Many of us will at sometime in our lives experience having to get by on an extremely frugal income. Sometimes this may be only for a few days till our next paycheck comes in or it may be a longer term situation due to unemployment,sickness, poorly paid work, excessive housing or fuel costs, or indeed any number of reasons. It is however every bit as important to eat well and care for ourselves at this particular time as at any other. In fact more so, because our bodies will be under a certain amount of stress due to financial worries and we will have extra nutritional requirements.

It is not as daunting as it may seem to cook and eat healthily on a budget. Porridge makes a cheap yet sustaining breakfast. Eggs have a number of uses for breakfast, lunch or supper. Potatoes, rice, noodles and pasta are all inexpensive and provide a base for many main meals. Soups, stews and casseroles are all fairly cheap to make and if you do not have some of the ingredients you could experiment by replacing them with whatever you do have.

Go along to your nearest big supermarket and look for their own brand of canned foods, tea, coffee and bread these are usually considerably cheaper than most of the popular brand names and in many cases just as good.

Next of all check out the reduced shelves. There you should find a variety of meat, fish, cheese, fruit, vegetables and bread all at very reduced prices. These items are in perfectly good condition for your consumption but have to be sold quickly as they are near, but have not quite reached their sell-by date. Sometimes they have deserts and frozen foods on these shelves too. Remember to freeze any meat,fish or perishables that you do not intend to use that same day as soon as you get home.

These are all ideas I have used myself with success, hopefully they will be of some assistance to you also.

Learn more about this author, Jane maguire.
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