What
if health is important to you, but you’re on a tight budget, putting all your
money towards paying off debt, or (like me) doing a stint of voluntary poverty?
It
IS possible to achieve vibrant health on a tiny budget, and I’m going to share
some of the ways I’ve achieved this for our family of five, while living in an
undeveloped country on a tiny income.
For
the past 6 months or more, our gross income has been roughly AUD $300 per week,
which needs to cover electricity, cooking gas, food, fuel and running costs of
diesel 4x4 van, clothing, school fees, phone credit, internet, and other sundry
items for our family of five, while also assisting and sometimes feeding others
who come to us for help.
Despite
the obvious budgetary challenges, healthy food is not something willing to
sacrifice, so I’ve had to get really creative in this area. The following tips
have helped me to make good health on a shoe-string budget possible.
For the purpose of this article, I'm going to assume that my clever readers already know the basics of being healthy: Little to no sugar or processed foods, plenty of raw fruit & vegetables, lots of leafy greens, little to no chemicals/artificial ingredients in both food and beauty products...etc, etc.
1.
Plan & Prepare
I really can't stress this highly enough. A
weekly or fortnightly menu plan is one of the best money and time savers. Yes,
it does require some effort and discipline to get into the routine, but the
savings are so worthwhile.
Before I do my grocery shopping, I do a quick check
of fridge and pantry, to see what I already have. Next, I plan main meals
for the next week. I usually try to work as many items from the fridge/pantry
into this list, then I can clearly see what new ingredients need to be added to
the shopping list, along with fruit and snacks.
During busy times when my routine has come unstuck
and I don't bother planning the menu, I find myself rushing to the shops
for one or two items (but leaving with 5 or 10...) because I don't have what I
need to make dinner.
A menu plan also eliminates those evenings when you
stand, staring into the depths of the pantry, dithering over what to make for
dinner, while hungry children hang off your leg and whine in a most
unattractive fashion. Enough said.
On my menu plan, I also list jobs that I need to do
on a certain day, in preparation for the following day(s). For instance, today
while I'm cooking a casserole, I need to bake some pumpkin for tomorrow's roast
pumpkin salad. (“Doubling up” like this also saves on gas/electricity costs.)
Here in the islands, we have lots of little village
shops, usually run by Chinese shop-keepers. The one closest to me is open long
hours (7am – 10pm), but the prices are 10-20% higher than the other one down the
road which is only open 8am – 5pm. I have watched the people in our house-hold
wait until they are hungry at 8pm then decide to go to the shop, but the only
shop still open is the more expensive one. This lack of forward thinking doesn’t
serve them well, especially when they live close to the poverty line, and an
extra 60-70 cents per day could make a real difference to them.
I also plan my shopping trips when I have the least
amount of children with me. For example, if I go early on a week-day morning,
both my older children are in school and I only have my daughter with me. Not
only is it quicker and less stressful, but it always works out cheaper, since
children inevitably get hungry when they go near shops. (Wait, maybe that’s
just mine?)
Back home in Australia, my local health shop
offered 25% discount on the first Monday of every month, so during the month I
would make a note of any products we need (before
we needed them), and then wait to buy them on that Monday. (By the way,
this discount was not advertised, I found out only by asking in-store. It pays
to ask!!)
2. Grow Your Own.
This is really the ultimate in saving. Not
only is tending a garden great exercise, a source of relaxation and
interest, uses less fossil fuels and resources, there really is no
better feeling (or taste!) than picking straight from the garden.
When it comes to gardening, I have as much talent
as an elephant, BUT there are some things that are so easy to grow, that even
I cannot mess it up! These special few are: potatoes, strawberries,
tomatoes, zucchinis, rosemary, lavender, aloe vera, chives and silverbeet.
Even if you don't have a backyard, a sunny
windowsill will grow herbs and sprouts. You can grow a batch of wheatgrass
on the windowsill quickly, easily, and for less than a dollar.
3. Make Your Own.
You pay for convenience. If you're willing to make
things from scratch, there are so many savings to be made.Here's just a couple of examples:
Natural Yogurt: A yoghurt maker costs about $20, and making your
own yoghurt is so quick and simple, it will pay for itself in no time. You
don't need to buy the special yoghurt starter packet for every new batch, just
use half a cup of a previous batch of yoghurt as a starter, then add 1 and 1/3
cup of milk powder and add water as per usual.
Dairy-free milks: Oat and nut milks are super-easy to make at home,
if you have a blender. You don’t need a nut milk bag, just get a piece of
muslin cloth or some other loosely woven cloth to squeeze the milk from the pup.
There are lots of instructions online.
Face & Body
scrubs can be made with a little oil and
sugar (or salt), with a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil added. This
is just as effective as store-bought products, but without all the fillers and
chemicals.
Face masks can be made using mashed up strawberries, avocado or
raw honey.
A blender is a very worthwhile investment, not just for making smoothies, but also soups and sauces. I use mine at least once per day.
4. Make Use of Left-Overs.
Did you know that Australian homes and businesses throw
out 7.5 million tonnes of food waste every year? That 7.5 million
tonnes of food, not only fills up vast areas of landfill, but costs us about
$7.8 billion. What a waste!
If you follow a menu plan, you should eliminate
some of the food waste, as you will not be buying food on a whim, with no real
plan for how you're going to use it up.
