Tips to eat healthier while on a budget

CARBONDALE, Ill. (KFVS) -Prices at the grocery store are expensive now a days, but shopping healthy on a budget can still be done.

“This is a great time to start thinking about eating healthy,” said Assistant Professor of Human Nutrition and Dietetics at SIU, Dawn Null.

Null says this first tip will help you stay on track in the store.

“It’s very important to have a shopping list because we tend to shop with our eyes too. So we often go off that list, so it’s important to go into the grocery store with your list with the intent to sticking to that list and that will also help you stay on budget as well,” said Null.

And she says shopping for fresh produce in season, is a great way to eat healthier, for cheaper prices.

“Fresh produce not only taste much better, but it’s typically less expensive. And if you end up buying a little bit extra, you can always wash it and pop it in the freezer and that’s another thing you can do is buy foods like fruit and vegetables out of the freezer section,” said Null.

For Ian Moon, who was shopping at the neighborhood coop in Carbondale, he says sometimes shopping for healthier items can be difficult.

“If you’re doing it on the fly and impulsively buying and not shopping smart and shopping certain nutrients group in the best group for the most affordable amount,” said Moon.

And for Jerri Young, she says a lot of people just don’t know what they are looking for in certain items.

“A lot of times it’s that we don’t know where the nutrients you know, how much of the nutrients we need, where it’s coming from. So I don’t think it’s more expensive to eat healthy,” said Moon.

Null even says to shop store brands, buy perishable foods like fruit and vegetables and plan out your meals.

She goes on to say, if you’re looking for specific meats, cuts like these will usually be cheaper.

“You can save a lot of money on in the meat department is buying bigger cuts of meat, so for example, I was looking at pork loin the other day, it was a dollar 99 a pound, if you purchase it as boneless pork loin chops, it was 5.99 a pound,” said Null.

Cutting out junk food such as chips, soda and candy will also help your pockets out.

One last tip she says is to look online for certain food items.

there is some non perishable foods that you can buy online, less expensive and also with free shipping. So things like protein bars, dog food, cat food, dried fruits and even some of those dry cereals and things like that,” said Null.

Null also says to look for coupons, ads and certain apps to help make things cheaper.

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