179. 8 Tips to Eating Healthier on a Budget

Andrea tackles the timely topic of eating healthily on a budget amidst rising inflation and financial pressures. She shares a comprehensive array of simple, practical tips inspired by a conversation with a client facing financial difficulties. Through personal anecdotes and research-backed advice, Andrea will empower you to navigate the challenges of eating well on a budget, encouraging small, manageable changes for lasting impact.


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[00:00:00] Well, hey there, welcome back today. We're going to be talking about some simple quick tips to help you eat healthier while staying on a budget with inflation and so many other things going on right now, we just have less money coming into our homes. And recently I had a client reach out and her husband's hours had been reduced.

And she asked, how can I still eat healthy, but spend less money? And that really got me thinking. We chatted back and forth a little bit, and I decided to record this podcast to give. I have tips to everyone to help you eat healthier or stay eating healthy while spending less money and being on a budget.

today's tips helpful, don't forget to write a review. Let me know. I love to hear from you. Share it with your friends on social media. Tag me. I look for those and spread the word because we can all get ideas of how to eat healthier and spend less money. That's a win, win, win across the board.

And as always, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any [00:01:00] direct episodes loaded directly to your phone every single Wednesday. You can go wherever you listen to the top right corner, hit the drop down screen and make sure that you are either subscribed or following. 

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 [00:03:00] 

Now, as we start this episode, I do want to say there might be a couple of these that you have already heard, but I'm still going to encourage you to listen all the way through because I'm hoping I have a little bit of a different take on why some of these matter and also that you get some new ideas.

So my first tip, it's a super easy one, is simply you need to meal plan. When we don't have a plan, we tend to randomly stop at the grocery store, buy random things, randomly eat out, or just randomly eat things in our house that aren't very nutritious. My sister, her husband was in med school forever. He is a brain surgeon and she was in college they were married, then med school, and then he had a And I remember she was meticulous in planning out her meals because they didn't have a lot of money coming in when he was in school and [00:04:00] residency.

But she wanted to make sure at all her meals, her kids had a protein and that they had a fruit and a vegetable. And I often ate over at her house at this time, which makes me chuckle because I had just graduated college, but I live near her and I would go over to her house for dinner. And she was always really good about this and she always still had, you know, some sort of protein at the dinner, a fruit and a vegetable.

And part of the reason why she was able to do that is because she planned ahead. She did not waste any food. She knew at the beginning of the week what she was going to have. She knew what vegetables she was going to have with all of her dinner. She bought accordingly. She looked at the serving sizes.

She bought enough for her family and she was able to make sure that they still ate pretty healthy when they were. really had no money coming in at the time. So planning ahead makes a huge difference. The second piece to planning ahead is when we plan ahead, we go to the grocery store with a list and we don't buy things that we normally wouldn't.

So. I've noticed when I go to the grocery store, if I'm [00:05:00] hungry, I'm getting all kinds of random things. Or if I'm rushed, I'm also just buying all kinds of random things because I'm in a hurry and I'm thinking, well, I'll just get this, this, and this, and then I'll like figure out what to make with it. And then when I get home, My mind frame is not the same.

I can't remember what I was thinking through and I end up wasting food. So not only planning ahead, but going to the grocery store with a list to make sure you're only getting what's on the list. You're making sure you're getting that variety of food from your plan and you're not going hungry and buying random things or you're not rushed, that you're able to really methodically think through what you want to buy.

That's my first tip for really eating on a budget. It's going to make a difference because you're not going to put things in your grocery cart. You don't need when you have a plan and when you are prepared with that list.

My second tip is don't shun frozen and canned vegetables. We often think that because it's fresh that it is so much healthier for us because it's in this natural state. And I went down a black hole researching this. I thought it [00:06:00] was really, really interesting. The thing is when fruits and vegetables are picked, they're normally picked at the peak of their nutritional value.

So when they're frozen or canned, they are canned right at that moment, right? When they're at their peak, they're frozen within a couple hours. Sometimes even with fresh food, if you are buying it not in season, when it is not ripe, but it's, you know, on the shelves and you think it's fresh, so it's better, it can even have less nutritional value because it's not in season.

