Check Out Our Website

Don’t forget to check out our website for more good tips and articles, as well has great discussions at our Forums.

Thrifty Hearts

Forums

Tips to Make Your Frugal Diet More Healthy

Part 3 of a 4 part series about eating the Frugalest Diet and Healthy too.

Part 1: Frugal-est Meals and Healthy Too!

Part 2: Getting Your Family to Accept a Healthier Diet

In our last 2 posts, we talked about how it is possible to eat frugal and healthy. In this post I will share tips to buy and cook healthy meals that don’t cost a fortune.

In the American culture we often see a rich diet as a healthy diet, and a frugal diet as a poor diet. Funny thing is if you really look at the costs you find the frugal and healthy don?t have to exist in separate sentences, or social classes. The key to keeping things frugal AND healthy is to keep things simple. Here are some tips to do just that.

1) Processed Foods Are Out: This really should be a no brainer, but many people justify that if it is on sale, or they have a coupon that makes it better. The problem is, that processed foods are nutritional vacuums. Why waste any money on food that is not doing the job it is supposed to be doing, which is nourishing your body.That is simply not frugal.

2) Buy foods in their Natural form only: Stay away from packaged foods, if at all possible, chances are good you paying for that packaging. Don’t buy your mashed potatoes already mashed, and your chili already made, why pay for some one else to do the work for you? Plus you are paying for additives, and preservatives designed to make it look and taste better when you can do that at home without the chemicals for free!

3) Base your meals on low cost Vegetables, beans, grains and fruits: We all need some variety from time to time, but if you base the majority of your meals on low cost items, you can build around that. Start with potatoes, root vegetables, greens, oatmeal and other grains, dried beans, rice, apples, bananas, and oranges.

4) Add a few Items that are in season: Seasonal buying is a great way to save money and add variety. When in season, foods are at their prime, and are usually at their cheapest. And an added bonus is fresher, local, in season produce is normally higher in nutrients.

5) Buy extra and save for later: When produce is in season, buy extra and freeze. Freezing preserves nutrients,you save money and add variety to your diet at a time when these items are at a higher price. We buy blueberries in July, freeze them, and have them thru the winter.

6) Eliminate or limit  expensive Dairy and meat products. Face it, the majority of high fat items are animal based, or processed junk foods. If you need to give your kids milk, that is fine, but most kids get way more dairy in a day than they need. Once you figure in the milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream it is not hard to go way over the recommended amounts. Acquaint yourself with the daily recommendations and try to stick to them. Meat should be used as a condiment, not a main course and should never be fed more than once a day. It has taken on an over important role in our diets, and needs to be put back in perspective. It is only a small fraction of our daily calories at best, and can be cut back to a few days a week with not ill effects.

7) Be prepared to cook: Ok so yes you need to learn to cook. Is that so bad if the results is a much lower food bill and a much healthier and productive family? Are you willing to trade cavities, obesity, and diabetes for greater health, behavior and happiness?

I know you are wondering where to find all these great recipes? In the last part of my series I will share a few tried and true recipes, sites and ideas that will help you on your path to frugal eating and greater health.

Getting Your Family to Accept a Healthier Diet

Part 2 of a series on Frugal Healthy meals

Part 1 Frugal-est Meals and Healthy Too!

One of the most difficult issues facing parents today, is how to adapt a families diet, to create Healthy and frugal at the same time. It takes a bit of adapting on the part of your family members, and it is your job to figure out how to make that transition as painless as possible. As I pointed out in my last article, the problem with many frugal diets is that they contain far too much processed foods and foods high in fat, sugar, and other detrimental chemicals and additives. The challenge is to feed your family frugally but to keep the nutrient density of the foods you serve as high as possible. How to do that without your family rebelling is the biggest problem you face. Here are a few techniques that might help you get past the resistance of family members.

The Sneak Technique

If there is one thing being a parent does is teach us to be creative and yes down right sneaky. When our little ones are babies we learn to sneak their veggies in with their fruits, and mix that dreaded meat in with the apple sauce. It does not change much as they become toddlers as we tuck bits of vegetables in just about anything in an attempt to feed them a balanced diet.

As you work to adapt your families diet, now is the time to use this technique again. Even the most hard core meat and potatoes man can be fooled here, with a bit a careful planning and thought.

Choose meals that can be adapted easily, Soups, stews, casseroles, meat loafs, rice dishes can all be easily altered. Start by slowly cutting down on the amount of meat in each dish, by perhaps 1/4 or if your family is a bit more relaxed and flexible 1/2. Substitute beans, or veggies for the meat removed. Given the cost of meat, this one move alone could save you 2-4$ per dish and result in less fat and more healthy nutrients.

One At a Time Please

Another Technique would be to simply add one dish to the average meal to see if your family will accept it. Choose one dish, that could be paired with another main dish they are used to,  dress it up a bit to make it look interesting, and see if they will eat it. If they don’t eat it don’t be discouraged this takes time, next time try a different dish. Also don’t let on to your family what you are doing, so they don’t go into the meal with preconceived misgivings.

