7 ways to eat healthy on a budget

Trying to eat healthy on a budget can be challenging. A lot of the food and recipes you see on websites occasionally require expensive ingredients, and that can be a hassle, especially if you have to feed a family.

Here are some tips on how to eat healthy even when you’re on a budget.

1. Buy in bulk

It may seem like you’re buying more than you need, but buying in bulk can save you tons of money. You can get ridiculous prices for food items bought in bulk, the more you buy the cheaper the food items.

2. Prepare to cook the meals

Microwave dinners and precooked food seem like a great idea and a time saver. However, those foods are generally bad for you. Cooking the food yourself may take longer but you can control what goes in it and you can choose to make it healthy. Plus, cooking meals yourself is cheaper, you cook the right amount that will satisfy you.

3. Stop buying take out all the time

Every time you eat fast food, order a pizza, order takeout, you are undermining your food budget.

Don’t get us wrong, it’s good to treat yourself every now and then. However, if you’re reading this then you probably have a tight budget.

4. Stop buying bottled water

Bottled water doesn’t seem like it’s expensive but it adds up. Let’s say a bottle of water cost #50 and you drink 4 bottles in a day, that’s #6,000 in a month, and there’s every possibility of taking more than 4 bottles in a day.

You could easily save that money by using a water dispenser or even buy sachet water. With that extra money, you can go buy more food!

5. Obey the psychological rules of grocery shopping

Grocery shopping isn’t always about the physical things. Sometimes it’s about the mental things. With that in mind, you should attempt to exercise the following tips.

You should eat before going to the store because you’re more likely to be pragmatic about your decisions when you’re not hungry. You should shop alone because it cuts down on impulse buys from your kids, husband, wife or other family members. Lastly, you should try to make a core list and stick to it.

6. Buy generic food brands

There comes a point where it’s the same thing in a different container and you’re just paying a premium for the right to say you bought a particular brand of a food item.

This is especially true for cereal. You can get the same cereal for half off by buying off-brand and they taste pretty much the same.

 

7. Try to grow some of your own food

Let’s be honest: planting a garden isn’t going to work miracles on your food budget, but it will help a little bit, especially if you plant the right things.

Vegetables, herbs, plantain and even maize are great to grow in most climates and you can use those in almost any food dish. If the garden is big enough, you can grow enough to save yourself a little bit of money.

Plus, the stuff you grow is typically going to be good for you. You’re not growing processed foods high in sodium and trans fats.