by Joan Collins

Created on: June 01, 2009   Last Updated: January 29, 2010

Eating healthy, affordable snacks and meals is a priority for every parent.  With money so tight and jobs becoming scarce, it is becoming more difficult to create good meals that are affordable.  

Snacks: Make your own snacks. Involve the kids in helping you make treats like fruit leathers. Buy large boxes of nuts and raisins. Use them to make your own, inexpensive mixture. This, and fruit bought in season and dried make great healthy snacks. You can even make your own

solar drying rack to make the cost even lower.

Fresh and frozen fruit make for a wonderful snack. If your child doesn't like fresh fruit, make orange juice and create popsicles that are cheap, but ever so good for your children and you. Pan-popped popcorn is not only budget friendly. It is a healthy alternative for a fraction of the microwave bag price and even lower in the unnecessary fats.

Meals:  Plan meals a week at a time with the help of the weekly store fliers.  Choose meals based on healthy foods that are for sale that week.  When you can, make dishes that can be used to create new meals with the left-overs.    

The easiest way to bring the cost of your meals down is to cook from scratch. If it is a family affair, it can be done with less time than you think.  Use your crock-pot to cook low-cost meals that will be ready when you get home.  Spend time cleaning and soaking beans while you watch television. Put the beans in a crock-pot before you leave for work. When you return home, you will have the makings for burritos, chili and more at a cost of less than two dollars a bag. The beans will fill your body's need for a protein source.  Go online for a multitude of crock-pot recipes.

Eat eggs.  They are versatile, healthy and cheap.  Fix everything from omelets to casseroles.  A family of four can be two or three meals out of one carton of eggs.  Eggs can be eaten for supper too!

Vegetables, with their vitamins and fiber are excellent healthful foods that can be purchased at flea markets, farmer's markets, roadside stands, home-grown or from a store. They can be frozen, canned or stored in root cellars when the prices are lower. They can also be stretched to make them feed large groups. Chopped vegetables, cooked Asian style, can be stretched when served over steamed rice that you cooked for twenty minutes in the microwave. (One cup rice to three cups water with a little butter and salt)

Frozen vegetables

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