As the cost of living continues to rise, more and more people are looking at ways they can reduce their food costs but still enjoy a high standard of living. In the article below, we have some top strategies for making sure you eat healthy food during the week without the cost.
Plan Ahead
One of the main problems when it comes to eating healthy food on a budget is handling your cravings. Cravings are very unpredictable; they’re like moods you simple don’t know when one is going to come along and take over your life. But forward planning is a powerful strategy.
When you have your weekly meals planned, you not only control what you eat and how much you spend, but you also control your cravings to an extent. If you have a system for eating your meals – such as at the same time daily – your body starts to crave in a more predictable way.
Shop Smart
The last thing you want to do is head down to the supermarket when you’re hungry; unfortunately, this is exactly when you are likely to be exploring th shelving and filling your basket with whatever takes your fancy at that moment. This is the best way to overspend.
Again, you need to shop smart, so make a grocery list and head to the supermarket after breakfast or dinner. Stick to your list as much as you can, but of course, there’s nothing wrong with building some treats into your supermarket budget. It makes your food budget predictable.
Home Cooking
We all love to order some takeout while watching our favorite series on Netflix, it seems like a good idea at the time, but when you look at your bank account at the end of the month, it might give you a bit of a surprise. Takeout food adds up in cost and doesn’t help with your waistline.
One solution is to cook all your meals at home, like this recipe for chicken noodle soup, using cheaper ingredients that you bought from the supermarket. It’s sobering to think how cheaply takeout food can be made in reality, so why not research your own treats and make them?
Save Meals
On that point, it’s sensible to save some of the home-cooked meals you make for another time. Let’s say you make a delicious curry for your family one evening; why not put it into Tupperware containers and freeze it for lunches? Once frozen, your food will stay edible until you defrost it.
With that in mind, why not make more of the food when you have the time to cook, that way, you create wholesome meals for lunch and dinner throughout the week all at once, you save money and have more free time throughout the week. All you have to do is heat up a meal in the oven.
Buy Staples
Staples are things like lentils, bread, oat, and grains, things that you can store in your cupboard for many weeks and months without worrying about whether or not they will go out of date. Staples are excellent to have in the house and form the foundation of your food control strategy.
This is a collaborative post.
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