Meal Planning on a Budget with Chronic Illness

Living Chronically

Meal Planning on a Budget with Chronic Illness

by | Jun 11, 2020 | Living Chronically

 

Sticking to a tight budget while also eating healthy, and specifically for a chronic illness, can feel overwhelming.

Taking the time to sit down, organize your resources, and make a plan can be the difference between staying in budget and staying healthy or epic failure of one or both.

Literally takes less time than one of those Netflix episodes people end up binge watching, why not just do it and feel better?!

 

3 Steps for Getting Started with a Chronic Illness Friendly Menu

There are a ton of online resources, books, YouTube channels, Podcasts, and so much more when it comes to figuring out your specific needs for your condition. This article is dedicated to helping you figure out what to do with your list once you’ve gotten there.

The overwhelming list of “don’t eat” sometimes over shadows the “can eat” so I suggest these 3 tips to start your organization:

1.  Write down all the things you CAN eat.

2.  Make note of the “Avoid” eating items (I prefer front and back layout so I’m focused on the positive “can eat” on front and double check the back when looking at a questionable recipe or substitute)

3.  Create a Recipe Binder with this sheet as your front page in a sheet protector. No recipes go in this binder if they don’t make the cut.

 

 

4 Steps for Getting Started on a Budget for Your Chronic Illness Friendly Menu

  1.   Play the Matching Game:

-List ingredients each family can eat under their name

-Decide on your pantry and fridge staples from this list

-include seasonings, oils, proteins, complex carbs, etc. (i.e. eggs, extra virgin olive oil, Himalayan salt, cheese, cracked black pepper, etc.) These items are what you want to be kept on hand at all times.

 

  1.   Look at all the ingredients and see how many different meals you can make just from what’s in front of you

– on a separate page than the family member list, write the name of the meal at the top and list all ingredients under it 

– make note of which meals can be frozen after being cooked and what can be frozen before cooking, also cooking method (i.e. Pressure cooker, slow cooker, skillet, multiple pan, etc.)

– our goal was to have a minimum of 12 different meals. The more specific diets you have in a household will increase your ingredient groups.

   i.e my husband and I share similar “can eat” and “avoid” foods so we’re able to create a lot of different recipes from our “can eat” lists. We both miss out on some of our individual “can eats” under this step but we bring it in later in the steps 🙂 

However, my little brother and I don’t share very many so we can only create a few meals, but he shares some with my husband that I have under “avoid”. So, they have a group of meals they could eat. We compare meals and make adjustments.

Their meal may include tomato, for example, so we figure out another way to make that meal without the tomato, with a substitute or I pick it out if possible lol.

IF that doesn’t work, we cook everything as normal but when it comes to adding the tomato we pull a little out just for me to eat without the tomato. If it’s not easily adjustable we avoid it unless someone will be helping me cook and can take on the extra work.

 

  1.   Making the budget for your menu list:

-Write out the cost for each food item (don’t forget to include the taxes you’ll pay)

-compare costs at the local grocery stores (you can do this online for the most part), the local butcher, and local farmer’s markets

-decide where you will do most of your grocery shopping but keep it simple. (for instance it was more cost effective for us to go once a month or every other month to the next town over and buy all of our meat. We pay a few cents more for a sausage we like but we pay dollars less on beef, pork, and chicken so it works out very well.

-decide how often you want to go to each location and then calculate for the meals you’ll be cooking in between how much you’ll have to buy at one time. 

  1.   Cheat meals – it’s not the normal definition 🙂

-now, out of the ‘leftover’ ingredients under the family member columns, see if once or twice a month you can create a meal out of the most common ‘ok’ foods to change things up.

Maybe it’s an ingredient that’s more expensive to have a splurge or maybe it’s an ingredient that can picked out or added to only a portion of the meal.

For example, where we live, we can get chicken for just under $2 a pound most of the time and $10 worth of chicken can make between 2-3 meals depending on how protein rich we make it. We also love, and both can eat, shrimp. But a $7 bag only does one meal for us.

