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Food and finance: Eating healthy on a budget
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The economic climate is still tough and everyone is watching their dollars. Fitness clients grumble that eating healthy is expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Although it’s ironic that the same people who complain that healthy eating costs so much have no problem spending money when shopping for new clothes after they've lose weight. One Seattle study demonstrated unhealthy foods such bacon and pastries have become slightly less expensive while some healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables have risen as much as 19% over the last few years. Even with cost of healthy foods rising if you eat healthy now it will save you dollars in the future by decreasing your risk of developing chronic diseases that are tied to being overweight such as type II diabetes, most heart diseases, and certain types of cancers. The good news is that the price of canned and frozen fruits and vegetables have remained unchanged.
Starting May 1st, The District at the Green Valley Ranch will be showing free outdoor movies in the park. You can pack your own homemade healthy snacks – cut up apples and low fat cheese, fat free all natural oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, frozen grapes, carrots with hummus, and no pudge fudge brownies. What a healthy, inexpensive, and fun way to take the family out on a Friday or Saturday night.
Below are tips to keep your grocery bill down while keeping your nutrient value high.
Good deals on good food:
1) When you fail to plan you plan to fail. Have a plan before you head to the market that way you won’t make impulse purchases on food items you don’t need.
2) Be a Savvy- Shopper. Save those coupons for when items go on sale. Also, you can use electronic coupons, loyalty cards, free rebates, and brand name websites for added savings.
3) Prepare your own meals rather than purchasing take-out or fast food. In addition, it tastes so much better.
4) When shopping, walk around the perimeter of the store rather than through the aisles. The perimeter is where the nutritious foods are located. The processed, less nutrient filled, more expensive foods are usually located in the aisles. That’s what we call good marketing but not so good for one’s diet.
5) Look for generic brands, often located above or below the name brands. Many of these generic brands are prepared in the same factory as the name brands. Marketers of name brands pay supermarkets for eye level shelf space.
6) Beans and lentils are extremely nutritious and can be purchased inexpensively either dried or canned. These can be used in burritos, salads, soups, or side dishes.
7) Brown rice is extremely nutritious when you pair it with beans.
8) Limit your intake of alcohol that you purchase to consume. That alone will save calories and money. Cooks I have spoken to informed me that if you use the least expensive alcohol to cook with it doesn’t change the recipe. Can you say 2 buck chuck at Trader Joe’s?
9) Purchase snacks in bulk and create your own single servings using snack size baggies rather than the single serving packets that many brand name sell. Great marketing again – you’re paying solely for the packaging! The key to out smarting the marketers is to be creative. One way to accomplish this is to decide as a family what snack you will purchase for the week and purchase one bag/package/carton, etc. and snack on that for the week.
10) You can discover specials on fresh local produce at Farmer’s Markets. In addition, you can hit it big with end-of-the-day specials because sellers don’t want to have to lug anything home.
11) When it comes to organic vs. conventional foods there is no difference in terms of nutrient value between the two so shop conventional if you’re looking for more savings.
12) Just as I stated in #9 you are paying for packaging when it comes to snack items and that also includes the single serving fruit drinks. When purchasing fruit drinks purchase the larger bottles and opt for sugar free.
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