There are so many excuses we make for not eating healthy, but to be honest, cost should not be one of those. Eating healthy on a budget is possible and does not result in a lower quality of food intake. Below, I have included 12 tips that I personally practice to make healthy eating affordable.
Healthy Eating on a Budget
1. Make Your Own Ready-to-Eat Products, Instead of Buying Them
This goes for all sorts of produce. An easy example is buying a head of lettuce and washing and cutting it into a salad versus buying a bag of salad mix that is ready-to-eat. The same idea applies for cut fruit and already made fruit salad. You can buy the fruit whole for way less money and spend your time to create the fruit salad. I guarantee you it will also taste better and last longer compared to what you buy at the grocery store!
2. Buy in Bulk (Invest in a Costco Card)
This definitely includes investing in a Costco card, if you have one located near you! For the amount of money you will save in a year shopping there (both on food and other home goods, such as toilet paper), the initial investment seems small.
Whether it is at Costco or at any other grocery store, when you buy in bulk, you are paying less for each individual item than if you were to buy them individually. One really good example of this is with apples. If you buy them at a regular grocery store, they are anywhere from $1.99-$3.99 per pound (here’s looking at you, Honeycrisp!). However, when buying in bulk, you can decrease the price by almost half.
3. Check out the Produce Stands/Markets in Your Area
This is the secondary market for product that does not meet the specific product specifications to make it into the bigger grocery stores. Some would refer to this as “ugly produce,” but in reality, it is just produce that does not fit the size specification (too big/too small) for traditional grocery stores that they take and sell at a lower price or in bulk. (Please note that I do not encourage you to purchase any produce that has wounds, bruises or any form of pathogen growth on it, regardless of the price.)
This really depends on where you live and the agricultural and trade markets that exist around you. For example, I have lived near the Salinas and Santa Maria Valleys (two huge agricultural regions in California) and could never find good produce markets. It was only when I lived in smaller agricultural regions, such as near Davis, that I was able to find good produce markets that could meet my shopping needs.
4. Check Local Grocery Store Ads (Or Just Pay Attention to the Price Tags as You Are Shopping)
If you see the items that are on sale, you can plan your week’s worth of meals around those. However, if you pay close attention and do not focus on the brand, there are certain things you will notice. For example, there is always at least one ready-to-eat packaged lettuce item on sale at all times. If you want to buy some salad for your meals that week, select the option that is on sale. Or, if you are looking to make a fruit salad for the week, look around at the different produce items that are the cheapest that day and base the fruit salad on those different items that will taste good together.
5. Buy In-Season Items
They will not only taste better, but most of the time, in-season fruits and vegetables are cheaper. A good example is with stone fruit. The season in the U.S. lasts from about mid-spring to the start of fall. If you buy stone fruit during this period (except for the start of the season or variety specific), you will get it at a better deal than if you buy it in the winter time after it has been imported from Chile. This same idea with grapes.
This concept is a little questionable with certain items, such as apples, that are available year-round because they tend to maintain their prices since they can last in cold storage year-round. However, you will notice that there are certain varieties that go on sale repeatedly throughout the season at the grocery store to try to introduce new consumers.
For example, I have never seen Fuji apples on sale because by this point, everyone should know what those are, but they also have a lower price point than some of the newer varieties, such as Honeycrisp. They are selling Honeycrisp apples for quite a bit of money (even at Costco), which is too much for me to pay to try. But, when they have them on sale for the same price as a Fuji Apple, that is when my interest peaks and is what actually got me to try them in the first place (they are delicious by the way!). Also, if you look a little closer, you might even find better deals on items like these. At my grocery store, in the bulk mini-apple section, Honeycrisp apples have made their way into those bags at a significantly lower price than the per pound option.
6. Buy Frozen Fruits and Vegetables
Since the product that goes to the frozen market does not need to meet the specific product specifications for the fresh market (which are a lot stricter), they can be sold at a lower price to frozen processors, and therefore, to you at the grocery store. This is also a good idea if you do not want to do as much meal prep and want to heat and eat as you go, or if you are a fan of making smoothies.
7. Re-purpose Food Before it Goes Bad
If you cannot eat all of the food you bought, freeze it. Or, you can always throw your extra food into the Instant Pot and make a healthy meal out of it that way.
8. Eat More Bananas!
Bananas are healthy, good for you and they are cheap year-round. I think I have eaten more bananas in the last year than in the last five years combined and I really think it is starting to make a difference on my grocery bill!
9. Do Not Focus on Name Brand Stores
You do not need to shop at Whole Foods to get healthy food. If you are interested in shopping for organic produce, most traditional grocery stores (e.g., Safeway/Albertsons, Raley’s in California) carry almost all of their conventional produce items in organic as well. This same idea applies to packaged products and meat, and the prices are significantly lower. (Side note: buying conventional instead of organic will also save you a lot of money.)
10. Be Willing to Go to Multiple Stores
This would be really effective with couponing, but that is not what I am referring to here. I am talking about going to different stores to buy what you want/need, based on the quality and price. For example, I do a lot of shopping at Costco for produce and other bulk items. However, there are certain items that my Costco does not carry (unfortunately, not all Costco’s consistently carry the same product), so I need to shop elsewhere. Some of these items include iceberg lettuce and nuts with no salt. For that reason, I have to go to my local grocery store for the iceberg lettuce and then to my local Trader Joe’s for the nuts, since my local grocery store only sells nuts in bulk bins, which tends to be very expensive and I always worry about how often they clean the bins and how many people have touched the nuts with their fingers before I purchased them. (If you haven’t gone to Trader Joe’s for their nuts and dried fruit selection, you are really missing out!)
11. Grow Your Own Food!
If you have the time, space and resources, you can always grow your own food. That way, you spend the extra money on the water and products to grow the crops, but save money on the gas to get to the grocery store and the cost to buy the food.
If you are interested in doing this, you can check out this post to help you start your own vegetable garden!
12. Make Your Own Packaged Foods at Home
Some of the healthy, packaged items you can find at the grocery store, like granola, can easily be made at home. Not to mention, there is an amplitude of free, healthy recipes online for different packaged goods that can be made to fit your diet/lifestyle, from granola to cookies to breads.
If there are any good ‘healthy eating on a budget’ tips that you have that I did not include, please include them in the comments below!
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