In 2022/23, inflation has hit us hard on the grocery shelves but there are ways to still eat healthy food while not spending our life savings each week. Grocery spending varies widely across families, special diets, and geographies so we aren’t going to delve into exactly what anyone should be spending or eating. That said, if you’re anything like me, you would like to spend less each week and eat healthier. The good news is that it’s totally doable. What seems impossible to some is second nature to others.
Don’t worry, this isn’t coming from a place of perfection. I happen to be a certified nutritionist and fancy myself to be super frugal but we also have to work at eating healthy, especially when food prices rise like this. So you should feel no judgment from me, just support and commiseration on this one.
Why is healthy eating on a budget important?
Nutrition and finance affects almost every area of life but here are a few of the many reasons why you’ll want to give this a good ol’ college try.
- Eating nutritious food is the first of the Six key pillars of good health along with exercise, rest, good quality air, sunshine and water.
- For many families, food costs make up a considerable portion of your monthly expenses. You’ll want to keep reading and start taking some of these steps if you find yourself holding your breath at the checkout because you’re still living paycheck to paycheck.
- Well planned eating habits will help to reduce food waste which keeps money in your pocket and helps the environment. And, as we know – Waste less, want less.
- Those that eat well also age better. If you want to be active and enjoy your older years, your chances of that improve exponentially if you take care of your body while you’re young.
- It is critical that you avoid chronic illness such as heart disease or diabetes, especially if you still have kids at home and are a single parent.
- It makes you happy. Feeding your cells a nutrient-dense diet helps boost your mood and level out your emotions. Spending less on food opens up room in your budget for more fun things (or investing so that your money makes money for you!)
So, how do we eat healthy while not breaking our budgets?
There are so many ways to do this but here are my top healthy food budget busters.
- Cook at home. Eating in restaurants or ordering take out costs so much more than eating at home. Eating out should be a treat, not an every day or every week occurrence. The costs extend beyond the hit to your pocketbook too since restaurant food tastes so good because they often add fat and sugar and salt to make it so.
- Cook from scratch. I know, who has the time? Well, not all meals take a lot of energy or ingredients or know-how. A basic wrap filled with greens and such doesn’t take any time to pull together. The point is that processed foods may not seem to cost that much but they are full of chemicals and many don’t even resemble actual food as the nutrients have been stripped out in processing. Quite a few of those processed foods also cost much less to make at home.
- Meal plan and make a list before shopping. This can be a tough one for some and the easiest thing in the world for others. I’m somewhere in the middle.
- Check your pantry – is there anything that you would like to use this week?
- Check your freezer – are there items that need to be used?
- Plan your meals using what you learned in the first two steps
- Make a list of ingredients that you will need to buy
- Do your shopping & only buy those items on your list
- Make & eat your leftovers. One of the best ways to ease the amount of work and the cost of food is to make extra and eat it for lunches or freeze it for another meal later in the week or month.
- Buy seasonally. Seasonal vegetables tend to be less costly and more nutrient rich than those that are off-season or need to be shipped from far away. An easy example of this is to eat more salads in the summer and more root vegetables in the winter when greens aren’t readily available.
- Add more low-cost but still healthy ingredients into your diet such as:
- Beans
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Oats
- Bananas
- Find more ideas in this great article on Healthline.
- Buy loss leaders. Each store will have a few healthy items on deep discount to lure customers in. This is when you want to buy these items and if you can afford to stock up, then do it now.
- Avoid the coupons & apps. This is controversial but in the most part, coupons and food rebate apps tend to be for processed foods. It can be enticing but unless you are finding a great deal on the very few packaged goods that are actually healthy like canned tomatoes or rice, then you should avoid these.
- Avoid the expensive, sugary drinks. All our body needs is water. Colas and sports drinks are terrible for your body and your budget. Skip them.
- Got a sweet tooth? Home baking is the best! Most home made goodies have less sugar, no chemicals or trans fats and can be enjoyed in moderation. Yay!!
Final thoughts
Everyone is at a different level of healthy eating and also on how much they are willing and able to spend on groceries. Do your best and celebrate your wins along the way. A few bucks left in your wallet and a few pounds left off your hips will be your reward!
And if you’re feeding teenagers… good luck to you! I feel your pain as I am too and that’s a whole other conversation.