In this day and age, spending money can often feel a little too easy, while eating well can feel harder than it should. Is there a way to eat healthy while saving money? Absolutely!

Eating healthily doesn’t need to break the bank – read on for five ways you can save money on your food, while also getting all the good stuff your body needs to thrive.

Embrace Processed Food & Meal Replacements

Processed food? Meal replacements? They don’t always have to be dirty words…

To get the best value you need to think about nutrition as well as price. Junk food can be really cheap, but beyond calories, these foods don’t contain many other nutrients.

Despite the stigma it carries,‘processing’ doesn’t automatically mean ‘bad’. In fact, the processing of food has reduced the price of many foods while maintaining their nutritional value and increasing their shelf-life and convenience.

For example, frozen and tinned fruits are often cheaper than their unprocessed counterparts and they have a much longer shelf life too. Tinned lentils, chickpeas and beans can be cooked and prepared in a few minutes, while bought raw they can take up to an hour to fully cook. So, this convenience allows you to take advantage of cheap, highly nutritious plant-based foods if you don’t have a lot of time to cook.

Now, while we’ll never call Huel a meal replacement, it is often thought as such in this context. Huel is another great example of processed food being able to help you save money on food. Processing has helped create a nutritionally complete food that is ready in less than a minute without the need for any cooking equipment – a 400kcal Huel powder meal costs just £1.32, while the likes of Huel Hot & Savoury breaks down to £1.76 a meal.

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Try Wonky Food

Food sold in supermarkets has to meet certain specifications, many of which are crucial.

However, some of these specifications are purely cosmetic – are your apples an even colour or shape? Are your carrots the correct size? – because our buying habits are impacted by sight. This means that tonnes of fruit and vegetables are wasted simply because they’re deemed too ugly to sell.

In the last few years, these unnecessary specifications have come under increased scrutiny. Retailers are starting to embrace this, however, and market fresh produce under ‘wonky’ or ‘ugly’ labels – these are foods which don’t meet standard appearance specifications but are perfectly safe to eat (once chopped and cooked, it really doesn’t matter what they originally looked like!)

The great thing about foods outside of appearance specifications, apart from reducing food waste, is the price. Considering that buying fresh fruit and veg is already a sure-fire way to eat well for less, embracing wonky food is a great way to save even more money on your next food shop.

Don’t Always Shop Organic

Organic foods can have some benefits such as better animal welfare and soil management^[1,2]. However, organic doesn’t always mean that your food is healthier.

Conventional foods contain just as much of the essential nutrients the body needs as organic foods^[3,4], and they can cost as much as 40% more than their conventional counterparts^[5], don’t feel like you need to be pressured into buying organic foods especially if you can’t afford it.

Huel products are not organic because the increase in price moves us away from a key part of our mission; providing affordable food.

Be Careful with Bulk Buying

Buying in bulk can be a great way to save money on food – it’s also one of the main reasons why large food companies can offer foods at a lower price than smaller ones.

While it might seem like good value to shop this way, there are downsides to this approach. The initial cost can be too high for some people and there are issues with storage and a potential increase in food waste, especially if you find yourself tempted by ‘buy one get one free’ offers. Therefore, it’s important to balance these factors and not be drawn into impulse buying due to bulk promotions.

If bulk buying is appealing to you, it’s worth noting that Huel products are cheaper per meal the more you buy in one purchase. The core Huel Powder costs as little as £1.10 due to discounts through bulk buying.

Be Conscious of Food Waste

Food waste is often forgotten about but the world wastes nearly a third of all food produced^[6]. In developed countries around 50% of food waste occurs at the consumer level (in other words: you^[6].) That means when you put food in the bin you’re also putting the money you spent on that food in the bin too.

So, reducing food waste is a win-win. Some of the simplest ways to reduce food waste include being aware of which foods in your home are closest to the end of their shelf-life and freezing extra meals.

Huel results in very little food waste from production to being in your home. All Huel products have a long shelf-life of 6-12 months and with the Powders you can scoop out as much as you need which makes it super easy to reduce your food waste.

Watching how much you spend doesn’t have to be a negative thing. By spending your money more carefully, the environment can benefit, as well as your bank balance. If Huel fits the bill then you can check out our Huel products.

References

1. Boone L, et al. Environmental sustainability of conventional and organic farming: Accounting for ecosystem services in life cycle assessment. The Science of the total environment. 2019; 695:133841.
2. Niggli U. Sustainability of organic food production: challenges and innovations. The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 2015; 74(1):83-8.
3. Forman J, et al. Organic foods: health and environmental advantages and disadvantages. Pediatrics. 2012; 130(5):e1406-15.
4. Smith-Spangler C, et al. Are organic foods safer or healthier than conventional alternatives?: a systematic review. Ann Intern Med. 2012; 157(5):348-66.
5. Lazaroiu G, et al. Trust Management in Organic Agriculture: Sustainable Consumption Behavior, Environmentally Conscious Purchase Intention, and Healthy Food Choices. Front Public Health. 2019; 7:340-.
6. Flanagan K, et al. Reducing Food Loss and Waste. World Resources Institute. 2019.