Eating Healthy On A Budget

When money is tight, food shopping bills can be a worry. If you’re trying to eat healthily, those anxieties can escalate. After all, it’s not difficult to spend a significant amount of money in a supermarket when filling your trolley with nutritious foods.

Being on a budget doesn’t have to mean barely affordable food bills, however. There are plenty of ways to eat well while keeping to a strict budget. You just have to know the tips and tricks.

Here’s how to eat healthy on a budget.

1. Plan your meals out in advance

Deciding on meals while you shop can lead to missing ingredients and unhealthy choices. A great way around this is a little forethought. Each week, spend half an hour mapping out a healthy and affordable set of meals. It’ll pay off.

2. Check the fridge and cupboards first

It’s easy to forget what food you already have at home. So before you buy – or plan to buy – anything, have a check of your current supplies.

Even if you don’t have many of the ingredients needed for your planned meals, perhaps you have some staples you can plan one or two meals around.

3. Make a list – and stick to it

A surprising amount of every weekly food shop ends up being impulse purchases. Supermarkets depend on the novelty factor to attract sales. Avoid going off-piste, save money and keep your haul healthy by being super strict with your picks.

The best way to do this is to make a comprehensive shopping list before you head out.¹ Then, once you’re pushing your trolley down the aisles, be sure not to deviate. Only buy what you plan to buy.

There are added bonuses to this technique too: you’ll find your new focused approach to supermarket shopping is much faster than usual, and you won’t forget anything.

4. Can you grow anything at home?

If you have the capacity, time and inclination to start a small herb, fruit or vegetable garden, it can be a great way to keep your fruit and veg stocks up with very little financial investment.

You needn’t have access to a huge garden or allotment; lots of things can be grown in pots on balconies or patios. Another option for anyone keen to grow their produce is to make use of community gardens. You can look online to see if there’s one near you.

Growing your own produce can be fun too. It’s rewarding and can be beneficial to mental health.²

5. Opt for supermarket-own brands

A simple but useful tip nonetheless. Generic own brands can often save up to 50% off the price of known brands, so this can make a really positive impact on your bill.

Some items may be lacking in the kind of quality that a more expensive version may offer. Yet many other items are indistinguishable from their pricier alternatives.

So long as you compare the two ingredient lists and there’s not a major difference in the nutritional value, it often pays to get the supermarket’s own brand version. This is a great tip for eating healthy on a budget.

6. Don’t overlook tinned or frozen food>/h2>

It’s fairly common knowledge that so-called ‘fresh’ food is more expensive than its canned or frozen counterpart. But rarely is it ever that much fresher.

Not only can you save money with tinned or freezer-ready food, but you get much more life out of it.

Do check with tinned fruit that it’s in water or juice instead of syrup, though. Syrup is incredibly high in sugar.

7. Look out for deals

Whether you shop online or in person, you’ll be offered plenty of multibuy deals and offers. Some will offer great value, others less so. With a little practice (and some maths), you’ll soon be able to distinguish between the two.

If you spot a great deal on something, but you’ve already got enough of it, provided it’s not likely to spoil quickly, stock up while you can get a good price. Forward planning is key to eating healthily on a budget.

8. Shop online

Research has shown that ordering the weekly food shop online makes it easier to skip the tempting junk foods and stick to a healthy diet.³

It’s also easy to track your spend as you select each individual item, unlike regular ‘in-person’ grocery shopping.

9. Cut your food wastage

Each and every year, 3.6 million tons of food are thrown away in the UK.⁴ That’s not great for the environment or our bank balances. Making a concerted effort to not overbuy and to use up all the food we buy can help our grocery bills no end.

Meal planning will help with this, as will being flexible with what you eat. Try to sculpt meals and snacks around what’s in the fridge and cupboard. An added bonus is that it should improve your culinary skills.

10. Shop for things in season

Seasonal produce is often less expensive than out-of-season food. It’s also usually at its most nutritious and the peak of its taste potential.

Produce that isn’t in season is frequently imported from afar to your supermarket or shop, which isn’t healthy for the environment or your wallet.

11. If you have the room for it, buy in bulk

Not everyone has lots of pantry or storage space, but if you can find somewhere to store a little extra food, you could save a considerable amount. The concept of ‘economies of scale’ says that, often, the more you buy something, the cheaper it’ll be per unit.⁵

So if you purchase multipacks and stash the majority, you’ll save money. If the items have a limited shelf life, you may need to freeze or keep them in airtight containers. It’s a little extra work, granted, but it’ll be worth it.

12. NEVER go food shopping hungry!

We’ll end on a tip that may seem silly, but it’s useful and may be one of the best ways to eat healthy on a budget. Head to the supermarket before lunch or dinner, and you might very well find yourself filling up your trolley with unhealthy snacks.

This kind of impulse buying will hit your budget, and you’ll come home with delicious – but often not very nutritious – items. This isn’t just an old wives’ tale, either. It’s backed up by science.⁶ If you are still uncertain about how to eat healthy on a budget, we have another 21 tips for buying healthy groceries that may help.