Isn’t it waaaaay more expensive to eat healthy? This is a standard issue question that I get almost every week, and the the answer is a definitive Nooooooooooo! To prove my point I took a fifty dollar bill this week to my local grocery store (Pavillions) to see if I could buy a bunch of food to make 7-days worth of meals for my family and I – (one hungry husband, and one mega-hungry teenager). It took me a while in the store – I had to really weigh up my options, and put back at least 10 items (or handed them to the annoyed cashier), when I found I was way over budget.
But I came out having spent $58.65. I have cooked 3 days of recipes from this haul (excluding lunch because we were all at work or school for lunch this week), and I’m excited about how delicious these meals are turning out.
Also, keep in mind that this budget did not include pantry staples and condiments such as Tamari, vinegar, honey, mustard, nutritional yeast etc because my pantry is already pretty well-stocked.
Some of the recipes I cooked are directly from my book, Gorgeous For Good, and others are new creations, which I promise to share over the next few weeks. But here are my tips on how I did it:
1. No meat! My 30-day program is meat-free, and this cuts down the bill a LOT. There is no way I could have stayed within budget had I purchased any kind of meat. Same with dairy because organic dairy products are very expensive.
2. I hit the bulk bins BIG time. This way I could measure out the exact amount of grains, oats, flax etc that I needed.
3. I purchased veggie bouillon cubes in place of boxed veggie broth/stock
4. I used a bunch of coupons that I downloaded from various sites.
5. I was smart about which items to buy organic, and which not to bother about (follow the dirty dozen list).
6. In place of almond milk, I purchased extra raw almonds from the bulk bins because all I need do for smoothies is add water to my blender along with the nuts, and it’s the same as almond milk.
What I realized:
1. I would have to probably do some repeats during the week: Oatmeal or millet porridge would be breakfast on most days.
2. Ingredients for smoothies such as organic berries can be very expensive. When staying within my tight budget, I realized that oatmeal topped with sliced banana might have to take the place of my super food smoothie.
3. That most of healthiest foods on Earth are the least expensive: dried beans, whole grains, and green leafy veggies.
Stay tuned because I’ll keep you posted on how the rest of the week transpires.
