I never grasped the concept that healthy food cost more than unhealthy food until I started living alone at 22. I couldn’t afford some things that I loved eating growing up. My first couple of years in Switzerland forced me to find affordable ways to eat well. At the time, I was doing my Masters in Geneva. Every two weeks, I would hop onto the bus to France. I shopped in Ferney-Voltaire and would bring it back to Lausanne.
Eating a healthy diet is essential for both your mental and emotional health as well as your physical wellness. It makes a difference to your mood, your energy and how well you think and feel. Money, financial crises and other legitimate challenges should not be the reason that people should struggle to eat well consistently. Unfortunately, when facing an uncertain financial future, affordable ways to eat well does become a challenge. We cannot be a healthy population, if one of the basics needs cannot be fulfilled due to costs. The great news is there are foods out there that are both nutrient-rich and budget-friendly.
It is true that lean animal proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables can cost you most than eating more processed and fast foods. Nutritious food does not need to drain your purse. I can assure you that it is possible to eat a very healthy diet, even when money is very tight.
Saving money on food to eat well involves revising your shopping habits, eliminating waste, and focusing on the pleasure of eating. Whether you are cooking food for your family or living alone, you can definitely find ways to make inexpensive meals both an enjoyable experience and more beneficial for your health and wellness.
Plan Your Recipes
Planning your recipes in advance saves you both time and money. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, just keep it simple. Choose your protein source, your carb source and the veggies/fruits (depending on the meal) that you would like for the week. Include meals that you enjoy – life is too short not to eat meals you enjoy. Set time aside to plan how many meals you need to prepare for the week. Also, what do you need to make them quick and easy meals or if you need to prepare them in advance.
I think about what I want to eat for the upcoming week and check what items I have in stock. For example, my goal is to be more adventurous in the kitchen this year. I tend to make Nigerian stew with everything so that my protein sources aren’t dry and sitting lonely. There are so many more marinade options out that don’t require me to spend time roasting, cutting and blending every week. At the beginning of the year, I made a Moroccan chicken marinade and adapted the blend with ingredients that I already had. Since then, I think I’ve made it four or five times.
What is great about the various marinade options is that you can prep them in bulk and store them in the freezer until a much later date.
Stick to Your Shopping List
Check what ingredients you already have in your cupboards, fridge and freezer. This will help eliminate what you don’t need to buy. Create a shopping list at least a day or two before you need to go to the shops. You’ll be able to add missing items as you go about your day-to-day.
If the item is not on the list, don’t buy it. This has been one of my favourite ways to save money when I go shopping. If the item was not on the list before I got to the shops, clearly it wasn’t important enough to remember. In order to avoid this in the future, keep the fixed and basic items on the list at all times. This includes items such as eggs, milk, bread, bananas etc.
As you have your shopping list prepped in advance, stick to the aisles where you can get those items. Resist the temptation to stroll through an aisle that does not hold an ingredient that you need as this is a money trap and counts as impulse buying.
Buy In Bulk
If you are able to, buy in bulk. Buying in bulk saves money, waste and requires fewer shopping trips. At first, the cost of bulk items can have a higher initial cost but the price per unit can be less over time. By buying in bulk, you can prep, cook and store food in bulk. The items I would not recommend buying in bulk are fresh foods and snacks.
This method is usually tailored for people with large families yet I believe it is beneficial for people living alone too. At the beginning of COVID, I limited my shopping to every two weeks as opposed to once a week. I bought certain products such as pasta, frozen veggies, rice, canned beans, tuna, meat etc. in bulk. Then I would store them either in the basement or the deep freezer. If you have a basement, a deep freezer or extra storage space, take advantage of those areas and store your bulk items there. All you need to do is make a trip to the that space to get food to eat.
Eat Frozen Goods
You’ve probably heard of the debate regarding fresh goods over frozen goods and that fresh is better. Honestly, some arguments need to go into the bin and this is one of them. I’ve been eating frozen goods since birth and I turned out fine. You will too!
Opt to eat frozen goods over fresh goods. Just because it is frozen doesn’t mean that it is less nutritious, the nutrients are still the same. I buy most if not all of my vegetables frozen as they ripen much faster when they are fresh. Seafood is also great to buy frozen as it is much cheaper than buying it fresh. Let’s say you want to buy most of your food fresh. Learning how to extend their shelf life from days to months, and even years will save you money.
When fresh fruits and vegetables get ripe, store them in the fridge to extend their shelf life for a few more days. If the food in the fridge won’t be eaten in the next 3 to 5 days, pack them into ziplocks or freezer safe containers and store them into the freezer for 3 to 6 months. If you like eating jams, pickles or fermented foods like kimchi, learn how to make and store them. These products can be preserved for years.
Repurpose & Eat Leftovers
Repurposing leftovers to eat is an amazing way to get creative in the kitchen. Leftover vegetables can easily be combined and baked to make a new recipe such as a savoury broth, a curry, a stir-fry, a one pot meal etc. If you usually throw leftovers way, I challenge you to creatively use them in a new recipe this week. Let me know what you created in the comments below.
Growing up in a Nigerian household, my brother, sisters and I were constantly told not to throw away leftover food. We were taught ways to preserve food and how to repurpose our leftovers. It was generally frown up to throw away food. Even now living alone, if I’m not sure how I want to repurpose an item, I throw it into the freezer until an idea pops into my head. Thinking about it now, I have so many bananas in there and should probably bake several loaves of banana bread over the weekend.
I hope that this post has provided you with some great ideas to eat well on a budget and some new recipes to try out. Thank you for reading and share this with a friend that could find these tips useful. If you have any questions or comments, please sound off below. Make sure to hit that subscribe button to join the community to never miss out on a post. Find me on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok for more powerlifting and wellness content.
Until next time,
Folakemi
