Eating healthily is so expensive… Or is it?
Yes, eating nutritious (and delicious!) food can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be! While some people might try and convince you that you need buy organic, or pay a hefty price tag to have a healthy diet, they’re wrong! Here are our top tips on prioritising your nutrition on a budget!
1. Cook More - Order Less
Making your own food from home has a lot of benefits, the main one being it’s a lot cheaper than ordering food, or eating in a restaurant. More often than not, you can make a lot more portions, for a lot less money than you’d pay for one meal in a restaurant or from a takeaway. Not only this, but when you make your own meals at home, you have full control over what you put into it. For example, restaurants and takeaways typically use a lot of oil and butter in cooking. This can add up to a lot of extra hidden calories. Whereas if you’re cooking at home, you can control the amount you use.
2. Cook in Bulk
Meal prepping and bulk cooking are a great way to not only save money, but also save time and energy! It takes the same amount of time and energy to cook four chicken fillets as it does one. It’s also really convenient knowing you have food ready to grab from the fridge when you’re busy, or if you don’t feel like cooking on that particular day. Batch cooking meals such as chillies is also a good idea as they freeze well for a later date.
3. Look for Special Offers
When you’re doing your food shop, look for special offers or super savers in your store, and use these to inform your food choices for that week. For example, if sweet potatoes are on offer, then they can be one of your main carb source for the week!
4. Buy Frozen Over Fresh
Frozen fruit, vegetables and fish are quite often a lot cheaper than fresh options. It’s a common misbelief that frozen options are less nutritious than fresh ones, but this actually isn’t true. Freezing preserves a lot of essential vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C. They also don’t go off as quickly as fresh options, meaning you always have some fruit or veggies ready to grab.
5. Consider Reduced Items
Look at short-dated and reduced items in the supermarket. You can usually find some really good bargains here, especially for items that are usually more expensive, such as meat and fish.
6. You Pay More for Convenience
Convenience items such as microwavable rice, quick cooking oats and pre-chopped fruit and veggies can be really convenient, but chances are you’ll also pay more for them. For the price of a packet of microwavable rice, you could buy a whole bag of uncooked rice which would last you much longer.
7. Look at Own Brand Options
A supermarket’s own-brand options can be really affordable, so check them out and compare prices to other brands.
Hopefully it’s a little bit clearer that prioritising your nutrition and eating healthily doesn’t have to be expensive!