How To Meal Plan On A Budget
These tips will help if you want to spend less money on food shopping without sacrificing nourishing and balanced meals.
Eating healthy on a budget can be challenging, especially lately. Though, you don’t have to sacrifice healthy ingredients if you want to spend less on your food bill. And cooking at home is still so much cheaper than takeout and going out. Cooking healthy meals on a budget takes a bit of planning. And there’s more to it than simply planning cheap meals.
Do you tend to walk up and down the aisles grabbing things for your cart as you see them? Do you head to the food store without a solid meal plan and fill in blanks while you’re there? Do you tend to stop at the food store multiple times a week? Do you end up throwing away produce or leftovers that went bad before you could eat it? These habits contribute to higher food bills. I’ll share some simple ways to help you mindfully cut down on food costs.
The first step is to create a meal plan that includes exactly what you’ll make. Avoid leaving things to chance like ‘grilled salmon with side’ or ‘rice bowl with protein.’ If you need a little help creating a meal plan, check out my blog post ‘How To Meal Plan’. At the end of this post, I’ve also shared some ideas for cheap meals to get your meal planning creative juices flowing.
How To Spend Less on A Food Shop
Shop sale items
Plan meals around less expensive ingredients
Plan meatless meals
Make more from scratch
Stick to your list
Shop at farmer’s markets when available (produce lasts longer)
Reduce food waste
Use your freezer
Shop sale items
This is the one scenario I’d recommend buying more than what you’ll need for the next week. Stocking up on staples, or pricier foods that are on sale, helps reduce money spent over time. I personally like to keep backups of the ingredients I use the most, in case I forget when I need to replace them or if the food store doesn’t have it when needed. I typically grab them when they go on sale. It’s not a sale item, but typically store brand is cheaper than other brands. I find that many organic store brand ingredients are great quality, and tend to be cheaper.
Less Expensive Ingredients
It’s important to mindfully plan healthy meals around ingredients that cost less. Some ingredients are expensive, like a good extra virgin olive oil, grass fed meats and wild salmon. I like to be mindful about prioritizing pricier, nutrient dense ingredients like these and balance with more affordable options.
Cheap proteins include Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs (even with the price surge, they’re cheaper than high quality meats and seafood per serving), chicken thighs, ground meats, whole roasting chickens, protein powders, tofu and tempeh. Cheap healthy carbs include sweet potatoes, potatoes, beans and whole grain bread. And less expensive healthy fats include avocado and natural peanut butter. Inexpensive veggies include frozen green beans, frozen corn, kale, romaine lettuce, zucchini, beets, carrots and broccoli.
Plan meatless meals
Meatless meals are more budget friendly meals. I wrote this blog post about meatless meal proteins, which might be helpful in planning balanced vegetarian meals, that provide good protein. I like to work in various meatless meals each week, that utilize plant based proteins, dairy and eggs. Some of my go-to options are a smoothie, yogurt bowl, lentil pasta, egg and bean tacos, this goat cheese and tomato tart or other veggie frittatas and a sandwich on whole grain bread with vegetables, pesto and fresh mozzarella.
Make More From Scratch
I know what you’re thinking…making everything from scratch is much more time consuming, but hear me out! I’m not suggesting becoming a homemaker on a farmstead (unless that’s your goal!). I’m saying that some packaged foods are more expensive to buy, but can be really simple to make. It helps to take inventory of all these foods and ingredients you buy and consider what you’re willing to make yourself instead of buy. It doesn’t have to be everything, and even a few things here and there can make a big difference. Foods like salad dressing, chicken broth, sauces, marinades, refried beans, pickles, seasoned rice, oatmeal packets, granola, flavored mayonnaise and seasoning packets. You might be surprised how easy, and better, some of these things are when homemade. You can also make a larger quantity to freeze for future weeks. The ingredients needed to make these foods tend to be versatile, so they can be used in other recipes too, giving you more bang for your buck.
Stick to your list
It’s common for people to create a general non-specific meal plan or go food shopping without a thought out list. Some like to fill in the blanks in the moment while food shopping, or buy more options than they need. This isn’t a great approach if you want to spend less on groceries. Make sure to consider how much you’ll need of the ingredients on your list. Instead of writing ‘peppers,’ how many peppers will you actually need for the week? There’s been so many times where I’ve written an ingredient, forgetting I needed it for two different meals, so I didn’t have enough for the whole week.
The flip side is buying more than you need. This often happens if you go food shopping while hungry, or go without a list. Avoid tossing extra foods into your cart if you don’t really need them. This is a great weight loss trick I’ve used too, to keep extra options or temptation out of the house.
Shop at farmer’s markets
Farmer’s markets are a great resource for fresh produce. Produce will last a lot longer if you can get it close to when it was harvested. On store shelves, we don’t really know when it was picked and how long it’s been in transit or sitting there. Leafy green vegetables and lettuces are especially sensitive to this and will last much longer from local farms and farmer’s markets. Health food stores that source from local or regional farms are a great year round option. It might cost a little more, but it can help reduce food waste.
Reduce food waste
Food waste happens for a couple of reasons, but regardless it sucks to feel like you’re throwing away money. Produce is often wasted because it goes bad before you can eat it. I minimize this from happening by buying only what’s needed for my meal plan, with ingredients I can easily repurpose in a different meal if I happen to change my mind. As I said above, shopping for produce that will last longer helps too. I find stores that source more local produce is best (like Whole Foods, Farmer’s Markets, local health food stores), because there’s less time wasted in transit to store’s shelves.
I’ve found it helpful to look at the expiration dates before tossing something in my cart. There’s been times where I bought ingredients that happened to expire soon and I didn’t get to use it before it went bad. It’s not only with produce. It can happen with foods like sauces, mustards, mayonnaise, oils, hummus and yogurt.
Another reason food gets wasted is from throwing away uneaten leftovers. If this happens often, two things can help. First, up-level your meal plan, so you plan meals (and leftovers) you’re confident you’ll enjoy. Another meal planning tip is to not have too many food choices around. You might not reach for left overs if you have better options. Personally, I don’t enjoy left overs very often. Knowing this, I only make the portions/servings needed for one meal, so there aren’t left overs at all.
Use Your Freezer
The freezer is a life saver, especially if you’re strategic about it. It helps to prevent food waste in a few different ways. First, you can put left overs and produce in there that might soon go bad. It also allows you to make big batch recipes to portion and freeze for future meals. For fresh fruits and vegetables you might not eat in time, frozen might be a better option. Things like kale, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, corn and berries are great frozen options that you don’t have to rush to eat.
I hope these tips help you cut down on food costs while enjoying healthy eating. Having a more mindful and intentional approach with a little planning goes a long way. Not only will you save money, but you might save yourself some time and stress during busy weeks too.