Published: August 20, 2008 10:59 am         

Can you eat healthy foods on small budget?

Planning meals, a route through the store and thinking of items in terms of prices per unit are just a few of the tips a local dietitian has for planning a meal on a budget.

Kerry Tumbleson, clinical dietitian for Goshen General Hospital, offers the following suggestions for keeping the ever-growing cost of food from busting the bank.

1. One of the easiest ways to save on food is to plan meals and make a list. When wandering aimlessly through the aisles of the grocery, it is easy to toss unnecessary items into the cart which can lead to over spending.

Planning a menu and shopping from a list makes it much easier to stay on track while shopping and not overspend.

2. Shop the perimeter (outside) of the store first. The healthier food choices are typically located there. Doing this will help people avoid the more processed, costly items found in the center aisles.

3. Look for sales on fresh fruits and vegetables. Often in-season produce is sold at a lower price than are the more exotic out-of-season items.

4. Choosing bags of fruit, such as apples or oranges, instead of the single pieces of fruit which are priced per pound.

5. The federal government’s MyPyramid tells us that the bulk of our diet should be made up of grains (bread, pasta, rice). Try centering meals around grains as opposed to meat. This will be more economical and healthier.

6. Prepare foods from scratch. Many of the prepackaged foods are high in fat, calories, sodium, sugar, and cost, compared to foods prepared at home. You are paying for packaging and convenience, but getting much less for your money.

7. Frozen or canned fruits in low-sugar syrup or water will cost relatively little in comparison to fresh fruit.

8. Legumes and rice are very inexpensive and these can be used to replace meat several times per week.

9. A pound of ground beef will typically yield four 4-ounce hamburgers. Mix in a can of mashed black beans or some refried beans and you'll get eight juicy burgers.

10. Be cautious with coupons as they are often for the more expensive brand name products. Generic or store brands are often less expensive.

In fact, private label brands are often 15 to 20 percent less expensive than the national brand (ADA Times, July/Aug. 2008). Even if you have a coupon for the national brand, the generic will still often times be less expensive.

11. Canned fish is typically less costly than fresh fish and still contains the nutrients. Canned tuna and salmon are relatively inexpensive and are very low in fat and calories if you choose the varieties packed in water rather than oil.

12. Chicken is less expensive if you purchase a whole chicken and remove the skin yourself before cooking.

13. Planning meals around sale items is also another way to save.

14. Comparing unit prices is an excellent way to get the best deal and save. The unit price calculates the cost of a product per unit. A unit could be by the ounce, pound, or number of items in a package.

Unit prices can be found on the shelf below the product. If we look at a pound of ground beef for $4.29 vs. a 15-ounce can of black beans for 99 cents, the unit price of the beef is 18.1 cents per ounce vs. 6.6 cents per ounce.

15. Consider using nonfat dry milk for cooking and save the more expensive gallon of milk for drinking and cereal.