Three Steps to Eating Healthy without Spending More!

It's a common complaint that eating healthy is cost prohibitive. Healthy food often IS more expensive, but it is still possible to eat healthy without spending more money. (I'm not sure people really believe me when I say this--hence the challenge to myself at the end of this post!)

While our family's personal food revolution has happened slowly and without much organization, when I look back on how we got here, it boils down basically to three main changes. Keep in mind each of these took us a long time, and that the biggest commitment is in the details. But I'll go into those in later posts. For now, here are our personal three steps to affordable healthy eating:

1. Eat very little meat. This was a gradual transition for us. I honestly think it was years that my husband would half-jokingly poke at his dinner plate and say, "where's the meat?" on meatless nights. Now, MOST of our nights are meatless, and this has been a HUGE savings. We can get protein from eggs, dairy, nuts, quinoa, and those magical combinations--beans & rice, macaroni & cheese, and lots more. Our society tends to overeat protein anyway (a "bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit", while delicious, is way more protein than we really need.)

2. Cut back on processed food. We gave up pre-prepared meals, frozen burritos & pizza, etc., even the "healthy" versions. We'll still go through phases of buying tortilla chips, snack crackers, or granola bars, but if we want to save--we don't buy them. My friend Diana told me she'd read about shopping only the grocery store's outside aisles--produce, bread, dairy--and while I usually pop into the interior for baking supplies, cereal, pasta, and canned goods, that's a pretty good rule. We still give in, but if we want to save, I skip as much stuff as possible that comes in a box.

3. Buy local. Food is simply going to cost less if it doesn't have to be shipped, and if you buy it directly from its grower. A weekly farmers' market has been one of our MOST transformative changes. We're fortunate to have a year-round one nearby. We also joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that runs June-November, supporting a local farm that makes one of its drops walking distance from our city home. Again, the commitment is in the details. A week's worth of our CSA's produce can be very green, leafy, voluminous, and often unrecognizable to those of us who've only ever gotten our fresh food from grocery stores. We've learned to prepare and cook a lot of new kinds of things. Honestly, I'm amazed at how MUCH variety of fresh food there is, and how little of it is typically marketed and available to us. (Another post!!)

Eating local really can be cheaper, and definitely tastier. Food ripens more naturally when its grower doesn't have to pick it too early to ship it cross-country. It also means learning to eat with the seasons. I'm going to sound off my rocker, but there's something downright spiritual about one's appetite getting in tune with the rhythms of the earth's growing cycle, and learning to anticipate each season's edibles. (My husband would totally roll his eyes at that statement.) We've come to realize why our parents used to get oranges in their Christmas stockings: one's longing for citrus is heightened when it is too expensive and precious to eat every day. And during the brief growing cycles of foods like asparagus and rhubarb, I've learned to get to the farmers' market early.

Right now our cozy winter menu includes varieties of cabbage salads, creative root vegetable recipes, and fun with the apples that the local orchard still has coming to the market. (Re-reading that sounds so dull--but I honestly have so much fun cooking this stuff! I'm busy and thrive on limited options.) Tonight's dinner was a favorite--sweet-potato, turnip, and potato soup with just a little sausage.

Yes, we cook. But I have to say, even though I'm not terribly organized and I work full-time, I swear it can be done. We CAN eat healthy food without spending more money!

So to prove this, I'm going to challenge myself to a Budgetarian Fare March Madness. I'm going to keep track of everything we spend on food in March. Discipline and consistency are not my strong points, so this will not be easy, but hopefully it will keep me accountable--and honest, too. (My husband just called me out this morning for the Hostess Cupcake wrapper that was stuffed under the seat of the car...old weakness.)

And speaking of honesty, I should probably admit that just an hour ago, my husband and I shared a pint of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked while watching the final episode of Season 2 of Downton Abbey. :)