Food prices are increasing everyday. Unfortunately, incomes don’t always keep up with it! This should not stop you from eating healthy. Here, we have some great tips for you on how you can eat healthier, and stay within your budget!
Avoid Junk Food
Try to maintain a budget diary and note every time you spend money on food. Evaluate how much you spend on soda, cookies, packaged food, eat out lunch and dinner, etc and try to avoid them. It will keep you and your pocket healthy. This will also help you in spending more money on high quality food.
Go Seasonal
Seasonal fruits, seasonal vegetables that are locally grown, best match the nutrition requirements of people living in the area. The other advantage is that seasonal foods cost less to grow, so you pay the right price for them. For example; in summers you should go for watermelon, mangoes, plum, berries, etc and in winters you can opt for oranges, peas, apples, turnip, spinach, fenugreek leaves, etc. However, all season fruit and vegetables like papaya, banana, etc can also help you. So, the more you focus on purchasing seasonal food, the healthier and tastier your meals will be and the more money you will save.
Go Shopping with Grocery List
Every time, before going to shopping make a list of everything you are going to purchase and focus on healthy and nutritious food and try to remain stick on it. By this you can avoid purchasing unnecessary foods and can manage your budget.
Fresh foods over Packaged
Packaged foods may contain high amount of sugar and sodium to act as preservative, but are also expensive. For example, instead of buying packaged orange fruit juices, try to buy whole orange fruit. Always buy fresh over canned or packaged foods. This not only save your money but also give you more nutrition.
Be experimental
Instead of spending money on expensive unhealthy desserts, try making healthy desserts at home. For example; you can try homemade oatmeal cookies with less sugar, a piece of dark chocolate, or yogurt with fresh seasonal fruits.
Be colorful
Natural colors in food correspond to a variety of nutrition. So, shop for fruits and vegetables of all kinds of colors. For example, use red and yellow pepper in green leafy vegetables or yellow corns and carrot in black beans and lentils. Besides providing you with great nutrition, they also make the food look delicious!
Buy in bulk but Cook in Portions
It sound strange but it is true to keep a healthy eating on a budget you should buy vegetable to grains to meat in a bulk, and store it well. This not only helps you in budget maintenance but also cut down your shopping time, thus, leaving you more time for everything else.
If you stick with these healthy eating and food shopping tips, you’ll be healthier and save more money!