Stretch Your Ingredients, Save $

Eating healthy CAN be expensive, but not if you are smart about it. I've found tons of ways to save money on food over my last 8 months without much of an income... and trust me, food is my life so I was never going without.

My strategy - plan ahead. First, think about what you already have in the fridge or freeze. Then take a look at what is on sale or in season at your grocery store.

*I personally shop at a small, local place for 90% of my stuff. Then I go to Fresh Market for other things*

Now, think about 3-4 meals you can make with those ingredients. GO SHOP! Get what you need and stay focused. Don't be an impulse buyer. Just because they have junk on sale does NOT mean you need to buy it.

The trick is to stretch some of the ingredients into multiple meals. Examples? Cauliflower is my favorite for this - I make roasted cauliflower, cauliflower mashed "potatoes", cauliflower rice, a cauliflower cheese dip.. get my drift?

Think of all the meals you can come up with that bell peppers could be used in. Omelettes, fajitas, stuffed bell peppers, sausage and peppers, and so on.

Pictured, I have plain greek yogurt. You can sub greek yogurt for so many things - mayo, sour cream, dips. Here, I've made a yogurt parfait with bananas, low sugar granola, cinnamon & slivered almonds AND veggie dip with carrots & celery. Two easy to make snacks, both from the same ingredient.

ALSO! A premade ranch dip for veggies contains a lot of nonsense we can't even pronounce. And flavored yogurt? Ew. Don't be fooled by the fruit flavored yogrut. It's a ton of sugary syrup they pretend is real fruit. Strawberry flavored Choboni has 15 grams of sugar vs. plain that only has 4 grams. Healthier & lower cost. BOOM!