Substitutions

IF you are feeling really brave how about trying a veggie loaf instead of meat loaf? or Tvp for tacos? Don’t tell them anything is different and see if they notice.

Have a Meatless Fiesta

Believe it or not, mexican food lends itself exceptionally well to being meatless and can be VERY frugal. There are so many wonderful flavors, that meat can be easily missed, and dairy can be reduced or excluded all together.

Pick one night of the week to be Meatless

Make it a celebration, or tell the family that they are all trying to support the environment that week. The meat industry has been found to be the single worst contributor to Global warming. What better way to save on your budget, by helping the environment as well.

Encourage your family to eat alternatives to Cereal.

Seriously, cereal and milk are probably 30% of your budget, and they don’t need to be. Yes I know, kids need milk, well actually there are studies to say they can get their calcium intake in much healthier and frugal ways than Milk, but at the end of the day, most kids consume far more milk than they really need. Calcium is also in a number of plant based foods, and if they are getting adequate amounts of them then the amount of Milk they really need is much smaller than the average child gets daily. Plus Cereal is the biggest rip off of the 21st Century. For something that is Sugar, and a combination of wheat, corn and oats to cost as much as it does ought to be a crime since these 4 items are some of cheapest and most mass produced items on the earth.  But these items less processed. Eat Oatmeal, cream of wheat or rice, make pancakes, or waffles. You will be eating about the same nutritionally, but without all the added sugar, and it will be much cheaper. IF you need meals in a hurry, then make it ahead of time, and reheat.

As you can see, there are lots of ways to introduce a meat and dairy reduced diet into your families lifestyle,  helping your to save dollars on grocery day without sacraficing vital Nutrition for your family. Nobody is asking you to go Vegan, but seriously what would you rather feed your family – corn dogs and top ramen, full of chemicals, preservatives, sodium and fat, OR  a handful of heathy nutritious beans, served up thoughtfully and tastefully that is loaded with vitamins. And if you are one of those families that can’t get your family to eat beans think about rice, potatoes, grains, and the other myriads of plant foods out there, that are nutritious and economical.

Go slowly, it takes time for people to learn to accept and enjoy new foods. Adapt your approach to your families eating styles, and in no time you will have them eating frugally and staying healthy at the same time!!!

Frugal-est Meals and Healthy too! (Part 1)

The following article is part one in a 4 part series on eating frugal and healthy.

When you think about Cheap meals, the first thing that usually comes to mind is of course macaroni and cheese and hotdogs. For many of us growing up, and for our kids (for those of us in the older crowd) grew up on this staple food, especially if we were unlucky enough to have a parent who either was not gifted in the cooking department, or as in my case growing up, was a single parent with not a lot of time or energy.

The problem is, that these foods, and the  many variations of processed foods like them, are simply not healthy. Yes in the short run they are cheap and fast, and in a pinch they require little thought,effort or money. I don’t necessarily think that it is a bad thing for a very occasional meal, everything needs to be in moderation, and I think that applies even to healthy diets. But I get very concerned about the numbers of families, that are consistently eating diets, that are neither healthy or for that matter in the long run cheap. A common excuse is that it is the only things their family will eat, or that they simply cannot afford more.

If you knew  that there was a 25% certainty that the typical American frugal diet was going to cause your loved one to get cancer at some point in life, would you still feed it to them? And to further that thought, does it seem frugal to spend thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical care on illnesses that can be prevented by a healthier diet? It is easy to say that you can’t think about that right now, but mounting evidence is showing that diet is a leading culprit in many cancers, and since cancer risks range wildly all the way up to 50% or more, we really can’t afford to ignore these risks.

Fortunately I don’t believe that frugal diets must be cheap and unhealthy diets. There is an alternative even for the time pressed parent, and certainly for the parents that need to keep their food bills as low as possible.

The solution

The trick here is to get a realistic view of what you are feeding your family, and what they really need nutrition wise, then balance their needs out with your budget. In other words how much protein do they really get in that hot dog, (not to mention all the fat, additives, and preservatives they DON’T need) and (this is the important part) how much protein do they really need in a given day. Can they get protein from other sources? And will those sources come with other vital nutrients your family needs rather than additives that can potentially make them sick?

The Nutritional low-down

Lets take a look at the facts:

A typical jumbo size hot dog has 180 calories and 18 grams of fat, when you do the math this means that a hot dog is almost all fat, and contains only 8% of your daily protein requirements.

A typical hamburger has 605 calories and 38 grams of fat, this means that 343 of those calories come from fat. It fairs a  bit better protein wise it at 34 grams. This hamburger is loaded with fat, and contains virtually no  other nutrients.

In my books this makes these protein sources a not so frugal choice.

Virtually all plant foods contain some amounts of protein, some are very high in protein. The difference is plant based proteins are typically low in fat and very high in other nutrients. This gives them an edge over most lower priced meats in at least a few of your meals each week.

Much smaller amounts of lean proteins can be added to plant based dishes, for flavor, and to make it more likely that your family will accept them.

