Food & Wine
Tips for eating a healthy diet on a tight budget
When you’re on a tight budget, the idea of coming up with tasty, healthy meals on a regular basis can sometimes seem beyond us! We easily fall prey to slick grocery marketing, and when it comes to fitting meal preparation into our day, it’s easy to fall into a rut, succumbing to quick fix fast foods again and again.
The good news is, you can be thrifty and healthy – with a little organisation and creativity, you can enjoy first class meals on a smart saver’s budget.
Here’s a selection of tips to help with your creative cuisine challenge:
- A golden rule is don’t shop when you’re hungry, as you’re more likely to buy things you don’t need. Shop with a list rather than buying on the spur of the moment.
- Buy fresh fruit and vegetables that are in season, and only enough for a week or so, as they go off quickly.
- Buy generic, no name and home brands where possible, especially for items where you’re not fussed about having the absolute best quality.
- Add some canned kidney beans, chick peas, lentils or other legumes to mince dishes or stews to make the meal go further. Canned beans are cheap, handy and healthy – a great addition to salads and other meals.
- Buying in bulk is almost always cheaper. It’s a great idea to buy non-perishable items in bulk (canned foods, dried beans and grains etc.), and you can freeze perishable items such as meat and bread in smaller portions to use as needed.
- When cooking a big meal, make extra to freeze or use later in the week for lunches or quick suppers. Double recipes, then freeze half.
- Use less expensive cuts of meat for casseroles that you slow cook; add extra vegetables and beans to make the meal go further.
- Look at purchasing perishables like meat and sushi at the end of the day when there are often clearances of stock close to use by dates.
- Check supermarket catalogues for specials and identify any products that you need before you go shopping.
- Buy block cheese and grate it yourself.
- Preserve when it’s cheap. Depending on your storage capacity, bottling, drying and freezing fresh fruits and vegetables is an excellent way to cash in on seasonal foods that are lower in cost but higher in taste and nutrition.
- Brown rice is a great addition to leftover meat and veggies. Although brown rice is slightly more costly than white, the nutritional payoff is well worth it.
- Pasta, likewise, is quick and easy to prepare, and can be paired with veggies, meat or a fresh salad. Have fun adding your own dash of inspiration (mushrooms, spices and herbs.) Choose wholemeal pasta when you can.
- Always keep spices, herbs and sauces handy – they can brighten up simple dishes.
- Bake your own goodies – that way you can make sure everything that goes into them is more nutritious. Plus, they are generally cheaper and tastier than store bought varieties.
- Soups can’t be beaten for nutrition and convenience, especially since you can use inexpensive soup mixes as your base. At the end of the week, make soup out of all your leftover veggies instead of throwing them out, and freeze anything you won’t eat in a few days. You can find great ideas on the internet by searching for recipes containing whatever you have in the fridge. Again, be creative, adding your own herbs and spices.
Image credits: Getty Images