How to Eat Healthy on a Budget

How to Eat Healthy on a Budget

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When we’re busy saving money, it can be very easy to compromise on our health. But being on a tight budget doesn’t mean you have to skip good nutrition and healthy eating habits. Here are my tips for how to eat healthy on a budget and still save money.

7 Ways to Eat Well For Less

Cutting back can sometimes feel like we have to make sacrifices and suffer, but it really doesn’t have to be that way.

There are lots of ways you can eat well for less. Here are 7:

Buy in Bulk

When you buy bigger, it costs less. So for example, you could purchase a 1kg pack of beef mince and split it 3 ways, giving you just over 330g for 3 meals. The average weight for a medium pack of meat is around 400g, so it’s slightly less. But you can pad it out with other things. More on that in a bit.

Batch Cook

Alternatively, that packet of mince could be made in a giant (or 2 smaller ones) shepherd’s pie, which once cooked, can then be split into serving dishes (those plastic takeaway boxes make great tubs for portioning up meals) and popped in the fridge or freezer to use later.

Buy Frozen

Firstly, it’s better for you (the nutrients are preserved when the food is frozen, unlike when food is picked then transported before being prepared and then sold in the supermarket). Secondly, if you didn’t know this already, frozen fruit and veg is a lot cheaper and has a longer shelf-life!

Keep a Go-To Food Store

Stock lentils and dried beans in your cupboard for adding to soups, salads, curries and stews. Keep frozen veg such as peas, sweetcorn and spinach. They’re always there to add some much-needed nutrition to your meals.

Branded Isn’t Always Best

If you’ve ever seen the programme, Eat Well for Less, you’ll have seen that often, it’s the packaging that determines the brand rather than the taste or quality. Try going for a supermarket own brand, or try a discount brand.

Don’t Buy Pre-Prepared Food

Cheddar sticks, grated cheese, chopped carrot, shredded lettuce. Pre-prepared snacks. The excuse is that it saves time, but have you ever looked at the difference in price per weight? It’s HUGE. Also, think about the extra unnecessary packaging for those individually wrapped snacks. It doesn’t take long to cut off a piece of cheddar or cut up a carrot, so swap convenience for lower-cost.

Make a Meal Plan

This is discussed in more detail further down, but by making a meal plan, you’re less likely to overspend on things you haven’t planned for, or don’t need. Being prepared is the best way to succeed.

Eat Healthy – How to Get 5 a Day on a Budget

If you want to make sure you’re getting at least 5 a day, there are little cheats you can start doing, such as making sure you have some fruit with your breakfast, swapping a sandwich for a salad or veg-packed soup, and adding healthy snacks to your day. Examples might be some hummus and veg sticks, peanut butter with apple, or some raisins/sultanas with a small handful of pumpkin seeds.

Keep frozen blueberries in your freezer and get them out the night before for blueberry and banana porridge in the morning.

Make a mid-week vegetable curry – anything goes! I love to make a curry with whatever we happen to have in the fridge, and there’s often enough leftover for a lunchtime meal later in the week. Include things like spinach (frozen), squash, carrot, sweet potato, and add chick peas or lentils for protein.

Legumes, nuts and seeds are also classed as part of your 5-a-Day (Nature’s bounty), so keep these in your cupboard to add to salads, wraps, stir-fries, soups and stews.

Healthy on a Budget: Eat More Fruit & Veg

As mentioned before, keeping frozen fruit and veg can be a really cost-effective way of making sure you are getting all the nutrients you need. Adding peas, sweetcorn and carrots to a shepherd’s pie will add extra goodness and fibre, make your food go further, and save you money.

You could add grated carrot, red lentils and mushrooms to spaghetti bolognese.

Make a soup with three or more ingredients from your salad drawer – sweet potato, carrot and squash for example. Or, potato, leek and broccoli.

Of course, the best way to make sure you get a decent, balanced diet, is to plan your meals and snacks for the week ahead.

