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I am a Registered Dietitian.  I worked as a Diabetes Educator for more than 10 years.  Now I’m staying home with my baby boy and trying to live on a one income budget.  I remember some clients would say, “I can’t afford to eat healthy on a budget.”  It can be tough to eat healthy on a budget but I believe with a little planning it can be done.   

Here are some nutrition guidelines I live by with tips on how to make it happen as cheap as possible:

1.  Plan Meals Around the “Plate Method.”  The plate method is a simple way to set up your plate and make sure you are getting a balanced healthy meal.  Divide your plate so that you have ¼ starch, ¼ protein and ½ vegetables.

Meat is the biggest part of most food budgets, so keeping your meat portion to about the size of deck of cards will not only keep cost down but also lower your saturated fat and cholesterol intake.  Saturated fat and cholesterol can cause inflammation, heart disease and cancer if you eat too much of it.  And if you’re worried about getting enough protein remember that you also get protein from legumes, grains, vegetables, and dairy.  Most vegans do not have to work at getting enough protein.

 2.  Use Lean Sources of Protein.  Like:
Beans:  Pinto beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, really any kind of legume are your leanest and cheapest forms of protein.  Try to have a vegetarian meal 1-2 times per week.  A 3 oz portion of meat will cost you at least 50 cents or more, the same amount of protein from beans will only cost a few cents.  Another fabulous thing about beans is that they are high in soluble fiber which can help remove artery clogging fats out of your system.  Here’s a excellent recipe with black beans, garbanzo beans and soy beans.

 Skinless Poultry:  Most stores have skinless boneless chicken on sale for $1.79 a pound frozen and $1.99 a pound fresh.  We usually wait for the sale and buy 4, 3 pound packages.  This will last our family of 3 until the next sale.  Stock piling will save you quite a bit.  If we paid full price ($3.79/pound,) only when we needed it, it would cost $45/month.  By stock piling when it’s on sale we only pay $24/month for fresh skinless chicken breasts.  We also buy whole chickens when they’re on sale for 79 cents a pound, roast them and then remove the skin.  We roast one chicken a week and use it for sandwiches instead of buying deli meat for $4.00 or more per pound. At the end of the week I make a quick stir fry or chicken fajitas with what’s left of the chicken.  We wait until the holidays to stock up on turkeys when they go on sale for less than $1.00 a pound.

Fish:  The American Heart Association recommends fish twice a week.  Except for children, pregnant and breast feeding mom’s who need to follow guidelines to keep from getting too much mercury.  For guidelines on safe fish eating for children, pregnant and breast feeding mom’s go here.  Fish helps decrease inflammation, decreases triglyderides, is low in saturated fat and high in omega-3 fatty acid.  Just recently more and more evidence is mounting linking fish oil to healthy brain development in babies and many more health benefits.  Unfortunately, fish is one of the most expensive forms of protein.  The cheapest way to get it is to buy canned fish.  Wait for canned tuna to go on sale for 59 cents a can or less and stock up.  A 5 oz can of tuna has 3 oz of actual tuna after draining the water, so it ends up being $3.15 a pound.  Fresh fish is usually $3.50-$20.00 a pound.  Another way to save on fish is to catch it yourself.  Make sure and check with the State Fishing and Wildlife Commision about the mercury level of the waters you are fishing in.  Here’s the link for the State of Washington.  We use a food saver to seal and freeze our fish.  My dad cans his fish after buying it on the Native American Reservations for $3.00 a pound, which is a great price if you can find it.  Considering how healthy fish is, it’s worth a little more, if it keeps you healthy.  Think about the expense of medical care in a hospital from a heart attack and compare it to the cost of fish in your diet twice a week.  Here’s one of my favorite fish recipes, Salmon Sorrento.

Limit Beef and Pork:  For all you beef and pork lovers I’m not saying to cut it out completely.  There are some really good nutrients like iron and zinc in beef and pork; however there is also a lot more saturated fat.  Limiting your saturated fat intake will decrease inflammation, heart disease and cancer. 

I try to only buy beef and pork when it is on sale for $1.99 per pound or less.  Use lean cuts like sirloin and tenderloin.  “Lean” ground beef can have up to 30% fat added to it buy weight which by calories is actually 61% fat, not lean at all!!!!  I only buy 4% or 7% fat ground beef which is very expensive usually more than $3/pound even on sale.  So every time I go shopping I look at the meat on clearance and when I can find some for 30% or 50% off, I buy it and cook it that night for dinner.  Ask your butcher when they clearance there meat so that you can shop around that time.  I try to cook it right away so it doesn’t go bad. 

Ground Turkey Breast: is a good alternative for 4% fat ground beef but not “ground turkey.”  If the package has the wording “ground turkey” it will likely have the skin and dark meat ground into it and you my as well buy 20% fat ground beef.  Look for this wording “ground turkey breast” and it will not have the skin and dark meat ground in.  It’s actually leaner than 4% fat ground beef.  You will frequently see the ground turkey on clearance. 

3.  Eat at least 5 or more servings of fruit or vegetables per day.  1 serving= ½ c cooked (1 handful) or 1 C of Raw (1 Fist Size)  Fresh fruits and vegetables are loaded with antioxidants, phytochemicals and fiber which prevents loads of diseases like heart disease, eye diseases, cancer, and I could go on and on.

