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Introduction: Tips for Creating Healthy Family Food on a Budget
Nutrition is one of the most important aspects of having a healthy family. Healthy, home-cooked food also helps to make your family feel more connected and less likely to overeat at restaurants and fast food places.
Here are my tips for creating healthy family food on a budget.
- Plan ahead and shop wisely: Making sure you have the appropriate ingredients for your plan can save you time and money. When it comes to planning, try planning out what you’ll be cooking so that you don’t buy too much of an ingredient that may not be used. Or if you decide a bigger pack is better value, think of another dish you can use it for, so it doesn’t go to waste. It’s easy to find recipes for certain ingredients on the internet and once you have found a few you like, you can just rotate them for variety.
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Use What’s In Season And On Sale. Find out what time of day your local shops reduce stuff to get yellow stickered produce which is often a bargain. It’s only a bargain if you can use it though. Buy non-perishables when on offer to save. Don’t overbuy as you don’t want stuff going out of date before you use it. In season produce is cheaper, so in the winter eat more root vegetables and save green beans for the summer. Or buy frozen so that you don’t have to worry about the seasons so much.
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If you want to save some money on your grocery bill then buy frozen or canned foods when they go on sale and stock up when you see them. If you look out for offers at your local stores, you can save a lot this way.
- Meal plan, then write your shopping list around the meal plan. This is the best way to make sure you aren’t buying things you don’t need. It makes it a lot easier to cook too as you know you have the ingredients in.
- Consider how balanced your meal plan is. Have you included all the major food groups at the recommended levels through the week? Is everyone in the family getting their five fruit and vegetables a day?
- Consider cooking in batches to save on cooking costs. You’ll also save yourself some time. You can make a big curry and freeze half of it and have it another day. The second time you’ll only need to cook some rice or heat some naan breads, plus warm the curry through.
- Buying food that needs to be prepared will usually save you money. You can buy pre-prepared vegetables in the supermarket, but you will pay a premium for it. Buying the whole vegetables yourself and do the chopping and slicing to cut your costs.
I hope you liked my tips for creating healthy family food on a budget. Do you have any tips to add to that? How do you create healthy family food on a budget?