Save & Eat Healthily by Meal Planning

Doing a meal plan for the week might seem like a chore, but if you’re smart and plan carefully, you’ll be winning. Take into account events happening throughout the week so you don’t leave yourself short on time.

The best part about this, is that as you write your meal plan and consider what you need to buy, you’ll find it flows naturally and you won’t actually need to buy as much as you think you should.

For example, if you’re planning a roast dinner for Sunday and know you’re buying broccoli, you could use half for Sunday roast and half in a stir-fry. Or if you’re cooking a spinach, sweet potato and chickpea curry, you could buy a bag of sweet potatoes and have baked sweet potato as a side in another mid-week meal.

You might buy kale (which is really good for you, by the way) as a side dish, but you can use it in salads and stir-fries, too. Add in some nuts or seeds for some extra crunch.

Best Food to Buy on a Budget

Here’s a list of staple and fresh food I try to always keep in the house:

  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • Greens (kale or spring greens)
  • Cheddar
  • Seeds and nuts (e.g. pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds; pine nuts, cashew nuts, unsalted peanuts)
  • Pulses and Legumes (lentils, beans – baked beans/chick peas/kidney beans/cannelini beans) either dried or tinned
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Cucumber
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Raisins/sultanas
  • Peanut butter
  • Frozen blueberries
  • Frozen berries/other fruit for smoothies
  • Sweetcorn (tinned or frozen)
  • Peas (tinned or frozen)
  • Frozen spinach

Meal Ideas to Eat Healthy on a Budget

I try to do a full meal plan every week. (I love food and I love to mix it up. Predictable breakfast cereal and sandwiches for lunch gets very boring!)

Here are a few ideas taken from previous plans to get you started:

Breakfast ideas:

  • Blueberry & banana porridge
  • Veg sausage & egg muffin
  • Granola, yoghurt & raspberries
  • Weetabix & banana
  • Rolled oats, sliced fruit (peach/apricot/plum/raspberry/strawberry) & natural yoghurt with honey
  • Bacon & eggs on wholemeal toast with orange juice
  • Smashed avocado & eggs on seeded toast
  • Savoury muffins (these will need to be made in advance so require pre-planning)

Lunch ideas:

  • Kale & Feta salad (add some seeds/nuts and some grains)
  • Jacket potato with cheese and beans
  • All day breakfast with beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, bubble & squeak leftover from Sunday roast)
  • Mackerel salad
  • Bean & cheese wraps
  • Prawn & avocado wraps
  • Vegetable Soup
  • Bacon & lentil soup
  • Tuna salad nicoise
  • Reheat leftovers from previous meals cooked earlier in the week

Dinner ideas

  • White fish, roasted Mediterranean veg & cous cous
  • Prawn, courgette & chilli linguine
  • Sweet potato and spinach curry
  • Roast dinner
  • Pie & Mash with 2 sides of veg
  • Salmon, roasted veg & new potatoes
  • Chilli con carne with bell peppers and kidney beans
  • Cottage pie
  • Spaghetti bolognese with grated carrot and lentil
  • Turkey escalopes, sweet potato wedges, broccoli & corn
  • Vegetable lasagne
  • Chicken chow mein (use whatever veg you fancy!)
  • Special fried rice (add spring onions, and peas and sweetcorn from the freezer)
  • Beef with peppers in black bean sauce and egg fried rice or noodles
  • Burritos or Fajitas (with peppers, onion, lettuce on the side)
  • Lemon chicken noodles with green beans
  • Aubergine, spinach and courgette lasagne
  • Squash & chickpea curry

When you eat well, you feel good and you have more energy. Don’t forget to add in time for any prep you might need to do. The best part about a meal plan is you can see in advance if you need to get anything ready for the following day or two ahead. Try it now, and let me know how you get on!

How to eat Healthy on a budget, and how to get 5 a day on a budget
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Other posts you might like:

Save Money On Your Meat when Meal Planning

10 Ways to Save on your Supermarket Shop

How to Save Money on Your Groceries

How To Make a Family Budget

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