How To Eat Healthier and Save Money

"It's too expensive to eat healthy."

Whaaaaaaat?? I hear this excuse used way too often and it's not true. If you want to eat healthy and save money you are in luck, because these two goals go together so well. In this blog I'm going to take the time to explain exactly how you can do this. The best news is that it's completely attainable for everyone. Yes, even if you have a big family with lots of kids!

I think when people hear me say "it's cheaper to eat healthy" a red flag immediately goes off in their head. They think: "now wait a minute, I go to the grocery store and it's pretty clear to me that when I see organic potatoes at $1.50 per pound and non-organic potatoes priced at like $.75 per pound I know that it costs more to eat healthy!" Sure, it's true that organic food costs more, but eating a healthy diet is much more involved than just simply buying organic produce, that's just one piece of the healthy eating puzzle. There are more pieces! And when you put all of the healthy eating puzzle pieces together the result will be less expensive. The savings in other areas go above and beyond compensating for the cost of organic goods.

The next puzzle piece I want to talk about is eating out. How often do you and your family members eat out? At the end of 2010 my husband and I took the time to go over our finances to see where we could do better in 2011. One of the most astonishing areas was eating out. We were spending over $200 a month on eating out between the two of us. And our grocery bill was only $450 for a month. So we decided to cut down on that eating out number. We wanted to do that anyway since most restaurants are slowly killing their customers with huge meals that have incredibly high levels of sugar, fat and salt. So we challenged ourselves to not spend more than $100 on eating out in the month of January. We agreed that we didn't care if our grocery  bill went up a little bit because if it. It would be a healthier change, so it would be worth it!

Well at the end of the month we were surprised to see that we had only spent $30 on eating out that month. That's right we saved $170 in one month and all we had to do was write "$100" on our fridge so we'd see it everyday as a reminder of our goal. That's a huge savings for us, that's more than my monthly student loan payment! And the coolest part was when we found out that our grocery bill didn't go up at all. Ironically, even though we were buying more groceries to make an extra meal each week, our bill went down! In the month of January we spent $380 on groceries when we normally spend $450. Another $70 saved!

Which brings me to the next piece of the puzzle: a little effort goes a long way! We were worried about our grocery bill going up, so we started thinking in new ways. After each trip to the grocery store we would look at our receipt, find the most expensive items and ask ourselves: "could we make this ourselves?" The first week we noticed that vegetable stock was costing us over $7.00 for two cartons (8 cups). We use vegetable stock in a lot of recipes! So when we got home I searched for how to make your own. Then, a couple days later, my husband made some. He got 10 cups out of it, and it was free! There is really no cost in making your own vegetable broth. We will never go back to buying it at the store again.

The next week we saw that bread was our most expensive item. And that was a great one because obviously you can make that at home. Now we bake our own 100% whole wheat bread at home each week. It costs about half the price of buying a loaf at the store and it's way better for us. We know it's 100% whole wheat, and it has way less sodium. It tastes so fresh!!! I don't think we'll ever go back to buying bread at the store. You might think this is time consuming, but my husband and I both work more than 40 hours a week and we easily get it done. We make time for it because we value our money and our health.

The next piece of the puzzle is to avoid buying junk food. Carefully plan and choose your recipes for the upcoming week. Sit down once a week with whoever is willing out of your family and look through your cookbooks, magazines, online, etc. for meals. Tim and I find that four meals a week is the perfect amount of food for us. Once you have picked out the meals you'll be making, write down all the ingredients you'll need and make sure you don't put anything on your list that you already have in your kitchen. Then add whatever else you need to your list but don't add anything that will be damaging to your health. No chips, no cookies, no ice cream, no candy, no sweetened beverages! Stick with what you actually need and don't put anything extra on there. When you go to the store, stick to what is on your list and avoid impulse buys. Not buying junk will save you so much money.

I am expecting that a lot of people won't be able to avoid buying junk food all together. "Junk food" addictions are prevalent in America. But try your hardest and take baby steps to get there. It is possible and it is a huge savings. Those processed snacks (which I like to call dead food) really do add up in price and in pounds of fat on your body. Instead, buy fresh fruit or veggies as a snack. If you replace your usual oreos, doritos and 100 calorie snack packs with apples, bananas and carrot sticks you will save money and your health will improve.