The cheapest way that I have gotten fresh produce is to get it in the summer time locally.  I have friends and family who have cherry trees and apricot trees that get absolutely loaded.  So we get to pick them for free and then I can them.  Apricots and cherries are very easy to can.  If you’re a beginner go to your local county extension office and find out when they are offering free canning classes.  Here’s the Cowlitz County Extension Office link. Ask someone who knows to show you.  My mom and dad and mother-in-law have taught me.  You could even borrow the equipment from someone or you’ll have to pay a little up front to get started but it will save you in the long run.  You’ll probably find that you like the quality of home canned produce better also. 

We also have a lot of blackberries that grow wild in the Pacific Northwest.  Find an area that hasn’t been sprayed and pick them for free.  I lay them on a cookie sheet and freeze them, throw them in a bag and your done.  We have raspberries in our backyard that we get for free of coarse.  They just take a little bit of pruning every fall but for the most part they are very low maintenance.  We also grow tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, lettuce, basil and parsley in our garden.  If you grow your garden from seed you can’t get much cheaper, healthier and fresher produce.  Go here, here and here for links to frugal bloggers with gardening tips.

If you can’t grow it yourself then look for in season fresh produce at the store.  Wait for frozen vegetables to go on sale.  I just bought frozen Green Giant Peas for 34 cents a box!!!!  I don’t think you could grow them yourself this cheap.  If you follow my blog I will point out these deals.

In the summer I have gotten some good deals on local produce by searching for them on Craigslist or Freecyle.  I have even found people willing to allow you to glean produce out of there garden because they had all they needed.  I bought really cheap organic tomatoes last fall from a farmer who had listed them on craigslist.  He was trying to sell them before they went bad and I was able to can them right away. 

4.  Eat at least ½ of your grains as whole grains, at least 3 or more servings per day.  Whole grains have fiber, anti-oxidants and are high in B-vitamins which help your body produce energy.  Whole grains may be involved in keeping arteries and blood vessels healthy as well. 

One of my favorite places to get cheap whole grain bread is Franz Bakery Outlet.  My mother-in-law works there and says that what they have on the shelf is the same thing you get at the store, just cheaper.  I’m able to buy my favorite Milton’s Whole Grain bread for about ½ the price as they have at the regular grocery store.  I also like to buy flourless bread made completely of unrefined whole grains and it is much cheaper here than anywhere else.  They also have several shelves of reduce priced bread because it is slightly old.  If you have a big family though you probably can eat it before it molds. 

Cereal is one of those things that can go as low as 50 cents or less per box if you wait for a sale and stock up.  Click here and see a post about cereal that I got incredibly cheap.  Look for cereal that is low in sugar and says “whole grain.”  

Brown rice, barley and oatmeal are very cheap whole grains that can be bought in the bulk food section for less than 80 cents a pound.

5.  Include a small amount of healthy fat everyday.  Healthy fats are monounsaturated, polyunsaturarted and omega-3 fatty acid.  In small amounts, these types of fats help keep inflammation down, prevent heart disease and may be part of a healthy brain development in babies.  While my baby boy was drinking whole milk, between the ages 1-2 years old I bought Organic Whole milk which included DHA a healthy fat added to his milk.  DHA may help with healthy brain development.  Include a small dab of nuts, seeds, olives, extra virgin olive oil, avocados or fish everyday to get these healthy fats. 

Because you only need a small dab of these I don’t worry too much about the cost.  However I have been able to buy my extra virgin olive oil when it was on sale and with a manufacture coupon. 

6.  Get enough calcium and Vit. D. Most American’s are deficient in Vit. D.  Unless you get at least 15 minutes of sunlight on your skin every day you have to get it from canned fish with bones, or fortified foods.  There is even promising evidence that the current RDA for Vit. D, 400 IU’s per day for adults has been set too low and that there may be many more health benefits with higher intakes.  Calcium is also important for bone health and preventing osteoporsis.  Check out this link for calcium and Vit. D for information about getting enough calcium and Vit. D and the recommended amounts. 

Just today I bought Yoplait Yogurt for 16 cents a cup, check it out here!!!  So follow my blog and I will try to point out how to get cheap calcium and vit. D rich foods.

7.  Don’t spend a lot of money on weight loss programs!  The weight loss industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Most pills and programs can not demonstrate results that are lasting.  In the ongoing National Weight Loss Registry, over 5,000 individuals have been surveyed who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept up off for more than 5 years.  The survey results indicate that 45% were able to do it without the help of anyone.  There are plenty of free helps on the internet: 
CalorieKing.com:  do food searches to find the nutrition facts of any food for free.
TheDailyPlate.com:  track the calories of what you are eating everyday.
FreeWeightLoss.com:  find 100 ways to cut 100 calories
Calorie-Counter.net:  various activities and how many calories you can burn in 1 hour.
My recommendation if you’re trying to lose weight is let time do the work.  When you try to lose it too fast your bodies survival mechanisms work against you and making extreme changes are too hard to sustain.  Look for a small change that you can make such as, finding 100-500 Calories of food that you eat everyday that your willing to cut out or burn 100-500 Calories per day doing extra activity.  Just cutting or burning an extra 100 Calories per day will lead to 10#’s of weight loss per year, 200 calories per day will lead to 20#’s/year, 300 Calories per day will lead to 30#’s/year, and on and on.

Small changes add up over time:  Cutting one 16 oz Starbuck’s Mocha per day will save you $1280 and could lead to 34 pounds weight loss in a year.

Please leave a comment and share any ways you have found to eat healthy for cheap.