Eating healthy food is vital for physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Prioritizing healthy meals significantly affects your energy, mood, and body. However, finding food that is nutritious and affordable can prove to be a challenge, particularly in the face of economic uncertainties.
Additionally, buying fast food can be an easy way out when you’re hungry and pressed for money and time. It is delicious and designed to trigger the pleasure centers in the brain, so you feel inclined to keep eating more.
When you eat poor-quality meals, you’ll fall ill more frequently, which adds to additional costs in the form of medical care. But don’t worry—eating healthy doesn’t mean you must stretch your budget. Here are some nifty tips to follow if you want to eat healthy while staying on a budget.
Plan Your Meals
It goes without saying that if you want to be conscious about saving money, you have to plan accordingly. Allocate a budget for your meals and research how you can support it. For example, you can make a meal plan based on the items that are on sale at your grocery store this week. It would also help to use recipes that have common ingredients. You could cook and use an entire chicken for many other dishes, like chicken pasta, chicken fajita, and pulled chicken buns.
Buy Cheaper Cuts Of Meat
The most expensive item on your meal planning list is often fresh meat. Thankfully, there are cheaper cuts of meat that you can get if you know how to prepare them well. For example, cubed beef, also labeled as stew meat, is cheaper, but most people don’t know how to cook it correctly (hint: the only trick is to cook it low and slow for a long time). Moreover, you can save money if you buy a whole chicken instead of opting for choice cuts.
Cook Large Portions And Use Those Leftovers
When you prepare a favorite meal, make a double batch. This way, you can freeze additional portions to freeze for later, repurpose, or pack in lunches. Likewise, if your meat has been purchased in bulk, you can cook it all together and remove some before you add the required seasoning and sauces. Not only does this save money, but it also a great deal of time you would otherwise spend in the kitchen!
Make Smart Food Choices
Try to eliminate unhealthy foods, such as processed food, prepackaged meals, soda, junk food, etc., from your list wherever possible. These are bad for your body and add up to your grocery costs. Instead, here are a few tips you can follow:
- Opt for whole foods. For example, a block of cheese is far cheaper than buying processed slices or grated cheese.
- Buy frozen fruits and vegetables, which are often less expensive and last longer.
- When you shop at conventional grocery stores, buy generic or store brands, as these are usually cheaper than the name brand.
- You can make your morning coffee at home instead of buying it, and the same applies to your breakfast and lunch.
- Buy non-perishable items like canned fish and dried beans in bulk.
Grow Your Own Produce
Growing your own fruits and vegetables is an excellent way to save money and have fresh produce at your fingertips. Planting seeds is inexpensive, and the yield can be very rewarding. If you don’t have a backyard, you can even grow many vegetables, fruits, and herbs in pots that you can keep on patios or balconies.
Shop Wisely
The grocery store down your street isn’t the only place to shop; plenty of other alternatives could be significantly cheaper. For instance, warehouses and club stores like Costco often offer excellent bargains for seasonal produce. You can also visit farmers’ markets where local farmers sell fresh produce that is cheaper than at the grocery store. Hot tip: Vendors sell perishable produce at massive discounts towards the end of the day before closing time!
Eat More Vegetables
Cutting down on meat consumption is a sure way to save money, so trying out vegetarian cooking can be a good option. Casseroles and pasta dishes are easy ways to get acquainted with it, and you can add eggs and cheese to fulfill your protein intake.
Prepare Your Own Sweet Treats
Most of us crave sweets from time to time, so rather than buying processed desserts to satisfy your sweet tooth, you can prepare your own. Here are some quick ideas:
- Freeze your own fruit juice popsicles.
- Make healthy home-baked cookies.
- Add seasonal fruits to plain yogurt.
- Pour dark chocolate over frozen grapes, berries, or cubed fruits.
Final Thoughts
Contrary to what many people believe, healthy food doesn’t have to be fancy, expensive, or complicated to prepare. You can easily make the switch to healthy meal prepping and make it affordable with some time in planning, shopping, and organizing. Even if you struggle initially, the process gets much smoother as you get into the habit. Plus, you will start to embrace the benefits of maintaining your health while saving money. And with time, this will slowly transition into a permanent commitment to a fitter future. Because why spend more money than you need to when you can be nifty about your choices?
