Tips 1 Meal Planning
Write down 14-28 recipes that your family likes that are healthy. If your budget is tight, pick recipes that are also inexpensive to make.
On the front of a 3×5 index card, write the meal and the recipe.
On the back of the index card, write how much of each ingredient is needed for this recipe for your family size. (I usually plan for leftovers)
To meal plan: once a week or once a month, pick out the number of meals you need and put them in order for the week. Turn them over, add up the total of the ingredients, and you have a shopping list (just cross off any ingredients you have already)!
Stick the cards on the fridge or bulletin board and put them away in your recipe box as you use them.
(This system can help you stick to a list, and helps ensure that you always have foods prepared or ready to prepare, which limits impulsive purchasing and eating! )
Tips 2 Find Inexpensive vegetable
Veggies can vary tremendously in price, depending on the time of year and the source. Focusing on veggies that are in season will help cut costs some.
In the winter, we use a lot of frozen vegetables since they are cheaper, and in my opinion, fresher than the “fresh” produce that has been shipped halfway around the world.Vegetables like cabbage and potatoes are inexpensive year round and can be great fillers and substitutes in recipes. I stock up on things like these when they are in season, usually buying several cases of potatoes from farmers markets.
Cabbage costs just peanut from farmers when in season,
Tips 3 Grown your own food
Its also inexpensive to grow your own food, i remembered my dad doing this, we have some fruits and vegetable in our own company, also it helps us to breath a fresh air, though where i live presently i don't have space to grow, but i will advice you to grow some vegetables if you have space, like berries, fruit tree etc .
Tips 4 Get some Chicken
The area you live differ , if you are living in Africa or USA, its possible to do this, growing your own birds saves money and also you get to eat healthy chicken and eggs, like i said earlier, we had a farm and we have birds like chicken , turkey etc, it save cost and its healthy.
Tips 5 Don't buy drinks
If you are trying to eat healthy, hopefully you’ve already cut out things like soda, canned drinks, and processed juices from your food budget. If not, do it now! This alone is a big step in improving overall health.
If you have consumed much of these beverages in the past, go back and look at the percentage of your food bill that they take up. In general, buying beverages in any prepared form is an expensive and unhealthy option.
Even fruit juices cause a big insulin spike in the body, and are expensive without offering much nutrition.
N.B Cutting those items from the food budget will often free up a lot of cash for healthier options. If you aren’t a fan of only drinking water, ever… there are still some healthier and cheaper options for nutritious drinks.you can make an home made juice .
Don't Eat out much
We don’t eat out… :-) I admit, I love eating out. Not because the food is good (it usually isn’t) but because I don’t have to cook or clean for one whole meal. This is a big deal when you cook three hot meals a day and then have to do the dishes (and mop the floor as they case may be with a two year old!). That being said, eating out even once a month can use up a lot of the food budget at once. Saving the money from eating out lets me provide healthier options for me family at home, and none of us miss eating out much. (apart from a *Date*)
