Let’s just start with a disclaimer: I am not a health guru. I am not a finance guru. I am not a guru.
Actually, the idea for this post came when Ryan and I sat down to dinner two months ago and realized that we fed our baby better balanced meals than we fed ourselves. Writing this post went hand in hand with trying to figure it out myself: how do we eat healthier with our current budget? Call it a challenge, if you will.
Having become an avid Google search bar enthusiast after Louis was born, I naturally headed to Google to gather information. In an article that I read, it was suggested that the average family of three in the U.S. should spend $550/month on groceries. Our family spends $100/week, which is just under the suggested monthly budget. When we decided to balance our diet better, we were absolutely sure that we wanted to keep to our $100 weekly budget.
So how do you do it? We all know that to be “healthy” is expensive, right? Well, actually, that’s a myth. There are several ways to cut costs and eat better at the same time. Here’s how we do it:
1. Meal Planning
This sounds like something that only a housewife in an apron and lots of time to spell out words like “asparagus” on a letter board should do.
Actually, it takes me ten minutes. You can use a letterboard, or craft up a pretty menu over the weekend, or whatever you like—or it can be as easy as the notes app on your phone, which is exactly how I do it:
How is this helpful? By planning your meals, you’ll eliminate unnecessary trips to the grocery store, but most importantly—you’ll be better able to utilize your grocery list.
For instance, because I planned for a vegetable tray as an appetizer during our dinner party with my little sister on Friday, we will then have more than enough vegetables to use for the meals planned Saturday, Monday, and Thursday. We will also have the orange juice needed in my favorite breakfast smoothies, having already needed to buy orange juice for orange chicken. Breakfast for dinner on Sunday is a popular tradition in our family, and it’s convenient to have bacon and eggs on hand when Ryan wants to liven up his instant raman, or when I want to prep mason jar scrambled eggs to have at the ready for breakfasts all week. Let’s also note that because we are making pepperoni pizza on Tuesday, we will have the makings on hand for bagel pizzas in the air fryer.
Meal planning not only helps you to make the most of your groceries, but also helps you to be sure to use all of your fresh produce before it wilts or goes bad. less food wasted = less money wasted! You can make a number of recipes with just a handful of well-planned ingredients.
Aside from the economic value of planning your meals, it makes for one less thing I have to worry about each night, therefore eliminating the “what do you want for dinner?” Conversation, and the scramble to find the right ingredients after searching pinterest for a recipe for far too long.(This is not shaming. This is relating. I have done this.)
2. Plant vs. Processed
Now I know this is a vegan/vegetarian slogan. I’m not either of those, but I do agree with the message. It’s far better for your gut, and for your pocket if you try to eliminate processed foods as much as possible. (it also tastes better!)
An example:
We have pizza night every single Tuesday. (If you have followed me for a while on instagram, you know that our pizza toppings are pretty wild! You also know that I have not been documenting pizza night all winter! That’s because dinner is at 5 and the sun used to be gone long before dinner was ready(bad lighting for pictures). However, I will be sharing pizza nights in my instagram stories once more, starting next week!)
Anyway. Long parentheses.
We have pizza night every Tuesday. A year and a half ago, we used to buy storebought, easy, processed pizza dough. It’s great! Super tasty, super easy, super simple. But you wouldn’t BELEIVE how super simple, easy, and FAST it is to make your very own pizza dough from scratch, AND—its tastes loads better, while also being much cheaper.
Having a huge 15 pound bag of flour on hand at all times has given us plenty of opportunity to explore the world of homemade. What I think is so strange is that everyone used to make all their own food. Why did we stop? When it’s so easy? Now, I won’t knock processed, store-bought, or even freezer aisle foods because my favorite pizza of all time(besides that peach Prosciutto pizza I made last fall) is still and always going to be frozen Red Barron pizza.
But remember—Ryan and I were trying to figure out how to enjoy the things we love in a healthy and cheap fashion. So homemade is where its at, Folks.
Some other food items that I will never be buying ready-made at a grocery store ever again, because they are all too easy to make at home:
- taco seasoning: did you know that this is so so SO easy to make?? Actually, in my opinion, it’s been tastier too.
- orange chicken: the ingredients are super simple, the frying is a bit miserable(I’m sure there are better ways than the technique we use) but it tastes x1000 better than anything I’ve ever had frozen, or at a fast food asian restaurant(Panda Express)
- terriyaki sauce: actually, I’ve been making this for at least four years now. I’ve tried several different recipes in those four years, but I’m never going back.
