One of the things that gets reported in the media is that eating healthily is too expensive. I hear this from a lot of friends and acquaintances as well. It is a common thought that healthy food costs more money than unhealthy food. I know that it stops a lot of people from considering healthy changes. So today, I want to talk briefly about some of the ways we have overcome this issue.
1. Perspective
In the UK, we don't pay every time we go to the doctors. So, in some regards, if we lead unhealthy lives, we don't see the financial cost to our healthcare system. But here are some worrying figures that I read yesterday:
- Alcohol related problems cost the NHS almost 3 billion pounds per year
- Obesity related illnesses cost the NHS over 4 billion pounds per year
- Sickness absence is thought to cost the economy 22 billion pounds per year
- Over half of long term smokers will die from their habit (usually from cancer, lung disease or heart disease)
There are 7 established factors that raise our likelihood of having bad health. They are smoking, drinking more than the recommended levels of alcohol, not exercising enough, being overweight or obese, not eating enough fruits and vegetables, having high blood pressure, eating too much sugar and eating too much salt. In the UK, they think that 93% of us have at least one of these factors.
One of the things that I keep reading in my research is that it is harder to change an unhealthy life-style once we are adults. Almost a third of primary school children are overweight or obese, and 80% of 11 year olds who are overweight go on to become overweight or obese adults. Now, just let me permit to say that I am not talking about size, healthy people come in all shapes and sizes, what I'm talking about is health and fitness, and the statistics are showing that more and more of our children and young people are starting their adult lives as unfit, unhealthy and more likely to suffer a multitude of illnesses.
Here is my point. Buying healthy food might cost us a little more now but isn't it worth it? I don't want to be a fear-mongorer, but I do keep this in my mind when planning meals, buying food and raising our children. No, "Sweetie Friday" isn't going to set my kids on a path of unhealthiness, but giving them two or three times their recommended amounts of sugar, every day, will.
2. Saving Money
I believe, wholeheartedly, that eating healthily can save money. When you swap fruit juice, squash fizzy drinks and other sweetened drinks for water, you could be saving anything between £3 and £15 per week. The easiest way to swap drinks is to simply not buy it. Our kids know that if they are at Grandma's or if we are at a restaurant (which happens about once a month) they can choose other drinks, but the rest of the time we simply have water. I'll often put slices of lemon or lime in and frequently I put ice in - they drink it so much better then.
We don't regularly buy chocolate, crisps, chocolate biscuits, biscuits, muffins, cakes or other sweet snacks. Again, you could save anywhere between £1 and £15 depending on what you are buying and how much. We will often buy peanut butter, crackers, cheese, carrots, apples and popcorn kernels - these items would cover snacks for the whole week, and I estimate that I spend between £4 and £9 on snacks depending on where I shop and what's on offer. I make sure that they only have one portion and the ingredients last all week.
Choosing to save desserts for the weekends will also save money, and possibly time - which in my house is worth gold! We haven't eaten desserts every day ever, but I imagine that if you do, you could be spending anywhere between £3 and £20 per week. Limit dessert to the weekend and you might find that you save money.
3. Budgets and Meal Plans
We don't regularly buy chocolate, crisps, chocolate biscuits, biscuits, muffins, cakes or other sweet snacks. Again, you could save anywhere between £1 and £15 depending on what you are buying and how much. We will often buy peanut butter, crackers, cheese, carrots, apples and popcorn kernels - these items would cover snacks for the whole week, and I estimate that I spend between £4 and £9 on snacks depending on where I shop and what's on offer. I make sure that they only have one portion and the ingredients last all week.
Choosing to save desserts for the weekends will also save money, and possibly time - which in my house is worth gold! We haven't eaten desserts every day ever, but I imagine that if you do, you could be spending anywhere between £3 and £20 per week. Limit dessert to the weekend and you might find that you save money.
3. Budgets and Meal Plans
It's not always fun, and we have had to change the way we do it, but the most basic way that we make sure that eating healthily is not too expensive is by setting a budget, planning meals and buying only what we need.
