A meal plan is not only great for saving time but, it should also save you money, too. When you’re on a strict budget, meal planning can be quite the task especially if you are trying to avoid the cheap processed food, in the process. If you are working with a tight budget with your grocery money, and you’re not sure where to start, let us help you plan your meal prep. Not only will we keep the cost down, but we will also make sure you are sticking to your diet.
Look for Meals & Recipes That Last a Few Days
Before you start anything else, use a website like Pinterest where you can find easy, healthy recipes that can give you ideas for meals but ingredients you can use in multiple meals. Look for inexpensive ingredients that still have some nutritional value.
The Best Ingredients for Pushing your Budget
We have a list of inexpensive food ingredients that can help stretch your budget and can go with any meal. Some items on the list:
Lentils
Brown Rice
Eggs
Potatoes
Frozen Vegetables
Beans
Other options you might consider old-fashioned oats, multigrain pasta, tofu, canned tuna, peanut butter.
Look for versatile foods, too. Chicken, of course, is the main ingredient in many, many dishes. We like chicken because you can buy in bulk and freeze some while prepping the rest. Also, with versatile foods, you have tons of recipes to choose from. Don’t worry, if you don’t eat meat, tofu is a great substitute.
Resources for Cheap Recipes
The internet is full of resources for recipes. For example, a few useful sites to look at:
Once you’ve rounded up your healthy, cost-effective recipes, organize them. Write out ingredients you will need for multiple meals, and how much so you can avoid purchasing more than you need when overlapping food.
Buy Based on Seasonal Sales
A smart idea is also to plan meals based on the items that your grocery store has on sale for the week and the season for your area. In-season produce is always cheaper than the out of season produce.
Avoid Food Waste
We can all admit that sometimes we waste more money over buying food and letting it spoil. When shopping for healthy food on a budget, you want to be as resourceful as possible with your groceries. Here are a few tips for avoiding food waste:
- Organize your fridge: We often waste food because we’ve forgotten about it in the back of our fridge. Make sure you always move the old food forward when putting new groceries into the fridge.
- Freeze your food: Meat is usually your most expensive, so if you don’t plan on cooking it in the next few days, freeze it.
- Reexamine food & expiration dates: Most expiration dates are based on quality, not safety. So, this may give you a few extra days to use that produce.
To eat well on a budget, you need to establish a system that includes strategies for saving, planning ahead, and ways to avoid waste. Advanced Medical Weight Loss in Las Vegas can help you meet your goals and make healthy meal prepping just a little easier.