Dieting right isn’t easy when you’re on a tight budget. Unless you are a full time gardener and have your own greenhouse, fresh fruits and vegetables cost money and shopping for them takes time. Let’s not forget the difference in prices between healthy whole grain breads and pastas and those made from refined white flour. If you’ve done any comparison shopping lately, you know that healthy doesn’t come cheap.
According to the Center for Disease Control, two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese. Consider also that American schools are seeing a growing trend in obese students and you’ll soon realize that we are a nation of overweight and unhealthy people raising a generation of even more overweight and unhealthy people. Good, nutritional health begins at home and parents are the ones on the front lines of this major battle. We do the shopping and cooking. Our children follow our examples. It may mean more careful shopping for those of us working on a tight budget but it is possible to eat healthy and raise healthy kids on a tight budget.
In a society where it is cheaper to buy a dozen cupcakes than a bag of fresh apples, we all need to be on our guard when shopping. Here are a few tips to consider when trying to shop healthy on a tight budget:
Cut back on juices and flavored fluids. Serving sizes have gone out of control. How many parents actually follow serving sizes when pouring juices for their kids. Do you pour eight ounces or 24? Can you eyeball 8 ounces in a serving cup? What capacity are the cups your kids drink out of? How about you? I know my husband’s favorite cup is a 32 ounce cup. That is a quart of fluid! You can save a good deal of money by cutting out juices altogether (which are entirely too full of sugar anyway) and buying fresh fruit. Instead of a cup of juice, give your kid a piece of fresh fruit. There will be less sugar, fewer calories, more nutritional content and more fiber. It will also fill up a kid’s belly faster than juice!
Shop sales and use coupons. When you local grocery store flyers come in every week, take a look at them and do some comparison shopping. Most grocery stores are within a mile of each other in commercial districts so you won’t be wasting a whole lot of gas by going to a couple different stores for the best prices. If you combine sales with coupons (and some stores will double coupons up to $1) then you’ll get even better deals. For information on how to trade coupons and get coupons for the products you use, visit the Families.com Deals section. Taking part in a coupon train is a great way to get started.
Plan meals in advance. By planning in advance and even cooking in advance (often called freezer cooking), you can save yourself a great deal of time and still serve up convenient, healthy meals.
Use frozen foods. If fresh vegetables tend to rot in your refrigerator before you eat them, stop buying them! Buy frozen vegetables instead. They’ll last longer, can be used in a pinch and you can prepare only as much as you need. Frozen vegetables are cheaper and healthier than canned because they’re usually frozen fresh and don’t require sodium to keep well.
If you’re trying to stay healthy on a low budget, these tips should really help you make better use of your hard earned dollar. If you have additional tips on how to stay healthy on a budget, please leave a comment and share it with our readers.
For more budget friendly tips, visit the Families.com Frugal Living Blog.