Eating Healthy and Saving Money

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Eating Healthy and Saving Money? We are often led to believe that making healthy eating habits is out of our reach for convenience and cost reasons. But did you know that making the smarter and healthier choice can actually save you money?

Eating Healthy and Saving Money

Let me explain with these tips:

Curb your eating out and drive through habit.
This one can be tricky because it seems like if you order from the dollar or budget menu, that’s about as cheap as it gets. Who can beat an entire meal for $3, am I right? The trouble is, you are often buying these meals for your entire family which will likely put you over the $10 mark (and who really has a family meal for $10? You know you order extras). If you do this even half of the week, you are looking at an extra $150 per month spent on food that is not good for you. This is not even taking into account any sit down restaurants you go to visit, where a family meal is likely to cost $50+ and they are full of calories, sodium and more!

Cut the junk food from your shopping list.
Have you ever calculated how much you actually spend on pop, chips, frozen pizza (or other convenience meals), cookies and crackers. None of these food provide you with good nutrition and they all cost quite a bit. Cut these from your diet and not only will you feel better, but your pocketbook will feel fuller!

Shop in Bulk.
Believe it or not, the bulk section carries a lot of healthy meal prep items such as oats and beans. Both of these are incredibly healthy and are super cheap when bought in bulk. Look for oats to be $0.70 per pound or less when bought this way and oatmeal is one of the healthiest breakfasts you can buy!

Cook More!
Cook bigger meals for dinner and use them for lunches throughout the week. This will keep you from buying fast food or convenience type lunches and since you are eating homemade food, you are looking at a healthier meal option. (This is a great reason to cook soups, stews and healthy casseroles)

Shop with a grocery list and don’t shop hungry.
These are two of the best tips I have ever learned while shopping. Take a list with you and stick to it. The more organized and prepared you are when doing your shopping, the less likely you are to buy impulse snacks and foods. The same goes for shopping hungry. It is proven that when we shop hungry, we spend more money. Our hunger often makes us grab foods we wouldn’t normally shop for. That hunger also talks us into those near-the-checkout impulse buys that are right at our fingertips, like candy bars and snack sized foods that are far from healthy!