Share Your Tips For Staying Healthy on a Budget

Never plan your meals for the week before checking what's on sale. Buy the groceries that are on sale and then plan your meals based on that.

Or better yet, look at grocery shopping differently. Instead of shopping for each meal, shop to re-stock your supplies. For example, if chicken is on sale, stock up on it. If flour is on sale, buy three bags. Certain things go on sale pretty regularly so you start to know how much you'll need to buy to last you till the next time it goes on sale.

My local Walmart has a place in the produce section where big bags of nearly expired veggies and salads sell for $2. I made a huge pot of broccoli soup yesterday in my slow cooker using my homemade chicken broth, onion, some milk, and $2 worth of broccoli. That will be my lunches for the week with a little protein on the side. I buy nearly all my fresh veggies in that discounted section.

Bake your own muffins and freeze them individually so you just have to grab one on your way out the door. Things like protein powders, protein bars, and sports drinks are gimmicks to separate you from your hard earned cash. Unless you're an elite athlete, or doing a physical job outdoors all day, you probably don't need them. The average person (like me) who works out for an hour a day does not NEED high priced protein bars, protein powders, or sports drinks. Add some Greek yoghurt to your muffin recipe for some extra protein. Make your smoothies using tofu or Greek yoghurt instead of adding protein powder.

Even though there's just my husband and me, I make family sized amounts of things like lasagna or chili. I freeze the extra in meal size portions for those days when neither of us feel like cooking and might be tempted to order pizza or whatever.

Understand that the goal of food companies is to get you to buy their products. In order to do that, they tell you that you absolutely need what they're selling and that it will make your life amazingly better. You have to see through that and decide for yourself what works best for you.

I'm loving my garden right now. I've been picking lettuce(I have 4 kinds planted) every day for salads instead of buying the lettuce mixes. Got our first cucumber yesterday which is so much better than store bought. Green beans are almost ripe. Getting cherry tomatoes. My sister and I exchange veggies with each other. We got tons of strawberries this year and have a lot put away in the freezer.
This time of year I always wish we'd planted more varieties of vegetables.

I don't buy a lot of meat but when I do, it's usually the reduced ground beef. It's $2 a pound cheaper. It either gets cooked right away or portioned into the freezer. I used to buy chicken breasts all the time but that's when it was 1.99#, not so much now that it's 3.99#. Eggs are still a good deal for protein but wow, they've gone up too.

I do go for store brands, depending on what. Paper products yes. Canned soups yes. Or I stock up when things are on sale.

We still end up spending way too much. DH and I eat very differently and he doesn't think about cost very much.

Meal planning all the way. I will normally write out a meal plan for 2 weeks and buy everything except for my produce at once. I worry about my produce going bad before I get to it so I normally buy it for one week at a time.

1. I prep all my veggies for cooking and eating when I get them home from the store. Very little food waste that way, and saves duplicate buying.
2. I base my meals around what’s on hand rather than what sounds good.
3. I’m creative in my cooking and combine foods that often sound like they shouldn’t go together, but do.
4. I don’t buy really great coffee. Or rather, it’s rare when I get a cup out or grind my own beans. Not an every day thing.
5. I seldom eat meat.

Get creative with leftovers- don’t let them go bad. Think leftover veggies or salad into soups. Meat and veg in to omelettes, fried rice, sushi.

Make your own oatmeal mix with bulk rolled oats and add ins like chia seeds. So much cheaper.

Buy frozen berries in bulk when they are on sale. As others have said, shop what’s in season.

Meal plan. Visit the shops less and make sure your plan has some treats built in or you won’t stick to it. Plan for one or two meals to be whatever is on special and plan meals that will use the previous nights leftovers.

LeslieAWagner wrote: »

These days meat is so expensive! I bought two large racks of boneless pork ribs and made 3 different meals! The first was carnitas tacos (after slow cooking you fry the pork in its own juice and create caramelized bits in with the juicy parts.) I had some carnitas left over and it went into the fridge. (3 cups) The other half that I didn’t cook up in a pan was placed into the freezer. I used it for BBQ pork sandwiches for 8 people! Finally today, We used the leftover carnitas with shredded red cabbage and a teeny bit of bacon to create a delicious one pan meal! This was all fairly keto and fed a fam of 8 for the carnitas and sandwiches. The pork and cabbage fed four of us.

All in all $26 dollars for the meat. Not bad! A slow cooker was used on the ribs to cook them after a rub and seasoning.

Leslie in the Ozark´s

So many great ideas! I'll just add a couple:

Stock up when non-perishables are on sale, if you can.

Shop the loss leaders. Each store has a flyer with sale items. Read the flyers weekly.

Don't buy what you don't need.

Most stores have online coupons you can clip and the savings come off the total automatically when you put in your customer ID number.

Ibotta gives you cashback for your purchases. I've personally received over $1,000 in my paypal account from using it.

Don't be wasteful. Eat your leftovers and fresh veg/fruit before they expire.

Dried beans/legumes are the best! I'll plan 3-4 meals a week around black beans, northern beans or chickpeas, then cook up a double batch and freeze the leftovers in 2-cup containers. It's then really easy to quickly make enchiladas, salad, grain bowl, etc. another night with what's in the freezer -- and you save money and skip the high-sodium canned beans.