Healthy Eating on a Budget
Let’s be real for a minute, shall we? The cost of food these days is downright insane. And that’s scary for all of us, but it’s ESPECIALLY frustrating when you’re wanting to commit to a healthier lifestyle but it honestly feels like you might have to take out a 2nd mortgage just to afford your grocery bill. Is there really a way to eat healthy AND still keep your food budget in check? I say yes, and today my goal is to prove it to you.
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But I’ll start with the bad news first: eating healthy IS likely going to be more expensive than eating junk food or processed food. There’s just no getting around that. The healthiest, most nutrient-dense foods in the world—whole foods like high quality meat and fresh vegetables and fresh fish and dairy—those things are always going to cost more than a burger from the dollar menu or a bag of potato chips or a box of macaroni and cheese. But here’s the good news: healthy eating doesn’t have to break the bank. Because honestly, the journey to lose weight and get healthy can be hard enough without the added pressure of trying to figure out how to afford it, right?
The effort it takes to start to change your habits, and the learning that is required to truly understand the science of what different foods are doing to your body and how it all affects your hormones, and then the mindset work that’s required to overcome food addiction and emotional eating and all the other stuff. So maybe if we can make this one little piece feel more practical and doable, everything else will feel a little bit easier.
Even so, it’s important to know that success in this area is going to start with the stories you decide to tell yourself about money and whether it is actually worth it to invest in eating the right things. Because, as our Thinlicious Physician Advisor, Dr. Edie Wadsorth, likes to say—you can either pay the farmer now, or pay the doctor later. What you sacrifice now in order to make your health a priority WILL pay off in the long run. Ultimately, being healthy is MUCH more affordable than not being healthy. But it might now feel like that in the moment. And so changing the story that you tell yourself really is the first step. But if you ARE ready to make healthy eating a priority in your life, then the really good news is that there are actually a lot of practical strategies you can use to keep costs down. So let’s dig in.
Use the Food You Buy
The first tip I have for you is probably a little bit obvious, but it’s something that I think most of us probably don’t do a very good job of, and that is to actually USE the food you buy.
I know that might sound kind of silly and basic, but honestly, I can’t even tell you how often I find myself cleaning out my fridge and throwing away food that has gone bad or that I forgot was in there or that I just didn’t get around to cooking in time. It’s such a waste of money, and yet it’s something that so many of us do on a regular basis. In fact, food waste is a huge problem in the United States, with the average American throwing away between 20-25% of all the food they buy. And that’s just crazy to me, especially when so many people are struggling to put healthy, nutritious food on the table for their families.
If this is something that you struggle with too, then I would say that the first step in saving money on your grocery bill is just to be more mindful and intentional about actually using the food you buy. That means planning your meals in advance, and making a shopping list, and only buying what you know you’ll actually eat. It also means being realistic about how much food you and your family can actually consume in a week, and not buying more than you need.
If you’re new to meal planning, then honestly, that’s probably the best place to start. Just take a little bit of time at the beginning of each week to sit down and plan out what you’re going to eat, and then make a list of all the ingredients you’ll need to buy. And then, of course, actually USE the food that you buy. Don’t let it sit in the fridge and go bad. And if you do have leftovers, make sure you’re actually eating them, and not just throwing them away.
And that might mean getting a little bit creative with how you use your leftovers. For example, I love to make big batches of roasted vegetables, but obviously we can’t always eat an entire tray of roasted veggies in one meal. So one of my favorite things to do is to use the leftovers for other meals throughout the week. I’ll throw them in a salad, or mix them in with scrambled eggs, or puree them in the blender and use them as a base for a soup. They’re such an easy and delicious way to add a lot of flavor and nutrients to a meal, without having to do a ton of extra prep work.
Shop Your Own Pantry and Freezer
The second tip have is to make a habit of shopping your own pantry and freezer first, before you head to the grocery store.
I know this one might sound a little bit obvious too, but it’s honestly something I didn’t used to do very well. I would always make a shopping list and then head to the store, and I’d buy all the things on my list, but then I’d come home and realize that I actually already had a lot of those things in my pantry or my freezer, I just didn’t remember.
It was such a waste of time and money, and it’s something that’s so easily avoidable. So now, before I head to the store, I always make a point to check my pantry and my freezer and see what I already have on hand. And then I try to plan my meals to use up as much of that stuff as possible, so that I’m not buying a bunch of extra ingredients that I don’t actually need.
And honestly, it’s amazing how much that simple little thing can save you, especially if you’re actually making an effort to eat down some of the things you already have on hand. For example, if you notice that you have a lot of frozen vegetables in your freezer, then you can plan to use those up for several meals in a row, or even for an entire week.
You get the idea. Just be more mindful of what you already have on hand, and make a plan to actually use that stuff up before you go buy more. It’s such a simple thing, but it can really make a big difference in how much you’re spending on groceries each month.
Shop the Sales (and Stock Up)
My third tip goes straight back to my days as an Extreme Couponer, where I learned the biggest secret of the grocery industry that very few people understand—EVERYTHING goes on sale, at least eventually! And not only that, MOST foods go on sale in a regular rotation, about once ever 6-8 weeks, on average. That means that over time, if you are smart and strategic about WHEN you buy your foods, you can literally slash your grocery bill by as…
