Eating Healthy On A Budget Good morning and thank you for taking the time to be here today. My name is Hannah Yount. I’m one of the dietetic interns with WKU. Today’s lesson is about a topic that I quite a bit of experience with – Eating Healthy on a Budget. Many people believe that eating healthy is expensive, and it certainly can be, but with the application of knowledge and some occasional math, you will find that eating healthy doesn’t have to be as expensive as people think. Before we begin, I have a quick pre-test for you all so I can determine how effective this lesson was. Hannah Yount WKU Dietetic Intern

Eating Healthy on a Budget, Tips and Tricks! Make a PLAN! Buy in bulk. Double a recipe and freeze half of it for another day. Supplement your meat. Buy the generic. Coupons, coupons, coupons! Make a PLAN: this could be a meal plan for the week, two weeks, the month, however long you want to try to plan for. Once you have a plan, you can start making a list. Having a grocery list will help you buy only the groceries you need for the week. Without a list, you may not remember what exactly you have at home and you could end up buying extra products that you already have. Shopping without a list also encourages impulse buys. When I shop by myself, I get exactly what’s on my list and I can spend $30 or less on enough groceries for two people for a week. When my fiance goes shopping with me, however, he never makes a list and wants to go through all the isles and grab everything that he thinks he would like. He will sometimes spend twice as much as I do and all he has are random things and snacks that you couldn’t begin to make a meal with. Many times, the cost per unit is cheaper if you are able to buy items in bulk. For example, the cereal in bags at Wal-Mart is cheaper per ounce than buying the same cereal in a smaller box. Buying in bulk ties in to the next tip as well. Double a recipe and freeze half of it for another day. Or sometimes, if you have a small family or are like me and are only cooking for two people, you can freeze half of a standard recipe and get two meals out of one. Freezing half of what you cook will also cut down on waste, because there will be less leftovers that may or may not get eaten, which can be a huge waste of money. Supplement your meats. Meat can be extremely expensive. You can really stretch your meats by adding in beans. If your recipe usually calls for a pound of ground beef, try using half a pound instead and adding in a can of black or pinto beans. Then you can freeze the other half and use it later in another recipe. Buy the generic. You can almost always find a generic brand of a name brand product. Sometimes the quality of generic brands may be less, but often times, the quality is the same and the generic is generally much, much cheaper.

Coupons, Sales, and Discounts Can be found online Printable coupon websites, store websites, promotional emails In newspapers/catalogs Coupon booklets or cards Store cards One way to make eating healthy fit into your budget is to use coupons. Coupons can be found many places. There are many websites like coupons.com, thekrazycouponlady.com, coupons.walmart.com, and kroger.com/coupons. One source states that the Sunday Newspaper is the best place to find print coupons. They are in the section with the store weekly adds. Coupon booklets or cards seem like they are always being sold by some organization, whether it be the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or just class fundraisers. They can be purchased and used at various stores and restaurants. Booklets are also often handed out to students on the WKU campus by the SGA. Stores like Kroger run weekly specials if you have a card with that store (Kroger Card). When you use the card, it tracks what products you are buying, and after a certain number of purchases, allows the store to start sending you more individualized coupons in the mail based on your past purchases. You also become eligible for in-store specials like the “10 for 10” at Kroger. My favorite is when the Greek Yogurt is on the “10 for 10” sale.

Shop Seasonal – Spring (March, April, May) Fruits Vegetables Apricots Honeydew Mango Oranges Pineapple Strawberries Asparagus Broccoli Corn Green peas Snow peas Spinach Fresh fruits and vegetables will be less expensive when they are in season and they are healthier for you. Although canned fruits and vegetables are healthy, they can be high in added sugar or sodium, depending on how they are processed. Fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables are your healthiest options. You can visit www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org to find lists of fruits and vegetables that are in season in the Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and/or all year. On this slide, I have just listed some of the more common fruits and vegetables that are in season right now.

I have prepared a sample recipe for you today called Tailgater Caviar I have prepared a sample recipe for you today called Tailgater Caviar. This recipe actually came from my Mother, and she used it in a couple of nutrition classes over the summer. My family actually altered this recipe and added whole wheat pasta to make it a meal. Adding the pasta would increase the cost of the recipe by less than a dollar, which would make the cost per serving around $0.50. If you were going to make this recipe into a meal and change the serving size to 1 cup instead of a half of a cup, the cost per serving would still only be $1.00. You could easily add some vegetables like green beans or broccoli and the whole family could eat dinner for less than $2.50 per person.

Sample Three Day Meal Plan Breakfast Lunch Dinner Monday (Meatless Monday!) Cereal with Skim Milk, Fruit PB & J, Fruit, Cheese and Crackers OR Leftovers Spaghetti with Diced Veggies, Garlic Bread, Steamed Broccoli Tuesday Half a Bagel, Low Fat Cream Cheese, Fruit Ham Sandwich, Fruit, Cheese Stick Grilled Chicken Breast, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans Wednesday Oatmeal made with Skim Milk, Fruit PB & J Sandwich, Fruit, Cheese and Crackers Beef or Chicken Tacos, Grilled Peppers and Onions, Toppings Example meal plan.

Sample Shopping List Bagels (Whole Wheat) Cereal Oatmeal (Steel Cut) Peanut Butter Jelly Ham/Lunch Meat Bread (Whole Wheat) Cheese Fruit (Fresh, frozen, canned) Crackers Skim Milk Spaghetti Sauce Pasta (Whole Wheat) Green Peppers (x2) Onion (x2) Broccoli Chicken Breast Potatoes Green Beans (Fresh, frozen, canned) Ground meat Tortillas Tomatoes Shredded Cheese Salsa Taco Seasoning This may look like a really long list for only three days of meals, but you have to think about the sizes. For example, bagels will come in a bag of six, if you keep them refrigerated and only have half of one for breakfast, that will make 12 separate breakfasts. Ect.

Questions? Hopefully this presentation has shown that it is not impossible to eat healthy on a budget if you have some knowledge and are willing to use a little math. I really hope that you enjoyed this presentation! Are there any questions? I also have a post-test that is the same as the pre-test you took earlier and an evaluation of myself. Thank you for your time.