In Conclusion

If it is not healthy and does not meet your families nutritional needs then it is not frugal. Two common misperceptions abound in the frugal world. One is that if you are eating healthy it automatically means you cannot be eating frugal. The second is that if you are eating healthy and frugal, it must not taste good.

My next article will address these these two issues, and how to get your family to accept a healthier frugal diet.

Grocery Shopping During Times of Economic Distress

Nobody will dispute that with state of the economy times have become more lean. Grocery prices are

soaring, coupons are becoming less available, and the cash pool from which to shop is shrinking.

More People are looking for more strategies to stretch their dollars than ever in recent history.

Many people are turning to the practices of our ancestors during the great depression and it is no wonder why. Our grandparents knew how to stretch a dollar till there was no stretch left.

There are many things you can do to help your budget, such as planting a garden, and shopping locally, but there are some time tested practices that you can put to work now that will help your grocery fund go as far as possible.

Practice Rock Bottom Frugality

In this country and many others like it we have learned to live a lifestyle that so little resembles the the lifestyle of our ancestors, or others from poorer countries, that we just simply don’t know there is another way to live. Our perception of the bottom line is far higher than theirs would ever have been, and we have never challenged ourselves to go lower.

How many types of soaps, shampoo’s, and shaving creams do you have in your home? Could you make do with just one? Can you switch the liquid soap for bar? Have you done the math to see what paper products go the farthest for price? Better yet what paper products can you do without?

Does your child need that name brand sugar loaded cereal? or would oatmeal or cream of wheat for the whole family suffice?  Do you buy your chicken pre-cut or whole? Can you make that  chicken last for 3 or 4 meals?

When crisis hits your family will you be able to shave off to the bottom line or do the riches of your lifestyle seem more like necessities?

This is not to say we should never have luxuries, but we are talking depression style living here. Surviving and staying healthy become the priorities, rather than our comfort levels.

Challenge yourself to see what you can do without, take the time to read about the lifestyles of people during the depression and other cultures. you will be amazed at how rich your lifestyle really is, and how much can be pared off of it.

Couponing

I have never been a big fan of coupons, and I guess that will make me unpopular but here in a bit I will tell you why. Couponing has its uses to be sure. Getting things for free, or almost free, that you will use, is a great motivator, and is certainly a great way to save dollars.

Here is few questions to see if coupons are a good way for you to save money.

• will you use the item for which the coupon is for? Many people purchase items simply because they are a good deal with coupon, and find that the item is not something they really needed or could use. If you paid anything at all for that item then it was NOT a good deal.
• Can you get another product for less? I am not talking about just an identical product here. I am talking about anything that can substitute for that item. An example would be purchasing lunch meat with coupon for 2$ when in fact you can purchase other sandwich items much cheaper. (keep in mind here we are talking about economic distress. This assumes you need to go rock bottom on your frugality)
• Can you get double or triple coupon offers and match them with sales? This is what it takes to be able to items for near free or free. If your store does not offer deals like this, than chances are good that your deals will not be better than the alternative.
• Are the products healthy? Many coupon items are for processed foods that are neither nutritious, nor filling.  When in economic distress, the last thing you should be doing is buying overprocessed junk foods. Unless you are getting them for free, these foods should not be on your list. Ok I know this seems a bit harsh but consider this….  When your family is experiencing stress, and a large reduction in available funds for foods, you want to eat as nutritiously as you possibly can. Why? Because you can and will eat less. Your body is highly efficient machine, and if you fill it with foods that do not satisfy its nutritional requirements, it will crave more foods. If you feed it properly, and eat less, and save money. Food is not entertainment, or comfort, it is fuel. The more you view it like that, the better you are able to save money.

Often times you can get good deals that make your coupons worth using, but more often I find it more economical to buy foods as close to their original state as possible, and to buy store brands whenever possible. You get healthier food, meaning more bang for your buck, in larger quantities, for less than another item purchased with coupons.

Shopping at places with discounts

Store A offers you a coupon for $4 off a purchase of 40 dollars or more.

Store B entices you with .20 cents off a gallon of gas for every $50 spent.

Store C offers no discounts at all.

So which way should you go? Well it depends, and this is one of those places where your grocery fliers, select coupons, and price book will come in handy. Much also depends on how much gas you will be purchasing. DO THE MATH. If you are buying 10 gallons of gas, that $50 spent will net you a $2.00 savings. Sure you could buy more and get a bigger discount, but check your prices at this store, you might find they are much higher than Store A or Store C and the gas discount won’t justify the extra cost at the register.

Store C offers no discounts, but have you checked prices? will you save more than $2-4.00 shopping there?

Often stores will compensate their discounts with higher prices elsewhere.

That is where sale fliers come in handy. If you are selective about what you buy, you can save money at each of those stores, and still get your discounts.

Careful planning, price books, store fliers, and groceries lists will net you the greatest savings.

Savings lots of money at the grocery store requires careful planning, being willing to do without, and some extra effort. By gaining a different perspective, on what you eat, and how you purchase it, you can gain control of your spending, and eating habits. While it is always nice to have luxuries we have become too used to them in the western world, and as our economy struggles we are paying the price for that extravagance.