This bolded number is also a great topic to bring up the zero waste factor: home made goods produce less waste. More often than not, you are paying for the plastic that your food is wrapped in. When it’s something as easy as making your own sauce, or quickly whipping up your own pizza dough, it doesn’t cause you, the consumer, any more hassle to just make it yourself anyway. It’s cheaper, it’s better for the environment, and it’s better for your gut.
Personally, Ryan and I are making it our goal to find the perfect sandwich bread recipe so that we can eliminate the need to buy store-bought bread in a plastic bag, and to lower the amount of money we spend each week to keep up with the shared obsession that my son and I have with sandwiches. One of the best things about home-made food(besides the fact that it’s tasty and satisfying) is that most ingredients for things such as bread come in bulk sizes, so you won’t have to keep buying flour, or yeast, or salt, or sugar every week. There are so many foods that you can make in your own home, more than even I am aware of. Choose home-made where you are comfortable! But at least give it a try, I”m sure you’ll notice a difference in your grocery budget!
3. Portion Sizes
This is not going to be about dieting.
When Ryan and I realized that our baby ate a better balanced meal than we did, we also realized that we could get by on less chicken when we prepared our favorite chicken terriyaki, if we simply added some greens; thusly decreasing our demand for chicken each month, and increasing the amount of money we would have available to spend in our grocery budget for, perhaps, the cheese island.
But aside from a balanced meal, there is the matter of leftovers; reading the serving size for any recipe is essential for this tip. My least favorite food is leftovers. I’m really not a fan of eating the same thing for lunch every single day.(note that for lunch in my menu plan, i have written “soup leftovers” guess who ate all of that? Not me. Big waste. Ryan is struggling to keep up with it all on his own.)
This tip isn’t an easy fix; it’s more of a learn as you go. Over the four years of our marriage, I’ve learned what it takes to feed both Ryan and myself. I know that, typically, he eats more than I do. I’m a very petite woman and he’s a very broadly built man. Knowing how much will fill us up at each meal has helped to decrease the money we spend on groceries each month. Our leftovers are looking very sad these days, being able to fit in a very very small Tupperware, to be eaten later as a snack.
Our goal, when coming up with a meal plan each week, and shopping for groceries, is to have a near empty fridge by the next shopping day. Less food is being thrown out, therefore, less money is being wasted. Try to eliminate the leftovers where you can during your week, and see how it saves money, or provides you with more healthy snacks to munch on throughout the day because you didn’t end up putting them in your chowder… that your husband is now frantically trying to eat before it goes bad.
(Or, another option: freeze your leftovers! Eat them next week! Buy fancy cheese instead!)
4. Rotate Your Grocery List
Let me be honest, it does get pricey. If you try to do it all in one shopping week. Which is why I am a firm believer in rotating my grocery shopping list. Fruit is better frozen for smoothies, so I have no issue with buying more fruit than necessary for one week(to freeze any leftovers), so I can buy more vegetables(to also freeze) the next week. Our grocery list is always on a rotation. I’m sure your’s is too, if you buy things like toilet paper, hand soap, hair care products, makeup, etc. SO why not do it with food too?
This is a short tip, because I’m still not an expert and I don’t know anything about the mechanics of your family. This tip, if anything, is being written as a reminder to myself to practice rotating items on our grocery list.
My hope, by doing this, is to always be stocked up on blueberries for Louis, I always want Ryan to have broccoli to put in his instant raman, I always want fresh fruit in my smoothie to go alongside my egg burrito in the morning, and I want to have enough food in my family’s personal stores to always be able to feed anyone who comes by our home to either be comforted, entertained, or sheltered.
By rotating my grocery list in the past two months, I’ve been able to do just that. All of it. I’m still learning. In fact, I am still learning all of these tips, myself. As I said above, this post is just as much for me—if not more—as it is for my readers.
By rotating my grocery list in the past two months, I’ve been able to do just that. All of it. I’m still learning. In fact, I am still learning all of these tips, myself. As I said above, this post is just as much for me—if not more—as it is for my readers.
So. How do YOU keep it under the budget, but also healthy? I’d love to know, because I’m always up for learning! Comment below! Also, keep scrolling to find the recipes for our menu this week. And, as always, be excellent to each other, to your body, and to your bank account.
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My next post will be going live on March 11th, 2020.
As of right now, blog posts will be biweekly, on Wednesdays. If you’ve been reading long enough, you’ll know that’s subject to change. I’ll be announcing the date of new posts at the end of each post, the top of the blog home page, my Instagram bio, and Instagram stories. So you can’t miss it!
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Blog: @smalltown.squirrel
Art Page: @thesquirrelshollow
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