“Eating Healthy is expensive!”…

Hmmm *pauses for a hot second*…. Majority of conversations I have concerning health go along these lines…

“what did you say?” ….. ” Eating healthy is expensive… I mean really i’ve tried, i’ve really tried but far too expensive & i’m broke. I can’t afford to spend all of my money on food” …. “But…” — “no, sorry, its just not for me”

Ok, its common knowledge that health is far more expensive in our society whereas unhealthy foods are not as expensive. I can totally understand that but this post is not aimed at those that have already given up on a healthy diet. If you are living on a budget of about £40-£45 pounds for a fortnights worth of shopping ,that is more than enough to stock up on healthy foods for your cupboards. Here are my top tips to help you stick to your budget and prevent going overboard.

• SHOPPING LIST- do not leave the house without one of these when going shopping. make sure to write down what exactly it is you need in order to prevent getting sidetracked or just picking anything that you think is healthy and dumping it in the basket.
• Needs over Wants – Ok so if you are on a budget you might sometimes need to choose what  will serve you most. for example do you really need to buy nuts? as a snack or could you just buy Salmon as that will aid you more in muscle development or whatever your goal is? following? sometimes we want to get snacks for those times when we feel slightly peckish but its not always necessary.
• Look for stores that aid your budget in terms of pricing- So I personally found that stores such as Lidl for example are cheaper with certain products such as Proteins and fruits, for example Lidl’s salmon is £2.29 for two fillets whereas Tescos and Asda’s ranges from £3.00 – £4.00, Mangos in Lidl are £85p each in Tescos it’s £1.50 each. Lidls are much bigger and ripen much quicker too. These differences at first might not seem that large but they most definitely add up.
• Look for sales and take the chance- what do i mean by this for example. Stores like Asda for example do Roll-backs, where they cut down prices sometimes just slightly and others drastically. Look for these and buy what you need, Tesco’s has a Reduced section where they reduce items as low as 75% off! Of course these items either expire on the day or the day after but if you buy chicken or fruits for example you can buy these and on exactly the same day put them in the freezer. This won’t affect the taste or health of your food whatsoever as its frozen. I find this works well for fruits and protein. As fruits you can add in to your smoothies straight away making them yummy. Holland and Barret also does sales occasionally, they have Penny sales- where you buy one and get the other item for a penny Or they have a buy one and get one half price, or buy one and get one free rarely.I find this is so useful for household essentials such as coconut oil, or herbs such as spirulina, etc…
• Meal prep!- Preparing your own food and being able to eat regular meals not only aid you health wise but also money wise. It saves you from buying snacks whilst on the go or just generally spending money when your out.
• Its not always stores  sometimes on-line – For example when buying herbs such as spirulina, flax seeds, chai seeds etc, you can shop on-line such as on eBay Amazon, they are sometimes cheaper than Holland and Barret for example but make sure they are legit.
• Buy a filter- Ok I hate fluoride infused chemical tasting , death threatening water. But water is expensive ( well considering your aiming to drink about 2-3 litres a day – don’t come cheap) buying a filter for the time being could help and reduce the amount of fluoride you intake. Another way is boiling water straight from the tap and leaving it to cool – put it in the fridge and its safe to drink! This also helps kill some chemicals added to our water, and bacteria etc.
•  Take it easy- Just because we say healthy food healthy living, doesn’t mean you have to purchase everything you deem “healthy” (lol) because there’s no point buying items you won’t eat either because you don’t like the taste or because  you don’t know how to cook. As my mother would say  don’t have long eyes. Watch what’s on your plate. Buy what you can currently afford (healthy foods of course)
• Don’t look for organic- whoaa! (haha) Organic is always good, fair trade products are always great too but if you can’t afford it just yet… chill. Take it easy ,buy the normal version and wait until you can afford those products. Just an example but in Sainsbury’s a normal cucumber is about £0.49p But an organic cucumber is £1.29… you can see the huge difference. Organic is great but these days companies use the label to pointlessly increase prices of items.