Eating Healthy on a Budget

I’m so humbled when people ask me how I can eat healthy and still stay in budget. So many people struggle with paying the bills and wanting to eat healthy. Story of our lives. Living paycheck to paycheck, wondering how we’ll pay the bills AND eat healthy, nutrient dense foods. Someday I hope we don’t have to live this way, skimping on things just so we can eat nourishing foods. But for now, I’ve had to learn/am learning how to manage a small grocery bill. I’m not about to claim I am a guru at saving money; However, I do feed my family of three grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, organic produce and chicken. All for around $350 a month. I’d say that’s pretty good. So here’s a few pointers that I’d say have REALLY helped me keep our grocery bill low. 

1. Prioritize. Make a list of what’s important to your health: eating organic produce, eating non-gmo products, grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and/or eggs, grass-fed butter? After you decide what’s priority, plan your budget accordingly. For us, the most important things are 1) Pastured beef and eggs, and quality fats. Most of our grocery budget goes towards these things. 2) organic and non-gmo produce. I purchase almost all organic produce, but only if it’s on sale. 3) Organic chicken. We simply cannot afford pastured chicken ($5-$6 a lb) so I go with organic local chicken ($2.49 a lb). If you prioritize what is important, it really helps you to know what to buy as the highest quality and what you can do a little compromising on. 

2. Meal Plan. When I meal plan, I do for an entire month. From that meal plan, I figure out what I need to buy at the store based on what I have in my pantry/fridge/freezer and do my shopping all in one day (plus a quick trip for fresh produce 1-2x a month). Meal planning is especially helpful for busy working moms like myself, and it frees up your nights a ton! I’ve actually found that when I meal plan, I have WAY more food than anticipated while still keeping on budget! The key to meal planning is to stick to the plan! I know, it’s hard, but if you don’t you’ll end up spending money on meals you “plan to make-but don’t”, as well as spending money on eating out and/or extra trips to the store. You can download my tools to get started today! 

3. Don’t buy convenience foods. This is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. When people say they can’t “afford” to eat healthy because it’s so much cheaper just to buy it already made. Well sure, if you’re spending money on so-called “healthy” pre-made foods I can see this being true. But when you don’t buy snacks/drinks/pre-made or pre-sliced foods, your grocery tab goes WAY, WAY down. If you meal plan, you won’t need them. So it’s simple, just don’t buy them. They are usually filled with bad stuff anyways. I do keep a few frozen meals (I get Amy’s or some tamales from Trader Joes) to keep on hand for Luis’ lunches if something comes up and I didn’t get to fix dinner. But overall, I make all my own stuff. I usually use weekends to make a few snack items that don’t take a lot of time to use throughout the week: Power Balls, deviled eggs, trail mix, muffins, etc. 

4. Make things from scratch.  I make almost everything from scratch; bone broth, yogurt, kombucha and other fermented foods, baby food, mayo, snacks, vanilla extract, etc. For example, I can make 4 gallons of kombucha for around $4. ONE BOTTLE (16 oz of kombucha) at the store is $3.50! Bone broth costs me no more money then I’m already spending, just a couple more minutes of time to throw the chicken bones in the crock pot; where buying stock (which is barely considered healthy) is anywhere from $2-$5!! It all adds up. So learn to make things from scratch, it’s not as hard as you think. Just start with bone broth! 

5. Don’t bake.  Baking is expensive, especially if you’re dealing with different allergies. So I just don’t bake. If you bake on a regular basis, it jacks up the bill. Raw honey, almond flour, coconut flour, butter, coconut oil, and eggs are not cheap ingredients. I limit baking to special occasions, usually around 1-2x per month. 

6. Grow your own food.  This year was my third year gardening, and I managed to yield close to 250 lbs of produce through the summer. I went almost an entire summer without having to buy any produce. I will be eating much of that stuff well into the winter as well after preserving. Growing a garden is a tricky endeavor, because it can end up costing more than buying the food in the store. They key is to keep using it. The startup cost of it can be pricey, but after the second year you’ll eat the cost (pun only slightly intended). 

 If you can’t plant a garden, think about planting potted herbs or hanging vegetable plants! Four starter plants cost about the same as one little package at the store, but growing your own yields way more herbs!! 

What do you do to save money? Any advice?