How to eat a healthy, wholesome diet on even the strictest budget

Learning how to eat healthy on a budget is as simple as changing your dining habits, and shopping for food and cooking more. Eating healthy does not have to be complicated or expensive. If done correctly, it can cost less than what people spend on junk food diets.

• One of the biggest mistakes bargain shoppers make is shopping only once or twice a month and stocking up.
• This makes sense when you're making sure you buy enough groceries and trying to take advantage of bulk discounts, but it also has severe limitations from both a health and monetary aspect.
• First of all, shopping only once a month means that fresh fruit and vegetable choices become illogical, and unhealthy frozen food items become more convenient.
• This greatly reduces the nutritional value of your monthly diet, replacing the natural antioxidants found in fresh foods with the chemical preservatives found in frozen ones.
• Shopping more regularly, like once or twice a week, means that you can not only keep the kitchen stocked with fresh fruits and veggies, but you can take advantage of the rotating sales that happen at most supermarkets.
• You can buy discounted produce items that will diversify your diet as well as keep it fresh and healthy.

• Dining options don't have to be limited to fast food joints when money is tight; in fact, one of the best ways to eat healthy on a budget is to eat at ethnic restaurants.
• Global cuisines like Mexican, Indian, Thai and Vietnamese are often just as cheap as that greasy burger place down the street.
• They also serve up plates packed with real food and super healthy spices instead of mass produced slop and flavour-enhancing chemicals.

• Investing in a few quality cooking staples, like olive oil and some choice spices, can greatly improve the nutritional quality of your diet.
• If you cook even simple items like pasta on a more regular basis, the price point per meal will fall below that of frozen dinners and microwave pizzas.
• Even though quality cooking oils and fresh spices may seem expensive at first, they will last longer than the frozen meals stored in your freezer.