Eating Well on a Budget

Eat In More and Out Less

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service found that spending on food away from home accounted for nearly half of every American food dollar in 2008. While they require more planning, home-cooked meals are an excellent way to minimize your grocery bill and they are typically healthier than the options you may find when dining out. Consumers seem to be getting the message. A 2009 survey says 46% of consumers claim that their families eat out less often.

To save money while cooking at home, try some of these tips:

• Make at least one meal meatless.
  Choose recipes that utilize eggs or dried beans – like pinto or northern beans – as the main protein.
• Double your recipes and freeze leftovers or extra amounts of meat, bread, and cooked vegetables.
• Bring leftovers for lunch to work or use the excess ingredients as inspiration for future meals.
• Eat dinner as a family, or consider having a weekly potluck with neighbors to reduce the cost per person of your meals.
• Clip coupons
• Subscribe to a healthy cooking magazine, or peruse recipe books for healthy ideas. We love Eating Well, our Best of the Mediterranean Diet and Recipes to Live By.
• Plan Meals for the Week in Advance:
  A meal planning chart or simple shopping list for the week are great tools for the budget-minded, health-conscious consumer.
  
• Knowing what you already have in the pantry and what you intend to make ahead of time reduces impulse spending, saves time, and improves the nutritional value of your meal.
  
• Post meal plans on the refrigerator door where the entire family can see it and refer back to it throughout the week.
• Only shop once a week:
  This makes it easier to avoid unnecessary purchases and encourages you to stick to your weekly menu. Have a snack before you visit the grocery store. Shopping on an empty stomach can lead to impulse buying.
• Grocery Store Shopping Tips:
  
  • “Shop the perimeter,” remembering that the least healthy and most overpriced packaged foods are concentrated in the middle aisles.
  • If fresh fruits and vegetables are cost-prohibitive, try the frozen versions. Frozen produce is often flash frozen at the source, locking in nutrients.
    
  • Choose prepared foods with short ingredient lists and minimal additives or artificial ingredients.
    
  • Buying “economy” or “family size” containers is sometimes, but not always, a better buy. Larger packages that have a lower cost per unit than their smaller counterparts are only going to save you money if you will truly eat all of the food in the package. If it spoils and has to be thrown away, it could just be a waste of your money.
  • Be cautious of stores’ shrinking food packages and their content while prices stay the same. Common changes include packaging redesign that holds fewer ounces by way of indented container bottoms, cartons that hold 1/4 less of a quart, and boxes that remain the same size but actually have smaller bags of product inside.