Keep healthy staples on hand so you don’t feel like you have to go out to eat, or order pizza, or use highly processed “convenience” foods. Don’t eat at restaurants very often.
Eat a variety of foods every day, including leafy green vegetables, vegetables of other colors, root vegetables (such as beets, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes and so on), beans, lentils, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and fish. Learn about all of the vitamins and minerals recommended for you to be healthy, and be sure to get them in the foods you eat.
You might have some foods that you eat mostly as a functional item just to be sure you’re getting enough of a certain nutrient. For instance, I eat a few oysters most days just to be sure I’m getting zinc. I open a can of boiled oysters at the beginning of the week and eat a few of them each day for several days. I eat a little liver now and then for the B12. Some people drink milk every day to be sure of getting calcium and vitamin D. There are other, different ways to get these essential nutrients, so you don’t have to do what I do or what other people do, as long as you’re sure you’re getting all of the nutrients your body needs.
Eat enough, but not too much. When you get all of the nutrients your body needs every day, you won’t feel as much craving for food. That is, you’re body won’t be crying out for nourishment. (You may still have emotional issues with food, but at least you won’t have the physical need for nourishment.) Without exaggeration, there have been times in my life where I literally ate three times the amount of food I needed to be healthy. Obviously, in that situation, I was spending at least three times the amount of money I needed to spend on groceries.
Cook your own meals at home. Take food with you when you are away from home for several hours. Take your lunch to work or school or hiking or biking or daytripping.
Eat kale and collard greens. They are extremely good for you, and they cost very, very little.
Make bread if you can – and really, I think you can. But if you aren’t ready to do that, just cook brown rice or other whole grains. Eat oatmeal. Or buy 100% whole wheat bread with as few weird chemicals as you can find.
Don’t buy mayonnaise… at least, not very often. Mustard works, it’s good for you, and it’s probably the cheapest condiment there is… and it’s not fattening.
Speaking of that mustard instead of mayonnaise thing, I think it’s important to understand that you can train your tastebuds. Maybe you’ve trained yourself to like unhealthy food for a lot of years, and it might take a little time to learn to like real, healthy food. People can learn to like what’s good for them! Really! And besides, even if you don’t like it, eat it anyway!!
Figure out your own values. Is being healthy physically and financially important to you? Is it more important to you than the greasy fat wasteful pig-grunting pleasure of stuffing a double-cheese pizza with everything through your in and out holes every few days? Is it really? Really?? Only you can answer that. Once you know what’s truly most important to you in life, a whole lot of decisions become easier than they used to be.
If you actually make the decision eat healthy food and spend very little money while doing so, you can figure it out and learn and practice and improve as you go along. You’re a human being, you have the intelligence. So, I guess the first and most important “instruction” in how to eat cheap and healthy really is this: Decide to do it.
Food sources of vitamins and minerals
Foods with vitamins and minerals that a lot of people don’t get enough of
Non-dairy dietary sources of calcium, if you’re not into milk.
How to train your body to crave healthy foods.
Training your taste buds to enjoy real food.
