Cheap and healthy meals are an art that many times passes by our skill in the kitchen, but also in the supermarkets. What techniques to you have to eat healthy and cheap at the same time? Do we save more in the kitchen or in the supermarket?
Buy dry beans in bulk, and brown rice in bulk. You need a crock pot to cook the beans, but they are that expensive and are totally worth it. Just soak the bean overnight, drain the water in the morning and cook all day long in fresh water. Season to taste. Brown rice takes about 50 minutes to cook, but like beans, you can prepare several days worth at one time and just reheat the leftovers the next few days. You'll save electricity with this too. All you need to add is a vegetable and you have a complete meal for very little.
You can save yourself a fortune on food both at the supermarket and the kitchen if you really put your mind to it. Most people have such hectic lives these days that they don't take the time to plan the buying and preparation of food. Huge savings can be made by switching your regular supermarket for a cheaper alternative and by looking out for deals and coupons that will give you discounts. Savings can be made also in the kitchen by re using excess ingredients and uneaten food for the next day. Of course many people will say that they simply don't have the time to mess around with all this but it could save them a fortune over time.
Buying in bulk is definitely a good choice to take advantage of promotions, that's what I do when I come across those opportunities. That is another good suggestion, switching from more expensive brands to others, but many times those more expensive products do have a superior quality.
If you are able to buy in bulk then it will save you a ton of money. My family will buy foods as Costco, and we are able to save that way. I know it might seem like a lot, but when you break it down, you are saving more. I"m moving into my own apartment soon, and my boyfriend and I plan on shopping there. There are some good things that we can get there and then just freeze so we can reheat it up another night.
Definitely, it is cheaper to prepare food in the kitchen than to buy outside particularly those delivered sandwiches. Since we have almost everything at home - oven, toaster, griller - and we have an ample stock of canned food like spam, corned beef, sausages, etc, then all we need is to buy bread and we have the sandwich that we need. It's not really being thrifty but food prepared at home is more nutritious.
I like to buy certain staples, like pasta and rice, from cheaper stores, as this means that I am able to bulk buy them. I will pay quite a lot up front, but then it means that I don't have to think about it for several months at once, so it is more than worth it. Thanks to my bulk buying, I often find that my weekly shop only costs around $20 for the fresh foods and anything I might have run out of - which is much less than the majority of my friends pay for what they get from the shops.
First thing - if you want to save money on meals, definitely stick to cooking your own meals. It may cost a lot the first time you buy things (herbs, spices. etc. included), but in the long term, you'll save a lot of money, and it'll also mean that you eat healthier on the whole. Try and bulk buy - if you have pasta, rice, noodles or something like that, buy a lot of them at once. You'll save yourself quite a bit of money in the long run. Always make use of the 'buy one get one free deals' whenever you see them, and stock up on things you consume regularly.
You can shave a bunch off your grocery bills by hitting up the dollar stores first with your grocery list before visiting the actual grocery stores themselves. You'll find many items that would normally sell for like $3+ for only $1 there. Even if you found just 5 items there that you had intended to buy at the grocery store, that's saving you $10 right there ($15 vs. $5). Obviously there are some items you shouldn't buy at the dollar stores because they can be found cheaper elsewhere, such as canned goods, but that's common sense. When meal planning for the week ahead, as you're trying to come up with your grocery list itself, avoid recipes that call for a bunch of exotic ingredients that are expensive and you may never use up before they go bad. Skip the saffron or the truffle oil and all that other stuff. That doesn't necessarily mean your meals have to be boring, just stick with recipes you like which use a bare minimum of ingredients. Marcella Hazan's popular tomato sauce recipe for example is just three ingredients, a large can of crushed tomatoes, a stick of butter and half an onion. You can turn a boring chicken breast into Chicken Francaise with just some butter, lemon, egg and parsley as well. Also keep an eye out for food items you may be trying to prepare yourself which might be cheaper to just buy them already prepared. For example, I love hot peppers in oil, and figured I was saving some money by making them myself, but in reality it was costing me more than just simply buying them already prepared in a jar. A jar of them costs about $6, but for me to make them at home I have to buy a couple pounds of hot peppers, which will run me $8 right there. By the time they cook down there's barely enough to fill a jar. And that's not even including the other ingredients such as the oil, garlic and oregano.
