you want is in season or you can use the internet.
Shop Store Brands
Always go for the no name or store brand products. They are usually less expensive than those named brands but are just as healthy and tasty as the named brands. Supermarkets such as ALDI offer products under a store brand at extremely low prices but with good quality. This means that store brands to consider should be canned beans, brown rice, frozen fruits and vegetables, nuts, milk, yoghurt, eggs, bread and cereal.
Cook at Home
Well, eating out is always more expensive than cooking at home. Try to cook more often, when you decide what goes into the dish and how much of it. That way you get to select cheaper whole foods such as beans, lentils, eggs, oatmeal and local and fresh produce in their unprocessed state. Look for cheap recipes on the internet or try using the ingredients you already possess at home.
Buy Foods In Bulk
For foods that do not spoil quickly and are part of your daily meals, such as brown rice, oats and frozen vegetables, consider purchasing in large portions. It is important to note that buying in bulk is usually cheaper than buying individual pieces or ounces. Buy from grocery stores at wholesale like Costco and Sam’s Club or the larger containers that are at the far corner of the store. The items you will not be using immediately should be portioned out into the right storage containers for reuse.
Prioritize Nutrient Dense Foods
If you have little money to spend, try to spend it on food that has the most nutrition to price ratio. Low calorie density foods include eggs, beans, lentils, oats, brown rice, fruits, vegetables and canned fish. These should form the largest part of your diet. Curtail processed meals and calorie-laden foods that give little nutrition per dollar spent.
Try Meatless Meals
When it comes to what you need to pay at the supermarket, meat is usually one of the most expensive products. It is cheaper to build more meals around plant proteins such as beans, lentils and tofu. These are nutritional sources of protein, fiber and full of nutrients, and cheaper than meats. Try to have more occasions of having meals without meat than having meals with meat in a week in order to cut expenses. Indian, Thai and Mexican foods for example have many delicious and inexpensive vegetarian dishes one can consider preparing.
Drink More Water
Coca/Pepsi, fruit juices and sport beverages are not part of a healthy diet and these have been expensive. Take more water in a day, ideally filtered tap water instead of buying bottled water. You can even put lemon, lime, cucumber or even fruit slices as a garnish to enhance it further. Avoid soft drinks, soda, fruit juices and sports drinks and instead, opt for water, herbal teas, seltzer or black coffee. You will not have to spend more money, and you will not consume foods that are high in calories and sugar.
Shop Smart
Find out when grocery stores lower their prices on specific products and buying in bulk. Most have their special offers like 10 for $10 or Buy One, Get One Free every week. Gaze through the weekly ads and base your recipes on the weekly specials. Purchase meats, poultry and seafood at a cheaper price and preserve the excess by freezing. It requires some work to shop smart but it helps one save a lot of money in the long run.
Get Creative in the Kitchen
There is nothing as challenging as attempting to prepare healthy meals for the family on a limited budget you have to come up with new ideas and be ready to try out new recipes. Discover how to repurpose leftover food into new dishes. What remains uneaten can be turned into croutons or bread pudding from stale bread, into soup or salad from the leftover chicken or vegetable scraps into broth or sautés. There was no room for waste by this, we can understand the fact that every item was used to the maximum. Find out about new substitutions for the ingredients, for instance; canned beans for meat or Greek yogurt for sour cream. Using healthy cooking creativity enables one to reduce costs in meal preparation.
