Let’s talk eating a healthy diet on a healthy budget, and bust the myth that you need to spend a lot of money to be healthy.
A misconception about healthy eating is that we need to spend fortunes on food. Whether it’s on organic foods, lots of different seeds and magic pills, etc. It can seem overwhelming and easier to stick to your food habits.
But here are a few suggestions to keep your healthy eating habits on a budget.
Meal Prepping for a Healthy Budget
Preparing your food in advance, and mainly making it in bulk, is one of the best ways to save money.
To meal prep, you simply need to buy what you would have done for one recipe, and multiply it for the number of meals you want to make. This way, you’re sure to use up all the ingredients or at least more than what you would have for just one meal.
For example, how many times do you buy something just for one meal and then end up with the leftovers in your fridge without really wanting it? And ultimately throwing it away …
When you buy in bulk or simply more than what you would need for one recipe, you can cut costs by using everything you bought. And if you put everything into boxes once your meals are ready, you know there won’t be leftovers.
It also allows you to portion your meals. If you have a tendency to eat too much because it’s in front of you, now you have portions.
Less Meat, More Legumes
When you’re trying to cut on costs, you can also look at the protein sources that you’re eating. If you eat several times a week, you know there is wriggle room there. Plant-based protein sources will be cheaper than meat or fish.
For plant-based protein sources you can look at adding more legumes into your meals: lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, all types of beans, tofu, tempeh, etc. For example a chilli sin carne where you add more beans and remove the meat, you’re clearly saving money.
Make Your Own Meals and Snacks
One of the greatest ways to stay healthy and remain on top of your budget, is to make your own meals. When you go out, you pay not only for the food, but the service and the restaurant / cafe’s rent, the location, the distribution costs and packaging, etc.
Making your own meals, you are paying only for the ingredients, and the rest is your time. So unless you make an enormous amount of money per hour and can afford to have healthy meals delivered often, you should cook 🙂
The devil is in the details and often we can spend a lot of money on snacks. I’d highly suggest to make your own snacks if you know you get hungry during the day. I have a couple of recipes on my blog for inspiration: Heathy Bliss Balls, Homemade Hummus and Banana Bread.
Plan Plan Plan for a Healthy Budget
Putting all this together, to ensure that you are controlling your penny spend, planning is the best. Plan your meals, plan your shopping lists, monitor your fridge and pantry’s contents.
Do you ever come back from the shop and realise that even if you’ve just spent a good part of your budget, you don’t know what to eat tonight? If you don’t have specific recipes or quick meals to make in mind, you’ll eat much more than if you had made a plan.
Make a list of the recipes you want to make. You can have them on repeat week after week for a certain amount of time. It saves you time thinking about what’s for dinner, and in the shop about what to purchase.
If you’re not too good with planning, have a look at my 4-Week Meal Plan. It provides done-for-you meal plans for the week, with the recipes as well as the shopping lists, week after week ! No more time spent on what you could possibly make again tonight, no headache in the shop. Just easy, healthy, cost-effective, and made for you decisions.
Or find easy dinner recipes down below that you can easily bulk prepare:
Hearty Avocado and Fennel Salad
My Fave Sweet Potato and Rocket Salad
