Eat Healthier Without Being a Baller

How in the world is it possible to eat healthily without breaking your bank?

I went to the store today and compared the price of an organic whole chicken to a conventional one.  The conventional chicken was about $8.  The organic chicken was approximately $12.  Four more dollars.  And get this…

The organic chicken was smaller.

I think it’s terribly unfortunate that it’s so expensive to eat healthy food, yet very inexpensive to eat junk.  However, with my wife and me living off of a budget and wrestling with this for the past 3 or so years, I was able to come up with a few ideas that might provide you with a workaround that helps you eat pretty healthy even without the income of Warren Buffet or Bill Gates.

Consider the following

  1. Use frozen vegetables.  Yes, they’re not fresh, but they’re a whole lot better than canned vegetables.  Matter of fact, a pretty good amount of nutrients are preserved in frozen vegetables (and fruits too), and on top of that, according to Dr. Weil, sometimes there are more nutrients in frozen produce than fresh produce when the fresh produce has traveled a long way.  Oh, and they’re cheaper, too.
  2. Buy only certain things organic.  It’s too expensive for us right now to buy everything organic, but we’ve essentially decided to buy a few conventional items and just make sure we clean them well and all.  On the other hand, we’ve decided that a few of our groceries will be non-negotiable organic purchases only.  We buy only organic corn, for example, since corn is such a big GMO crop.  We also try to buy most of our meat organic because of the infamous and numerous stories told about how conventional meat often isn’t grown under the best conditions.  If you make just a couple grocery items organic, you might be able to manage the cost better.
  3. Simplify your meals.  This is HUGE.  I’ve found that if we make a lot of meals during the week that use recipes, we tend to spend a lot more money at the grocery store.  Why?  Well because recipes tend to have those ingredients that you won’t use for anything else, and that means that you’re gonna spend more.  Focus on simple, quick meals during the week (like simply seasoned meat and vegetables) and then maybe make your fancier meal on the weekends.  Not only will this save you money; it will save you time as well.  Oh, also, one thing I consistently notice is that those who simplify their meals tend to be more successful at eating healthy and reaching health-related goals.
  4. Buy at the farmer’s market.  My local farmer’s market has something called “snap dollars” where $1 = $2.  Yes, that’s some weird math, but it enables many to buy more fresh, local and often organic foods since their money goes further.  I’m pretty sure that a lot of established farmer’s markets out there do this kind of thing to make it easier for folks to eat healthier.  Do some homework on your local farmer’s market.
  5. Grow some of your own food.  Now, you do have to be careful, because sometimes it isn’t so cheap when you first start a garden because of the compost, garden tools, gloves, seeds, seedlings and so on.  BUT, if you 1) grow something that’s easy to grow, 2) grow something that you actually eat, and 3) start simple, with flower pots, for example, you might actually save some money.  Sweet potatoes are a good choice, for example.  Although they take a whole season to grow, all you need is one big pot filled with dirt, and after planting the slips from a sprouted potato, you can pretty much sit it outside (at least in our Georgia weather) and leave it alone.  You can also eat the leaves the same way you would eat spinach leaves…just don’t take too many leaves off or you’ll kill the plant.  Other easy-to-grow vegetables to try are green beans and tomatoes.

When you get a chance, I recommend that you also check out this post from Bob of Christian PF (Personal Finance).  He gives a few more great tips for eating healthy and saving money at the same time.

Trust me; you can find ways to feed your family better food without going bankrupt.  If you have any other thoughts on ways to eat healthy and lower spending, please comment below with your ideas.

Shawn McClendon
Shawn McClendon is an author, podcast host, fitness entrepreneur and owner of Back to Basics Health and Wholeness LLC, an organization dedicated to empowering people to take responsibility for their own health.

5 Responses to “Eat Healthier Without Being a Baller

  • Geraldine McClendon
    9 years ago

    I must say it was also a great experience buying a calf and raising it without all the steroid and junky stuff normally fed to animals to get them to grow faster. Not to mention chickens, and pigs. I imagine how the people lived back in the day when everything was grown naturally. The true taste of food had to taste better, plus the dollar was stretched too. Everything was pretty much done in bulk and lasted forever!

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