I don't know what your budget it, and you may think that mine is far too much or far too little. But, here is how we settled on our budget. We worked out what we could afford to spend on food shopping and after doing a few shops to see what we were spending, we settled on a figure that works. That's all you need to do. Over the years, food prices have gone up, so we have raised the budget, and we've raised it as the kids have grown and started to eat more. There are some weeks we spend over the budget, so the next week we'll have some simple meals to even it out.
Meal plans are my lifesaver. I am too busy to think about cooking every day, so we meal plan each meal to the day. In this stage of our life, we choose to plan all the meals for the whole month, write down all the ingredients I need to buy, do one big shop to get everything in for the freezer and cupboards, and then I write shopping lists for a weekly mini shop for fridge and fresh products. This works really well for us, I only have to spend one evening of the entire month planning. No, we don't follow it strictly and we sometimes swap meals around.
This works because our weeks are predictable, Monday is my study day, the kids have clubs after school, Joshua has Karate at 6pm and Jake often has church meetings in the evening. The meal has to be quick and easy - it's either Jacket Potatoes with tuna and cheese or Greek Salad with Pitta. Tuesday I am at University, so I can't prepare anything so we either eat pasta and sauce when I get home, or I make double of another meal and put it in the freezer ready to be cooked. Wednesday and Thursday I am home, so I tend to make something in the morning, Chicken Pie, Curry, Stew, that kind of dish. Friday is homemade Pizza night - same meal every week! Saturday is often Jake's night to cook so I don't plan it, and Sunday is a Roast.
Figuring out what works best for each day and planning in meals that work with our lifestyle has made planning meals and cooking meals so much easier.
Budgetting and meal planning might be my favourite household chore - give me pretty stationary over hoovers, laundry, and ironing any day. Who am I kidding, I don't iron! If anyone wanted to know more about this, come have a (bulletproof)coffee and I'll go into more detail about how we do this. There are so many resources on pinterest and online that you can use as well.
Do you budget? Do you think that healthy food is too expensive?
I don't know what your budget it, and you may think that mine is far too much or far too little. But, here is how we settled on our budget. We worked out what we could afford to spend on food shopping and after doing a few shops to see what we were spending, we settled on a figure that works. That's all you need to do. Over the years, food prices have gone up, so we have raised the budget, and we've raised it as the kids have grown and started to eat more. There are some weeks we spend over the budget, so the next week we'll have some simple meals to even it out.
Meal plans are my lifesaver. I am too busy to think about cooking every day, so we meal plan each meal to the day. In this stage of our life, we choose to plan all the meals for the whole month, write down all the ingredients I need to buy, do one big shop to get everything in for the freezer and cupboards, and then I write shopping lists for a weekly mini shop for fridge and fresh products. This works really well for us, I only have to spend one evening of the entire month planning. No, we don't follow it strictly and we sometimes swap meals around.
This works because our weeks are predictable, Monday is my study day, the kids have clubs after school, Joshua has Karate at 6pm and Jake often has church meetings in the evening. The meal has to be quick and easy - it's either Jacket Potatoes with tuna and cheese or Greek Salad with Pitta. Tuesday I am at University, so I can't prepare anything so we either eat pasta and sauce when I get home, or I make double of another meal and put it in the freezer ready to be cooked. Wednesday and Thursday I am home, so I tend to make something in the morning, Chicken Pie, Curry, Stew, that kind of dish. Friday is homemade Pizza night - same meal every week! Saturday is often Jake's night to cook so I don't plan it, and Sunday is a Roast.
Figuring out what works best for each day and planning in meals that work with our lifestyle has made planning meals and cooking meals so much easier.
Budgetting and meal planning might be my favourite household chore - give me pretty stationary over hoovers, laundry, and ironing any day. Who am I kidding, I don't iron! If anyone wanted to know more about this, come have a (bulletproof)coffee and I'll go into more detail about how we do this. There are so many resources on pinterest and online that you can use as well.
Do you budget? Do you think that healthy food is too expensive?