A common assumption about eating healthy is that it costs more, but that certainly doesn’t have to be true. Sure, it is possible to mass produce denatured and synthetic “food” at a very low cost, making these food products seem like a bargain on the surface, but there’s much more to it than that, especially when we consider the fact that our health depends much on what we eat.
Still, even if we compare real, wholesome food with cheap food substitutes, we can feed our families well for less. If we’re willing to put the time and effort into nourishing our families well, we can learn how easy it is to serve healthy food on a budget. There are so many ways to enjoy both real food and real savings at the same time. These are just a few of the ways I enjoy saving money while choosing and preparing nourishing food for my family.
Growing and Preserving the Harvest
- Gardening is a great investment of time and effort that reaps immense rewards, but not just on the table and in the budget. Spending time as a family preparing the soil and tending the garden from day to day is a fantastic way to work toward a goal together. The physical labor that goes into maintaining a garden can be intense at times and is a great addition to an active lifestyle.
- Preserving the harvest brings even more value to the time and effort involved with growing our own food. Canning, dehydrating, and freezing are great ways to extend the benefits of our garden throughout the year.
Savings in the Kitchen
Preparing foods homemade and from scratch instead of purchasing them processed and prepared is one of the biggest money savers. Here are just a few examples:
- Preparing broths instead of buying them boxed, canned, or in boullion cubes is a great way to save money. And the health benefits of homemade broth over the store-bought MSG-laden substitutes are too many to count. Making homemade bone broths from leftover meat costs next to nothing!
- Soups are one of the easiest things to make from scratch and cost a fraction of the packaged versions at the store. Homemade broth can be used as a convenient base for soups used in casseroles, such as cream of chicken.
- Culturing our own dairy products costs a lot less than buying them at the store. Making yogurt, cheese, kefir, butter, etc. at home takes some times, but the savings make it worth the extra effort.
- Grinding our own grains and making homemade bread amounts to huge savings over store-bought bread. (I’m currently working on making the time for breadmaking, so we can completely replace store-bought bread with homemade.)
- Eating hot cereals from a variety of fresh grains costs a lot less than purchasing boxed cereals that offer little or no nutrition and are only full of sugar and synthetic vitamins (which can be toxic in large amounts). They’re expensive and don’t fill you up like wholesome grains prepared at home do. For breakfast, it’s better to focus on good, high quality proteins that fill us up and keep us going for longer. Eggs are an inexpensive and healthy mainstay at breakfast time.
- Making homemade snacks amounts to enormous savings at the checkout. Packaged snack products are incredibly expensive for what you get and usually offer little nutrition to show for it. Homemade crackers, trail mixes, granola bars, and fruit snacks are just a few examples that cost much less and are healthier and free of preservatives. (We do buy store-bought snacks at times, but when we take the time to make them at home, we enjoy great savings!) Also, remember that a diet comprised of wholesome food is nutrient dense and very filling, leaving less need for snacking between meals.
Buy in Bulk, Make in Bulk
Buying in bulk requires more money up front and can be hard to get into, but the long-term savings are well worth it. It is true that certain healthy foods cost more than their synthetic and processed counterparts, and this is where buying in bulk proves especially helpful by bringing the long-term cost down significantly.
Some of the most common items to buy in bulk are oils, nuts, and and grains, and the cost can be shared with friends or members of a a food co-op.
Purchasing meat as whole as possible and then using as much of it as possible makes more sense than buying select parts. There are big savings with buying straight from the farm (Some farms even deliver to your door!), but even in the supermarket and even on a smaller scale, we can save with meat products. For example, buying whole chickens and using all the meat costs a lot less than buying packages of skinless boneless breasts. For my family of seven, I can get several meals out of one whole chicken. Making stock from the leftover bones makes our food dollars go even further.
A nice way to stretch our dollars while stretching our valuable time is to prepare food in larger quantities. This is especially true of cultured dairy and homemade broths, for instance, which can be frozen for later use.
When making casseroles, I don’t think it makes much sense to make just one when I can increase the yield by 3 or 4 casseroles with little additional cost. I can heat one for dinner that day, refrigerate one to be eaten within a few days, and freeze the other(s). Same goes for soup. Casseroles and soups are my favorite ways to bless other families who could use a meal, families busy with the birth of a new little blessing or consumed with the burden of an illness or surgery, and can be prepared with little cost when made in larger batches.
Planning Ahead
Making a menu and a shopping list from that menu help us to buy what we need and only what we need when we’re shopping for groceries. This makes it easier to avoid buying too much food that can spoil. It also makes it easier to avoid buying impulse items when shopping hungry, which isn’t the wisest decision to begin with!
I think children can and should be involved with making menus and shopping lists, as well as food preparation. Not only does it teach them how to choose nourishing foods and plan wholesome meals, but it also provides a good way to contribute to the family.
When children are involved with planning and preparing meals, they don’t beg for extras at the store and they aren’t picky at the dinner table. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen moms and their children battle the nasty cycle of begging/getting at the grocery store. It goes something like this every time: child begs for junk food, mom says no (but she appears to be unsure of her own decision); child begs some more; mom gets mad and says no, giving way too many unnecessary reasons to justify her decision that she doesn’t seem confident in to begin with; child begs some more, getting louder and more annoying; mom starts yelling and threatening; child transforms into beast-like creature as he continues on to a full-blown tantrum; mom yells but gives in anyway, sighing with defeat and resentment; child grins and knows who’s in control.
While there’s obviously more to this scenario than sticking to a shopping list, it’s still clear that it would be wiser to include that child in meal planning ahead of time, while also teaching him to eat well and why, and then responding with a simple “no” at the store, each and every time, no justifying or rambling off reasons, end of story. We must come to the store prepared, not just for the sake of our budget, but also to avoid situation like this with our children, situations I witness often at the store! Remember, junk food companies target us through our children, and even if we are wise to limit media consumption in our home, it can still get through to them in one way or another.
