So often you stop and wonder why it is so costly to eat healthy. Yet at the same time, places like NY want to ban Supersized sodas. Well the logically thing would be to make the Supersized sodas the cost of a bag of organic apples and make the apples 99 cents! Raise the prices of Pringles, Easy Mac, and Tombstone Pizza! Drop the prices of chicken breast! I don't see that happening in the near future, so here is how you can pinch pennies and eat healthy!!
This is a subject that is very important to me. We are a family of 5. 2 of them threaten to eat us out of house and home some weeks. Those of you that actually know me, know I am slightly OCD. I am especially this way when it comes to menu planning and grocery shopping. I don't coupon. I tried it. It wasn't for me. All the coupons for food, 99% of the time, were for things we don't purchase or actually eat. I do like my coupons for products though!
I tend to plan menus for a month at a time. I just find that this works easiest for ME. I understand completely that some people are struggling to plan and stick with a week. No big deal. I use my Home Management Binder to help with this. I printed all the pages off of links I found on Pinterest. Each month has a divider. In each section I have a freezer inventory list. That way I know how many container of soup or what not I have on hand.
This is just a list of how I personally run menu planning and grocery shopping while eating healthy on a budget. You can pick and choose what works best for you.
1) In my Home Management Binder I have a list of sides, main courses, crock pot meals, soups, etc. That way when I have one of those planning sessions and I am having trouble coming up with meal ideas, I can refer to it for help. ALWAYS have a few quick back up meals that you can fall back on. My children love Chicken Noodle Soup and Tacos. Not together! They are just a couple of my fallback meals.
2) Use what is in your freezer!! I often times make larger batches of stuff like Veggie Soup, etc. I will put one container in the freezer and write it down on my Freezer Inventory List. If I cook a whole chicken, I often times use half of it for one meal and then have the other half in the freezer for later that week or the following week.
3) Make a menu and STICK TO IT! Formulate your shopping list from this obviously.
4) I shop Aldi. I know a lot of places don't have an Aldi. If you are one of them, I am so sorry. The next closest place in our town that has similar prices is Wal-Mart.
5) Stick to your list when you are there!!!!!! And don't go while hungry!!!! We all know how hard it is to resist even the most random things at the grocery store when we are hungry!
6) You know the saying "Out of sight, out of mind." Well this proves true. Your family isn't going to starve if you don't buy that bag of Doritos or the pack of cookies. I PROMISE! I have heard people say, "well my child won't eat if it isn't ..." If they get hungry enough, they WILL eat. Instead of chips, I buy popcorn. And not the scary microwave stuff. I buy the kind you have to make in the popcorn maker. I do this for a few reasons.
a) It is healthier!
b) It is cheaper!
c) It taste MUCH better than the microwave stuff!
d) My children find it fun to make.
I buy pretzels too. They are cheaper than chips. I shop at Aldi because their produce is pocket friendly too. We eat A LOT of produce. Cucumbers, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, oranges, apples, berries, etc. If it isn't in season, it tends to be more costly. I don't typically buy strawberries and blueberries out of season. They are more expensive then.
7) FOOD PREP! FOOD PREP! FOOD PREP! If you have hungry children in the car as you are coming home from dance class or whatever and you know that you still have to go home and COOK (gasp! with screaming children), you are more likely to pull in and grab a $5 pizza! I am not saying that we don't do $5 pizzas. WE DO! We ARE normal! But I know that I can take time out over the weekend, or whatever fits your schedule, and prepare the ground turkey I need for that week, or the chicken that I need, sauces, etc, then dinner time goes MUCH faster. If it is something I can't prep anything until that day, I may put it in the oven early afternoon so I can just reheat it after we get home. I also plan my meals around our evening schedules. If I know that we are going to be at gymnastics until 6:30, dinner is something typically that can be cooked in the crock pot. That way, when I get home, it is done and I don't have to worry about it as my older 2 are having melt downs and my youngest is wanting a bottle.
8) Don't knock discounted meats! I have one Food Lion that I frequent because they have a natural line of chicken. Often times it is marked down some. .I plan on cooking it when I get home or placing it right into the freezer to use that week. A lot of times it is cheaper to get chicken breast tenders than chicken breast. I will purchase these.
As I said, these are just the things I personally follow. I would love to hear some of the things YOU do!
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