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How Do You Eat Healthfully on a Budget?
Monday, September 10, 2012 by Kathy Murdock from Thrifty Mom's Two Cents
So I told you in my last post that September is National Coupon Month *yay!*. A month that celebrates savings is always a good month, right? In the meantime, I’m trying to make some positive changes in the way I shop, so I can cut back on what I spend. But here’s my problem: I discovered yesterday that at least HALF of my weekly budget is spent on items that DON’T HAVE COUPONS! Or, shall I say, that rarely do.
We eat and drink the same things week after week after week. Aside from water, we drink orange juice and milk. We eat eggs for breakfast and fresh fruit and vegetables with most meals.
And guess what? These products RARELY have coupons.
What’s up with that?
Not only do we eat and drink these products on a regular basis, but we need to replenish them, or at least most of them, mid-week. I always have to do a second trip to the grocery store to get more milk, eggs and fruits and vegetables. My tab is normally around $40 for these stops!
How can I keep my grocery bill down when a mid-week quick trip costs that much?
They always say that healthy foods are the most expensive. This appears to be true. (And I’m not even buying organic!) I always find coupons for boxed foods, frozen foods and canned goods; and yet I rarely do for fresh food items.
I always buy fresh fruits and veggies in season and on sale. Right now I’m getting a great deal on grapes, so we are eating them by the handful. In the summer, we go through berries like crazy. But a family of four can eat a package of berries (which cost $1.99 on sale) in about two days, and a bag of grapes ($1.99 per pound) in three.
Which, of course, is why my mid-week grocery bill is so high, and why our weekly grocery bill is also so high.
So, while I keep trying to lower our grocery bill, I also keep refusing to cut back on the healthier, fresher foods. You can say I’m kind of at a standstill. Luckily it's not that we have to give up these items in order to make our grocery budget work, but that's not the case with every family. How are families supposed to eat healthfully when healthy food is so expensive?
Which brings me to today's question:
How do you stock up on healthy foods and keep your grocery budget down? Tips? Ideas? Suggestions?
Kathy Murdock
Kathy Murdock works as a full time writer and web designer. Recently planted in the middle of the deep south from the busy streets of Los Angeles, when she's not coding Wordpress websites or writing about women in business and thrifty motherhood, Kathy spends time ...Read More
