{Guest Post by Vanessa Davis}

6 tips to eat healthy on a budget.

Eating healthy is a challenge in itself, but when you’re trying to sustain a healthy lifestyle on a tight budget, things can get difficult. One of the most common excuses for not taking care of how we eat is that eating healthy is much more expensive, plus it requires more time in the kitchen.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on eating well.

When it comes to the time you have to spend in your kitchen, think of it this way – your health and the way you treat yourself determines every other aspect of your life.

Here are six smart tips for eating healthy on a super tight budget.

6 Tips for Eating Healthy on a Budget

1. Organize Your Fridge

The very first thing to do when you’re working your way toward eating better is to clean your house from all the hazardously tempting junk food. The other step is to take a good and careful look at what you have in your fridge and how much of it are you actually planning to use.

It’s very important to have all the goodies in plain sight whenever you open your fridge, otherwise you risk letting the products go to waste. Make sure to stock your fridge with fresh produce like fruits, vegetables and lean meats instead of instant dinners and lots of ice cream (though we know you want to). Also, try to label the food and put a date when you bought them, that way you know by when you have to use it.

It’s all too easy to buy new batch of food without using up all you’ve got left, and that leads to wasting food unnecessarily, so be smart.

2. Accept the Fact That You’ll Have to Cook More

Even if you’re completely new to the cooking craft, you don’t have to go for super complicated meals to make it work. When you’re constantly eating out, your money just evaporates from your bank account and you spend much more than you have to.

There’s a special kind of satisfaction in cooking for yourself from the scratch, even if doesn’t come out perfect the first couple of times, you’ve done it yourself and you’re learning a new useful skill, take pride in that.

Once you start eating out sparingly and keeping track on how much you’re spending, you’ll realize that you’ve saved a lot of money by opting out to eat at home. Plus, if you want to eat healthy and save money at the same time, you want to know what goes into your meals, and the best way to that is to make them yourself.

3. You Don’t Need Unhealthy Snacks Lying Around

Get rid of the temptations and do it now. Buying and consuming junk food does no good to your body or your wallet, so why would you prolong this bad habit? Once you get all the bad stuff out of your house, make sure they stay out.

If you believe that you can’t resist the pull of chips, dips and chocolate that lurk from the discount isle in the supermarket, simply skip that whole section and head straight to the fruits and veggies, you can’t go wrong there.

4. Meal Prepping Also Saves Money

True, it’s a bit more work to handle than you’re used to, but preparing meals in advance allows you to use a lot of different products at once (so that they don’t go bad), it saves time during the busy work week and it saves money because you can bring your meals from home instead of going out to lunch every workday.

What you do with meal prepping is cutting out the excuses such as “I’m too tired to cook,” “There’s nothing in the fridge,” “I have nothing to eat,” “I’ll just order some pizza,” etc.

You will spend a couple of hours of your weekend cooking different meals, preparing snacks and organizing your menu, but the benefits you will reap are great – you will eat better, you will save a lot of money and your cooking skills will only get better.

5. In Season Is Within Reason

While our consumer society enables us to have anything and everything at our fingertips at all times, buying fresh produce when they’re in season is a game changer, not just for your spending habits, but your body as well. Why not buy strawberries, tomatoes and lettuce when they’re in season, they will definitely taste better and be cheaper?

The only trick here is to find out what is the season of the produce you love the most and then shop accordingly. Besides, you can explore and discover some new great options in the world of fruits and veggies that you didn’t even think about before.

6. Whole Grains to the Rescue

Substituting whole grains for processed grains will immediately allow you to feel and eat better. The calories you get from whole grains like rye, brown and wild rice, bulgur and barley are beneficial for your metabolism, not to mention they will satiate your hunger for longer periods of time.

Even though some would argue whole grains are a bit trickier to cook with, we can assure you that once you get the hang of it, incorporating whole grains into your everyday diet will be much easier than you think and just watch how much money you’ll save.

Homemaking tips Tuesdays where you find quick tips for keeping a clean and organized home.

Balancing healthy diet with frugal habits is something that needs to be worked on, just like a muscle. In the beginning, you might struggle a little until you find out what products suit you best with their quantity-quality ratio, but it all gets sorted out quite quickly. All you need to do is be determined to be healthy and a bit wealthier.

6 tips to eat healthy on a budget.


Vanessa Davis is a 32-year-old fitness enthusiast, mother of two and content writer at www.diet.st. She’s originally from Long Island, New York, and when she isn’t cooking up some new health and fitness article, she enjoys doing yoga and figuring out new, delicious organic recipes for herself and her kids.


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