Buying in bulk and cooking vegetables most of the time will make you save money. My favorite vegetable dish is buttered beans with carrots and sweet corn.
- Shop the clearance aisle only. - Buy only ramens [noodles]. - Hunt for deals. Stores will from time to time offer deep discounts to encourage shoppers to spend more money, take advantage of that. - Cook only rice and beans. Lots of people live on that.
I rely a lot on a wide range of fruit and veg. In as much as I love my meat and wouldn't give it up, I find veggies are a good way of enhancing and bumping up your meals. I find that it saves me a lot of money in the end, because it means that I eat less meat
I'm good at that because I've been in situations where I had less than 20 bucks to spend on a week with food. Thank God I'm passed that, but still I can save if I want to. I would basically buy the fruits I could on sale, the cheapest bread and eggs. If I couldn't stand that, I would buy a Subway sandwich - the BLT which then costed 3.50 (not sure now).
I think you save the most depending on your diet and what that leads to you buying in the supermarket. Your diet and what you want to eat will depend how much you spend in the supermarkets. I agree in the above comments who mentions rice and pasta, especially rice. Those big bags will last you FORVER. Like I'm trying to dig down into a bag of rice and I'm almost 2 months in and it's not even down to half. Barely down to half. It's because when you cook them in water they expand so much that you don't even need to cook that much as a time. It'll save you so much money to live on rice because they're dry so they won't expire and they come in massive bags that are ridiculous. Just add some seasoning or whatever you like and you'll be eating healthy and cheap. Maybe just some vegetables and meat and you'll probably be satisfied. It's a really cheap way to eat in my opinion. Now I also like the person who mentioned ramen because it's also dirty cheap and lasts for quite awhile but the only reason I don't eat them often is because they're really bad for you. You can't have those ramen everyday or it's gonna destroy your body in the future. They add so much unhealthy junk that it's ridiculous, so for me it's really not worth it. I like to save money but what good is having money when your destroying your health? Don't be cheap to the point that you're not even willing to buy fresh produce. My rule is eat healthy and cheap because your body comes first and when it needs nutrients, give it nutrients. The point of having money is too keep you fed and housed really. So I try to stay away from ramen because my bodies the most expensive investment. You can't make money without your body, remember that. Eat cheap but eat well and healthy.
Buy in bulk whenever possible, use coupons whenever possible, buy produce that is in season, make a shopping list and stick to it, checkout sales in advance and stock up on things you use often when they're on sale!
I sometimes repurpose food when I can get away with it. I will buy a roasted chicken and use that for 2 meals, and then save all the bones and carcass in the freezer to make chicken stock with. The chicken costs about $6.99 and I get 3 uses out of it. I also buy a ton of the cheap veggies at the store and use them to make stir fries, jambalaya, and soup. You can get carrots, onions, and celery for next to nothing at the store and they make healthy dish fillers.
I like to plan my weekly meals around the grocery flyers. I buy only meat and vegetables that is on sale for the week. If there's a great deal on chicken breasts or ground beef I'll stockup and freeze the extra meat. I also like to supplement my meals with lots of veggies. I buy vegetables that are in season and find creative ways to use them like fried rice, stir fries, stews, soup etc. I will also put vegetables like zucchini, carrots, red peppers in my food processor and add them to spaghetti sauce or taco meat. The kids don't even know it's not all meat and you can really stretch out your meal and make it healthier. I have to agree that if you are looking to make inexpensive an healthy meals, Ramen noodles are not the way to go. Although they are cheap, there are far better noodles out there. The actual seasoning package that comes with them is loaded with sodium.