It's not nutritionally ripe, like picked up the perfect right part. And then you're buying it fresh. So in some ways. Frozen can be better if you are in that situation. There's three studies. I'm going to give you an example because I'll be honest for years and years, I felt like fresh was better than frozen.

So I'm going to give you three different studies. The first study studied berries. They froze the berries for three to five months, and then they compared them to fresh berries. In those berries that were [00:07:00] compared, the frozen ones, compared to the fresh ones, did not have a significant decrease in antioxidants.

I will link that also in the show notes. I always link all the studies I talk about in the show notes, so just know they're there. So no decrease in the antioxidants in the fresh berries. the second study was done for two years.

It was done for two years. And they compared eight different vegetables and fruits. They compared fruits that were fresh, frozen, and fresh stored. And the foods that they compared were broccoli, cauliflower, corn, green beans, green peas, spinach, blueberries, and strawberries. And when they analyzed the difference, they were checking for vitamin C, vitamin A, and folate. And in majority of the comparisons between the nutrients within the categories, the fresh, the frozen, and the fresh stored, they found no significant difference in the assessed vitamin contents. They were pretty much the same.

In fact, the frozen had a little bit of a higher contents than [00:08:00] the fresh stored. So like when it's fresh and you're kind of storing it instead of just eating it fresh out of your fridge. So that is pretty amazing. There is definitely benefits. The third article I found was from Penn State and it talked about canned and frozen fruits and vegetables and how they are obviously, as I mentioned, processed just hours after harvesting, so sometimes they can preserve flavor and there are minimal nutritional losses. This article also explained that when we do sometimes use canned and frozen vegetables, we can get more of a variety in our diets because if we're eating fresh fruit only and we're only eating it in season, we're not getting as much of a variety. So there can even be a benefit to adding some of those in and they are much cheaper.

Now, the biggest difference that you want to think about between fresh fruit and canned or frozen is, especially for canned, they can add sodium or sugar to preserve the food. So when you're buying canned foods, because canned foods are much cheaper than fresh, [00:09:00] you want to look for labels that say lower sodium or reduced sodium or no salt added.

Then when you buy the canned food, you want to drain it and rinse it because that's also going to help you reduce the sodium. Okay. When you're looking at canned fruit, you're also going to want to buy food that is canned in water or its own juice or very light syrup. You don't want to buy fruit that has been canned in regular syrup or if it is in light syrup, again, you can rinse it and drain it because that's going to help reduce the syrup.

So that's one of the biggest differences. Being aware of that, it's going to make a huge difference. So don't shun canned and frozen food. It can be much cheaper. You can store it much longer and it's still going to give you a really good benefit of those nutritional needs at a lower price. And you don't have to feel bad or like you're not as good because you're not eating fresh fruit.

It's going to be better for you in that situation. My next tip is you want to mix up your protein sources. We know protein is huge for so [00:10:00] many factors. It's going to help us build muscle. It helps with hair, skin, and nail. It helps our kids grow. It helps bones. So many different things about protein, but protein can be expensive.

So I want to give you a couple of ideas of how to mix up your protein sources. The first one is try different types of yogurts. Greek yogurts, try cottage cheese, try soft cheeses, add in kefir, look for legumes. Those are all good sources of protein that you can get at a cheaper amount and many of those store for a longer period of time.

Also, when you buy meat, look at buying it as a whole and not as a cut. So what I mean by that is if you buy a rotisserie chicken. It's actually cheaper than if you just bought chicken breasts, like an individual pack of chicken breasts. Buy the entire chicken.

That's going to make a huge difference and you're going to get a lot of meat off that rotisserie chicken than just using those chicken breasts. Also, my kids actually eat rotisserie chicken very, very well. It's very flavorful. [00:11:00] So that is something else to think about that's a little bit different.

Another simple way to add in protein when you don't have the ability to add in very many meats is do stir fries with eggs in them. So you can make rice and beans with eggs, or you can chop up hard boiled eggs to put into salads. You may also want to look at some vegetarian style proteins as that's going to be helpful paying attention to your legumes, your lentils, and some other options with edamame and things of that sort.

