Eat Cheap and Healthy on a Budget

When you’re on a low income, it helps to keep foods in the house that don’t cost a lot of money. This probably means changing your eating, baking, and cooking habits.

The items on my list are mainly vegetarian because that’s the eating plan I follow.

If money is tight, it might be time to cut meat out of your budget. If you’re looking to lose weight, dropping meat from your diet can also help drop pounds.

Low priced groceries to keep in the house

Peanut butter
Eggs
Apples
Bananas
Spinach
Baby carrots
Frozen fruit
Frozen vegetables
Oats
Dried beans
Barley
Brown rice
Margarine
Yogurt
Pasta
Cereal
Pickles
Olives
Popcorn
Canned tomatoes
Canned soup
Applesauce
Canned pumpkin
Milk or milk substitute
Tea bags

Baking

Here are baking supplies you need to keep in your cupboard, or your freezer if you don’t use them fast enough before their best by date. I buy big bags of flour and keep them in the freezer. Many of my seldom used baking ingredients, like milk powder and corn meal, also have a home in the freezer.

Save money by baking bread, cookies, and granola bars instead of buying them.

All purpose flour
Whole wheat flour
Baking powder
Baking soda
Vanilla
Pancake mix
Condensed milk
Yeast
Flax seeds
Egg substitute
Craisins and/or raisins
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Coconut
Nuts
Chocolate chips
Skim milk powder
Corn meal
Bread crumbs
White sugar
Brown sugar
Powdered sugar
Vegetable oil
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Cocoa powder
Cinnamon
Honey

Don’t go out and buy all these groceries at once because it’ll probably set you back a couple hundred dollars or more. Chances are good that you already have many of these items in your house and you can start incorporating more of these groceries over time.

If you really hate something on the list, don’t buy it or you’ll end up wasting groceries and your money.

The idea is for you to always have ingredients on hand to put together a cheap, healthy meal.

For inspiration

Check out this post featuring easy recipes for cookies, bread, muffins, donuts, granola bars and many other delicious baked goods.

Who’s with me and my lifelong love affair with bakeries? I love baked goodies but don’t love the prices at grocery stores and bakeries.

DIY! .

In no time you’ll be creating delicious, home baked goodies at a fraction of the cost of buying them. Bonus: you control the ingredients and can make them as healthy (or not!) as you want.

When you’re creating tasty meals and amazing baked goods for less than $5 – wow! You’ve got this!