How to eat healthily for less than £30 a week

The idea of eating healthily can be a costly and difficult one for the average person, but it doesn’t have to be.

Healthy living doesn’t mean breaking your budget – in fact, it’s often cheaper than buying junk food.

With some careful planning and a bit of savvy shopping, you can enjoy plenty of fresh ingredients without blowing your weekly budget.

Wondering how you can pull off the £30 a week stance?

Shop around, eat seasonally, meal plan, reduce your meat intake.

Also, learn to make your own snacks, drink only water, make your own bread, use cheaper cuts of meat, and eat pulses.

There are several ways to make food healthier and less expensive!

Let’s go through Tesco offers this week for a more convincing outlook:

Your Tesco shopping list:

Bananas – Loose @ 0.14 ea  – 0.70

Potatoes – Finest Jacket potatoes 4 pack – 1.50

Low-fat yoghurt – Danone Actimel 8 x 100g – 2.75

Skimmed milk – Tesco skimmed milk 1 pint – 0.60

Tinned lentil soup – Tesco Lentil & vegetable soup 400g – 0.45

Pure, unsweetened orange juice – Tesco Pure Orange Juice Smooth 4x1L – 3.30

Salmon – Tesco 2 boneless salmon fillets 260g – 3.79

Unsalted peanuts – Tesco unsalted roasted monkey nuts 300g – 1.20

Apples – Gala apples class 1 loose – 0.43

Pears – Conference pears class 1 loose @0.51 ea – 1.02

Plums – Tesco plums 400g – 1.50

Carrot sticks – Tesco Fresh & Easy carrot batons 600g – 1.00

Wholemeal bread – Tesco wholemeal medium bread 800g – 0.59

Wholemeal rolls – Tesco wholemeal batch rolls 6 pack – 0.49

Tomatoes – Tesco salad tomatoes 6 pack – 0.75

Cucumber – Tesco cucumber whole – 0.43

Oatcakes – Stockan’s thick oatcakes 200g – 0.95

Spaghetti bolognese – Tesco spaghetti bolognese 400g – 0.60

Tuna – Tesco tuna chunks in brine 145g – 0.79

Brocolli – Tesco broccoli 375g – 0.49

Chicken – Tesco British whole medium chicken 1.3-1.5kg – 3.35

Total – £26.68

---

Your week’s meals

Monday

Breakfast: Porridge made with skimmed milk; 1 banana; a glass of pure, unsweetened orange juice.

Lunch: Tinned or homemade lentil soup; wholemeal roll (add unsaturated fat spread).

Supper: Jacket potato with frozen peas and baked salmon.

Snacks: Small handful of unsalted peanuts; low-fat fruit yoghurt.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Poached egg on 2 slices of wholegrain toast; a glass of pure, unsweetened orange juice.

Lunch: Wholemeal bread sandwich with egg, tomato and cucumber.

Supper: Spaghetti Bolognese and a salad.

Snacks: Carrot sticks; 1 small handful of unsalted peanuts.

Wednesday

Breakfast: 2 x wholegrain toast with a low-fat spread, honey and banana; a glass of pure, unsweetened orange juice.

Lunch: Lentil soup (tinned or homemade); wholemeal roll with unsaturated fat spread.

Supper: Slice of homemade vegetarian pizza with salad and a jacket potato.

Snacks: Low-fat yoghurt; 2 plums; apple.

Thursday

Breakfast: 2 slices of wholegrain bread (toasted) and a boiled egg; a glass of pure, unsweetened orange juice.

Lunch: Jacket potato and baked beans; salad.

Supper: Home-made chunky vegetable goulash; brown rice; broccoli.

Snacks: 3 oatcakes with low-fat cream cheese; pear.

Friday

Breakfast: Porridge with skimmed milk; 1 banana; a glass of pure, unsweetened orange juice.

Lunch: Homemade carrot and parsnip soup; wholemeal roll with unsaturated fat spread.

Supper: Homemade tuna pasta bake; broccoli.

Snacks: Apple; 1 small handful of unsalted peanuts; pear.

Saturday

Breakfast: Muesli, natural yoghurt and a banana; 1 x wholegrain toast.

Lunch: Chicken and vegetable bake; baked apple and custard.

Supper: Chicken, cucumber and tomato wholemeal bread sandwiches

Snacks: 2 plums; a small handful of unsalted peanuts; carrot sticks.

Sunday

Breakfast: Muesli, skimmed milk and a banana; 1 glass of pure, unsweetened orange juice.

Lunch: Cheese and salad sandwich; salad

Supper: Homemade cottage pie served with peas and carrots.

Snacks: 3 oatcakes with low-fat cream cheese; 2 plums.

Conclusion

See how easy it is to make it with a £30 food budget per week?

You can even reduce it further by making your own bread, drinking more water instead of juice, planting your own tomatoes, cucumbers etc.

In this period of inflation, be sure you make every effort to save money whenever you can.

Read more of our articles to find out how else you can make savings.