Eating Healthy on a Budget

Hope: [00:00:00] Do you want to wake up feeling like you are stepping into who you are meant to be? Into the best possible version of you? What if I told you that the key to your best life, health, and happiness are all around you? You just have to find what works for you. I’m Hope Pedraza, and I believe that there isn’t just one way to live a healthy and meaningful life.

And that all you need is a little inspiration to make changes that last from the inside out. Each week, I’ll be sharing tangible tips and inspirational interviews to help you on your journey. These are the steps to take to improve your life and live with purpose. This is Hopeful and Wholesome. Hey, y’all. Thanks for listening today. I’ve got a quick episode today talking about eating healthy on a budget.

I know one of the first things I hear from people when we’re talking about eating healthy is, um, They’re worried about how much it’s going to cost. I gotta buy all these weird things, gotta buy a bunch of produce, and they think it costs a ton. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Eating healthy does not have to be expensive.

There are lots of ways that you can get around [00:01:00] buying the expensive stuff, so that’s what I want to talk about today. So let’s look at how to save money when eating healthy. Now, yes, fresh produce is always ideal, fresh organic produce, but we all know that eating organic is a little bit more expensive than eating the conventional fruits and vegetables.

So frozen fruits and veggies are great. There’s nothing wrong with eating frozen fruits and veggies. The texture of course is not going to be the same, but for the most part, when you’re eating frozen fruit and vegetables, They’ve all been flash frozen, so the nutrients are really the same. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Frozen fruits and veggies are going to save you a ton of money. Also, buying canned foods. Canned beans. Canned beans are great. Now, I do recommend that you look for BPA free cans. You want to avoid chemicals as much as possible. But we’re eating canned beans. You’re still getting the great stuff, even finding dried beans.

Beans are a great source of nutrition, great source of protein, fiber, a lot of vitamins, minerals. They’re great. So, [00:02:00] canned beans, dried beans, super cheap. You can make tons of recipes, full meals, around different beans. Another thing. to keep your pantry stocked. Now, before you start cooking, there are a few basic things to have, right?

So you want to always have oil, preferably a not commercial oil. So I’m talking about really ideally you want to have extra virgin olive oil, avoid things like canola oil or corn oil or safe or oil. Those industrial oils really, are really inflammatory. They’re high in omega 6s, which most of us get way too many of those anyway.

So, you can get things like avocado oil. Yeah, well, avocado oil, but that is going to be a little bit more expensive. But if you just buy extra virgin olive oil, you can get it for the cheap, for the most part. Olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, spices. Spices are a great investment to make, and they last forever.

And you can make a million different dishes out of one dish just on changing up the spices. Having cans in your pantry. [00:03:00] Cans of tomatoes, cans of beans, having things like pasta and rice and lentils. All of these things are easy things to keep in your pantry. You can have them all the time. Super cheap.

Things like potatoes. Potatoes are super cheap. Frozen fruits and vegetables. All of these things you can keep in your pantry. Make quick and healthy dishes without you having to go to the grocery store all the time and without having to spend a ton of money to stock up your pantry, right? Now, consider plant based protein, so things to eat that are more plant based.

Now, I know it might sound crazy, but actually, they’re typically cheaper than meat. These are things like beans, that I’ve already mentioned. Things like lentils, beans, that’s kind of under the same umbrella. Tofu. Tofu is actually very cheap. Now, when you’re buying tofu, I do recommend you get the organic, non GMO.

Eggs are super cheap. So when we’re thinking of other sources of protein besides meat, You can save a lot of money that way. Another tip is don’t buy salad [00:04:00] dressing. Salad dressing is one of those things that you can make so quick at home and so easily. And salad dressing is like the biggest racket. Like they really do charge you a lot for really nothing.

And not to mention most of the salad dressings in the store are super poor quality and the ones that are good quality are really expensive and you can make your own at home. And for like a tenth of the price so get you a mason jar Put some oils and different vinegar salt peppers and spices some garlic lemon juice You can make your own dressing so easy that saves a ton of money Another tip is try to buy in bulk go down the bulk aisle when you can When you avoid the extra packaging, it is going to save you money.

So things like quinoa, and rice, and beans, and nuts, and seeds, all those things that can be bought in bulk, buy it in bulk. You can also buy spices in the bulk aisle. It’s going to save you a ton of money than buying the ones in the little glass or plastic little shaker containers. So buy in bulk when you can.[00:05:00] 

Now here’s the other thing. I know I did recommend that you would buy, you know, fresh organic fruits and vegetables. But I totally get it that when you’re shopping on a budget or you’re trying to save dollars Buy organic really can get expensive depending on you know what you’re getting So, there is a good rule of thumb here, and I like to keep this kind of in the back of my mind when I’m looking at when to buy organic and when to not.

So there’s a list that comes out every year, the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen, and these are the fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated with pesticides and those that are the least contaminated. So, in other words, when you’re thinking of what to buy organic and what not to buy organic, the ones that are least contaminated are the ones that you should feel okay about when you buy just the conventional type, right?

So I’m going to read through the list here, just so you kind of have this in the back of your head. So when you are shopping, think about buying these foods that are most contaminated, think of buying those organic, and then going conventional with the others. So, first starting with the dirty dozen. [00:06:00] These are the foods that are considered to be the most contaminated with pesticides.

Strawberries, and I will say, strawberries are also one of the things, if you don’t buy them organic, they tend to have, like, artificial dyes and stuff in them to make them look better. You really should be buying organic strawberries. So, that’s my soapbox moment. Moving on. Dirty Dozens. So, we’re looking at strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery, potatoes, and hot peppers.

So if you kind of go through that list, it’s really if you think of the fruits and vegetables that have the most porous surfaces, right? The softest surfaces. You’re thinking of strawberries or kale, spinach, the softer. So it can get into those fruits and vegetables easier, right? Celery, tomatoes, these are softer fruits.

Now, let’s look at the clean 15. These are the ones that are least contaminated. So you shouldn’t feel bad about [00:07:00] buying conventional here first is avocados. First and foremost, avocados. I will say a lot of times buying organic avocados is kind of a waste. So you should feel free to buy conventional avocados.

All right, sweet corn, pineapples, Onions, papayas, peas, frozen too, frozen peas as well, eggplants, asparagus, cauliflower, cantaloupes, broccoli, mushrooms, cabbage, honeydew melon, and kiwis. So those are typically the ones, and for the most part, those have kind of, most of these fruits and vegetables have a kind of a harder outer layer, so it kind of protects them against pesticides.

So keep that list in your back pocket, keep it in the back of your head. When you’re looking at buying organic or not I hope some of these tips resonated with you because really and truly eating healthy does not have to be expensive There’s so many shortcuts ways that you can save money And still eat healthy and not have to go get fast food or make [00:08:00] food.

That’s not so healthy So, and I hope you enjoyed those tips. Let me know if you have any more that you’d like to share. I’d love to hear your tips and I’ll see you next time. Thanks for listening to Hopeful and Wholesome, y’all. If you found value in this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review to let me know what you thought.

I’d love to know what you find useful in these episodes so I know how I can provide the most value I can to my listeners. And if you have topics that you want to know more about, I’d love to hear those as well. So shoot me a message on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. It’s at the Hope Pedraza or visit my website hopefulandwholesome.

com. Thanks y’all.