The 5 Best Ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget

During the Winter Season, it’s easy to put on extra weight, so it’s especially important to watch what you eat. Now that we’re in this recession, it’s essential that we cut back in every area we can, and a lot of us are spending too much money on very unhealthy food.

Eating Healthy Is Important

Healthy eating is vital to essential bodily functions, and eating healthy:

• Lowers stress levels
• Helps you to sleep better
• Gives you more energy
• Makes you stronger and more resilient to colds
• Saves you a ton of money

Most people assume eating healthy is expensive, but there are a number of easy tips that can drastically improve your health and lessen the load on your wallet.

1. Switch to water

When I got to college, I swore off soda. First of all, drinking a 12 pack every week was pretty expensive. At about $5 per week (5 x 36 weeks) that’s $180 per year. For a college student, I realized the numbers didn’t add up. Plus, that $180 could be better spent on beer.

So at home, drink from the tap or install a water filter or buy a Brita filter. It’ll save you tons of money, and make you feel much better. I try to have 64 oz. of water per day.

2. Buy in bulk

Pick up a membership at your local Sam’s Club or Costco, and instead of buying that single box of cereal, buy the 3-pack. For items that you are constantly buying every week, buying in bulk is one of the best cost-saving measures.

Be careful not to purchase produce in bulk. You will most likely not eat it all, and thus end up throwing it away and costing yourself more money.

The best item to buy in bulk is frozen meat. Buying a huge bag of chicken breasts can be a great start to a healthy-diet and is much cheaper than those fried chicken tenders you might normally buy at the grocery store.

3. Pack your lunch

Eating out at lunch is probably one of the biggest expenses. At just $5 per day, you spend more than $100 per month. Buy a big box of snack bars, and lunch meat at your Sam’s Club and prepare your lunch every night.

I like to plan out my lunches a week in advance and buy the necessary ingredients at the beginning of the week. Make sure to mix up the menus from week to week otherwise you can get bored.

4. Resist the urge at the grocery store

The biggest step in reducing the amount of junk you consume is to have self-control. Make sure to never go shopping on an empty stomach and use self-control in the shopping aisles.

If you don’t want to be tempted by ice cream or candy, don’t buy it. To reward yourself for being smart about your choices, a nice treat every once in awhile are the small $.50 candies sold in the checkout aisles. Never buy the big bags of candy, chips, etc. you’ll just force yourself into eating them and they’re very expensive.

5. Buy a healthy recipe book

So many people don’t know how to make healthy, good tasting food. Sure, it’s easy to eat chicken breast, but you can get sick of this stuff really quickly. I went to TJ-Maxx the other day and bought a healthy pasta recipe book.

Now, I can have fun preparing healthy meals and I don’t feel the urge to go out to eat. For online resources, you should check out:

Epicurious
Food Network

I hope these tips help you in saving money, and keeping off the pounds.

Please share your favorite food-saving tips in the comments below. If you’re interested in writing a guest post, please contact us.

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