Healthy Eating on a Budget

Some meandering on the Internet a couple of days ago led me to a USDA web page devoted to "Healthy Eating on a Budget."  Be forewarned that all of the links on the page lead to PDFs, but do follow a few.

The first link takes you to "Eating on a Budget--The 3 P's" (plan, purchase, prepare).  Most of the recommendations on the one-page handout include things that we old folks know, but it's not a bad idea to review them and even think about why we do or don't follow them.  For example:

• I don't "plan meals and snacks for the weeks according to an established budget."
• I do "make a grocery list."
• I didn't used to "check for sales and coupons in the local paper or online and consider discount stores" but I do now (more or less).

Right now (knock on wood) my family is not on a tight budget for food.  It just happens that we are, well, thrifty, so we do tend to follow many of these tips as a matter of course.  However, I don't much care for rigid meal planning if I don't have do.  I actually did something like meal planning for My Prince's most recent visit for the Christmas holiday.  I listed, by day, planned breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and made a list of the items that I would need to buy to prepare these meals.  We never followed the meal plan and didn't get to many of the dishes that I had planned for those meals.  That's one recommendation that will only work if the whole family--at least all of those that are involved in the purchasing, preparing, and eating of these meals--sticks with the plan.  Easier said than done.

Of course, I do make a list before going to the store.  Assuming I don't lose the list (on Wednesday, I first left it in the car and then had to hunt around the store to find it after it fell out of my cart--oops!) and can find whatever is on it (imagine not having large containers of red pepper flakes at a store in Texas!), I still tend to "invent" menus on the fly as I walk the aisles.  That means I change my mind, add and subtract items as I go.  I consider a list more as an "inspiration" than a "prescription."

I'm not much on grocery coupons.  I don't like to fiddle with paper while I'm shopping.  A grocery list is more than enough for me to handle.  More importantly, many coupons tend to be for more expensive brands than I would normally buy.

If we were truly in a bind for grocery money, I would definitely have to change my ways.  As it is, it may be worth thinking harder about how doing even a little better planning might save us some money.

Take a look.  Did they leave something out?  Do these work for you?  Is there a PDF that you find particularly useful?

I plan to send the 3 P's to my grandson to start the discussion of how he can get a healthier diet on less money.