Eating Healthy on a Budget

The very first thing you need to do is get yourself a Sunday paper. Take out the coupons and sale ads. You are going to clip coupons for anything you might use. Note: you can get processed food extemely cheap with coupons, this is not what we are looking for. If you have any questions about that visit my blog.
So, you have cut out coupons for healthy food (not many will appear, sadly), health & beauty items, paper products, cleaning products, you get the idea. Now, you need to organize them in a way that you will be able to find them again. You can pick up a coupon organizer at the local dollar store for you guessed it, $1.00. I personally use a small box with index cards used as dividers. You need to file them into categories such as: cleaning products, dental products, beverages, frozen foods, etc. Once that is done get out your sale ads.

The object here is to go through all of your local store ads and write a list of sale items that you have coupons for, as well as, other non-coupon items that are a great sale price. Visit www.hotcouponworld.com which is a wealth of information for grocery store sales around the country. Users post deals that they have matched up with coupons. You want to stock up on as many free or nearly free items as you can. To get extra coupons ask your friends and family for their unused coupons. You will find some amazing deals. Drug stores like CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid regulary offer free after rebate items. When you don't have to pay for things like shampoo, toothpaste, and deodorant it frees up your money to purchase better quality food.

The next thing to do is search out local healthy food suppliers. Search your local Yellow Pages, the internet, talk to friends, do anything you can to find sources in your area. We are blessed to have a bulk food store nearby that is cheaper than the local health food store. At this store, I can get oats for .62lb, raw honey for 3.00lb, organic evaporated cane juice (healthier than white sugar) for .92lb.

I have also located some local farms that are off the beaten path by searching on the internet. I have found a supplier of raw milk by visiting realmilk.org. I am only paying $3.25 for a gallon of real raw milk because I get it straight from the farmer. The price for pasteurized whole milk in the store here is currently $4.05 per gallon. I also purchase free range eggs for $1.25 per dozen. If you aren't aware of the benefits of raw milk and free range eggs, please check out some of the books listed below. I found organic produce cheap from a local farm by going to google.com and typing in organic produce and then my county.

As far as meat goes, I go to the local grocery stores early in the morning and look for meat mark downs. I especially look for the brands that are hormone and antibiotic free. I have gotten some great deals on meat by just being there earlier than the bulk of the shoppers.

Combine these efforts with making everything you can from scratch. Disclaimer here: if it takes me a very long time to make something from scratch that doesn't cost very much to begin with. I won't do it. I have a lot of responsibilities and I can't waste 2 hours of my time to save .50!

Menu Planning: Some will say plan your menu for the week and then make your list. Whenever I have tried this, it ends up costing me more. Others say, make your list based on what's on sale then make your menu based on the sale items. I have my own way of making a menu plan which seems to work out the cheapest.

My menu plan starts out with surveying what I have on hand before shopping and starting to list meals. For instance, if I have pound of ground meat and a pack of boneless chicken on hand, I will see what I have to make meals out of that. If I decide that I can make chili with the meat but I have no beans then I put beans on my list and look for a sale. Same applies to anything else that I find in my freezer. Next, if it is a really tight week, I figure on eggs or pancakes one night and spaghetti on another.

The next step is checking the meat markdowns when I get to the store. If buying marked down meat that will expire in the next day or two is cheaper than whatever meat was in the sale flyer, then I buy that. I start another meal plan in my head in the grocery store, for instance, one day I found a whole bunch of thin cuts of beef, some type of cheap steak cut, there were $1.00 off stickers on them. For each one I paid maybe .10-.20. I know that I can take cheap cuts of meat like this and put it in the crock pot with just about any type of sauce and it will taste wonderful and be nice and tender. I use thes to make pepper steak, beef teriyaki, barbecue beef sandwiches, etc.

My meal plan is completed when I come home from shopping. I take my original list that I started and add what I have bought. I try to make meals from whatever I have gotten on sale or already had on hand. The old saying "make do or do without" will save you plenty.

Let's recap the steps to frugal healthy eating:

1. Cut coupons and organize them.
2. Check your store flyers to match up sales with coupons.
3. Research online or in your phone book for local farms, bulk food stores, etc.
4. Try to get to the stores early to get the meat mark downs.
5. Learn how to make things from scratch, there is a recipe for everything on the internet.
6. Make your menu plan.
7. Make sure you stick to your food budget. I put cash in an envelope and when it's gone, it's gone. Again, "make do or do without".

I hope that this page has been a blessing to you. The last and most important thing is pray that God will help you feed your family healthy food on the budget that you have. He will provide and He will give you wisdom!