Here to dispel the common myth that it is impossible to eat healthily on a budget, we have compiled some general tips along with two affordable meal examples to show that it can indeed be done.
General Tips
Particularly if you are cooking for yourself, choosing a healthy option can easily end up being an expensive pursuit if you aren’t careful.
One tip is to buy and cook in bulk whenever possible, and depending on where you shop, you can often get great deals when you buy items in large quantities. An example of this would be buying a big bag of potatoes or onions that will last you weeks, as opposed to purchasing them individually.
When cooking for yourself or a small number of people, it is often worth making extra food which you can then freeze and eat another time. This allows you to reduce the price per portion because you have bought in bulk, while also saving you the time of preparing another meal the following day.
Bacon, Spinach and Pasta
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Although pasta would be considered an inexpensive food, both bacon and spinach do not have the same reputation, but that doesn’t mean you can’t afford them.
When bacon and gammon are on special offer it is usually a sizable discount, turning it from a moderately priced food into an affordable one. When you do see a great deal, it is a smart move to stock up heavily, as you can always store it in the freezer until a later date.
Likewise spinach can be expensive if bought in a small portion, but if you opt for one of the larger bags they are often a considerably better deal, making it a more economical option. Spinach is also extremely versatile and goes with almost anything, so chomping through a large bag can be an easier task then first assumed.
These two ingredients can be combined pleasantly to form the basis of a bacon, spinach and pasta recipe, potentially also containing Parmesan as an additional ingredient. If your budget doesn’t quite stretch this far, then the Parmesan can always be replaced by other products such as sour cream or cottage cheese.
Vegetable soup
Stocking up on vegetables need not be a wallet-emptying task as some may think, and if you can make use of local vegetable markets then you can secure delicious, fresh and affordable produce.
When buying in a supermarket, be sure to know what produce is in season at that particular time, as this is often going to be the cheapest route.
When making the vegetable soup itself, there isn’t a great deal that you can do wrong, so get creative and throw anything into the pot and see how it turns out. A simple and effective recipe is this potato-based vegetable soup, which always goes down well with diners.
As you can see, eating healthily doesn’t have to come with a large price tag, so don’t let a tight budget get in the way of healthy eating.
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