Don’t let money be a barrier to your health.
Image Credit: Kristina Paukshtite on Pixels
May 28th marks World Hunger Day and whilst unfortunately there is nothing new in regards to people struggling with purchasing food and being able to afford healthy balanced meals and lifestyles; rising fuel costs and a turbulent few years as a result of the pandemic means more and more people are struggling and looking at ways to cut costs and unfortunately these are some of the first things that suffer. Resent research highlights that 4.7 million adults, or 8.8% of UK households, experience ‘food insecurity’ with a million adults in the UK going a whole day a month without food and according to the USDA, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, in the US are ‘food insecure’. So with World Hunger Day approaching when is better than now to start thinking of ways to support your wallet without compromising your health and to explore ways you can help others.
Here are a few of my tips and tricks to help:
Increase your knowledge
Reading is a great way to increase your knowledge around nutrition and lifestyle and although you may want to invest your time into yourself this does not mean you have to invest a lot of money. Why not consider joining the local or city library rather than buying books, this is also extremely environmentally friendly. If you find they do not have the book you want to read don’t be worried about asking if they are able to get hold of the book. Many libraries can either buy books in that are requested or if they are smaller they are often part of a group and can request the book is transferred to your local library for you.
Look for blogs such as this one from reputable sources, those with a strong education in nutrition is a good place to start. Avoid those that are from unqualified individuals as advice may be incorrect, unsafe and likely not to be evidence based.
Meals
Pick up some recipe books while at the library or ustilise the free online recipe blogs and websites such as half baked harvest and pinterest to help you meal plan. Planning meals is a great way to ensure you only buy the products you need and use them all up, for example if you are planning on cooking a meal that has peppers in you can also plan another in which may help to reduce food waste if you need to buy a pack of peppers.
Meals that can be batched cooked are a great idea such as soups and stews. Mexican dishes are also great meals to consider, you can pack in lots of veggies and add protein and if your batch cooking you don’t need to worry about buying larger amounts of products. They are regularly cheaper to make and you can have the leftovers as free lunches or to make a dinner at a later date.
Make sure you are storing your ingredients correctly, storing them correctly can add days to their lifespan. For example, storing your carrots and celery in water keeps them much fresher as does standing cut herbs and spring onions in a jar of water.
Additionally try NoWaste it is an app that allows you to create an ‘inventory’ to keep a track of the food you have by scanning barcodes and setting ‘use by’ dates, which can help you to reduce your household food waste and thereby reduce your shopping bills. You will receive notifications when items are close to expiry date and will inform you of what you are wasting the most.
Shopping
If you have access to the internet look for offers online before heading to the supermarket - build your meals around the cheaper fruit and vegetables which tend to be those that are in season.
Make a list and try not to deviate.
Usilise the online price comparison sites and try to determine which supermarket to use and whether it would be more economical to visit one or more supermarkets or even have your food delivered, especially if you are someone that succumbs to supermarket temptation.
Let your freezer be your friend, buy frozen fruit and veggies they are often cheaper, last longer, are portion controllable, often contain more nutrients than “fresh” produce read more on this here and don’t forget to freeze those leftovers to create a “free” meal at a later date.
Cook from scratch! Making your own dishes is likely to be cheaper and healthier than buying prepared items. A considerable amount (around 50%) of the food bought in the UK and the US is ultra-processed food so as well as being lighter on your pocket making your own is potentially a great opportunity to improve your diet quality.
Try out ‘weigh your own’ stores for items such as oats, flour and nuts, this way you only pay for what you need and none of the packaging and branding, also helping to reduce plastic waste.
Know when your local store reduces products at the end of the day and the areas they are placed. Often you can get some good bargains on items that need to be sold that day even fruits and vegetables that only have a best before day on them meaning they will likely be good for another couple of days.
Pop into your local bakers and butchers towards the end of the day too as they may have items that need to go prior to closing and often offer these to customers at a lower cost, just ask if they have any reduced items.
Download the too good to go app and receive meals from stores, cafes and restaurants at a much reduced cost. Additionally Olio is the world’s biggest food-sharing network connecting neighbours, volunteers and local businesses with each other so that surplus food is given away and not thrown away. Using these apps can not only help reduce your food bill but also help with combating food waste.
If you are really struggling look for local food banks, many people are using these when needed. The Trussell Trust has a search so you can find banks in your local area in the UK and Feeding America in the US also has a local search facility.
Workout
You don’t need a gym membership to hit your move goals. Walk - it is free and has loads of health benefits!
Additionally, YouTube has lots of free workout from experienced and qualified individuals for all levels of fitness.
If you prefer working out using equipment check out free cycle and similar websites this not only allows you to get what you need at little or no cost but stops the items ending up on landfill.
Budget
Having a budget and sticking to it in other areas of life can ensure you have the money you need for the more essential items.
Ways to help others
Look out for donation areas at the end of your weekly shop in your local supermarket if you shop in store these are normally for local food banks.
Locate your local shelters or food banks and contact them directly to see how you can help. If you can’t afford to financially support you could always consider donating your time, with food banks getting busier they are often requiring more helpers.
Use the olio app mentioned above and give away any food that is close to expiry date that you are not going to use.
Make a donation or give regularly to the The Trussell Trust or Feeding America.
Stay happy and healthy,
Chel
If you have some personal tips for eating and staying healthy on a budget add them to the comments section below, I don’t normally have comments open for posts but thought this would be a great opportunity for this community to support each other.
References
The Food Foundation (2022) “Food Insecurity Tracking” Available at: https://www.foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/food-insecurity-tracking (Accessed: 25th April 2022)
The Food Foundation (2022) “Government Data on Food Insecurity During the Pandemic: A Data Story” Available at: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/government-data-food-insecurity-during-pandemic-data-story (Accessed: 25th April 2022)
Gov.UK (2022) “Family Resources Survey” Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-resources-survey--2 (Accessed: 25th April 2022)
USDA Economic Research Service U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (2022) “Food Security in the U.S.” Available at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/key-statistics-graphics/#insecure (Accessed: 25th April 2022)
Monteiro, C.A., Moubarac, J.C., Levy, R.B., Canella, D.S., da Costa Louzada, M.L. and Cannon, G., 2018. Household availability of ultra-processed foods and obesity in nineteen European countries. Public health nutrition, 21(1), pp.18-26.
Juul, F., Parekh, N., Martinez-Steele, E., Monteiro, C.A. and Chang, V.W., 2022. Ultra-processed food consumption among US adults from 2001 to 2018. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 115(1), pp.211-221.