So, once a month I pick a day to have a *cheat meal*. Our cheat meal isn’t like most, it’s not crappy food that will make us feel bad later, it’s foods that are out of our budget if eaten regularly but are definitely a treat and *cheat* to our budgeted meal plan. 

 

avacado cucumber salad on a white dish with a brunette woman in the background

15 Best Tips for Sticking to Your Budget and Staying Chronic Illness Friendly in Your Meal Plan

   1.   Visually Build Your Plan for Success:

-Write it out

-Use the binder we talked about earlier to add the recipes with pictures. If a recipe doesn’t have one or you created it, take a picture of your plate in nice lighting to add to your binder.

2.   Don’t shop hungry

3.   Don’t shop when frustrated or having negative emotions

4.   Don’t go in without a grocery checklist

5.   Opt for including chicken thighs and drumsticks instead of just breast meat

6.   Do use local farmer’s markets for fresh veggies and fruit! You’re also less likely to stray from your list when the typical grocery store temptations aren’t in front of you but a ton of fresh veggies and fruits are. 

7.    Try not to stray from your list, but if you find a veggie that’s the same cost and would swap well in your meals feel free to change it up

8.   Local butchers are great. You’re less likely to opt for the frozen pizza when you have steaks, roasts, and other delicious meats in front of you.

9.   Simplify your seasonings – if you’re on AIP you’ve probably already worked on this. A great thing is figuring out which seasonings give a good flavor alone and which ones can be combined to create a totally different flavor than they do separately.

It feels like you’re having a totally different meal this way and reduces taste bud boredom.

10.  Check the sales paper and coupons before going shopping, but don’t change your list just because something is on sale. Your health comes first. 

11.  If you shop bi-weekly and are including a mixture of fresh, canned and frozen veggies or fruits, plan to use fresh veggies and fruits on the first week and frozen or canned on week 2 so you reduce produce going bad

12.  Avoid recipes that call for a special ingredient that won’t be used in other recipes

13.  Look for seasonal recipes that you can get the produce from your local markets

14.  Plan to use leftovers, freeze leftovers for later, or meal prep and store the food prepared for later.

15.  Research best methods of storage for your ingredient list! Pinterest is ahh-mazing for this!!

That way you already know what it’ll take to keep your produce fresh until the next shopping trip and can plan ahead the effort and energy to do it!

basket of onions

5 Ideas for Staying on a Budget and Eating Healthy While Living in a Rural Area

We live in a small town and are able to hunt for fresh game throughout the year. This reduces our grocery bill and increases our healthy eating dramatically. We’ve also had to eat healthy on a budget when we did not have the opportunity to harvest our own meat.

So here are a few ideas to keep in mind when trying to figure out a solution to the meal planning, budgeting and chronic illness friendly menu. 

From personal experience, the grocery stores don’t always have a good selection of fresh or organic produce and meats. And there’s usually not a grocery store that is devoted to these items close to a rural area. 

BUT! When there is a will, there is a way!

Also, if you live in a rural area and are able to raise some of your own produce or meat or even have the ability to hunt, don’t be against trading with others! 

 1.   We had a friend raise a steer (beef) that was unable to hunt so we traded packs of venison for some beef. We got organic fresh beef and they got organic fresh venison and we both saved money at the butcher.

2.   If you grow your own veggies or fruit, check around to see if someone else would be open for trade. I know some people that will give others buckets of fresh oranges at harvest season and then when harvest comes around for blueberries or watermelons the favor is returned. 

3.   If you’re not a grower that’s understandable, but there’s other things you can trade. A neighbor that’s unable to hunt, cuts other people’s small yards the entire year and in trade they give him and his family fresh pork from hogs they trap.

4.   Oh another one, a neighbor has chickens. They give an 18 egg carton a week in trade for a small bag of feed per month. 

5.   I also knew someone that would grow beans in their backyard, very hardy and easy to do with minimal work, then they’d let the neighborhood kids get what they wanted in trade for cutting their grass, doing the harder house cleaning, etc. since they were physically unable.

 

There are so many options to cutting a budget, planning ahead, and still have healthy meals, even when a flare strikes or cooking a big meal for hours is way too difficult or time consuming!

The key is making the decision to be pro-active instead of re-active!