Spend your money on quality food, not quantity
that will end up in the garbage.
Twice a week, go through the fridge and pull out
anything that is going to be soon past it's prime, then work out how to use it
up. Vegetables, both raw and leftover cooked vegetables, can be used up in
quiches, pies, savory muffins and fritters, stews, soups, fried rice, and
casseroles.
On my weekly menu plan, I usually leave
two meals for "easy" meals or leftover recipes.
Fruit and vegetable pulp left over from juicing can
be used in muffins or desserts.
If you steam vegetables, don't throw out the water
underneath. Let it cool and either turn it into vegetable stock, or pour it
onto your pot plants or herbs. They'll appreciate the nutrient boost. Bones
from beef or lamb or chicken can be boiled and made into stock.
And lastly, invest in a compost bin or worm farm.
Not only will you never have to buy garden fertilizer again, you'll be amazed
at how much less waste ends up in the garbage.
5. Invest in Quality Multi-Purpose Products or
Super-foods
Coconut Oil is a great cooking oil. But it's also a
wonderful face and body moisturizer, lip balm and hair conditioner. I never buy
moisturizers, I just use my organic cold-pressed coconut oil.
Apple Cider Vinegar is a great health tonic. I take
it once or twice per day (one tablespoon in a glass of water), but it can also
be used in salad dressings, and used as a home remedy on many different skin
conditions.
Personally, I don’t spend money on supplements
(except Lugol’s Iodine). I prefer to spend the money on highly nutritious
foods, such as chia seeds, berries, spirulina, etc. These offer the nutrients
in perfect synergy as nature intended, in a bio-available form. As far as I'm concerned, super-foods are better value for money than supplements, since I need to eat something, anyway - it may as well be nutritious.
6. Less
Meat, More Vegetables.
As a general rule, vegetables are cheaper, per
kilo, than meat. In season, vegetables cost around $2 - $4/kg, while meat can
be anything from $8 - $38/kg, especially if trying to buy organic, grass-fed
meat. You do the math!
I am a vegetarian, so our family eats very little
meat (I am the cook, after all!), and it makes a big difference to the budget.
Experiment with recipes from other cultures, such
as Middle Eastern or Indian cooking, as these are often built around staples
like lentils and pulses, rather than meats, which make for really cheap, but
nutritious, meals.
Most vegetables can (and should) be eaten raw,
which will further save you money on energy costs.
7. Intermittent Fasting
Now, hear me out. I’m not advocating that you make
your children wait all day for a meal, nor that you should begin starving yourself.
But intermittent fasting for adults is a great way to allow your body a rest
from the usual act of digesting food all day long, and allow it to concentrate
on cleansing and healing.
Did you know that every day our bodies expend as
much energy on digesting food, as is required to run a marathon? When we give
it a rest from digestion, it diverts that energy into cleaning out old wastes
and toxins, healing wounds etc, and you’d be amazed at how much further the
weekly food stocks last, even with one adult fasting for one day per week.
You can tailor your fasting to a schedule that
suits your particular circumstance, but always start small and build from there. Many people start
with daily 12-hour fasts (ie. No eating between 8pm-8am). I like to do a weekly
24 – 36 hour fast, eating no food but drinking plenty of water. I break the
fast with fruit or a green smoothie.
8. Pack a Snack.
Any time I step out of the house, I always take
water and a snack (piece of fruit or some nuts), even if I'm only planning on going out for a little while.
You never can tell how long you'll be, and
expensive fast food or packaged snacks become a tempting option when your
stomach is grumbling. It really does pay to think ahead.
9. Wild-Forage
As incredible as it sounds, there are super-foods
growing all around you, but you probably refer to them as “weeds”. Plants like
the humble dandelion are packed with vitamins and minerals. Wild greens often
contain more nutrition than the farmed, cultivated greens like lettuce and
cabbage – and they’re available for free.
I don’t claim to be an expert in wild-foraging, but
I’ve picked up enough information from people like Green Deane, to identify
several different edible plants that grow wild in our backyard, including
dandelion, oriental hawks-beard, amaranth, wood-sorrel and plantain. I add them
to my green smoothie, using a different variety each day.
Unless you live in Antarctica, chances are you've got edible leaves/berries/roots growing all around you, but be sure you identify them correctly before eating, because some plants are poisonous to humans.
10. Barter/Swap/Trade.
We have a friend who we often help out by giving
him a lift. In return, every few weeks he turns up here with bunches of ripe
bananas, which we gratefully accept. Another friend would come and loan small
amounts from my husband, which he would pay back within a week or two, along
with a bag full of taro or sweet potato.
These exact circumstances might not apply to
you, but I bet there are people you know, who have something you don’t, while
you have something they don’t. The trick is working out what it is.
For as long as I can remember, my grandad would buy
all the local papers each week, read them, and then pass them along to my mum.
My mum often gave them eggs when she had more than she needed, along with
tomatoes or zucchinis, when she had more than enough. My mum got to the read
the papers for free, they got eggs and vegetables.
These arrangements didn’t start out as a
formal agreement, they simply grow as a natural consequence of being generous
to others. Most people respond to generosity, with generosity.
But there's nothing to stop you posting an ad on Craigslist or other local classifieds websites, for products or services to swap or trade.
