A lot of you have asked how to eat clean on a budget. GREAT question, and David Nance from Running My Pace has some suggestions.
David has been running since October 2009. Since then, he has run in six 50k races, six half marathons, countless 5k and 10k races, a 24-hour endurance run, and one failed attempt at Mountain Masochist Trail Run that ended in a DNF due to a pulled calf muscle. His goals for 2013 are to complete as many races/ultra marathon events as he can. The list includes three 50k races (one of which was ran on January 5th), his first road marathon, two 50-mile races, and an attempt at his first 100-mile race. He will also jump into the field of Race Director, taking over the FATS 50k (
www.fats50k.com) race held during the first Sunday of October in North Augusta, South Carolina. He is currently a sponsored runner with Team Wheaties and gives back to the sport of running by leading a couch to 5k style training group for beginning runners. He blogs about running, food, and faith when he is not running or working, over at
www.dnancejr.com and he maintains a Facebook fan page, Facebook.com/RunningMyPace.
David - tell us how you eat on a budget!!
If you’re anything like me; budgeting your household income has become a HUGE factor in the monthly planning. With everything getting more and more expensive by the day (have you looked at road race pricing recently?), we’ve looked at all options to maximize every penny earned. Are we on a Dave Ramsey level of saving/budgeting? Not quite but we have learned some of the many techniques at reducing our out of pocket expenses. One of these areas comes via the grocery budget. We used to shop twice a month for groceries; each trip would result in us spending in the $300 range. We would use coupons to save a few pennies. We would buy what we thought was a good deal because of the size of the packaging. Our overall per meal cost would average around $14.50 per meal per person. At the beginning of this year we decided to really focus on this aspect of our household budget. Our last three shopping trips have been under $110 for food only purchases (taking out the cost for cleaning supplies and other non-food items purchased) and the best part...not a single coupon has been clipped!
So how do we do it?
We grocery shop and meal plan by these easy to follow guidelines (I loathe calling them rules):
* Plan ahead
* Buy what is on sale/buy bulk
* Buy in season
* Stick to the perimeter
* Portion control
We don’t really buy in regards to organic and non-GMO. Why? In our house, we subscribe to the Nance economy, not what everyone else does or say we should do. We like saving money to be able to do other things in life (HELLO: racing, vacations, buying a new gadget). So if that means eating a non-organic piece of fruit or a piece of chicken from one of the mass producers, then so be it. This may not sit well with some people but it’s the honest truth and I’m all about honesty.
Planning ahead
We use my wife’s uncanny ability to shop for great deals on everything else and honed them to the grocery stores and our shopping list. Grocery stores, like many other retailers run Sunday to Saturday ads. On Sunday mornings my wife gets online and reviews the digital fliers for the area grocery stores and starts the list. Yes, we will go to several different stores to save the money. We typically go to Kroger, Sam’s Club, and Wal-Mart (I know, GASP!!) for the majority of our purchases. However, we will go wherever the deals are!
Smart Tip: Shop earlier in the week.
We used to shop at the end of the week and would have no luck in getting many of the items on our list that was on sale. We’ve switched to shopping on Sunday afternoons/evenings after church and now have little to no problem getting the sale items. We plan our meals after we see what’s on sale, not the other way around. Since we plan the meals after finding out what is on sale, we limit the amount of excess items that we need to buy. Nothing like planning a meal and getting your heart set on that meal only to find that you need to buy several ingredients for the meal. So that “simple” recipe you find online has now become a “simply expensive” recipe. As simple as this may sound, this one step has saved us a great deal of money!
Buying what is on sale
By creating our shopping list around what is on sale, this allows us to be laser focused when we go into the grocery stores and are less tempted to pick up something we think we may need. Many of the staple items (bread, milk, eggs, etc.) rarely go on sale and this is where shopping at multiple locations come into play. Here in our area items like milk are generally the least expensive at Target (BTW, usually the freshest too), bread is almost always cheapest at Wal-Mart, and eggs at Kroger. Thankfully we are lucky enough to have all three of these stores close by (Target – 2 miles, Kroger – 3 miles, and Wal-Mart – 6 miles).
Smart Tip: Create shopping lists for each store you plan to shop.
By having multiple lists you are less likely to just pick up the items from the other shopping list at the current store you’re in just for convenience sake. Meats are prime examples of this, while it may seem easier to just pick up a tray of chicken breast at one store where it is not on sale, you could ultimately save several dollars buying the same tray at the other store where it’s on sale currently.
