Healthy Eating on a Budget

By Macia Noorman

As nutrition professionals, we are constantly spreading the message to eat healthy. Eat more fruit! Eat more vegetables! But we sometimes forget that, for many people, that just sounds like dollar signs. Many people want to eat healthy, but don’t know how to do that on a tight budget.

I’ve found myself on a tighter budget than usual this year, and I am here to tell you that you can still eat healthy on a tight budget! It takes a little extra work and time getting started, but once you’ve built some new habits, it will feel like second nature. Here are a few tips to get you started!

Plan Ahead

Have you ever gone to the grocery store and started putting stuff in your cart and get home to realize that you have lots of odds and ends and no clue how to put them together? Or maybe you grabbed a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables that were still sitting there a week later, attracting fruit flies? All that food equals money sitting in a cabinet or landing in the trash.

It’s a lot easier to stick to a budget if you know exactly what you are going to buy and how you are going to use it before you ever set foot in a store. Start by finding a time every week that you can spend some time planning your menu for the next week and building your grocery list. I usually do my menu planning on Thursday or Friday during lunch and in the evening (because I rarely have enough time to get it all done in one sitting).

Building a collection of your favorite recipes and food blogs can make the planning step easier because you won’t have to come up with everything on your own. My two favorite blogs for menu planning are Skinnytaste.com (which even has weekly menu plans if you want to simplify this step even more) and BudgetBytes.com (because budget is right in the name!). And don’t forget to check the ads for your grocery store while you’re planning! Steak may be too expensive to have every week, but it might fit your budget once in a while when it goes on sale!

Shop Smart

You’ve got your list, now stick to it. But how can you do that for the lowest price? You could go to every grocery store around and price compare, but that would take all day! Chances are, one of your area grocery stores promotes itself as a lower cost option. Mine is Ruler Foods (their slogan used to be “measure the savings”). It’s a rare week that I can get everything on my list there, but I can usually get most of my items there and pick up just a few items at the more expensive grocery chain down the street.

A typical Ruler Foods bill for me is between $25 and $45 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for five days for two people. I pick up the handful of items I couldn’t get at Ruler Foods (usually some produce and the occasional international ingredient) at Schnucks for another $25 to $30. That means, my weekly grocery bill is usually about $50 to $75. For three meals a day. For five days. For two people. That comes out to $1.66 to $2.50 per meal. I’m paying McDonald’s prices for healthy, home cooked meals!

COOK

Here’s the kicker. To eat healthy on a budget you have to be willing to do some of your own cooking. I happen to take that to the extreme and even make my own breads and marinara sauce most of the time (I also have a food allergy that makes that a necessity, but that’s another blog post).

Cooking doesn’t have to be a huge chore that takes over your entire life. The two blogs I mentioned earlier (skinnytaste.com and budgetbytes.com in case you forgot) have tons of very easy recipes that anyone could make with some very basic skills and kitchen supplies. If you’re busy during the week and just don’t have the time to cook dinner every night, try to set aside some time on the weekend to prepare for the week ahead. And become a fan of leftovers! A lot of recipes are designed to make four servings. That means you can cook once and eat four meals!

You may be saying, “This is all well and good theoretically, but the proof is in the pudding.” So, here’s my proof!

Sample One-Week Menu

I only plan a menu for Monday through Friday. We eat whatever is leftover on the weekends and are more likely to go out with friends.

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	6 oz Greek yogurt ½ cup blueberries 1 teaspoon honey Schnucks bakery muffin	Skinnytaste Chickpea Tuna Salad 1 slice bread	BudgetBytes Chili Lime Shrimp Bowls
Tuesday	Skinnytaste Breakfast Pizza 1 banana	Leftover Chili Lime Shrimp Bowls	Skinnytaste Pressure Cooker Pozole
Wednesday	Leftover Breakfast Pizza 1 banana	Leftover Pressure Cooker Pozole	BudgetBytes Lemon Ricotta Pasta
Thursday	3 Skinnytaste Petite Quiches 1 cup cantaloupe	Leftover Lemon Ricotta Pasta	BudgetBytes Carnitas & Pickled Red Onions 3-4 tortillas (tacos!)
Friday	3 Leftover Petite Quiches 1 cup cantaloupe	Leftover Carnitas &Pickled Red Onions 3-4 tortillas	BudgetBytes Spring Rolls & Quick Peanut Sauce

And here are my receipts! My grocery total for the week was $63.62 for two people. That includes three meals a day for five days. Our per meal price for the week is $2.12.

 

It takes some dedication and time to eat healthy on a budget, but it can be done! Decide to make a plan and stick to it, and you and your bank account will start to feel healthier soon!