Meal Planning: The Eat Well For Less Series

Healthy eating is a huge part of living a healthy lifestyle and improving overall wellbeing. Although, a frequent objection I hear as a Functional Medicine Practitioner is that healthy food is far more expensive than convenience foods. Even if you have the desire to eat healthier, you may feel like you cannot afford it. Thankfully, the truth is you don’t have to spend extraordinary amounts of money at the grocery store each week to eat healthy foods at home. So this week, we’ll be chatting about strategies you can use to eat healthy on a budget — so you don’t have to choose between saving money or eating well.

Strategy #1 is Planning Your Meals

Preparation is essential if you want to eat healthy on a budget. By purchasing all the ingredients you need ahead of time, you’re less likely to order takeout midway through the week. Planning meals also reduces the number of trips to the grocery store, where you’re likely to buy things you don’t need. Make sure you have a list and try not to make any impulse purchases. If you plan a week of meals, pick one day to shop for everything you need.

Furthermore, having a Meal Planning System to go off of each week helps you get into a groove of planning your meals. It can feel repetitive and boring to eat the same meals week after week, but having designated days such as “Taco Tuesday” can help steer you in the right direction of knowing what types of recipes to consider for that day. If you haven’t tried implementing Meal Days yet, give it a try as you plan your meals for the week ahead.

Action Steps:

Compile a list of recipes that you know you and your household enjoy. These can be recipes you already cook, and you can find some new inspiration on my Pinterest page or your favorite Healthy Recipe Instagram Accounts. Having a recipe base to shuffle through helps you not repeat recipes every week and still have an abundance of choices as you plan your meals for the week.

Ready for strategy #2? Click here to get started.