Have you ever made a life-changing decision to eat healthily, go to the grocery store, and be surprised by the price tags? This could be a lot of people’s experience. But healthy eating doesn’t have to break the bank. It just takes some time and effort to figure out what works for you. Once you do it for a while and see how you feel, you won’t go back.

So many people think being tired is normal until they break down completely and they can’t perform anymore.

And you have to think about the long-term medical expense too. There is an epidemic of chronic diseases going on and most of the roots are in our diet and lifestyle.

We can’t blame our genes anymore, studies have shown that even if we have a genetic predisposition how it expresses depends on our lifestyle. According to CDC 6 in 10 adults in America has a chronic disease. In this article, we are going to dive deep into different aspects of healthy eating on a budget.

Change your mindset

For a lot of people, there is some amount of denial associated with healthy eating. Ask yourself if you are finding excuses so that you can stick to your current eating habits? Or in the worst-case scenario, you have an addiction. Yes, that’s right certain food items can act as opioids and mask their own damage. This is why you feel horrible when you reintroduce a food item that you were not reacting to after an elimination diet. We’ll discuss all that in another blog post.

Right now let’s stay on track. Gluten and dairy can create this opioid effect. It’s due to casomorphin and gluteomorphin. I first came across this on a podcast run by Dr. Mark Hyman. So what I’m trying to say is healthy eating is not the same for everyone.

For example, for a person like me who can’t tolerate gluten, whole wheat bread with no preservatives and lots of seeds may not do good. My body will be producing antibodies against gluten no matter what. So listening to our body and understanding what works for us is important.

Another factor is the emotional connection we make with food. Emotional eating is a whole other topic, I’m talking about the memories we create around food. This is because the hippocampus, which is critical for memory, has strong connections with parts of the brain that are important for emotion and for smell.

It’s hard to start eating healthy, you may have to limit dishes you grew up eating, dishes that transport you to another place. From my own experience, it’s pretty hard. But once you experience the difference in your energy, health, and overall life, I promise you, you will never go back. And the best part is that your palette will readjust.

Ask yourself whether you are using your budget as an excuse to eat what you want. Make health a priority if you really care about it. You can cut down in other areas that doesn’t make a big impact in your life.

Educate yourself

In The Minimalists podcast with New York Times bestselling author and physiologist Ben Greenfield, he says.

Eating good nutritious healthy food affordably is not hard to do, but there is an intellectual and educational barrier to overcome. Meaning, how to grow the most nutritious vegetables on the phase of the planet? Sprouts and microgreens…

Mind-blowing right? It is disturbing that we don’t get a formal education in things like nutrition, mental health, environment, etc. We don’t learn how to take ownership of our own health.

If you read and learn enough, just understanding the consequences of eating junk food regularly can be your motivation. Weight loss, more energy and all such benefits will come along with it.

I will share with you some things that helped me make the shift apart from changing my mindset and learning nutrition.

Remember the 3 Ps. Plan, Purchase, Prepare

Plan

Planning includes several sub steps.

Set a budget

A set budget for groceries is very helpful. Set your budget considering. I came across this podcast episode 8 ways we waste money and 8 ways how to manage it better when I was a student. It was one of the On purpose podcast episodes by Jay Shetty. And the idea stuck with me. He says,

If we have a set budget we can plan our meals accordingly.

Take a look at your pantry and fridge

Check your pantry and fridge to see what are things you have. List down some meals you can make from them. Otherwise, you will buy a lot of new things and forget about the things sitting around in your house. Eventually, they’ll get ruined. Cleaning and organizing your fridge occasionally will help you do this. Currently, we are in the planning phase.

Remember the 3 Ps. Plan, Purchase, Prepare

Meal Planning

This step will reduce a lot of stress for you later. You won’t be facing any decision fatigue regarding meals. Because you know what to cook. We already can make some meals from things we have in the fridge. Now consider factors like,

• How busy are you for the coming days?
• Is there any plans to eat out?
• How much time can you spend in the kitchen?

Now list out the meals you can make at home. If you want to do this aesthetically, you can get digital meal planners on sites like Etsy. Or you can use any apps like notion or Google keep, or just use good old paper. If you are serious enough design your own meal planner on Canva. That’s what I do.

One of my favorite meals to make is stir-fries. These are amazing since literally anything can be added to a stir fry. A good healthy fat, some vegetables you like, garlic, salt and pepper, spices or sauces if you have any, some good quality protein and carb you like. You have a wonderful stir fry.

Plan some snacks too, Some of my favorites are,

• Apple slices with nut butter (Home made nut butters are easy if you want to save on that)
• carrot and cucumber sticks with hummus
• Soaked almonds
• Fruits
• Popcorn , etc.

When you are a beginner you might buy a lot of stuff, so have an idea about how much you usually eat.

Make a grocery list with necessary ingredients for the meals you have planned

Purchase

Now let’s look at the things we can do while we shop

Shop online

We have all been used to online grocery shopping for a couple of years now. I personally find that I go for the things I need when I shop online. One more benefit is that deals are difficult to miss when you use an app. When you go to a grocery shop, you see many more stuff in packaging which are carefully designed to grab our attention.

When you go to the grocery store

Even if you like going to the grocery shop, you can do things like,

• Stick to the outer corners of the store where produce is usually placed.
• Don’t browse every isle.
• Stick to the list
• Swap something from the list if you find a good deal and if it suits your meal plan.

Let’s see things we can do when it comes to certain food groups.

Meat

Meat is expensive, but we can many ways we can cut down the budget here.

