Ask the Dietitian: Healthy eating on a budget

The cost of living is often not far from our minds, and sometimes trying to eat healthily on a budget can feel like an uphill struggle. This article will look at some tips and tricks to help keep food bills low and our diets balanced.

Love your leftovers

This can be applied to leftover main meals that can make lovely lunches the next day, or frozen for a quick dinner in the future. It can also apply to those bits in the fridge that used to be fresh but are now looking slightly worse for wear. Most fruits can be frozen ready to be added to a smoothie or crumble in the future, and even the saddest-looking vegetable can be pepped up if roasted, or blended into a soup. Just remember to use your senses: if it smells bad or looks mouldy, it is best to throw it out or put it in the compost.

Look at all the shelves

Some supermarkets will put higher-priced brands at eye level. By simply looking at the rows above and below eye level, you might notice a cheaper alternative to your usual choice. This can be applied across the store, from breads to canned goods. Even when you are shopping online, some ‘sponsored’ products might be shown first, so it is worth scrolling through or sorting products by price.

Make friends with frozen and tinned alternatives

Frozen and tinned fruits and vegetables are cheaper than their fresh counterparts, and just as nutritious as they often go from field to factory in record time helping to lock in their goodness. Having some frozen vegetables to hand to add to main meals can be particularly helpful for when life is busy, but you still want to reach towards that five-a-day goal. Frozen fruit is great in homemade smoothies, and tinned fruit (in juice rather than syrup) and be paired with some natural yoghurt for a low-cost healthy pudding or snack.

A little time can go a long way

Do you tend to try and buy healthy snacks? Often, ready-packaged and ready-made foods can be more expensive, and trying to unpick the truly healthy options from those with hidden extras can feel like a minefield.

Spending a bit of time can often save a lot of money. An example of this could be making your own trail mix pot. This can be buying your favourite selection of nuts and dried fruit and storing these in a Tupperware box, then simply decanting a portion into a smaller tub when you are out and about. This will be cheaper than buying individually packaged versions, and certainly cheaper and healthier than a lot of ready-made foods available when you are on the go.

Similarly, if you buy things like energy balls or cereal bars these can be made at home. Many recipes are available online, and using key words like ‘reduced sugar’ or ingredients you particularly like will help you find a balanced one for you. As an added bonus, energy balls and cereal bars can often be frozen, so that you can make a batch and have a steady supply of healthy homemade snacks in the future.

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eating healthily on a budget. Noticing your current habits can be a great first step to identifying some potential changes: do you have a lot of food waste? Are there foods you buy ready-made that you could make at home and freeze? Do you head for the brands when a cheaper alternative might be available? A few small swaps can make a big difference. Happy saving!