9 Tips for Healthy Eating on a Budget

#1. Meal Plan and Make a List

Why do we meal prep in the first place? If done right, meal planning can save you a lot of time and money! Planning your meals around what you have and shopping sales will make managing your budget much easier. Also, if you plan your meals to make sure nothing goes to waste, then you're saving even more money!

If you don't have a budget or struggle with managing one, we recommend that you check out a few books on budgeting and personal finance such as: "The One Week Budget", "Budgeting 101", "How To Adult".

Meal prepping will also save you a lot of time. Preparing multiple meals in one sitting can save you from spending excessive amounts of time flipping through cookbooks and browsing recipes every day.

Have you ever walked into a grocery store with no plan? Throwing random stuff into your cart shopping might work out for you. However at the end of the week, many of your groceries are likely still in your fridge or starting to go bad. Taking a few minutes each week to plan your meals and make a list will ensure that you only buy what you need and at the end of the week, nothing will go to waste.

If you have not noticed, a huge part of saving money on groceries is making sure nothing goes to waste.

Tip 2: Make smart food choices

Choosing healthy foods over packaged and processed ones doesn’t have to increase your weekly cost of groceries. In fact, it’s actually worth remembering that junk food will costs you much more than the price you see. Poor diet can not only take a toll on your health, but also lead to increased medical and drug bills. Making smart food choices, though, can save you money and protect your health.

Tip 3 Choose whole foods.

As we focus on making smart food choices a great place to start is whole foods. Convenience foods might save time, but they cost you more. Buying a block of cheese and slicing it yourself is cheaper than buying processed cheese slices. buying whole potatoes and cooking them yourself will be much less expencis then buying pre packaged french fries. This helps you avoid additives as well!

Tip 4 Buy frozen fruits and vegetables.

One exception to the whole food tip is frozen fruits and veggies. They are just as nutritious as their fresh counterparts and still taste good, but are regularly much less expensive. If you have freezer room, the biggest frozen bags often give you the best value.

Tip 5 Purchase generic/store brands.

When you shop at conventional grocery stores, the store or generic brand will often be cheaper than the name brand for the same quality product.

Look for simple ways to save money throughout the day. Instead of picking up a morning coffee on your way to work or school, for example, make your coffee at home. Instead of buying breakfast or lunch, prepare your own using leftovers or home-made salads, sandwiches, or boiled eggs.

Tip 6 Buy in bulk.

Buying non-perishable foods, such as grains, dried beans, cereals, etc. in bulk can save you a lot of money. But you might have to do a bit of research in the beginning. there are a lot of foods that are cheaper to buy in bulk, but some that are not. here are some examples.

Cheaper	More Expensive
Organic peanut butter Packaged: $6.99 (Cadia brand, creamy, 1-pound jar) Bulk: $5.99	Organic unbleached all-purpose flour Packaged: $1.72 (priced from a 5-pound bag, Bob’s Red Mill brand) Bulk: $1.89
Organic rolled oats Packaged: $2.75 (priced from a 2-pound bag, Bob’s Red Mill brand) Bulk: $1.49	Organic semisweet chocolate chips Packaged: $11.44 (priced from an 8.8-ounce bag, Pascha brand) Bulk: $11.89
Organic brown long-grain rice Packaged: $4.49 (Lundberg brand, 1-pound bag) Bulk: $2.99
Organic sugar Packaged: $3.39 (priced from a 2-pound bag, Wholesome brand) Bulk: $1.99
Organic extra-virgin olive oil Packaged: $13.71 (priced from a 12.7-ounce bottle, Spectrum brand) Bulk: $6.49
Organic coffee Packaged: $12.99 (Colectivo Blue Heeler brand whole beans, 1-pound bag) Bulk: $11.99 (Colectivo Blue Heeler brand whole beans)

Tip 7 Shop for produce in season and buy by the bag.

Produce is cheapest when it is in season. Not to mention that produce is at its tastiest and most nutritious when you buy it in season. Another tip while buying produce is to buy fruits and vegetables like as apples, oranges, potatoes, and onions by the bag instead of by the piece. They are often much cheaper.

Tip 8 Be aware that convenience costs more.

If you are willing to do a little bit of work, you can often save money. Some examples of this are, avoiding instant rice or instant oatmeal, buying a whole chicken and cutting it into parts, and shredding or grating cheese. Also purchasing fresh salad ingredients and making it yourself instead of buying packaged salad mixes will definitely save you money.

Tip 9 Sign up for meal delivery.

Especially due to the recent pandemic there has been a huge increase of meal delivery services that cater to many different styles of eating and demographics. depending on if you are looking to feed just yourself or a family, it is worth comparing the prices of these services to your budget. Many singles and couples find that a meal delivery service or meal prepping service save them money each month.

In Conclusion

Some important concepts to keep in mind when shopping are to set aside some time each week to figure out what you will buy and what you really need. It always helps to compare the cost of your time and the cost of convenience depending on your lifestyle. Here at Natural Beauty, we are in support of any practices that will help the environment, such as reducing waste in the kitchen and reducing consumption of plastic packaging.

As always we hope that this information is both helpful and practical for your life.