• Look for less expensive cuts. You can find slow cooker recipies and all for them online.
• Look for markdown, use by date is not exactly expiry. You can buy premium quality meat for low price if you are planning to use it soon.
• Include more pland based protein sources like lentils, chickpeas, etc. There are many delicious recipies available online.

Fruits and Vegetables

With a little bit of planning, you can save some money in this section. You can try things like,

• Buy frozen fruits and vegetables: They are usually cheaper
• Buy produce which are in season
• Utilize your freezer: You can freeze bananas and greens if you are a smoothie lover

Skip preprepared and packaged meals

Already cut vegetables and marinated chicken are so tempting but they’ll cost you extra. If you meal prep well, it’s not a big inconvenience.

Look up the dirty dozen

If you are worried about the price of organic produce, be aware of the dirty dozen and clean 15 lists. You can find more information on EWG’s website. If the vegetable you are looking for is in clean 15, you can get the conventionally grown ones.

A good guideline would be to shop tubers like potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes from the organic section since they are grown underground. Onions and garlic are also good items to shop organic. On the other hand, things like bananas are naturally protected from the outer environment, so it’s okay to go for conventional. It’s always best to get organic leafy greens.

All in one spice mix

If you are a beginner, you might get overwhelmed by the variety of spices and condiments. The best way is to go for an all-in-one spice mix. I’m Indian, so I use spices in all my dishes. I have a good store-bought garam masala and a curry powder which adds loads of flavor to my dishes. Curry powders are a blend of all the basic spices like chilly, coriander, pepper, turmeric, etc.

To make garam masala, toast whole spices of cinnamon, allspice, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and cardamom pods in a pan to release their aromatic flavors, then ground to a powder. But you will get good store-bought ones. Just make sure to avoid brands with anti-caking agents, preservatives, etc.

Using a good spice blend will elevate your dishes to the next level and make your cooking process easy.

Prepare

Now that we have the ingredients, let’s get cooking.

Meal prep

Meal prepping is very useful for so many reasons.

• You are unlikely to order when you since you have to finish what you have
• It reduces the friction to cook when you are busy, tired or unmotivated
• You don’t have to stress about meals since you know what you are eating and you have it prepared.

Prepare some snacks too in case you have to go out. It will reduce the chance of you eating out. My favorite ones are,

• Home made granola bars
• Apple slices with nut butter
• Dates stuffed with almonds
• Grapes, etc

For me, meal prep doesn’t mean storing a fully cooked meal. Sometimes I pre-cut the veggies for stir fry and keep them in the fridge. Or marinate some chicken and pan fry it when I need it. But a problem with this approach is that it may not last a week. But I enjoy the process of cooking, it’s relaxing for me.

If you are a very busy person who can cook only on weekends meal prepping all the way will help you. You can find many resources online for the specific diet you follow. Let it be gluten-free, keto or paleo.

Cook in large portions

When you cook, make a little bit more. You can easily heat it up later. Roasted veggies, rice, etc are easy to store. I always cook extra rice and store it in the refrigerator. Refrigerating rice can have other benefits like developing resistant starch. That is a whole new topic for discussion.

Make sure to use glass or ceramic containers for storing food. If you are using plastic make sure to go with BPA-free plastic containers.

Make nut butters and nut milk at home

Since I become dairy-free, plant milk are something I love to test. But I keep getting disappointed in the store brought ones. They add emulsifiers and gums and all kinds of stuff to make the milk thick and creamy. Making them at home is not that hard. All you need is a good blender. You can make oat milk, cashew milk and almond milk at home during your meal prep and store them at home.

Nut butter is so affordable if you make them at home. You can increase the nutrient value by adding seeds like chia, pumpkin, sunflower, etc. You can find a variety of nut butter recipes online. If you are buying nut butter, buy the one with minimal clean ingredients.

Get good quality staples

If you are a beginner, you don’t need loads of things to start cooking.

Good quality carb source

My favorite is rice. But I rarely eat white rice. Go for unprocessed varieties like brown rice or wild rice. To reduce the cost buy in bulk rather than buying small packs. That will save you some money without compromising the quality. When you buy grains,

• Go for organic since conventional grain cultivation uses roundup (glyphosate).
• Buy in bulk since they will last a long time.

If you like bread go for good quality ones with multiple seeds and grains, always check the ingredients. Sprouted grain bread is good. Use whole-wheat pasta, lentil pasta, etc instead of normal pasta.

Buy in bulk. Buy organic if possibe

Cooking oil

This is an item where I wouldn’t advise you to go cheap. The big cans of cheap, highly processed oils like canola, sunflower, soybean oil, etc are tempting, but they are more likely to cost you more in medical bills. They are inflammatory and create free radicals in our bodies.

Go for healthy oils like,

• Extra virgin coconut oil
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Avocado oil
• Grassfed ghee, etc.

The trick is not to use a lot of oil and get healthy fats from eggs, nuts, and seeds.

Condiments

As I mentioned before, get a good quality spice mix. Get good quality salt and pepper. It’s always better to buy a few good quality multi-purpose ingredients than to buy a whole lot of things.

Invest in quality not quantity

The bottom line

If you reached the bottom of this article, you are serious about this. I have shared things that help me while shopping and putting meals together. Figure out your motivation. If your budget doesn’t allow you to eat healthy, rethink your priorities, track your budget. You can always make choices. Whenever you are having a meal, make a healthier choice.

Be careful not to develop unhealthy eating patterns by controlling everything. Be intuitive, be mindful. Life is all about balance in the end. Another fact is that diet is only one pillar of a healthy life, stress, exercise and sleep are also crucial.

Check out my other articles about how to create the perfect routine for better sleep and how to sleep better if you are interested.