You can also mix up your proteins by trying some canned fish or chicken. casseroles, salads, enchiladas, even sandwiches. I love to make chicken salad with canned chicken. I make it all the time, probably at least every other week. I think it's really, really good. We do tuna melts often. We have done, I've even mixed tuna. You know, canned salmon into my eggs. I know that's going to weird you out, but I'll put it on toast and stuff and mix it in different things like that.

But trying to [00:12:00] mix in those canned fish or chicken is going to make a difference. And those options are not expensive at all. In fact, one of my favorite snacks is these little tuna packets that have different flavors. It's a quick snack on the go and they cost maybe a dollar. mix up your proteins, mix and match. You can even try to get, as I mentioned, mixing in the eggs into the stir fry. You can even do egg whites. You can buy them in the containers and those can actually be cheaper than even whole eggs. Not because whole eggs aren't amazing, but mixing and matching, throwing in two or three whole eggs, throwing in some of the liquid.

Egg whites is going to get your protein intake up. You're still going to get some of that amazing nutrients from the yolk, but it's going to give you a little bit more protein. So just some simple ideas. Thanks. The next thing I want you to do to eat healthier and be on a budget is be more selective in what you're choosing.

You want to shop produce when it is in season. we've already talked about how produce is being Picked at the height of when it is the most nutritious. So if you're [00:13:00] buying produce out of season, it's not as nutritionally dense as it is in season. So you're going to get more bang for your buck price wise and nutritional wise, if you buy it in season.

It's also going to be cheaper if you buy them in bags. If you buy individual items like individual pears, oranges, apples, it's more expensive than if you bought those in a bag. It is cheaper to buy them in a bag. So think about things, as I mentioned, apples, oranges, grapefruits, potatoes, onions. Buy all of those in a bag in bulk.

It's going to be better for you. It's a little bit cheaper and it's just going to be more bang for your buck.

Now within being more selective, a really, really big thing is buying organic. It's going to help reduce the toxins that are going into your body. Now, with that said, when you're on a budget, organic food is expensive. I am not naive. I'm not here to tell you, you need to buy all organic because I know that doesn't work.

I have been there. I have been before on state aid where I cannot [00:14:00] afford that. So instead of overwhelming you, I'm going to give you a couple of things that you could think about switching to organic and the other things you don't really need to as much. Typically when fruits and vegetables have more chemicals on them, it is when they do not have a outer shell, like they just have a skin on the outside.

So for example, a strawberry, there's nothing on the outside, so that can have more chemicals on it, which is why you'd want to buy a strawberry organic. A banana, on the other hand, has a peel. You peel it off and you get the fruit on the inside so there's less residual chemicals from the pesticides and such.

The environmental working group puts out a list every year called the dirty dozen and the clean 15 And I'm gonna list those for you Because I think it's really important for you to not feel overwhelmed like you have to buy everything organic But pick one or two things on the list of the dirty dozen that you're like, okay I will do this one or two organic and then I'll pick things off the clean 15 That have less [00:15:00] residue of chemicals on them and that is perfect.

You don't have to do it all nobody can do it all And I'm going to list these of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15 and I'm also going to put it on my podcast page. It's make. it. simple. podcast so that you can have those lists visually when you're at the grocery store. It's going to make it a lot easier for you to remember

and you're going to be able to look back at it. So the clean 15, these are items that you don't necessarily have to buy organic. If you are on a budget, go for the regular one because they aren't exposed or have as much residual chemicals. Avocados, sweet corn, pineapple,

onions, papaya, sweet peas, frozen has in parentheses, asparagus, honeydew, any type of melon, Kiwis, cabbage, mushroom, mangoes, sweet potatoes, watermelon, and carrots. Those tend to have less residual. chemicals on them. So buy them regularly. If you want to budget, don't overthink it and just get those. Now, if you want to budget and you do want to [00:16:00] buy a couple of things organic, but you can't afford to buy everything organic, that is okay.

