I love to budget.
Literally LOVE to budget. It gives me butterflies to know I get to make a new
budget when something is paid off, or we get an increase in pay, or I’ve found
a way to decrease a bill. #callmecrazy
I hear time and time
again, people say that it’s too expensive to eat healthy, so they just eat
JUNK. Okay, this is your LIFE we’re talking about. I find because you can’t SEE
the inner workings of your body, we take it for granted. We think nothing is
wrong. We don’t think the food we’re eating is really screwing up our insides.
Why do you think our
bodies need to EAT? They need FUEL. Our cells and our BODIES are SO complex,
and it needs fuel to RUN, for our organs to function, for our digestive tract
to run smoothly. Did you know that by eating junk & processed foods, our
digestive tract cannot function properly? Did you also know that disease can be
cultivated IN your digestive tract? Your body doesn’t know HOW to process this
food. Your cells are STARVING which is why after eating junk, you STILL want to
eat.
Okay, so now I’ll get
into what I want this blog to actually be about. J
I don’t pay
substantially more for my health right now than I did before buying junk,
eating out, and buying lots of processed foods.
Here’s how I do it.
1)
Take an inventory of what’s in your pantry, and
what you have for fruit and vegetables. Make sure you figure out recipes you
can make using THESE and incorporating the non perishables like soups, canned
tomatoes, beans, etc into your meal plan.
2)
Look at your local grocery story flyers. See
what’s on sale and what is in season that will cost LESS to buy than usual. I
make recipes as per the sales that are going on that week. If turkey is on
sale, you can bet I am going to buy a turkey and make Turkey stir fry, turkey
soup, turkey dinner, sandwiches, etc. Chicken goes on sale about once or twice
a month at my grocery store, so I buy 5 packages of chicken when it does go on
sale. It was $3.99/lb this week!!! That’s $5 a lb LESS! When bread is on sale,
I buy something like 5-8 loaves, or wraps, and freeze them!
3) Make a meal plan.
This I know, is a pain in the butt sometimes and requires a lot of Pinterest
action (I am hooked on this website). It DOES get easier. Plan to only grocery
shop ONCE every two weeks. Keep a running list of your favourite recipes so you can easily incorporate them in on future meal plans. :)
4) Make sure you EAT
before you get your grocery shopping done. The WORST is being HUNGRY
when
you’re shopping. I spend about 50-75% MORE when I’m hungry. Yep, the bakery
gets me every time.
5) When you get home,
figure out what will go bad FIRST, and make sure you have those things being
made right away.
6) Do a MEAL PREP day. Throw some chicken into the oven, cook some veggies so they're already made, cut up fruit, boil some eggs, and I always like to try out 1-2 new recipes. (Slow cooker recipes are my FAVORITE, or casseroles, easy to freeze!)
Here's what one of my BASIC meal preps look like. It may look like it takes a lot of time, but really, I throw chicken in the oven, quinoa in a pot, veggies in steamer, and then sit and read or have ME time while it cooks!
7) SO many meals can
be FROZEN. If you have leftovers, freeze them! Made too much? FREEZE! Intentionally make too much so you CAN freeze! Makes life a heck of a lot easier. Your future self will thank you :)
Quick Tips:
Romaine can last up
to two weeks if stored properly, if not longer. That way you can eat a salad
right up until it’s time to grocery shop again.
Don’t buy ANY junk food
or processed food. THIS is what adds so many dollars to my grocery bill when I
go. Now I go alone, with my list, and with a time limit so I don’t impulse buy!
If you want cookies,
buy the ingredients for them. It is something FUN you can do with your kids, or
on a rainy day. Make a bunch and FREEZE. Way better for you than processed ones
anyway!
Leave things like
potatoes, and sweet potatoes for the second week as they don’t go bad near as
quickly. Mine last me about a month stored in a cool, dry place. (So I only have
to buy them ONCE per month)
If you find you have
ANY unused vegetables or fruit left, and they’re about to be expired, make
something and FREEZE. Your next grocery shop & meal plan will be SO much
easier with a bunch of stuff already frozen! Think banana bread, banana cookies
(can you tell bananas often go bad in my house), casseroles, stir fry with
every last vegetable you have, etc.
When you do your meal
prep, cook DOUBLE batches of most or some of your meals. This will cost you
less, as you already HAVE the ingredients, and you can freeze the one half.
Again, this will flow into your next meal plan, and you’ll find you have so
much frozen!
If you have ANY
leftovers, adjust your meal plan. Take out something that you use
non-perishables for, as those won’t go bad, and add that ALREADY into your NEXT
meal plan, and substitute it with your leftovers.
NEVER WASTE ANYTHING!
This can easily take
off HUNDREDS of dollars from your grocery bill! It doesn’t HAVE to cost a ton
more to eat healthy!
**In order to
eliminate having to purchase my greens, supplements, antioxidants and
probiotics to cover deficiencies in our diets, I purchase Shakeology. This also
replaces my lunch. I allot so much for my supplements and heart healthy
vitamins, etc, and this covers that and BONUS, now I don’t have to cook lunch
for myself.**
I hope this helps!
Krys
xXx
