Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hi everyone, I'm Courtney. I'm your dietitian with E2M.
[00:00:05] And today I wanted to talk on budget conscious grocery shopping because right now we are going through an inflation period. Groceries are getting more expensive and I hear a lot of it's too expensive to eat healthy. I hear it from all of my patients.
[00:00:24] So I wanted to go through some things that we can get at the grocery store to help keep us on budget, but that are all health conscious. It doesn't have to be overly processed items that have a long shelf life that we choose to eat because it's less, less costly and causes less waste.
[00:00:47] We can still eat healthy but also be on a budget.
[00:00:51] So the first thing I want to talk on is like the proteins that are available in the grocery store that are going to be helpful for keeping on a budget. Now in America, our number one protein source is coming from anim proteins.
[00:01:05] So beef, poultry, chicken and turkey, fish, pork, those are all of our animal sources, plus eggs. And then your dairy items, those are going to be your animal sources of protein. But there are other proteins in the grocery store that are cheaper and just as healthy. So starting off with the cheapest option will be beans. Whether they are dried beans or or canned beans, these are going to be the least costly of our protein options. Plus they also offer us fiber in addition to protein. So for those of you that have a hard time meeting your fiber goal, maybe adding in some beans weekly can be really helpful to reach fiber and protein goals.
[00:01:50] Your canned beans and your dried beans are going to cost you about a dollar to $2 per pound, depending on the type of bean and then the store you're buying it from.
[00:02:01] The second least expensive item or least expensive protein item will be tofu. Tofu is another plant based protein and it's going to cost around two to four dollars a pound. Now, tofu may not be for everyone.
[00:02:16] You will get protein and fiber from it. But some people have texture issues when it comes to tofu.
[00:02:22] So some other things we can use tofu for. Four would be tofu egg scramble. So maybe we do tofu as an egg replacement with some veggies in it to get a protein source in at breakfast time. I've got other folks that will use silken tofu as a way to increase protein in a smoothie, especially if protein powders or protein shakes are out of your budget range. So tofu can be used in that place as well. So it does have purposes and it is a option or a less expensive option for protein than your Meat options.
[00:03:03] Eggs are going to be pretty affordable. They're actually going to be the most affordable animal protein, being around two to three dollars per pound.
[00:03:12] Now, eggs can be less, especially if you have eggs yourself or if you raise eggs or, excuse me, raise chickens, so they may be free.
[00:03:21] So using eggs as a source of protein is going to be great and help you save some money.
[00:03:26] And then our animal sour dish, those are going to be the most expensive, especially if we're choosing better quality cuts of meat or organic meats. We're looking at six to seven dollars a pound, if not more, depending on the type of meat, the cut of meat, whether or not it's organic, and even the store we buy it from.
[00:03:49] So keep all of these things in mind. When my article gets posted to the page, I do have a list of the price options, comparing the price options for these different protein sour.
[00:04:02] The next thing would be our fruits and vegetables. No diet is complete without our fruits and vegetables. They're going to give us a lot of minerals, A lot of nutrients and fiber is going to be coming from our fruits and vegetables as well.
[00:04:15] So our options in the grocery store will be fresh, canned or frozen.
[00:04:21] Canned veggies and fruit are going to be our least expensive option, around $0.50 to $2 per pound.
[00:04:29] I feel canned vegetables and fruit get hit pretty hard just because of the processing of them. We can find some really good green beans or really good canned beans or really good canned fruit in the grocery store that may have no salt added or no sugar added.
[00:04:46] So if that is the option that you have, go ahead and get it. Don't worry that you're not getting any nutritional value from it, because you most certainly are.
[00:04:57] Canned green beans is better than no green beans, honestly.
[00:05:01] So having that option is really nice. Your canned options also last longer, so there's less waste when it comes to our canned options.
[00:05:11] Next is going to be our frozen produce. So frozen fruits and vegetables, these are going to be 3,$1 to $3 per pound, depending on the type we're getting, whether it's name brand versus generic, whether it's organic versus conventional. We have all of these options in the grocery store.
[00:05:30] And again, this is also going to have the least amount of waste. Now there's something to be said for frozen vegetable consistency versus fresh vegetable consistency.
[00:05:40] So if you're that person that has an issue with eating frozen vegetables all the time, maybe we split the difference. If we're still trying to be cost effective, maybe we do three days a week of fresh, four days a week of frozen vegetables so we can split the difference and still have the fresh vegetables cut. Cut down on waste but also save some money.
[00:06:03] Now your fresh fruit and vegetables that fresh produce is going to be the most expensive.
[00:06:08] Anywhere between a $50 to $6 or more per pound depending on what we're getting.
[00:06:15] Produce can also be more if it is purchased out of season, if it is purchased as organic, or if it's purchased pre cut and again depending on the store you're getting it from.
[00:06:26] Sometimes we find that our produce can be cheaper if we're buying it directly from the farmer as opposed to buying it from the grocery store. So keep that in mind when we are purchasing our fresh produce. Fresh produce also has the most waste. How many of us have a vegetable graveyard in our refrigerator? I myself as a dietitian probably throw out one thing of vegetables or fruit weekly, whether it be broccoli or a bag of green beans we didn't get to finish. Or bananas. They go bad so fast. I have a banana graveyard in my freezer. Save it for banana bread.
[00:07:03] But the waste is the big thing when it comes to our fresh produce.
[00:07:07] So again, I have a table listed in my article that's going to be posted on the cost differences between fresh frozen and canned produce.
[00:07:18] Now with all of this being said again, it's really easy to eat healthy and still be on a budget. We just kind of have to pick and choose where we want to put that money. There are some services out there that we can utilize to help keep us on budget while also eating healthily. AI is a great option for you. You do have to be very specific on what you're looking for. So specifically say I want to feed three meals a day for a family of four.
[00:07:49] I want protein at every meal. I want to keep the grocery budget under dollar for the week.
[00:07:58] Make sure you put in food preferences, food allergies, food dislikes, if you are on a particular type of diet. So if you're on a low sodium diet or a renal diet or a diabetic diet, you can even go as far as saying I want to make sure I get 20 grams of protein in at every meal. Can you please give me recipes and a grocery shopping list? Those are two important things to make sure you're asking your AI tool when you are creating the meal plan.
[00:08:30] Another great thing that I really like, there's an app called Super Cook and Super Cook is really helpful in creating meal plans based on the ingredients you have. So Super Cook can help cut down on your waste which is really awesome. All you do is you go into the app or go to the website and type in the ingredients you have and it pulls up multiple options for recipes, which is really helpful. So if you get to the end of the month or the end of the week and you're like, oh, I don't have any groceries, but maybe it's not time to buy groceries, maybe paycheck hasn't come in to purchase groceries, these are the options I have. Give me a quick recipe. That's what Supercook can help you with.
[00:09:12] Now again, eating nutritious does not have to be expensive.
[00:09:17] We just need to make little adjustments. So whether it be we do two plant meals a week and then four or five animal based meals a week, we do frozen vegetables three times a week, fresh produce, fresh vegetables four times a week, we just have to make little tiny swaps to make sure we're staying in budget, but we're also staying healthy.
[00:09:39] I hope everybody has a wonderful day and happy holidays.
[00:09:42] Bye guys.
