Prioritizing Nutrition on a Budget: Tips from a Registered Dietitian

Set a Grocery Budget

Figure out how much money you can spend on groceries for the month. Then, come up with the price you can pay for groceries each week. Once you have an idea of that range, use it to plan your meals for the week.

Plan Out your Meals

“You don’t necessarily have to spend an entire afternoon cooking your meals for the week,” explains Courtney Fuller, RD, “You can write out your meals for the week, or even just focus on what dinners you’ll eat each day.” Courtney says on the weekends prior to grocery shopping, she writes a list of what meals she will eat that week, based on the store’s weekly ads. 

Use Discounts to Build your Menu

Courtney with CMC Nutrition says she plans her menu for the week around what is on sale. In addition to sales, she suggests using the stores app to clip coupons ahead of time. Of course, the ‘old fashioned way’ works here too. The benefit of using the store apps, Courtney shares, is they offer personalized coupons that once clipped, go straight to your store card. 

Repurpose your Proteins

Say ground turkey is on sale this week at the grocery store. You’re shopping for two, so you buy one pack of ground turkey for the week. Each pack of ground turkey contains about four servings. Say you’ve planned to make ground turkey tacos on Monday. You still have another two servings of turkey leftover to use in another meal. Don’t let your budget and health goals make eating boring! You can use that ground turkey for a completely different meal, such as Asian lettuce wraps, turkey burgers, spaghetti bolognese, stuffed peppers, or turkey chili. 

Use Frozen and Canned Foods

“There’s nothing wrong with frozen and canned food.” says Courtney, “They’re picked at their peak freshness and have all the same vitamins and minerals as your fresh produce. Plus, they last a whole lot longer and are often cheaper than fresh produce.” Courtney advises shoppers to stick to plain frozen fruits and vegetables, and low salt or no sodium added canned foods. It’s also good to rinse off your canned foods in a colander before consuming to get rid of some of the excess salt. 

Write your Grocery List by Section

Once you have your menu built, write a grocery list with items to check off. If you want to get extra organized, you can do this by section. This will also keep you from wandering around the isles and picking up extra items that catch your eye. Separate your list into the following sections:

• Produce
• Frozen
• Deli
• Meat & Fish
• Dairy
• Beverages
• Pantry
• Other

Under each section write what you’ll need to make the meals you have planned for the week. Bonus points if you can stick to mainly discounted items in each section.

Stick to your List

We all have done it. You’re set up to grab a few ingredients for dinner and all of a sudden you’ve filled an entire cart with snacks, new finds, and random things you don’t actually need. Not only is your grocery bill going to soar, it might also derail your progress towards those health goals. You took some time making your list and clipping your coupons, sticking to it will make that time and effort worth it. 

Fuel Up Before your Trip

You’ve probably heard the advice, “don’t go to the grocery store hungry.” Courtney advises everyone to eat a meal or a filling snack before grocery shopping. If you shop for groceries on a rumbling stomach, everything will look good and it’ll be easy to stray from your list. Fuel up ahead of time so you can stay on track.