Once you are creating and eating healthy dinners at home, you will undoubtedly have leftovers. So the last piece of the puzzle is to eat every last bite of your leftovers. Make the most of your money! Tim and I  bring leftovers to work for lunch all week. It works out great, we save a lot of money by not buying extra food for lunches. And one of the side effects of only buying the precise amount of food we need each week, and eating ALL of the leftovers is a wide open, clean refrigerator with nothing rotting inside of it. :]

To recap:

1) Eat out much less
2) Buy organic
3) Don't buy junk food
4) Think homemade
5) Eat all leftovers

If you do all of this and the meals you choose are truly good for you, then your health and wealth will have no choice but to improve!

The Real Benefit of Fruits and Vegetables

It was recently brought to my attention that there has been some talk in the media lately about fruits and vegetables not being all that they are cracked up to be. Some things have been said about how they don't contain as many vitamins as people think and that antioxidants don't really do anything. My guess is that this information exists as a reaction to the Obama Administration's recent proposal for new school food standards.

There is actually a plethora of vitamins found in fruits and vegetables. And although I will admit that the media has exaggerated the benefits of antioxidants, it would still be a mistake to say that they have no benefit. We know that they are beneficial, but studies are still being done to pinpoint how big of an impact they have when it comes to preventing certain diseases.

Meanwhile I think anyone who reads or hears these comments and takes them to heart is unfortunately unaware of the real reasons we should be getting at least 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables a day. I'll give it to you in one word: fiber.  Meat and junk food do not contain fiber. And those little fiber granola bars aren't going to cut it (I won't get into that right now, I could do a whole entire blog about it.) Our bodies need the fiber from fruits and veggies in order to cleanse our bodies on the inside, dragging toxins out and regulating our bodies. Also when fiber is consumed it lowers the amount of cholesterol our bodies absorb after we eat  not-so-healthy foods.

Without the right amount of fiber in the diet, people are more likely to succumb to all the major killers of Americans such as heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. Yet the average American only reaches half of his or her fiber quota.... and that's on a good day. A good way to reach that quota is to eat more fruits and veggies. They are loaded with fiber! Fiber is also filling. Which brings me to my next reason why fruits and veggies are so important. If you really eat those 2 cups of fruits and those 3 cups of vegetables in a day, you won't be hungry for any junk food! And that will save you a whole slew of other problems.

Don't believe everything you hear in the media. Stick with what has always been true: fruits and veggies are essential in maintaining a healthy body. Getting your fiber from them and filling up on them is crucial. And take it from someone who works in an elementary school, new school food standards are definitely in order.

Why Is The Government Stumped?

The government says they want healthier school lunches, but just can't afford to make them as healthy as we'd like. Why then are they putting twice the amount of food on these children's trays then they should be eating? This is not healthy. It seems like a no-brainer to me. They could free up a lot of money by feeding the children appropriate amounts of food!

I work at an elementary school and by my calculations the children were served approximated 600 calories at lunch today on their trays. What a waste considering the new dietary guidelines that the government just provided us with suggest that the average 2-8 year old should take in only 1,400 calories in a day. If you do the math you realize that the maximum amount of calories these little ones should be getting in a lunch should be around 450. But when you figure in snacks and large dinners it becomes evident that the calories in their lunch should be much less than 450. Yet today they were served approx. 600! That is a giant lunch. No wonder America is having budget and obesity issues.

The lunch today was "breakfast for lunch". The main course was a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. If a child ate the entire thing he/she would take in about 26 grams of protein. Do you know how many grams of protein an elementary aged child should be getting a day? Just 19 grams. 26 grams from just one meal? Talk about putting stress on their kidneys! Sausage, egg, and cheese all have generous amounts of protein (and fat). So here is my question. Why not make it an egg and cheese biscuit instead and not even buy the sausage? When you do that you save a LOT of money and you also prevent the children from going WAY over on their recommended protein intake for the day.

But more importantly, why is the American government coming out with these recommendations, clearly showing that they know better, and then still feeding the students of their schools these meals that are off the charts, and wrong in every aspect. Why don't they follow their own advice? There is a serious disconnect going on here.