I promise you that is okay. You can be very healthy without that, but you are going to want to try to pick some of these items off the dirty dozen to try to switch. Pick. 1, 2, 3 that you eat very regularly in your house and switch it out because if you're having it every week, it's worth probably getting the organic one and then sticking with the regular ones for the other ones I listed.

 So the items that are on the dirty dozen are strawberries, spinach, kale, peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, grapes, bell peppers, hot peppers, cherries, blueberries, and green beans. Thanks. Bye. Pick a couple items off that. Switch it to organic. Obviously those don't have that outer shell so they can tend to have more residue of chemicals.

 So now you're going to focus on being selective and not only shopping in season, but also being selective in what you [00:17:00] choose to add in that is not organic and adding a couple things that are organic without feeling overwhelmed of having to make everything organic. Just pick a few.

 My next quick tip is to buy in bulk. If you have ingredients that you reach for over and over and over and over again, it does not make sense to buy a normal size box of it. You're going to save time because if you're always going to the store to buy the same thing over and over again, that's a waste of time.

And you're also going to save money. Because you now have a bigger container. And typically when you're buying in bulk, you end up saving money. So some simple things you can buy in bulk is lentils, legumes, canned fish, jarred tomato sauces, baking supplies, oats, and peanut butter. Super easy to buy in bulk.

If you have a Costco or Sam's Club next to you, Bulk, bulk, bulk. They have everything in bulk. And it really is cheaper. If not, you can still just get a bigger bag at your local grocery store of those [00:18:00] items. You can even buy yogurt in a bigger container. The individual yogurt containers are expensive. But if you just buy one big one and you have some Tupperware at your house and you can scoop it out and give your kids breakfast with yogurt and scoop it onto their plate, that's a lot cheaper.

When we have breakfast, we only use yogurt out of a big container. I don't give them the individual ones because they're a lot more money. I give them the bigger one and we just scoop it out. You can buy, A block of cheese, and that's going to be cheaper than grated cheese. The block of cheese is going to be bigger.

It's going to be more, but you can shred it yourself. You can freeze part of that block if you need to, or you can just have it grated in your fridge and it's going to be cheaper. It's the same thing with lettuce. If you do lettuce and you chop it yourself and you just buy a couple heads, it's going to be cheaper than buying a bag of lettuce.

I know those two things do take a little bit more time if you're shredding it or you're chopping it yourself, but it is going to help with cost if you're in that situation where you have the time to do that. So try buying things you use [00:19:00] often in bulk. It's going to make it a little cheaper.

My next tip is if you are cooking, I want you to cook in slightly larger portions. This is not only going to save you time because you're making extra food, but it's going to save you money. When we make dinner in our house, I always tell my husband, he cooks a lot when he's cooking or when I'm cooking, we try to make an extra portion or two because then the next day for lunch.

That is what we eat for lunch. I don't have to think of what to make for lunch the next day. And I also don't have to spend more money to make a full new meal the next day. I know not everyone loves leftovers, but if you're trying to be on a budget, it makes a huge difference. So if we're having tacos, I'll make sure that we just make a little bit extra taco meat.

It's not going to necessarily cost me a ton more to make for lunch. Four more ounces of taco meat and mix it in. And then I get to have it the next day for lunch. Instead of thinking of a full new food to eat the next day and using more money to make a whole new [00:20:00] meal, it actually makes it a little bit cheaper if I just have a little bit of leftover in a larger portion and I can eat it the next day.

My next tip and this is going to vary a lot by obviously your situation, but try to grow your own produce. I know for some people when they hear that they think, Oh my gosh, I don't have any space. Like I live in a normal neighborhood. Like we don't have a big yard. We don't have a lot of space. I live in a really normal neighborhood too, like a regular suburban neighborhood.

And Um, we were even able to buy just these little growing baskets. I want to say they're like, not, they're not even like four feet, like two feet. And we put them in our side yard and we grew some herbs in them and just some small carrots and tomatoes and stuff. Not big at all. Very, very small. We could fit them in a side yard, as I mentioned, but it did create some fresh produce.

