How to Eat Clean on a Shoestring Budget

I often suffer from the same dilemma that I’m sure a lot of health-conscious-yet-poor-20-somethings’ have: eating healthy on a budget.  Though fresh produce is usually under a dollar a piece, for most people fresh fruit and veggies are not enough to live off of.  I am a pescatarian—meaning I only eat fish and no other meat, and I avoid dairy as much as possible.  The more foods or ingredients you try to eliminate from your diet, the more money it would seem you have to spend on groceries. Case in point: gluten-free products.  Removing gluten from cereal, soya sauce, bread and many other staple foods can make the price jump from 20-50%. Unless you go for items that are gluten-free naturally (such as rice), the price-hike can really dissuade people from adopting a gluten-free life.  It has for me at least, and as a carb-a-holic runner with no evident allergies, I embrace gluten with open arms.

That being said, I do LOVE rice. Good rice can be expensive, so buying it in bulk is advantageous because it won’t go bad.  My favorite rice is thai red rice, because it is hearty and also contains more nutrients than regular brown rice. Because it is so filling, you only need about ½ cup or even 1/3^rd per meal, so you won’t need to buy it every week.  However, having good bread in the house goes without saying for me--I usually have to buy it once a week.  I go for Silver Hills Steady Eddie, which has a low GI and 4 grams of fiber per slice.  Since this bread is on the upper-end of the price scale, I freeze it and use as needed to preserve it longer.

On the topic of freezing, storing produce in the freezer is a great strategy for taking advantage of sales on fresh fruit and vegetables.  If you want to save time on meal prep, the alternative to buying frozen is to buy whatever is seasonal or on sale, then washing, chopping and storing it all in Ziploc freezer bags.  This is especially useful for buying summer berries, as they can start to go bad before you even have a chance to put them in the fridge.  The same rule can apply to meat and fish, however my mother always tells me freezing fresh meat and re-thawing it compromises its taste and texture.

Eliminating meat or only buying it every other week is another great way to save on money and reduce unhealthy fats in your diet.  I buy tofu about twice a week at around $3-$4 a pack, and great meat alternatives are popping up at less expensive grocery stores (i.e. Canadian Superstore, which has delicious faux chicken breasts and soy burgers under their house-brand called Blue Menu).  Kidney beans, edamame, chick peas and quinoa are other great sources of protein that don’t cost a lot yet can add a tremendous amount of flavor and nutrition to vegetarian dishes.

If you are vegetarian, and especially if you are vegan, you’ll want to make friends with the potato, sweet potato and/or yam.  Potatoes are dirt cheap, and if you want to actually fill up from eating a salad, then adding this nutritious starch to it will benefit you in the long run.  Hold on to the potato’s vitamins by leaving the skin on, and hasten the cooking process by chopping or slicing them before boiling, baking or sautéing them.

Finally, to save money and to eat healthy, avoid the “convenient” isles. Anything in a box that you need (rice, crackers, cookies, pasta, and other perishables) can be bought in the bulk section.  The beauty of bulk is that you can choose the quantity, and therefore have less of the junk food and more of the healthy foods in the house. Just make sure you buy the whole-grain versions of everything.  The bulk prices are usually if not always lower than their boxed varieties—especially when it comes to baking goods, nuts and dried fruit.