VP Health & Fitness

One of the most important things you need to learn when trying to change your eating habits to a healthier lifestyle is how to grocery shop.

Here are a couple of tips to help you get started:

Tip #1: Clean out your refrigerator and pantry.
Tip#2 Create a budget, make a list and stick to it!
Tip #3 Organic vs. Conventional Products
Tip #4 Read Labels
Tip #5 Remember the 3 S’s

CLICK HERE to read the entire article

And here are a couple of my own money saving ideas that you can use while still eating healthy:

Grocery Shopping Strategies & Money saving tips:

• Eggs, eggs, eggs!  They are cheap & have good quality protein in them. Whole eggs are way cheaper than egg beaters– just throw out the yolk.
• Make it yourself!!  Instead of buying protein bars, make your own!  It’s a lot cheaper and better for you.  You have more control over the ingredients and you can choose what type of ingredients you want.  This also applies to everything - pre-packaged food costs more and has a lot of unnecessary stuff, such as sodium.   
• Dried beans instead of canned beans.  Again, you get much better value without all the preservatives - you just gotta cook them!
• Only buy canned goods when they are on sale & buy the store brand ones instead of the name brand ones.
• Oatmeal is super cheap.  The Walmart brand oatmeal is JUST AS GOOD as the Quaker kind

• Fresh veggies getting a little too soft? MAKE SOUP. Use a bouillon cube instead of canned broth - much cheaper.

• Potatoes in bulk - they are very versatile & are a great source of carbohydrates. 

• Work with what the season has to offer & only buy fruits & veggies that are in season.

• Frozen veggies are cheap.  I buy them by the bulk. Green beans, broccoli, stir fry veggies.

• Plan your meals ahead of time so you will know EXACTLY what you need when you go grocery shopping.

• If you do go out to eat at restaurants you can use the following strategies to eat a healthy & non-expensive meal:

  • Sign up for online for newsletters for the restaurant - they often send you coupons in the email that you can print out and take to the restaurant.
  • Invest in a good coupon book such as the Entertainment Book or other discount cards.
  • And finally, see if you can find the restaurant at Healthy Dining Finder  which is a FREE useful resource for restaurants that offer healthy entree choices.

 ** Remember: The cleaner you eat, the less it cost. Seriously. You are not paying for all the packaging, advertising, etc, that are on all the processed foods.

Here are other ideas that you can use:

Maggie Wang’s list of healthy & frugal food & grocery shopping ideas

Finding healthy foods at the grocery store

Healthy Grocery Shopping List

Bodybuilding.com - a healthy Grocery shopping List

~ Vilma

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