Healthy Eating {On a Budget}

During my 9 years of spiritual preparation to becoming a vegetarian I often used the excuse, "it's just too expensive." I've heard this excuse time and time again and I totally sympathize. There is a lot of truth to to this concern. We want to eat and feed our families healthily BUT the pocket book only stretches so far each month.

In many cases it is cheaper to buy Big Macs for the whole family rather than fresh organic fruits and vegetables but we don't want to feed Big Macs to our kids everyday. How about those extreme couponers? They boast, "I just got 25 boxes of fruit loops for .25, 30 boxes of pop tarts for only $3 and 14 bags for potato chips for $2.50!!!" I think WOW - that's a really bad deal! That's a whole heck of a lot of JUNK you just paid hard earned money for. I'm not against using coupons - NOT AT ALL - I'm against using them just because you can get a "good deal". If your getting processed, refined and sugary foods for cheap - you are not getting a good deal. You're going to end up paying way more in medical and dental bills later on than you saved at the grocery store. I always say, "If you have a great coupon ask yourself is this a GOOD {Health} DEAL {Choice}?" I encourage you to do the same.

As with so many things in life we need to find the happy medium, the right balance. Ronda and I want to show you how to get the best deal for your health! This is the first of many posts about how to feeding your family -big or small - on a budget.

First things first. Many of you will need to change the way you shop. Here are a few examples:

• Instead of buying what you need for a weeks worth of meals buy things you use often in bulk. I use a lot of corn, broccoli, spinach, strawberries which I buy frozen in huge bags from Costco. I also buy carrot juice (which freezes well), whole wheat tortillas, freeze dried fruit, organic tortilla chips, organic salsa, canned diced tomatoes, honey (which all last a long time)...ect. in bulk at Costco for a fraction of the cost (example: one 16 oz bag of organic frozen corn can cost up to $3.99 you can buy a 5lb bad of frozen organic corn for as little as $5.99)
  
• Also remember that dried beans are much cheaper than canned. {More on beans in bulk later}
• Buying and grinding your own grains is much cheaper than buying whole grain flours. {More on buying in bulk and grinding your own grains to come}
  
• Grow your own produce if you have any bit of space that gets 6-8 hours or more of sunshine there is a lot you can do - even on your window sill. {Of course there will be more on this topic as well}
• Homemade! There are many things that you can make yourself that are cheaper and healthier than what you would buy in the store, for example: vegetable broth, breads granola...etc.
  

These are just a few ideas to help you get started. Remember that it's most likely going to be a little more expensive when you first start out just because you are trying new things and are new to this. But you are also not buying meat anymore and that is often the most expensive thing on your weekly grocery list - so don't worry too much about it and know that we'll help you work out the kinks so you can have the best of both worlds!