Budget Dieting
It’s great to buy a book that outlines all your meals day by day, unless you’ve ever tried one. First, you spend hours grocery shopping at five different stores to find all of the ingredients, things that you’ve never even heard of before! Second, you spend so much money on food for the week because there are no two ingredients the same in any meal. Finally, you realize that you cannot afford to continue wasting your time, money, and a lot of food and completely give up on the diet.
Believe it or not, there are was to diet and eat healthy without blowing your budget. The following tips will help you to eat better without going bankrupt:
- Avoid eating out for every meal! It’s totally ok to eat out on occasion, but when you are not making the food, it’s hard to know what’s in the food and how it’s prepared. In addition, eating out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner can really hurt the budget! Bring meals and snacks to work or elsewhere, that way you can ensure that they are cheap and healthy!
- Plan ahead! It may take some time, but sit down and make a meal plan. First, get out the grocery store flyers. Find out what is on sale and plan meals around what is cheap. You can find thousands of low calorie, low carb, or low fat recipes on the Internet. Figure out what you are counting and allocate a certain amount for each meal. Then, choose recipes based on those amounts and what’s on sale. Once you get the hang of it, it can be really easy!
- Don’t waste food! When creating a meal plan, try to use every bit of what you buy. For example, you can use leftover chicken, celery, and onions from dinner to make a quick and healthy soup for your lunch. Be creative with meals, and try not to buy more than you will need!
- Look for foods that are in season! Fruits and vegetables are way cheaper when they are in season, so pick up what is fresh, cheap, and local. You can also try a local farmers market, this is usually a great option for budget dieting.
- Stick to the basics! There are lots of recipes with strange or specialty ingredients, but these can be very expensive. In addition, unless you can buy them in the quantities that you need, they will likely go to waste. Try to stick with simple ingredients, they make quick meals, are generally fairly cheap.
It is very possible to diet no matter what your budget! In fact, being smart about meal preparation and shopping, can help your waist line and may even save you money!