7 tips to save cash and still eat healthy
Pricey fruit and veges can hit those wanting a good diet hard in the pocket – so here’s a few budget-beating ways to stay fit without busting your wallet.
EVERYTHING’S going pearshaped for fruit and vege prices. With avocados up to $7.50 each and crappy weather spoiling the crops, getting your five-a-day is the least affordable it has been in almost six years, which means it’s getting harder to eat healthy on a budget. So just how can you stave off the scurvy?
STAY IN SEASONAvocados
might be off the menu, but this is a great time of year for squash, kiwifruit, mandarins and heaps of other good stuff. Try to feast on whatever’s in season, rather than habitually buying the same produce year-round.
BE FLEXIBLE
Pay attention to prices so you can start to get a reference point for whether something’s cheap or not. Then you can stock up on whatever’s on special, and let that guide your meal choices. This sort of flexibility requires some cooking skills, so take every opportunity to broaden your repertoire.
FORGET FOOD MILES
The ‘‘local food’’ movement is a protectionist scam. Big commercial farms operating in optimal climates are vastly more energy-efficient than small-scale market gardens. Transportation of produce has also become incredibly efficient. Let price be your guide, and don’t get conned into feeling guilty about ‘‘food miles’’ or other such harmful myths.
USE THE FREEZERNuking
a clingfilm-covered bowl of frozen veg looks like a failed attempt at eating healthy, but nothing could be further from the truth! Fresh produce starts to deteriorate as soon as it’s harvested, and might have lost as much as half of its nutritional value by the time it gets to your fork. By contrast, veges that are snap-frozen right after picking are often better than the fresh stuff.
AVOID PACKAGING
Supermarkets neatly arrange everything in foam trays and plastic packaging because it makes it seem like a more ‘‘premium’’ product. Don’t get sucked in, and you’ll save cash and the environment.
GROW YOUROWNHonestly,
the economics of growing your own veges are not that stellar, but it’s a fun and rewarding hobby. The best payoff comes from herbs and leafy greens, which you can grow even if you don’t have any outdoor space.
REDUCE WASTEWe
each send about 68kg of food waste to landfill each year, which is a crying shame. I’ve started throwing odds and ends that are getting a bit past CHRISTEL YARDLEY / FAIRFAXNZ it into the blender. Green smoothies might look gross, but they taste surprisingly great. Other people apply the same concept to soups or stocks. If you have a glut – say, a whole hand of browning bananas – freeze them for future use.
Got a burning money question? Email Budget Buster at richard.meadows@thedeepdish.org, or Tweet him at @MeadowsRichard. You can also find links to previous Budget Busters here.