Seeds are super cheap. Super cheap. Guess what? Herbs at the grocery store are super expensive. So even if you don't have a lot of space, if you can just grow some herbs, some rosemary, [00:21:00] some basil, any of those things that you use regularly in recipes, It is cheaper to just grow it in your yard in a small box, a planter box, than buying it at the store.

And if you have lots of space, Then obviously you can use seeds and grow bigger produce, and it's going to be great. All it takes is sun, some small seeds, and some water. And it's honestly a great chore to have your kids help to learn to grow their own foods anyway.

And you can start as small or as big as you want depending on your space. My neighbor even grows different small things in her tiny garden than we do, and we mix and match and I grow some and she grows some. So grab a friend and say you grow these two things because neither of us have a lot of space.

I'll grow these two things and then share, share them. It's going to make it easy and it's one less thing you have to buy at the grocery store. Those are all my main tips for eating healthy on a budget, but I do want to give one last tip and this is going to vary by your situation. But if you are trying to save money and you also are very busy and you don't have time to shop, [00:22:00] it might be worth looking into a food prep service.

Not every service is super expensive. Not every service is super cheap. There are a lot of different ones. I can say I've tried different ones. I've seen local people who do food prep and they'll sell, you know, just as much as a fast food restaurant, but it's a lot healthier and I don't have to do that, but there's also some online.

I found one recently, which I'm not an affiliate for, and I actually love it. I've been using it for about three weeks. It's called Hungry Root. It's Hungry and then R O O T. And the best thing about it is it's an app on your phone and you can even put in, I need to eat on a budget and they will choose cheaper items for you.

And you can put in, I want this much protein, I, um, want this style of food. You put in all your flavors of things you like. For me, I put in, I don't have a lot of time to cook, so I was like, I do not want meals that take more than 20 minutes. I don't have time for that. And I've been really happy with it.

I've used it for three or four weeks. We [00:23:00] only do it for like two meals a week, but it's nice because. It's not a food prep that comes like already made. It sends you the ingredients and then the quick recipe to make it. And so it's no different than really grocery shopping and then putting it in your fridge and then making it, but it's just more convenient.

Again, I know that's not a fit for everybody, but if you find that you are going through the fast food line a couple times a week at night or you're eating out or you're eating takeout, but you're trying to eat healthier and you're trying to save money, if you're in that boat. Then switching to a food prep company, which is going to take you out of the fast food line, put you back in a healthier situation, and you can choose a cheaper, healthier option that's going to be a meal prep company.

It's going to be cheaper for you and healthier for you. As I mentioned, the one I currently really like is Hungry Root. I'll add a link for in the show notes. I don't have an affiliate code or anything. I just, that's what I'm using currently sometimes. And I've really enjoyed it.

 All right, so let's recap. You're going to eat healthier and you're going to spend less [00:24:00] money. You're going to do it by making a plan. You're going to do it by mixing up your protein sources. You're going to do it by being more selective in the produce that you do choose and mixing and matching during season and mixing and matching when you choose organic and when you don't.

You're going to buy in bulk when possible. That's all. You're going to cook slightly larger portions so that you can eat it the next day for lunch or the next evening if need be. You're going to try to grow your own produce if you're in that situation. And then obviously if you are also in the situation where you're eating out too much and you're trying to eat at home more to save money and eat healthy, you might want to look into that food prep service.

I know eating healthy can be stressful. I know it can even be more stressful when you don't feel like you have a lot of money to spend on your food. But I promise you don't have to have a lot of money to spend on your food. You don't. I have been on state aid, as I mentioned, and I still try to eat healthy.

And I was still able to make it work with those adjustments. You don't look around, don't see what everyone else is doing. Just make it [00:25:00] work for you. It's tricky, but I know you can do this. I know you can, and I can promise you that I already know you're doing better than you think you are trying to eat healthy.

So don't overthink this. Don't shame yourself. Don't feel bad. Just find tiny steps, one or two of the things I suggested, and see if that helps. See if that helps you eat healthier and see if it helps you spend less money. I promise you really are doing better than you think you are. All right. We'll chat next week.