Eating Well on a Budget

I am just going to dive right in here. I think most of know how to eat cheaply. And I think we all have an idea of how to eat well. But, what I struggled with for a while was eating well on a tight budget. When I couponed, we ate so cheaply, but a lot of our food was highly processed. Then, we ate really well, but very expensively. Now, we eat very well for relatively little. It's possible! I also don't coupon anymore and only go to 2 stores- Sam's for bulk items and Sprouts for fresh produce. Going to multiple stores per week was fine when we had a little commuter car, but the grocery savings just don't justify the gas or my time anymore. My 3 biggest tips for eating well on a budget would be to meal plan, look at the circulars, and think ahead.

Meal Plan- know with reasonable certainty what you're going to eat and when you're going to eat it. This not only keeps you from buying a ton of crap at the grocery store you won't be using, but it eliminates those last minute runs to the store to pick up the one thing you need, but that always turns into four things. Unplanned grocery runs are a budget killer. I typically plan 3 days at a time, so my meal plan looks something like this:

If you prefer to plan a week at a time, or just want a pretty template, you can check out my Pinterest board here.

Look at the circulars- armed with the knowledge that mangoes were 4 for $1 last week, I stocked up. We ate all we cared for, then sliced up and froze the rest for smoothies later.

Think Ahead- this goes hand in hand with Looking at Circulars. Obviously, 4 mangoes for a buck is a screamin' deal, at least where we live. And, I'm obviously going to want mangoes all summer long, because who doesn't? Buying them cheaply and freezing for later use will keep me from having to go out and buy them at full price later (anywhere from 80cents to a buck or more each)

Food quality matters, too. I really hesitate to write this part, because, my kids are younger. Read: I am not in the business of trying to feed a teenager, at least not yet. And I get that not everyone has the time to prep 99 percent of their family's meals, or deal with chickens, or garden. I really do get that. But, as I was talking to a cousin last night about the whole trying to keep our kids fed thing, she casually mentioned that her family of six spends about 700 bucks a month at the grocery store. She works full-time, as does her husband, and they have a teen AND a toddler who eats like one. With their schedules, convenience foods are just gonna have to happen some of the time. So, her grocery budget should be higher than mine. With that said, I really think one of the best ways to curb your kid's desire to eat you out of house and home is to eliminate the junk food. Her toddler put away a prodigious amount of Fruit Loops after daycare, then went after the next box of cereal in the pantry. If it's colorful and sugary, it's a good bet your kids will stuff their faces on it. A big bowl of oatmeal with a banana on top probably would have filled the kid up faster and kept him full longer. At the very least, a cannister of oatmeal would have been a helluva lot cheap than the darn-near two boxes of cereal. Seriously, have y'all seen cereal prices lately? Ridiculous! "But my kids don't like that stuff." If they get hungry enough, they'll eat. You can retrain your kids palate, at least to an extent. It took our kids a while to get with the program when we started our healthy eating, but now they ask for strawberries in the afternoon instead of cookies, so it can be done.

So, what's my weekly grocery budget? Most weeks, I try to adhere to a 50 budget. I should add that we buy meat in bulk every couple of months and freeze it, so that doesn't figure into my weekly expenditures for food. Our local Sam's Club discounts their meat each Thursday. So, when the freezer gets bare, hubby goes and scoops up a bunch, parcels it into appropriate portions, and that's the end of it until we run out. This typically costs between 120-160 dollars. On the high side, that would add about $20 bucks to our weekly budget, making it $70 per week for the 5 of us. Full disclosure: I had a gift card, so I splurged this week. I spent a total of $64 bucks, $22 of which was out of pocket.The receipts are still representative of what I normally buy, except for the stuff like coconut water and sorbet.

So, what do we eat? For breakfast the kids had a half bagel with cream cheese and a half banana each. I had my favorite smoothie:

I take a nice big handful of whole oats and blend it until the consistency looks like wheat germ:

Then dump in a big spoonful of peanut butter, a cup (or so) of almond milk, some frozen strawberries, and a pinch of cocoa powder. Blend like crazy and enjoy.

And if you're in the market for a new addiction, I'd recommend you try Talenti Roman Raspberry Sorbetto. Worth every overpriced penny.

 And lest you think we are super-annoying-healthy-pants-perfect.... We keep a gigantic tub of cookie dough in the freezer and eat about a spoonful nearly every day.

Have a great Wednesday, y'all!