Tips To Healthy Eating On A Budget

Eating healthy on a strict budget has been challenging these past several months and I am always looking for new ideas to stretch our dollar. We've always shopped clearance items, but more recently we've been stocking up on reduced perishables. And to reduce wastage and get the most out of our bargain finds we use these steps:

Decide what will be used in this week's meals and set aside.
Wash chop, slice, and dice everything else. Then package them up in reusable containers and zip lock freezer bags and toss them in the freezer. We find it best to do them up in portion sizes.
Pull them out of the freezer as needed.

Right now we have a good stock of Smoothie Fruits portioned and frozen, ready to make a quick 1-serving smoothie for Christian before school each morning. There's pineapple, banana, peach, pear, and cantaloupe. They freeze great and taste just as delicious in a smoothie.

I'm very excited because I just read a new tip... "Yogurt close to expiration can be frozen to use in smoothies." I always see the individual yogurts at 50% off. They will be the perfect size for Christian's morning smoothie!!

Our newest food bargains came yesterday when we ran up on a clearance shelf. We got 2 bags jalapeno peppers, zucchini, celery and ginger root all at 50% off. Millard is going to make some stuffed jalapeno peppers and freeze them. They're the perfect little side. The fresh ginger I will peel and freeze so that when I need it I can pull it out, grate a little off, then stick it back in the freezer. We like to make a lot of asian sauces from scratch and the stash of ginger in the freezer will work out perfectly. The zucchini and celery will be used up in meals this week. We also found shredded Asiago cheese in the cooler that was near expiration and also reduced to 50% off. We stuffed that in the freezer and will be just fine when we need it later. We've frozen cheese several times before and it tastes just fine in our meals.

I'm always on the hunt for new tips. Please share any money-saving tips for healthy eating that you may have.

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