It’s easy to think meal prepping can be too expensive to try – buying foods in bulk, organic everything, getting enough food for three meals a day plus snacks. Thinking these are necessary for successful meal planning can be discouraging. And having a big food budget is definitely easier for healthy eating, but it can be done on a budget.
Shop Around
Don’t stick to one location for all of your groceries. While one place may offer the best deals on canned goods or baking essentials, its produce selection could be lacking or heavily overpriced. Find a place with affordable and quality produce and others for your bulk items, frozen goods, and anything else you might need.
Stay with products that are in Season
Produce can be ridiculously expensive if you don’t know what’s in season. Double check what fresh fruits and veggies are on sale and popular right now, then plan your recipes based on that. There’s no need to struggle by spending obscene amounts on Brussels sprouts in the summer when corn, eggplant, and peppers are at their peak and ready to be eaten.
Don’t Fall into the Hype
If every recipe you’re looking at includes cashew cream, that doesn’t mean it can’t still be healthy if you use something else (regular cream, coconut cream, etc.). Raw (and regular) cashews are very expensive, and I’d personally rather just snack on them than soak them in water and puree to make a sauce. At roughly $9 for two cups of nuts, it’s not affordable to buy into this “healthier” alternative. You can still be healthy and use less hyped-up ingredients that’ll easily fit into your budget.
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