Tips for Eating Healthy on A Budget

With food costs seemingly rising faster than pay increases for most, we face further challenges when it comes to finding affordable healthy options on the grocery store shelves.

The cost of living percentage added to our yearly paychecks doesn't quite seem to cover the added costs of living, especially our rising food costs.

As a busy mom of two bottomless pits here are some of my money saving tips that I use to help make a dent on those rising food costs.

- Bring your own bags. Not only is it good on the environment, but it saves you 5 cents per bag. Say you use 6 bags every time you grocery shop that is .30 cents. Even if you do that once a week it will save $15.60 dollars a year. That is just groceries, imagine if you did all retail locations...

-Coupons - This doesn't apply to everyone, as it depends on what you eat. I eat quite a bit of vegetables, some meat but no processed food so I haven't had much luck saving money with using coupons. I find the coupons I generally come across are yogurt, snacks, bars, cereals, paper goods (the major commercial brands) etc.. I have heard of people saving a lot of money couponing, I just unfortunately am not one of them.

- Menu Plan - Planning what you are eating for the week is very important. This way you have your plan, and grocery list on hand when you go to the store and you are not tempted to buy impulse items (you know those snacks near the cash register??). You can also plan your meals based on what is on sale in the flyers.