Recently I have switched our diet to mostly a plant based diet this year. I have spent the last six months or so researching this topic.
Reasons for switching to a plant based diet include, disappointment over the rising cost of meat, wanting to lose weight and get better control over my blood sugar. As a result, I have lost weight and my blood pressure, cholesterol and A1C numbers are all down and my doctor is thrilled with my progress as am I.
What does our diet mostly consist of now? We eat a lot of vegetables and beans nowadays. I try to include vegetables for every meal including breakfast.
In July I participated in an Unprocessed Challenge where we ate no processed food for 30 days. For breakfast I would eat steamed Kale to make sure I got my vegetable servings in for the day.
It has been an adventure to say the least and my family isn't always thrilled with the choices I've made. Like with anything else there is a period of trial and error.
One of the things I've done is to remove as much oil as possible from our diet and I did it for health reasons, but this step has also saved money. One tablespoon of oil has 120 calories and I do not want the calories from the oil in my diet on a regular basis. I still have oil on hand for some things such as frying tortillas for the Tacos I made for a birthday celebration last week, but the majority of time I now cook without oil.
You do not need oil to sauté food. You can water sauté your food and it is much healthier for you. Go ahead and Google "water sautéing" and read about the topic. You will not only save money, but you are doing something healthy for yourself as well. Now I will be the first to admit that at least one person in my family complained about the lack of oil, used for seasoning, in dried beans when I made them without oil. But the savings and healthy benefits have been worth it to me.
Another thing I've done is to eliminate meat from our diet as much as possible. Articles I've read over the last year state that people can expect to pay more for meat this year. According to an article on NPR.org, multiple droughts in beef producing states have driven the cost of beef to historic highs. I had stopped buying beef roasts even before this year, except for a special occasion or holiday dinner, because the cost had skyrocketed to a price that I felt was out of my budget.
We hadn't bought steaks or pork chops for several years prior to that because I felt the cost of these items were out of my price range. We don't have to pay more for meat if we don't want to or are unable to afford meat, but we have other options too. We can simply decide to do without meat and find other, more affordable, options to feed our families, which is what I've done.
I did buy ground beef last week, as a special request from a family member, who asked for Tacos for a birthday celebration. It was the first time I have bought meat to prepare at home since April 1, 2013. So, we do still eat meat on occasion, but we have greatly reduced our consumption of it and have saved money as a result.
In the weeks to come I will be sharing some of the things I've done this year and the changes I've made in our efforts to save money.
Until then,
Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
