I’m not a professional meal planner, so I’m not going to talk about things that are “way above my pay grade,” as the common expression goes! So what I have to contribute to a discussion on cheap healthy family meals is not going to go into the nitty-gritty details.
Neither am I a recipe creator with a test kitchen, etc. I’m not going down the route of “…add a pinch of cumin and a quarter teaspoon of basil if you wish, to bring out the flavor of the meat more perfectly,” or anything like that! I’ll leave that to Taste of Home and other places with expertise. I’ll talk about what I know, or what I glean from those who know.
I do have a general sense, though… My wife and I have never been rich by any means – and I didn’t grow up in a rich family. So I’m aware of how people who have limited means have to function in order to eat well and healthily. I can give some pointers that hopefully you can run with and become a master yourself in providing simple, inexpensive, and healthy meals for your family. Then you can write “the book!”
Start With Foundational Healthy Foods
Thinking back to my childhood home, my father was a logger in Oregon. He was always off for several months in the winter when the snow in the mountains got too deep, so his income was spasmodic. My mother did bookkeeping from home for extra income – and taught school for some years in a private school (read: low pay!).
We ate a fairly basic diet. I’m not going to say it was all the healthiest, but we had some core foods that we always turned to. Here are a few of the foundational foods that were often on the table in my growing-up home: potatoes, rice, hamburger, cold cereal, milk, beans, cheese, wheat bread, peanut butter, and some canned soups and pork and beans – and lots of home-canned fruit and vegetables. Being it was Oregon – and not where I live now in Manitoba, Canada! – there was a lot of produce available in the summer. My mother canned 600 quarts of various types of produce each year. There was always enough to eat; we never felt deprived!
While you may not opt for the exact foods that we ate then. In the interest of health, you might not want as much hamburger as we ate, or the amount of cream of mushroom soup we ate – which was substantial! But the concept of having basic foods to fall back on in still important.
List of Healthy Foods
A list of healthy and fairly inexpensive foods today that I would consider, if I were needing to feed a family (ours has now left home), would be:
- Whole grain bread
- Whole wheat pasta
- Beans, lentils, tofu
- Rice (preferably brown)
- Eggs
- Potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Winter squash
- Oats, barley, and other whole grains such as quinoa and chia
- Fresh fruits and vegetables (particularly in season)
- Frozen fruits and vegetables
- Canned fruits and vegetables
- Cottage cheese and other low-fat cheeses
- Nuts and seeds
- Peanut butter
- Canned tuna, sardines, and salmon
- Yogurt and tofu
- and more.
The list of inexpensive and healthy foods that are readily accessible today is actually quite long! Many if not most of the larger supermarkets even have a large selection of organic food, although it’s not always cheap. But it’s worth a check if you are looking for the very healthiest foods.
Buy Larger Quantities
One thing that you have going for you if you have a larger number of “mouths to feed,” is that you can get a substantial discount if you buy larger quantities. Entire chains – Costco, Sam’s Club, and other warehouse-style stores – have developed around the concept of “buy in bulk.” It’s very worth your while to check out these stores.
It takes a bit to get used to shopping at a store like Costco, if you want to utilize the savings they offer. They don’t have as large a product variety as a standard supermarket.
I know when we first went to Costco, we didn’t see much to buy – and others have had the same experience. As a result, we didn’t use them for quite a while. But now, Costco is one of our mainstay stores.
If you can orient your shopping and eating around items that they sell, you are going to help your budget, because they do truly have substantial discounts, if you can buy the items they have, in the large quantities that they specialize in.
Spice Things Up
One trick you can use to make ordinary foods taste great for your family at low-cost is to use herbs, spices, various seasoning salts, and salt-free seasonings like “Mrs. Dash” to flavor your foods. There are some great ones out there! My wife uses a salt-free seasoning from Costco when she bakes fish – tastes awesome! Cinnamon is great to add to oatmeal, for example. Lawry’s Season Salt (I try to use the sodium-reduced) is awesome on cottage cheese!
You Can Make Food Just as Good
You can make food just as good as a restaurant can, very simply and at a fraction of the cost! Eating out needs to be a luxury reserved for special occasions only. You’ll never fit into a limited food budget! What you pay $50 for at a restaurant, you could either make from scratch or even buy and make, for $10. It’s a no-brainer.
If you are going to eat out, don’t make it part of your food budget! No, not even fast food, with rare exceptions – most of it is not healthy. And it’s also hard to find truly healthy food in almost any restaurant. Why? My theory is that they need to make it full of fat and sugar – especially fat – because they want to draw customers back to their restaurant. They are afraid if they make their food truly healthy, customers won’t like it, and won’t come back!
Of course you can eat out occasionally, but on a regular basis, it’s both unhealthy and expensive, for the most part.
There are a few restaurants (such as Freshii in Canada) that do truly make healthy food, but of course, it’s still far more expensive than making food at home.
Subway isn’t terrible when it comes to healthy food, in my opinion, depending on what you buy
In Summary…
It is certainly possible to feed a family healthily and cheaply and “for less.” By starting with foundational healthy foods, buying in bulk, making your food yourself, never (or very rarely) eating out, and adding the right seasonings, you’d be surprised at what you can do on a limited budget.
If you have experience feeding a family on a limited budget, feel free to share your experience in the space provided below – or if you have any other comments or questions about this post! Thanks.
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