Eating well on any budget

Stacia
Feb 28, 2018
4 min read

Updated: Mar 26, 2023

Anyone can eat well on a budget. It's not as hard as you think. I'm going to show you how.

The one thing I here all the time is how expensive "healthy" food is compared to eating at a fast food restaurant. You may be able to spend $5.00 on a Big Mac or Chick-Fil-A meal; but, that is just one meal. If you were to purchase $5.00 worth of healthy foods you can make several meals. OK now lets take a really good look at one meal.

Organic Non-GMO

Chicken breast (2 Breasts) $7.99

Brussels Sprouts (1 bag) $2.98

Red potatoes (1 lb) $1.98

Total $12.95

Check out the recipe under Recipes

OK so now we have spent Apx. $14.00 on our meal. You could spend that easy in the drive through of many fast food restaurants for just one meal and a soda.

However, we have just spent $14.00 on not one but at least 2+ meals. The Brussels sprouts and the potatoes could be used on a third meal, depending on how much you actually eat.

Ok, now let's try that again.

Salmon $12.99/lb (apx 3-4 servings)

Asparagus $5.00/bundle (apx 3-4 servings)

Zucchini $3.75/3 (apx 3-6 servings)

Total $21.75 (3 healthy meals)

Check out the recipe under Recipes

You could pay the same for a large pizza, which many people do because eating healthy is just "too expensive". But as you can see eating healthy cost's really about the same and can often times be much cheaper. Not to mention the health benefits of eating a healthy diet compared to a fast food diet. You get fewer doctor visits, weight loss, better vision, decreased risk of diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer, etc. The list just goes on and on. Oh yeah and did I mention a healthy diet also can decrease blood pressure and cholesterol? Yep, it sure can, and think about all the money being spent on medications when all you needed to do was change your diet. That makes eating healthy extremely affordable. When you really think about it, eating a "cheap" unhealthy diet costs way more than eating healthy.

Let's take a good look at only one month and the cost of a regular unhealthy diet.

Doctors visit $125.00

Diabetes Medication $75.00-300 Depending on the medication and whether or not you take insulin shots.

Blood Pressure $20.-75 Depending on the medication and whether or not you have insurance.

Cholesterol Medication $20.-75 Depending on the medication and whether or not you have insurance. That is $240-575 for medical treatment alone and for many it is much more than that. We are just looking at the low end of things.

Food Apx $25/day (1 person) $750.00

That comes to a whopping $990.00- $1325.00 a month!GMO-free

Now, let's take a good look at only one month and the cost of a regular healthy diet.

Groceries (and I'm talking all organic GMO free products) apx $400/ month that is a $350.00 savings in food alone. That is about how much I spend each month and I only purchase organic, free-range, pasture-raisednon-GMO, grass fed, non GMO products. Yes. I buy all the "expensive" stuff but I don't take any medications and do not have regular doctors visits.

When you factor in all the medical that is a $590.00 - $925.00 difference in savings. So, with all this information, I am very confused as to how people continue to believe that eating a healthy diet is so much more expensive.

Not to mention the fact that if you made your own toothpaste (I have a recipe in another blog post) and made your own cleaning products (very easy to do) you could save even more money to buy those "expensive" healthy foods.

So,let's gets started on a healthier lifestyle and eating healthier. It will not only make you feel better, give you more energy, and better health; it will save you a ton of money in the long run. And who doesn't like saving money? I know I sure do.

And don't say "well I just don't have time to prepare and cook all these healthy meals". YOU DO HAVE TIME! Let's say you work Mon-Fri, you are off on Sat & Sun all meals can be pre-made and ready to take on the go sitting in your fridge. Many meals can be placed in the freezer too. All you have to do is come home, pre-heat the oven to about 350 degrees and put the meals in the oven for about 15-20 min and wala and there you have it. A healthy meal in 15 min with no prep time. You can make dinner while you change out of your work clothes, or whatever you typically do when you come home.

Ok, so we just covered meals for dinner. This also goes for breakfast and lunch too. There are so many breakfast options out there. You can make overnight oatmeal to take to work with you, a breakfast smoothie you can drink on your commute to work, boiled eggs you can eat in under a minute before you leave the house.

The options are limitless. Make pre-made lunches to take to work or school with you. When I was in college I used to take a chicken breast and veggies with me. Basically, I took leftovers grab-and-go from the night before. I would just make extra that night so I would have a nice lunch the next day. You can make pre-made tuna fish salad, put it in a container, and place some bread in a zip-loc bag. No soggy sandwiches. Or even make a ham or turkey sandwich the night before, place it in the fridge and you got lunch tomorrow.

There are so many breakfasts breakfast and lunches you can make right at home and save so much on eating "in" rather than eating out. As I said before the options are endless. Pinterest has a plethora of ideas, just type in overnight oatmeal and you've got a ton of recipes to choose from, type in grab-and-go breakfast, lunch, or snacks and again a ton of ideas right at your fingertips.

I hope I've given you some ideas on how to eat a healthy diet on a budget. If you have any questions or want to share some ideas of your own, please feel free to comment below. I'd love to hear

Happy eating and congratulations on a new you!