Hi friends! At long last, I’m back behind the camera. (And believe me, you’ll be able to tell how long I was gone! But if anything is worth doing [or restarting], it’s worth doing poorly! So, I hope you enjoy ‘Nourish Yourself on Any Budget.’)
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March is National Nutrition Month. The theme this year is “Beyond the Table.”
Week 1’s focus is “Stay Nourished on Any Budget.”
What comes to mind for you when you hear about eating on a budget? The first thought (aside from inflation of grocery prices and “shrinkflation” of grocery packaging) that crosses my mind is Dave Ramsey saying “rice and beans, beans and rice” day in, day out as a budget-friendly meal for people prioritizing debt paydown.
While that would likely be a low-cost option, there are other factors we should consider. With that statement, his intent is that people are only eating that way for a certain period of time. Sure, it could be several months up to a couple years, but there is still an end date in sight.
When we think of nourishing ourselves and our families on a budget, we want to probably consider something a bit more sustainable for the long term.
A big factor with controlling grocery costs is learning to minimize food waste. We don’t want to be just throwing our money in the trash each week when we haven’t eaten what we’ve bought. For my family, that’s meant meal planning for the week so we buy from our list and know when we’re planning to utilize all that we’ve bought.
It might also include getting different forms of foods, like frozen or canned, so they are less expensive to purchase and also last longer than fresh.
Meal Planning Challenges
In a profession where I’ve spent my schooling discussing food in all capacities and speaking to clients about food and their systems each day, I’ll be the first to say that meal planning does not come naturally to me. We’ve adjusted over the years to find a meal planning system that works for us at our different stages of life. (I’ve talked about that here, here, and here.)
Right now, we plan for about 4 meals each week. We’ve realized that if we plan for cooking five meals or more each week, we either don’t actually cook that often and food goes bad before we can use it OR we have too many leftovers that we’re not eating and those go bad before we can eat them (or we just forget they’re there because they’re not written into the meal plan).
One of the challenges that we face as a family of five is that it seems there is always at least one person who doesn’t like what we’re cooking for dinner. We’ve had many talks about this with our kids that not every meal can be our favorite meal, but we need to eat enough of it to get us through until the next meal. It’s a work in progress. 😉
Don’t Forget Food Safety!
In terms of leftovers or batch cooking, you also want to make sure you’re following food safety protocols. You don’t want to be forced to throw out food because it’s been kept at an unsafe temperature for too long. The website FoodSafety.gov is a good resource if you’re unsure what the proper storage is for different foods.
Finally, with food prices so high lately, if you’re doing so many things to try to cut costs and it’s still a challenge, consider looking into if you qualify for assistance programs, like SNAP or WIC.
So, help the rest of us out – what are your favorite ways to cut your food budget?
And if food or eating feels overwhelming right now, please know you’re not alone. Reach out to see about scheduling an appointment to help boost your food confidence.
Until next time!