Latest / Chub Chat With Mary / Healthy Living On A Budget. What It Actually Cost!
Transcript
- mary: Episode four. Healthy living on a budget. What it actually costs. And I'm so glad you're here with me. Today we're talking about something that affects almost everybody. You got it. Money. Gonna talk about money. We're talking about the cost of living a healthy lifestyle. Cause let's be honest, sometimes you walk into a grocery store. Look at the price of some of the foods labeled healthy and you think, well, I guess I'm going to be unhealthy this week. You see organic this, protein packed that, gluten free something, a tiny container of berries for what feels like forty seven dollars. And you start wondering if eating healthy requires a second mortgage. But here's the good news. Healthy living does not have to be expensive. You don't need a refrigerator full of specialty foods. You don't need expensive supplements. Don't need every food in your kitchen to have the word organic on it. And you definitely don't need to recreate one of those beautiful grocery halls you see online. You know, where somebody has thirty seven different ingredients lined up perfectly on their kitchen counter? 'Cause let's be honest, who's actually going to eat all that? Let me start with a question. If you only had twenty dollars to feed yourself for an entire weekend, which store are you hitting first? Aldi? Walmart, Target, a grocery store? I go to Walmart. Maybe you're checking the weekly ads first and going wherever the best deals are. And that's actually an important part of healthy living. Learning how to work with what you have. Healthy living doesn't mean spending money you don't have. It means figuring out how to make the money you have work for you. My food budget is about seventy dollars a week. I shop and cook for myself. So I've had to learn how to make that $70 last. And I'm not saying everybody should have a $70 grocery budget. Your budget might be higher or lower. That's okay. The point is that healthy living has to fit in your real life. If your healthy lifestyle only works when you spend twice as much money as you can afford, you're probably not going to stick with it. Small changes can save big money. Here's one example from my own life. I stopped buying Diet Coke. And by doing that, I calculated that I save approximately $1,000 a year. Think about that. One small change, $1,000. I didn't have to find a magical $1,000. I didn't have to work another job. I simply stopped buying something I was purchasing regularly. Now imagine looking at your own spending. Maybe it's soda. Maybe it's energy drinks. Maybe it's coffee runs. Maybe it's takeout. Maybe it's buying snacks every time you stop at the gas station. I'm not saying you can never have those things. I'm saying it's worth asking. How much am I spending on this over an entire year? Sometimes the number is eye opening. Sometimes that costs five dollars doesn't seem like much. But five dollars several times a week can turn into a lot of money. What about coupons? Do you use coupons? And I'm curious. Digital or paper? I personally think digital coupons is can make things easier because you don't have to carry a coupon organizer around like you're preparing for the grocery store Olympics. But whatever works for you is what matters. Check store apps. Look at weekly sales. Compare prices. Use loyalty programs when they actually save you money. Don't forget about store brands. Sometimes the store brand version is very similar To the name brand product and cost less. You don't have to pay extra just because the package has a familiar logo on it. And here's something people sometimes don't realize. Wholesale clubs such as Costco and Sams Club, along with certain discount grocers, such as Aldi, generally don't accept manufacturer coupons. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't save money there. Their pricing model is simply different. Bigger lesson is don't assume a coupon. automatically make something a good deal. If you buy something you didn't need just because you had a coupon, you didn't save money. No, you spent money. You know, the ten dollar kale problem. Here's another question for you. What is the most expensive healthy thing you ever bought that ended up rotting in the back of your refrigerator? Maybe it was a ten dollar bag of kale. Maybe it was an expensive coleslaw mix. Maybe you bought a giant container of spinach. Because you are going to become the healthiest person on the planet. And three weeks later, you're opening the refrigerator and thinking, What exactly is growing in there? We've all done it. And this is important. Wasting healthy food is still wasting money. Doesn't matter if the food was organic, doesn't matter if it was full of vitamins. If you bought it and threw it away, your grocery budget didn't benefit. Not at all. So before you buy something, ask yourself. Am I actually going to eat this? That's one of the best questions you can ask at the grocery store. I want you to remember this. You don't need more money to get healthy. You need a plan that works with the money you have. Here's how I make my $70 stretch. I buy foods that can become multiple meals. Like if I buy chicken, I don't want it to become one meal. I want to be able to use it in several different meals. And I do that a lot. Maybe chicken with vegetables and rice one night. One ingredient can become several meals. And buy store brands when they make sense. There's nothing wrong with store brands. Sometimes they're a great