Eating Healthy on a Budget

Don’t let your budgetary concerns interfere with your desire to be healthy!

Good health isn’t something you can simply pick up at the store on your way home from work. It isn’t something you can buy. Health is something that you have to work for. Yet, that being said, it often seems as though being healthy comes at a price.

The celebrity health blog GOOP, started by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, has received almost as much criticism as it has praise in the last couple of years thanks to the over-the-top out-of-budget ideas that are endorsed in the name of being healthy. The critics say that replicating even one or two recipes a week will cost an average family at least a hundred dollars more in food than they are already spending, and for a family on a budget, this is just out of the question.

While there are certainly trends in healthy foods that come at a premium price, the basics are available exactly where you always shop, and learning how to separate the good from the bad can actually help you start to save money on your grocery bill.

Here are a few tips for eating better on a tight budget:

• Plan your meals ahead of time so there are no last minute surprises at the drive-thru. Eating out, even the cheap fast food, will cost your family more every time than it would have to prepare your own meal.
• When planning your meals, go ahead and make a grocery list. Plan on preparing items with similar ingredients so that you can get the most out of every purchase. This is especially important when it comes to buying produce, as your items could go bad after a couple of days.
• Once your meal is prepared, dish out your servings before making it to the table. This is a good tip for improving your eating habits by limiting portions, which helps with weight loss. Once the proper dinner portions are served, scoop the leftover portions into to-go containers so that you can have lunch the next day. That is two meals in one.

Remember, while it may seem like healthy foods come at a heftier price tag, good health is not something that can be overruled by a few saved pennies. Learning how to eat healthily on a budget can help you and your family feel more physically and financially healthy.