Eating Healthy Under a Budget

Most would say eating healthy is expensive and cuts a hole in your pocket. But what if I told you IT'S ACTUALLY NOT! If you know what to do of course!

“I definitely want to eat healthy, but it is just too expensive and time consuming for that right now.” says everyone struggling to find the right way to eating healthy under a budget.

When your budget is tight, meal planning and grocery shopping will become challenging as ever. When you are under a tight budget and you have dedicated to eating healthy, it's even harder. We've been discussing about each of these topic quite a bit previously, and every time, our readers respond with loads of great tips and suggestions. So we decided to go through all the best tidbits of advice. Here are 7 of your smartest tips in eating healthy under a budget.



1. Buy only fresh produce when in season and freeze it.

Fresh produce is always the preferred choice when, but the budget can burn up fast. You should stick with only purchasing what's currently in season and consider filling up your pantry with fresh produce when you stumble upon a good deal.

2. Look Out for Discounts, and Plan Your Meals Accordingly.

If your local supermarket offers a member card that comes with savings, be sure to sign up for that. Then, look out to see what's on sale on the weekly circular. Thus, consider planning your meals around what's on sale instead of groceries shopping based on your weekly meal plan.

There will be sales constantly going on throughout supermarkets everywhere and a lot of stores give out coupon booklets. These booklets are to help save you a lot of money. Just don’t be afraid to grab extra coupon booklets to snag additional discounts on your next purchases as these coupons usually last a while.

3. Plan and Prep Meals Ahead.

Whether it's pita wraps for the week, or tomorrow's dinner. Preparing your food in advance is the right direction towards eating healthily while also saving tons of money. Moreover, to minimize waste, it's also a good way to remind yourself that you're eating what's in the fridge.

You should spend some time every weekend planning my meals for the week. Eating leftovers shouldn't be a problem so you have to plan on eating the same thing several times. You should try to at least get your lunches prepped on Sunday so you know that you're starting the week off right. Then you can go on to make something to eat on Monday night for dinner and eat that several times as well.

You can prepare two meals on Sunday night, have them in portable containers and be ready for lunch and dinner all week during work — all with just one night of cooking. (Disclaimer advice: this method only works if you don't mind having the same meal every day thus, it's important to stick with what you like or you'll not be immune to temptations outside). Definitely a great way to save your time and money!



4. Broaden Your Culinary Horizons.

There are many cuisines like Mexican and Indian rely heavily on ingredients that are inexpensive but also taste as good, like beans and rice.

However if you don't favor both Indian or Mexican food, better give it a try. One useful tip that might help, it's the best value to flavor ratio from our experience. In both Indian and Mexican cuisines, rice and beans are a staple, which is affordable. Both cuisines are not heavy on meat, which makes it easier on your wallet. Both also allow a lot of ingredients to be interchangeably used which means less waste equals cheaper meals.

And if Mexican food is your favorite, you could have burritos filled with anything to your liking. Or you can also make a tortilla-less version of huevos rancheros (a mix of eggs plus tomato sauce added with other fillings) which can be very filling thanks to the loads of protein and fiber.

5. Have an Organized Fridge and Pantry.

Like previously mentioned leftovers are often great, but if they get lost in the back of the fridge, it totally defeats the purpose. It is helpful to label your leftovers and organize your fridge to help minimize food wastage.

By keeping an orderly fridge/freezer and by labeling, leftover waste or frozen food can be minimized. Use a strip of masking tape and a marker pen to identify the food and date on containers. Package your foods in amounts that you will use, such as freezing meat pieces by twos and separately wrapping hamburger patties. Keeping a list of items in the fridge also sounds useful too but I myself admit I've never been able to continue on with that.

This is the most obvious of all but most importantly, stay organized! With a more organized pantry, cupboards, fridge and freezer, it is more likely to avoid buying more stuff you don't need as you already know exactly what you have on hand.

If you freeze food, be reminded that you must periodically go through your freezer and consume everything in there. Sometimes you might forget this step, but your wallet may actually benefit when you use up all your frozen food!

6. Have a Variety of Protein Sources

Besides processed foods, meats play a big part on why your grocery bill is expensive. Although consuming lesser meat within the week sounds like another logical way to tighten the belt but where will you get your protein source? The answer lies in plant based protein sources. By choosing more plant proteins to replace your protein sourcing meats is also a good way to cut down on consuming excessive amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat.

By implementing plant-based protein sources into your diet, you will definitely save more as plant based protein can be significantly cheaper than animal products. The few examples are:

Tofu or tempeh
Various types of beans
Quinoa
Lentils
Green peas
Edamame
Nut butters
Ezekiel bread



7. Pack Your Lunch

Another lowkey advantage to cooking a little extra at home is that you now have the option of packing the leftovers to work. They make a great lunch for the next day that is still that you don't mind having the same thing over again the next day.

Many of people who practise this method not only save a lot of money but they are also better able to achieve their dietary goals because of higher control to their food portions. Now look at your individual eating habits, apart from lunch, do you have breakfast outside as well? There are many who used to eat breakfast out on a workday as they leave the house early to beat the morning traffic. Now they pack only a simple sandwich so that they do not have to spend unnecessarily on breakfast as well.

By doing this, most will end up happy to report that they have lost weight from not consuming so much nasi lemak and sugary hot beverages in the morning, which is every Malaysian's typical breakfast on workdays. The effort to save money has resulted in a lot of people feeling better about themselves health-wise. To most dieticians that’s killing two birds with one stone!

And to help you out to kickstart on having healthy food under a budget in Malaysia, here's one simple recipe you can try!



Chickpea Curry
For 4 servings, price estimate per serving (not including spices or garnish) is less than RM10!

Ingredients:

1 15 oz. can of chickpeas
1 15 oz. can of coconut milk
1 15 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1/2 an onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp. grated ginger, to taste (could substitute ground ginger)
1 tbsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground paprika
1/2 diced red chili pepper, optional
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 a lime, juice and zest
1 bunch of cilantro
1 cup of precooked quinoa (or rice) for serving

Instructions:
1.Heat a medium-sized pot or deep pan on medium heat with a little oil or non-stick spray. Throw in your onion and garlic.

2.Next, grate your ginger into the pan followed by the diced chili pepper. Once the mix has cooked for a while, add in the spices and cook for around 30 seconds.

3.Then toss in your chickpeas, coconut milk, and chopped tomatoes. Season your curry with salt and pepper and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes.

4.Stir in some fresh cilantro, lime juice and zest, then serve with your cooked grain of choice.

You can also serve the curry with avocado along with some fresh greens as well!