A common misconception is that eating healthy is expensive.
It is easy to look at a large grocery bill and assume it would be cheaper to eat out for every meal. However, keep in mind that when you grocery shop, you are buying a few days worth of food at a time and are likely purchasing food for every meal. With proper planning and a few simple strategies, healthy eating on a budget can be easy!
Tips for Eating Healthy on a Budget
- Before Grocery Shopping. Before you go shopping, look up recipes and what produce is in season, plan your meals for the week, and make a shopping list based on what you need. Make sure the majority of your list is comprised of a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, nuts and seeds, and quality dairy products. This will keep you on track once you get to the store. Also, make sure not go to the store on an empty stomach, which can promote spontaneous (and likely less healthy) purchases.
- At the Grocery Store. Stick to your list and keep mainly to the perimeter of the store. This is where most of your items, like fresh produce, lean meats, eggs, and quality dairy products, should come from. After that, choose the aisles you walk down wisely. Lastly, make sure to look at unit price when comparing products rather than only the selling price. This can be found in tiny writing on the bottom corner of the price label and should say a dollar amount per ounce or pound, etc. This unit price will tell you how much you are paying per serving or per ounce, which will allow you to easily compare prices of packages that may contain different amounts. Although a larger package is not always practical and can end up being wasted, if the product has a somewhat longer shelf life (i.e. grains), go for whichever size has the cheaper unit price. If deciding when to buy organic or pass, check out the Environmental Working Groups “Dirty Dozen and Clean 15.”
- After Grocery Shopping. Once you have all of your groceries, it is good to do a little preparation. How often you do so is a personal preference. However often you choose to do so, make sure to chop vegetables, cut any fruit that needs cutting, and cook whole grains and lean proteins to have ready to go. This will make preparing meals throughout the week much easier. It will also make it easier to grab a healthy option when you are in a hurry! To make it even easier on yourself, pre-package meals and snacks after preparing them in bulk so all you have to do is grab and go.
Lastly, if you have extra vegetables, lean meats, or grains at the end of the week, try getting creative and making a soup! This way, nothing goes to waste!
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