7 Tips for Healthy Eating on a Budget

March is National Nutrition Month, the perfect time to consider how your food dollars support your wellness. Here are a few simple cost-effective tips to keep you organized. If these suggestions seem overwhelming, add one new thing to your routine and go from there.

Plan your meals every week.

While joining friends and family for meals out is enjoyable, it can get expensive. Cooking at home allows you to control cost and ingredients.

°Begin by making a list of your favorites for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Refer to this list during your meal planning before grocery shopping.

°First, look at your schedule for the week. What evenings are you out for a kid’s event, a meeting, church or other commitment? Consider what you might do for meals on those evenings. Do you have time to eat at home if you have something prepared to heat up? That’s where cooking once and eating twice comes in.

°Consider easy-to-prepare, health promoting recipes that you repeat every week. These could be the same day each week, like “taco Tuesdays”, and “Friday pizza night”. Keep pantry ingredients for these meals and purchase the same perishable items each week.

°Add health boosting fruits and veggies to your favorites. Try onions and bell peppers in taco meat, extra veggies on pizza, fresh spinach and peppers in spaghetti sauce, or chopped mushrooms mixed into hamburgers.

Check weekly grocery ads before shopping.

°Maybe lean ground beef is on sale for less than the chicken you were planning on. It’s important to be flexible. If you have the space, buy extra to store in the freezer for later.

°While at the store, compare prices of different brands and different sizes of the same brand to see which has a lower unit price. The unit price is usually located on the shelf directly below the product.

°Some stores have discounts for specific groups on certain days of the week, such as older adults or students. Shopping on a discount day could save you 5 – 10%.

Get your nutrients from whole foods instead of specialty products or supplements.

°Unless you have a specific health condition, a well-balanced diet will typically support your nutritional needs.

Shop with your list.

°Review recipes and make a grocery list of what ingredients are needed. When shopping with a list you’ll be less likely to make impulse buys.

°Consider doubling some recipes, which will save time in the kitchen later on. Extra portions can be used for lunches or meals later in the week, or frozen for future use.

Meal prep.

When you have spare time, chop, slice and prep ingredients so they’re ready-to-go.

°Hearty veggies like onion, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, carrots, braising greens and leeks can be washed and prepped ahead of time without browning or losing moisture. Store in an airtight container with paper towels for up to a week.

°Parsley, cilantro and mint will last up to 2 weeks if properly stored in the fridge. Wash, dry, and store in a plastic bag that is lined with a paper towel and partially opened.

°Wash lettuce and salad greens as soon as you get them home and store them like the herbs.

°Keeping sliced steak, boneless, skinless chicken, or pork tenderloin in the freezer will give you a jump start on a stir fry, burrito or grain bowl.

Visit your local farmers’ market and purchase in-season products.

°During the winter, frozen vegetables are often less expensive, already cut up and easy to prepare.

Quench your thirst with tap water.

°Add flavor with slices of citrus fruit or cucumber.