Caution with Coupons
Okay, I know some will disagree with me on this, but I personally feel that avoiding coupons (for the most part) makes it easier to select nourishing foods and spend less. I’ve tried to get into couponing and I’ve searched the world over for coupons that I can actually use, but I came up mostly empty handed. I will find an occasional coupon worth using from time to time, but for the most part, it’s nearly impossible to find coupons for basic whole foods. Technically, I could “save” a lot of money using coupons,,,IF I were already buying over-priced packaged and processed foods to begin with, which I am not. I make foods from scratch and these foods cost a lot less than packaged items. AND when I do purchase packaged ingredients, I find little difference between generic brands and name brands with coupon savings.
Quality Over Quantity
Choosing nourishing foods offers more value for our dollar. Foods that deliver optimum nutrition and meet our bodies’ needs without added junk fill us up faster and keep us satisfied for longer than nutrient-laden foods. In some cases, we will have to spend a little more to get certain real, whole, quality foods, but oftentimes this translates into savings when it means we need less to make us full. This is especially true when we choose more good proteins and fats and fewer carbohydrates.
The long-term savings from fewer illnesses, doctor visits and medicines is certainly worth noting as well. Even though getting sick occasionally is an important factor in establishing natural immunity, a healthy body will be able to recover from illness MUCH faster and with fewer complications than a toxic body built from processed junk food.
Avoiding the Unnecessary
Drinking filtered water instead of beverages full of sugar (or worse) is beneficial to our health and our budget. Avoiding store-bought juices (even 100% juice) is a great way to cut simple carbs that cause insulin spikes, sugar dependency, and temper tantrums in little ones….and carves out space in the budget for healthier foods. The cost of a quality water filtration system and the filter replacement upkeep is but a fraction of the cost of bottled juices and other beverages. We buy juices and sodas only occasionally (maybe 3-4 times a year), usually for birthday parties. (We avoid bottled water, too. Who wants to drink water that tastes like plastic anyway?)
Dessert is not a requirement at every meal. If we get into the habit of serving dessert every day, our children will develop a sweet tooth and make this a habit for life. Desserts are occasional in our home, maybe once or twice a week. When dessert is a special treat instead of a daily privilege, it is enjoyed that much more during special occasions such as birthdays!
Priorities, Compromises, and a Solid Budget
Because some real, whole foods do cost more, I have to consider my priorities and make those compromises that have less of an impact on my family’s health. Here are a few of my priorities and compromises:
- I never compromise on oils! I believe the wrong fats and oils have more potential to damage our health than any other type of food (Artificial sweeteners come in at a close second.). I never buy hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated or interesterified. Vegetable oil is avoided in favor of olive, coconut, flax, and nut oils. Margarine, of course, would never replace butter.
- I never buy artificial sweeteners. If I see the words “Splenda” or any of the chemical names for synthetic sweeteners, it goes back on the shelf and is deemed “non-food” and not appropriate for human consumption. High fructose corn syrup, while derived from corn, is artificially rendered and fits into the artificial sweetener category, in my eyes. Refined white sugar is not healthy, but even that is a better choice than dangerous artificial sweeteners. Raw, unrefined honey (unfiltered, unheated, unprocessed) is my sweetener of choice, although I use others when appropriate. Whole fruit makes a great sweetener in many cases!
- I never compromise on fish. Although we don’t eat it as often as we should, fish is always wild-caught and never farm-raised.
- I rarely compromise on animal and dairy products. I put a high value on pastured, cage-free eggs, free-range chicken, and grass-fed beef, etc. and rarely compromise here, but I will occasionally buy the inferior CAFO meat products. I am concerned about the hormones and antibiotics, but my biggest concern is the diet the animal was fed, since the diet determines the nutritional value of the meat! This is also true for dairy products like milk and butter.
- Oftentimes, I struggle to justify the cost of organic produce at the grocery store, even though the nutritional value is so much greater, so I buy organic only when the price is similar to conventional, considering the produce that is known to retain the most pesticide residue and trying to buy that organic whenever possible, while being more lenient with the produce that is further down the “dirty dozen” list. “Pick-your-own” produce at local farms and orchards (and from our own garden, of course!) is a great way to get quality produce for less, often cheaper than store-bought and sometimes organic. It’s also a thousand times more fun for the children! Sometimes produce from farmer’s markets are really organic, even if they can’t officially be labeled yet due to certification requirements. It’s a good to inquire about how the food was grown when in question.
A Healthy Balance
I try to balance my responsibility to nourish my family well with the fact that I have a limited amount of resources, and time spent worrying too much about what we eat is time wasted. I am diligent about being informed and prepared, but obsessing over it would create stress, which would also be harmful to our health.
Working within a set budget requires effort and creativity, but the challenge can also be exciting at times. Working within that budget as a family teaches our children important skills in stewardship and frugality and creates a greater appreciation for our food and gratitude to God for His provision. What may seem like a burden (a challenging food budget) can actually be quite a blessing when we look at what it teaches our children and how it brings our family together.
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For a more in-depth read on saving money while eating healthy, I highly recommend the e-book Real Food on a Budget: How to Eat Healthy for Less by Stephanie Langford from Keeper of the Home. She shares my philosophy for food and offers many more great tips for eating well for less. You can click on the link below to get your copy today. *DiscIosure: am an affiliate and benefit from purchases made through this link.
You have really interesting blog, keep up posting such informative posts!
Great post I must say. Simple but yet interesting. Wonderful work!