3 ways to eat healthy:
I replaced all snacks with carrots, bananas, celery sometimes with peanut butter and (a bit more expensive) homemade trail mix with nuts, dates, raisins and the like.
If I need a 'food fix' outside the house, I find a grocery store instead of fastfood and get an apple or banana and cheese or yogurt, It is important to have a sweet that gets you going and a protein that gives longer term energy. An apple and yogurt will give you longer healthier energy for less than the cost of a full 'fast food' meal.
Fill up a water bottle at home and drink water. Water is amazingly healthy, free if you do it this way, fills you up when you are hungry so you can get to healthy food (and not binge on chips) and supplants soft drinks and juices that are empty calories or worse, and more expensive.
These are three easy ways to eat more healthily and save money. I have not had a coke for over a year now and only once had chips as a snack since October.
These changes are easy to make too.
And I will add a couple bonus ideas that i also have used - some formerly and some more recently:
Store shop, and try not to buy anything in a box or a can. These are almost always more expensive and by definition have preservatives etc. For instance, dried beans just need to be soaked, and double or more in size, yet the price is lower. I buy the ingredients for granola and make a big batch - I have a higher % of nuts, seeds and dried fruit than the boxed stuff that (now) I see is filler like oats and puffed rice. Mine is more healthy and would be cheaper if I had the same proportions. A pound of carrots, home cooked chicken thighs or cheese and apples will take you a lot further for less $$ - than the equivalent weight of processed food.
Cook batches ahead: this is time effecient overall and takes the pressure off in critical moments. For instance: I always cook larger portions of meat so some is ready when I come home: a salad with protein is just a couple minutes away.
Stop eating bread. A couple years ago Instopped eating bread and pasta and almost immediately felt better and lost weight (which was not a goal). Even in restaurants I asked them to not bring the bread since its mostly mindless eating and empty calories. If at a restaurant just wait for your meal, if in a store get an apple, if home get a carrot or nuts.
So - its easy. You don't have to go organic or farmers markets to eat healthier. These easy steps - all of which I have done - will same you cash and you will feel better.
Andrew Kinsel