Eating healthy while you’re counting pennies can be daunting, especially now that we’re in a recession. Things are improving slowly, but there’s no better time to establish a weekly food budget than now. But aside from preparing a budget, how do you make sure you’re feeding your family nutritious food?
Healthy, budget cooking starts with shopping right
Knowing how to shop is essential in budgeting and eating right. Creating a budget for food shopping and the accompanying recipes is actually quite easy. There are many tips you can find online, in magazines, or even on TV.
Here are a few:
- Buy healthy food in bulk. Meat, poultry, and even produce are generally cheaper in bulk. You can even use coupons when buying in bulk or in certain special deals. This way, you’ll have enough to last you a week or so, depending on how much you buy. Calculate the shelf life so you won’t end up wasting money.
- Budget cooking should be accompanied by a meal plan. Create a list of budget food recipes whose ingredients go hand-in-hand, or use leftover ingredients from today for another recipe the next day. You’ll want to vary and balance your meals so you won’t get tired of the same food prepared repeatedly.
- Shows like Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller and Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger can teach you how to have a healthy weekly food budget. Miller is an expert on budgeting food and recipes, and planning meals ahead, while Krieger is a nutritionist who proves that healthy food can be inexpensive and delicious as well.
- Take advantage of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food budget programs and government benefits. There are plenty of them, the most famous being the Food Stamps program (now referred to as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP). The SNAP program aids about 28 million people each month, giving them the opportunity to buy healthy food for less, and teaches how to eat healthy and make active lifestyle choices.