We try to buy in bulk for some items. If you have a Sam’s Club membership card, you’re familiar with the quarterly mailings that will show you where you are spending your money. The largest portion of our member benefits comes from the meat department.
Buying in season produce
Knowing what fresh veggies and fruits are in season for your area is key to saving money in the product department. The grocery store produce department stocks almost all fruits and veggies year round which is great because sometimes I really want a fresh peach in December. The down side to that…a fresh peach in December will cost me around $1 per peach whereas that same peach in the summer will cost me about 15 cents! The same goes for vegetables. Corn on the cob is one of my favorites but I know that I’m going to pay more for it during the winter.
Smart Tip: Learn what is in season for your specific area. There is the general rule of thumb for what is in season and what is not but different areas of the country have different “in season” times for most fruits and veggies. For instance, in season right now in Georgia is a large variety or leafy green vegetables but in North Carolina the “in season” items are apples and peanuts.
Check out these two links to learn what is in season for your part of the country:
Field to Plate:
http://www.fieldtoplate.com/guide.php
Epicurious Season Map:
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/farmtotable/seasonalingredientmap
Stick to the perimeter
This is one of the aspects that we were severely lacking before we started to really focus on our shopping. We’ve closed our view as to what is considered “food.” I’m not going to lie and say that we have always eaten clean/healthy. Being honest, we used to take the easy way out on 85% of our meals. We would either do take-out or “cook” one of those oh so easy boxed meals. You know the boxed meals I’m talking about: Hamburger Helper, Stouffer’s frozen dinners, etc. While these were easy to prep and make, the nutritional value was severely lacking and we (ok, more like I) would end up being hungry within a few hours and wound up eating something else. I’m sure you can see where this leads to…the fact that I was overeating, having to buy even more food, etc. We rarely spent time in the produce section and spent very little time in the meat department. 80% of the time spent in grocery stores used to be going up and down every aisle.
Now, we embrace the perimeter of the store. We start in the produce section, browsing each stand before moving on to the meat department and then dairy/frozen foods. Now we can easily say that we spend the bulk of our time walking the outer edge of the store and only go into the center aisles for minor needs.
Smart Tip: Shop the perimeter first and center aisles last.
By walking the perimeter first and center aisles last, you will spend less time browsing the aisle because you will have fresh meats, cold dairy, and frozen foods that need to be re-introduced back into the cold/frozen environment as quickly as possible.
Portion Control
This is where buying in bulk and knowing your portion sizes goes hand in hand. People generally underestimate their portion sizes and tend to eat two to three times the size of a normal sized portion at dinner ( I know I did!). Buying meats, fruits, and vegetables in bulk is a great way to save on your overall grocery costs if properly handled. Places like Sam’s Club, Costco, and other bulk buy stores are a great value for meats and most produce.
Here are proper portion sizes according to the American Diabetes Association:
* Meat, fish, poultry—3 oz. (about the size of the palm of your hand)
* Cheese—1 oz. (about the size of your thumb)
* Milk, yogurt, fresh vegetables—1 cup (about the size of a tennis ball)
* Bread—one slice
* Rice or cooked pasta—⅓ cup
* Potato or corn—½ cup
* Dry cereal—¾ cup
Another great visual aid that can be printed is from the Virginia Department of Health
http://www.vdh.state.va.us/news/PressKits/HealthyVirginians/Lunch%20Well%20portions.pdf
Controlling our portions has helped us to reduce the amount of extra food we cook and subsequently waste. We now cook enough food for up to four meals at a time. This typically consists of dinner for that night and then lunch for the next day.
Smart Tip: Invest in a digital food scale (with a tare function) and a vacuum sealer.
Having a food scale and a vacuum sealer allows us to buy in bulk and then cut and chop down to the standard portion sizes. I like to make it easy on myself and freeze items that are going to get cooked together. Having the tare function on the scale allows me to keep working without having to stop and empty my container. As you can see in the picture below, I freeze just about everything from asparagus to squash to broccoli to meats. The vacuum seal bags are generally a little less expensive than their zipper seal counter parts.
Eating healthy and saving money can really happen if you stick to a plan and shop smart! Our per meal cost now comes in at less than $8 per person! How’s that for saving? If we can do it, anyone can!
Happy Shopping!
David Nance
So, there you have it!! One more way to look at eating clean.
Here's to saving money!!
I'm a little late in posting this blog - mainly because I wanted to you have ALL the information. 
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