How to Eat Healthily on $40 Per Week

Some of the food you buy at the grocery store is not only more expensive than it needs to be, it’s also bad for you.  In fact, convenience foods are some of the worst.  The extra packaging and preservatives cost money and such foods also tend to be high in fat, sodium and other substances with very serious health effects.

Buy Food That’s in Season

Supermarkets make all kinds of vegetables available throughout the year.  In the US, it’s not hard to get a watermelon in the middle of December or an apple in April.  This has its advantages, but price is not among them.

Adjust your diet to the season. If you take a look at vegetables that are in season, you’ll notice that they’re usually much cheaper than those that aren’t.

Look for Supermarket ‘Price Cheats’

Most grocery stores will have a section for spices, but will oftentimes also have spices in other areas of the store that aren’t quite as expensive.  For example, you might find Mexican spices in the spice aisle for a higher price than you’ll find them in the Mexican food aisle of the store.  Make sure to look around to see if you can get the spices from another isle a bit cheaper than you can from the regular spice aisle!

Learn to Cook

You don’t have to have a degree in culinary arts to make great food.  You can save a lot of money by buying the ingredients of packaged foods and combining them yourself. 

For example, you can make your own salad dressings, spice mixes and other flavor enhancers by buying the basic ingredients.  Again, there’s a money advantage here as well as a health advantage.  You don’t have to worry about the preservatives and other ingredients that come in these pre-made products and you can tailor the flavor to your own preferences!

Cut Out the Meat

Cutting meat out of your food budget can save a lot of money.  The health benefit comes with this strategy, as well.  Too much red meat is known to cause myriad health issues.  You can shave money off of your food bill, shave inches off of your waist and shave health costs off in the future simply by making meat a less important part of your shopping list.

Shop Around

You can find some great deals by analyzing your receipts.  Keep the receipt every time you shop and pay attention to when there are sales, what items go on sale and how much you save when they do go on sale.  Comparison shopping with other stores is also a great strategy to see if you can save some extra money here and there.

Buy Bulk Food

If you tend to eat the same food a lot, consider looking in the bulk aisle.  You can save quite a bit of money by buying items that stay fresh for a long time, such as coffee, rice and other items, in bulk.  This is a great strategy to save both money and time.