Eating good food that promotes weight loss doesn’t have to break the budget.  You don’t have to have the pricey, pre-packaged “diet food.”  Concentrate instead on buying the highest quality “real” food you can afford.  Here are some tips to help you do that.

Start with a list. Check out the food list page on the right of the blog.  What foods from the green list can be the backbone of your menus for the week?  You will see that meats, dairy, nuts, vegetables and most fruits are on the green-for-go list.  Not too hard to build menus around those!  The key is planning.  Too often I’ve rambled around the grocery store trying to decide what looks good for the week.  That’s a good way to spend unnecessary money and to waste food.  Plan your menus, make a list, and stick to it!

Do make sure you have enough good food to last you, or you will be going out to eat or munching on junk because there is nothing convenient to eat.  Both will damage your plan and your budget.

You’ll find that most of your shopping will be around the perimeter of the store.  Start with the produce section and pick out interesting and new veggies to make salads that are tasty and satisfying.  Don’t go wild, though.  Produce you have to throw out because it went bad before you had a chance to eat it won’t help your pocketbook.

The meat section comes next.  Meat and poultry will satisfy and give you the protein you need.  Pick cheaper cuts and use your slow cooker.  It will be a boon to have dinner already fixed at the end of the day, and the slow cooking method makes the cheaper cuts of meat tender and tasty.  Try buying economy packs and cooking extra one day to have conveniently pre-prepared meals the second day.  One day can be pot roast, for example, and the second day stew or soup with the leftovers.

Chunk cheese in the dairy section is a cheaper option than pre-sliced or cheese sticks.  Look for sales and use your coupons to save in this section. Yogurt and cottage cheese coupons turn up fairly regularly.

Most of the aisles in the store you can avoid altogether.  No need to go down the chip and cookie section since you don’t even want to think about those!

It takes a little effort and some planning — but you can do it!  You will be healthier for it, and so will your family.

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown