How to Eat Healthy on a Shoestring Budget

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Nancy Dell. I'm a registered dietitian and a certified diabetic educator. I own Nancy Dell and Associates Nutrition Counseling in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. Today we're going to talk about eating healthy on a shoestring budget. The first thing we're going to do is define what is healthy. Your can use your plate to define what is healthy. Think that you want half your plate to be produce, fruits or vegetables. A quarter of your plate can be a whole grain and a quarter of your plate can be a lean protein. Use about a tablespoon of fat with each meal to give you some satiety and to give you some healthy fat, some plant fat. So to do this on a budget, your first step is to use your supermarket fliers. Buy what's in season, buy what's on sale. And this'll vary week to week so it will also give you some variety. So use these to help do some planning. Now your leanest proteins that are also low cost are in this group. You can buy milk sometimes at a convenience store, it's your most economical. But also think about buying store brands of yogurt. Then you have peanut butter which would be a good healthy plant fat and a source of protein, but don't forget about your beans. Beans can be canned but they can also be dried. You can also buy them in mixtures that make bean soup. And they are going to be very economical and good sources of protein. Add a lot of herbs and spices for anti oxidants but also for flavor.When it comes to meat, I've highlighted here some of your best choices. Stock up on meats when they are on sale. But generally for beef things with the word round in them, eye of the round top round, are your leanest but also your cheapest. Again if you keep your portion to just the size of a deck of cards, a quarter of your plate, you're going to save because you're not eating a large portion. When it comes to pork, pork tenderloin is your leanest or a pork roast, again when they're buy one get one free stock up on them, cut them in to individual serving sizes and freeze them. For chicken, your beast and your drum stick both can be lean if you take them without skin. There's only one gram of saturated fat both, in three ounces of both. And if you buy them with the bone and you do a little work yourself you're going to save money, same with turkey. A turkey breast with the bone versus a turkey breast cutlet will be a lot less expensive. Ground meats generally are a lot fattier than cuts of meat. So you generally are better off with steaks and roasts and using those will be leaner and sometimes cheaper as well. And finally your fish, look for new cuts, new types of fish that are going to give you a lower cost because people aren't used to buying them. As they become more popular they become more expensive. And again, buying them on sale or looking for them frozen would be good. When it comes to your produce, buy in season. You can also by canned with no salt added. So, we'll get variety because things change with seasons and sometimes if you don't buy them already cut up and you do the work you're going to save on money too. And finally with your grain foods, your old fashioned oat meal versus instant will be good. Look for brown rice, these are your filler foods. You want them to be about a quarter of your plate. Potatoes are easy and quick and inexpensive. And look for whole grain pastas against store brands will be good because they'll be less expensive as well. So when you're trying to get things on a shoestring budget think about balancing your plate, half produce, a quarter whole grain, a quarter lean protein, buy in season, use your flyers and use your freezer to stock up on things that are on sale."