way to lower your grocery bill without sacrificing the food you actually want. Use frozen produce. Frozen vegetables are one of my favorite budget friendly options. They last longer. Don't have to worry about them going bad in the three days. like in the refrigerator. And you can use exactly what you need. Put the rest back. What about meat? You don't have to make meat the center of every meal. Eggs, beans, lentils, tuna, cottage, cheese, yogurt, and peanut butter can all be user lower cost protein choices. Don't you agree with that? Don't chop hungry. This one is huge because suddenly the cookies have a personality. The chips are calling your name. Mary, and that bakery section somehow becomes your best friend. Shopping hungry can make it much harder to stick to your list. Don't buy something just because it says healthy. Healthy looking packages can be very persuasive. But the word healthy in the front of a package doesn't automatically make something the best choice or the best value. Turn the package around. Look at the label. Don't buy ingredients for recipes you aren't actually going to make. This is what I really want you to think about. I mean don't buy fourteen ingredients for a recipe because you saw it online and thought this is going to change my life. Then you make it once, and six weeks later you're throwing half of the ingredients away. Buy food you will actually eat. The healthy food is expensive is a myth. Let's talk about why people believe healthy food is so expensive. Part of it comes from the foods we see advertised as healthy, organic everything, specialty health foods, protein products, pre-cut fruits and vegetables, expensive meal plans, health food store shopping. Now not saying any of these things are automatically bad, but you don't need them to live a healthy lifestyle. You can walk into a regular grocery store and build healthy meals from regular foods. You don't have to make every food perfect. You need meals that are nutritious, satisfying, and affordable. What actually makes groceries expensive? Sometimes it's not the price of healthy food that's the problem. It's the way we're shopping. Here are some things that can make your grocery bill grow. Shopping without a plan. Eating out frequently. Buying convenience foods. Buying too much at once. I do that. Shopping while hungry. Buying things because they're on sale. When you don't need them. Trying to completely change your diet overnight. And here's one of the biggest ones. Food waste. If you spend a hundred at the grocery store and throw twenty-five dollars worth of food away, you didn't really spend a hundred dollars on food you eat. You spent seventy-five on food you ate, twenty-five on food you threw away. That's money sitting in your garbage can. Stop trying to buy a week's worth of Facebook meals. This one makes me laugh. You can see a beautiful grocery haul online. Everything is arranged perfectly. There are fresh vegetables, beautiful fruit, containers of meal prepped food. Everything looks amazing. Can you picture it? And you think, that's what healthy eating looks like. So you go to the grocery store and buy twenty five ingredients. You make two recipes. Then life happens. You're tired. You don't feel like cooking. You eat something else. Three weeks later you Open your refrigerator and discover the remaining ingredients are now science experiments. So instead of asking what does a healthy person supposedly eat, ask what will I actually eat? This is a much better question, as you know what you'll eat. Build meals from what you already have. Here's a simple formula Protein plus vegetables or fruit. Plus carbohydrate plus something you enjoy. For example, chicken plus frozen vegetables plus rice. Eggs plus toast plus fruit. And beans and rice and vegetables. Tuna and potatoes and vegetables. Oatmeal and banana and peanut butter. That sounds good. You can change these combinations based on what you have in life. Healthy eating doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do for your budget is look inside your pantry and refrigerator before you go shopping. Doesn't that make sense? How about fresh versus frozen? Let's talk about frozen foods. Some people think fresh automatically means healthier, but frozen fruits and vegetables can be an excellent option. They're convenient. They're available year round. That's awesome. They can be less expensive and they last. Much longer. That's important when you're trying to reduce food waste. If you live by yourself or don't eat vegetables every single day, buying a huge package of fresh vegetables can sometimes mean half of ends up in the trash. You don't want that. So frozen vegetables allow you to use what you need and put the rest back in the freezer. That's a win for your health and your wallet. Don't confuse healthy living with a grocery bill. Here's something I really want you to remember. Healthy living is bigger than food. Healthy living also includes movement, sleep, drinking water, managing stress, getting enough nourishment, and taking care of yourself. Creating habits you can actually maintain. Don't need a refrigerator full of expensive products to live a healthier life. Don't need a cabinet full of supplements. And you don't need a shopping cart full of foods you've never heard of before. You need a lifestyle you can actually live. Now let's talk about food labels. When you're grocery shopping, do you look at the food labels? Sometimes you turn a package around and see an ingredient list that looks like a novel. I