The Secret for Budgeting for Healthy Food



Today I’m going to share with you a secret.

A secret that three years ago a woman in my life said couldn’t be possible.

It all started with me complaining (I’m sure just a little bit) about how expensive it was getting to eat healthy food for our then family of three eaters.

She, being a health coach, said it’s just not possible to feed our families healthy food on a budget and that we shouldn’t worry about things like a budget for real food.

As I was trying to keep my tea from spitting through my teeth, I thought for a moment about what she said.

The reality was that maybe her family didn’t have to budget for healthy foods, but my family did.  My family needed a set amount that would go toward healthy eating every month.  We needed a specific amount to work with, otherwise the car payment would also be blown on nothing but food.

The comment left me feeling ashamed at the time, like, what am I doing wrong here, why should I have to worry about this, though mostly it ticked me off.  I was going to write, “It p*##&$ me off”, but didn’t think that was appropriate here.  

I don’t want to feel or be limited by what we prefer to eat.  And there were things I knew. I hadn’t conducted a study or anything specific though noticed in our own family and in my practice, such as, we eat a certain way and as a result there are no medical bills or co-pays or antibiotics or urgent care visits.

Yes, we have wellness visits to the chiropractor, homeopath and supplements we purchase to keep us healthy, accelerate healing, AND, we don’t have medical bills.

I decided to dig my heels in to figure out how to feed my family real foods in under $500 a month.  And I mean feed-my-family-who-is-gluten-intolerant-well-in-under-$500-a-month.  A family that eats little to no processed food, choosing foods such as fresh produce, pastured meat, raw dairy and roasted nuts and seeds, all to be done in under $500 a month.

I knew $500 was the most we could put toward food each month, and what I found, was that over time, on average, I was spending as little as $375 with most months not even coming near $500.

So here’s my secret for the day.  It Can Be Done.  You can save money, eat well and live the life you love without feeling trapped by a grocery budget.  

Start saving money on healthy food while implementing these 3 tips:

#1  As we approach the holiday season, keep in mind the importance of boosting your immunity among the spread of sugar laden foods, colds and flu.  Seek out a big box store that sells organic produce and buy it.  Peel it, chop it and put it to use.  The only people who complain about wasted produce are the people who aren’t eating enough of it.

#2  Find a way to use five pounds of carrots and 6 bell peppers. We have crazy cool social media pages, blogs and cookbooks that will show us the way.

#3  Hone in on what you spend the most on and find ways to cut that cost.  You could come up with more homemade mixes, purchase certain items in bulk, buy only the organic vegetables when on sale to stock up and poke around to see what others are doing to see cheap easy healthy eating in their household.




About this author:

Nichi Hirsch Kuechle is the mama of two spirited girls.  For over 15 years she has supported moms from pregnancy to parenthood as a Childbirth Educator, Birth Doula and Nutrition Response Testing Practitioner in Minneapolis.   She publishes a weekly e-zine called Raising Healthy Families, which offers tips and ideas to bring ease, clarity and understanding to your parenting.  She also teaches a variety of live and virtual workshops.  You can get Nichi's New Parent Tool Kit & How to Raise a Healthy Child ebook  for free ($47 value!), by going to: http://www.MyHealthyBeginning.com.





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