Donnie and I exceeded our usual $30 grocery budget by seven dollars this week. Nevertheless, I left the store feeling happy as a clam. Why? Because, unlike most of the other shoppers I saw, Donnie and I walked away with a cart full of real food. Our grocery bags weren’t filled with boxes and jars and cartons of processed, packaged “food items.” Instead we had fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, cheese, milk, eggs, oatmeal, cornmeal, and herbal tea (we did also buy pepperoni, which is a favorite processed indulgence of ours—but, hey, no one’s perfect).Just a few years ago, we were the ones buying packaged “supper bakes,” jars of gravy, cans of soup, frozen dinners, and other non-food foods. Neither one of us thought much about the potential health consequences of consuming the artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives used to make these items. It wasn’t until we committed to a frugal lifestyle, and realized we could no longer afford to eat processed foods, that we got serious about cooking with fresh, natural ingredients.
During our early days of frugality, I spent a lot of time researching the best ways to save money on groceries. Thankfully, many of the frugal bloggers who write about cooking from scratch as a way of cutting costs also write about the importance of eating naturally for optimal health. The more I read, and the more I thought about what I read, the more I realized that Donnie and I had to change our eating habits for good. Since then, we’ve made significant changes to our diet. We aren’t perfect by any means, but we’re much healthier than we used to be.
This is just one example of the non-monetary rewards we’ve reaped from adopting a frugal lifestyle. There are many more, of course, but the switch to cooking from scratch has had the greatest impact by far. Knowing that we aren’t putting a variety of artificial flavors, colors, and chemicals into our bodies gives me tremendous peace of mind. Plus, the food we prepare from scratch is significantly tastier than anything we ever made from a mix!
How has frugal living prompted you to make healthy lifestyle changes? What non-monetary rewards have you gained by changing your spending habits? Share in the comments!
2 comments:
I totally hear you on that! I see people spending at least twice what we do - a family of 4 - and it's all junk. Then I'll hear those same people say they can't afford to eat healthy. Well, I can't afford to buy prepackaged crap. Cooking healthy meals from scratch is so much better and cheaper for our family.
Thanks for the comment on my blog!
You are right, too, that living frugally can also help you live a more healthy lifestyle. I have always enjoyed healthy foods more than processed foods, but assumed that the amount of money it would take to buy them and the time it would take to make them wouldn't be worth it.
Once I decided to try it, though, I realized that just wasn't true at all! We try to eat a lot of produce, rice, pasta, and I have just recently started making bread from scratch (which is SO much cheaper and way better than store-bought!). Produce can seem pricey, especially if you go organic, but when you think about spending 20 dollars a week on produce and realize that you are getting many meals out of it...well, it's just worth it!
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