mean, come on. And then you're thinking, I just wanted some crackers. Why is there an entire paragraph back here? It But reading a food label doesn't have to be scary. Think about like checking the weather before you leave the house. Same thing. You're not afraid of the weather. You're just learning what you're working with. The same thing applies to food labels. Trying to become informed eaters, not fearful eaters. Five things to look at first. Don't have to analyze every tiny detail on every package. Start with these five things. Serving size. This is a big one. The nutrition information is based on the serving size listed on the package. So ask yourself, how much am I actually eating? Two servings? One serving? What? If the package says one serving, but you eat two servings, you're getting twice the amount listed on the label. That doesn't mean you can't eat it. It just means you should know what you're eating. Knowledge is power. Second thing is protein. Because protein helps with fullness and supports your body's muscles and other functions. When you're choosing meals or snacks, look at the protein. Sometimes you grab a snack thinking it's going to hold you over, only to be hungry again twenty minutes later. Sure we all did that before. Then you're looking for another snack and another. And suddenly your cheap snack has become an expensive afternoon. Adding protein to meals and snacks can help make them more satisfying. And then fiber. Fiber is another thing I want you to pay attention to. Fiber can help with fullness and digestion and can also be helpful for blood sugar management. You know, foods such as beans, lentils, fruits, vegetables, oatmeal, whole grains can contribute fiber to your diet. So don't look at calories. Look at what the food actually brings to the table. And then added sugar. Gotta be careful with that. Look at added sugar. Remember that naturally occurring sugars and added sugars aren't the same thing. Fruit naturally contains sugar. Added sugar is added to foods during processing or preparation. You may also see sugar alcohols in some products, especially certain reduced sugar or sugar free foods. Just be careful with that. The point isn't to become afraid of sugar. The point is to understand what you're buying and then. Last one is ingredients. Take a look at the ingredients list. Sometimes a shorter, simpler ingredient list can make a product easier to understand. But I don't want you walking around the grocery store thinking I can't pronounce that ingredient, so I can't eat it. That's not what we're doing here. We're learning. We're becoming more informed about our food. We're not trying to create another set of food rules. We're not going to obsess over. Exact calorie perfection. Good versus bad foods. One unhealthy meal. Eating perfectly. One day isn't going to make or break your health. And eating a cookie doesn't mean you fail. Building a lifestyle, not a food prison, your grocery money saving checklist. Before you go shopping, try this. Look in your refrigerator. Look in your freezer. Look in your pantry. Then make a list. Plan a few meals around what you already have. Check what's on sale. Consider store brands. Use digital coupons if they're actually useful. Buy frozen produce when it makes sense. And don't shop hungry. And please don't go into the grocery store without a plan and come out with a cart full of things you didn't know existed. Your grocery cart should not be a surprise party. And now it's time for your chub chat. Challenge. This week I want you to flip the label. Pick three foods in your kitchen. Turn the package around and look at serving size, protein, fiber, added sugar, and ingredients. Don't judge the food. Don't decide it's good or bad. Just learn something about it. Then ask yourself, did I learn something I didn't know before? That's it. We're not dieting. We're not eliminating foods. We're not trying to be perfect. We're becoming informed eaters. And if you want to share one thing you learned, I'd love to hear it. And that's your chub chat challenge for this week. I want to leave you with this. Don't have to spend more money to take better care of yourself. You don't need the most expensive food. You don't need specialty products. Don't need a perfect grocery cart. You need a plan that fits your real life and your real budget. Remember, wasting food is wasting money. Regardless of whether the food was healthy. So shop with a plant. Buy foods you actually enjoy. Use what you already have. Find affordable foods that nourish you and give yourself permission to keep things simple. Cause this isn't another perfect diet. I'm teaching you how to build a healthy life you can actually live. Now I want to hear from you. What did you think about today's episode? Did anything we talked about hit home for you? Have you ever bought an expensive healthy food that ended up going bad in the back of your refrigerator? Or maybe you found a great way to save money on groceries. Share this episode with a friend who might need to hear it too, please. And if there's a health topic you want me to chat about, let me know. I'm always looking for ideas for future episodes. And remember, you don't have to do this alone. If you need an accountability partner, reach out and let me know. You can leave a comment on my website, chuppchatwm.riverside.com or email me at chupchat.26 at gmail.com. Have a healthy week. And I'll see you next time on Chub Chat for Episode 5. Movement Mindset versus Exercise Mindset. Which one actually works?