Suggestions for Eating Healthy on a Tight Budget

Inflation is hitting many people hard, but it doesn’t have to hurt their dietary health.

Eating healthy fresh foods is still possible in a tightened budget with a little planning, said Tiana Garber, a registered dietitian nutritionist with Intermountain Healthcare.

“A lot of money can be saved by doing a few things at home before heading to the grocery store,” Garber said. “Meal planning and checking the pantry and refrigerator for what you already have can bring the grocery bill down. So can cutting some of the foods or doing some easy-to-make sauces at home.”

Garber offers the following tips:

• Plan weekly or monthly meals in advance.
• Make a shopping list – look for sales and plan meals around them – and stick to it.
• Check before shopping what items you already have on hand.
• Buy seasonal fruits and vegetables and cut them yourself (pre-cut produce costs more).  Or, find canned options that contain no sugar and reduced sodium, and are packaged in water or 100 percent juice. Frozen produce without additives also are healthier and can be less expensive options.
• Buy foods in bulk – if this is too much food to finish before it spoils, split it with a friend.
• Buy dried instead of fresh herbs, especially if they are not in season.
• Make homemade soups, pasta sauces, and salad dressings.
• Buy blocks of cheese rather than grated, shredded, or sliced.
• Re-use.
• Buy extra when meat, poultry, or fish are on sale. Divide portions into smaller containers and freeze for the future.

“Another tip that can help: Comparison shop, even within the same store,” Garber said. “Sometimes looking at the unit price of foods and choosing the better bargain can add up to significant savings.”

For more information, go to IntermountainHealthcare.org/live-well.

About Intermountain Healthcare

Based in Utah with locations in seven states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Healthcare is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, medical groups with some 3,800 employed physicians and advanced practice providers, a health plans division with more than one million members called SelectHealth, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For more information, see Intermountain Healthcare.