Eating healthy can be done on a budget too!

Doesn’t it seem that healthy food is more expensive? To stretch your dollars while eating healthy, always keep the following tips in mind…

1. Cook at Home
We all know that eating out is not only more expensive, but also much less healthy. The portions are typically larger than necessary and you truly don’t know what’s in your dinner. Hitting that drive-thru might seem fast and easy, but we pay for it both in cost and health.

2. Plan Your Meals in Advance
One way to avoid the temptation of last-minute drive-thrus and processed, pre-prepared meals in our constantly busy schedules is to create a weekly menu plan. Sticking with simple, healthy meals along with cooking ahead and freezing meals works wonders in this area.

3. Eat Less Meat
Many times, the most expensive item on your grocery list is… (yep, you guessed it!)… meat. Although fresh meat is part of a healthy diet, don’t forget about other healthy sources of protein such as beans, eggs, fish, and even canned tuna or chicken, which is usually less expensive and just as nutritious. Toss these on a salad or whole-grain pasta dish – and there’s your healthy dinner!

4. Buy Locally
Farmer’s Markets are an excellent resource for discounts on fresh fruits, and vegetables. Many communities also have small businesses that focus on gathering fresh produce from local, organic farmers each week.

5. Save on Canned & Frozen Vegetables and Focus on Healthy Sale Items
In planning your grocery trip, focus on the healthy sale items each week. When canned or frozen vegetables go on sale, stock up… and keep in mind that just because that sugary snack is on sale, it doesn’t mean that you need to buy it!

6. Focus on Whole Grains
Stock up on whole grains when they go on sale. Cereals pasta, and oatmeal have a long shelf-life, and you can get excellent deals on these products when combining Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sales and coupons!

7. Avoid Processed Foods
Processed and pre-packaged foods are often a source of unidentifiable and unhealthy ingredients. If you focus on whole foods, you’ll avoid these unknowns all together.

8. Keep a Stocked, Healthy Pantry
We try to keep our pantry stocked with healthy choices, such as whole-grain pasta, canned vegetables, whole-grain crackers, nuts, canned healthy meats and more. Use those 6-week sales cycles and stock up at that rock-bottom price on those healthy choices! Plus, knowing that I can throw together a quick meal for my family that is both healthy and frugal gives me a small sense of peace in our hectic, busy 4-kids-in-lots-of-activities everyday lifestyle!

 
Credits to Valerie Reed for this article.

Since graduation, for almost two and half years, I have been making the biggest financial mistake of my life. I would always leave my chequing account at TD Canada Trust at either a zero balance or a negative balance (overdraft protection). I felt that each and every dollar left over from my pay cheque should go to pay my credit card balances and other debt that I had. The car loan, the student loan, the student line of credit, anything and everything I consider debt.

The Devil is in the Numbers

I hold TD Canada Trust’s Value account which includes only ten (10) free transactions per month and a $3.95 monthly account fee.

• Monthly fee: $3.95
• Overdraft Protection fee: $3.00
• Average monthly interest: $1.00-$2.00
• Other bank fees: $3.00

However, I also paid a $3.00 ODP (overdraft protection) fee to allow my chequing account to go negative and owe the bank like a revolving credit card. This fee was to protect myself from insufficient fund fees of $35 whenever my account didn’t have enough funds to cover recurring bills and miscellaneous withdrawals.

There’s another issue. I would normally keep a negative balance until the next paycheque came in which meant I was being charged interest everyday on the amount that I owe them. I averaged around $1.00 atleast for these interest payments and the last time I checked, the interest rates on overdraft balances run around the same rate as credit card interest rates which should be in the neighbourhood of about 20%. Add to that going over the maximum allowed of ten transactions per month and that’s another $2.00-3.00 of ‘other’ bank fees.

The total I would usually pay on my chequing account was $(3.95+3.00+1.00+3.00) = $10.95 per month!

That’s outrageous! That’s a cost of more than $120 per year! So how can we get rid of this totally unnecessary expense and pocket that sum instead? Keep the minimum balance required by your bank to waive the monthly fee! The minimum balance for my account to waive the fee is $1,000. However, since I do plan to keep a balance, I no longer have a need for overdraft protection so long as I keep a healthy buffer from the minimum.

Doing a quick calculation, that’s atleast $10/$1000 = 1% return per month on your $1,000 guaranteed. That’s almost like a 12% gain per year on a $1,000 investment. Compare this with the amount of return you’re getting putting the same amount in another investment vehicle such as a savings account or a GIC. You will not get a 12% return guaranteed anywhere else.

Stop paying those pesky account fees and if you have an ODP fee like I did, get rid of it. You’ll be saving more money starting today. It just makes sense!

First Chequing Account: Royal Bank

My first ever chequing account was opened during the summer of 2003 when I started a part-time job at Toys R’ Us. It was the summer before the first year of University and the account was opened with Royal Bank (RBC) by my mom’s recommendation. It was also the closest branch to my home at the time.

Second Chequing Account: CIBC

Now Royal Bank wasn’t bad, but when I started attending the University of Waterloo, the most convenient bank located around campus was CIBC. Penny pinching was the norm as a student so I opened a student account there to save on ABM withdrawal fees and for convenience and decided to close the account with RBC. CIBC even gave me my very first Visa credit card with a $700 limit. I hold this very same card to this day, despite opening and cancelling a few other cards in the last couple of years.

Third Chequing Account: Bank of Montreal

Fast forward to my first co-op job with BMO Capital Markets. I was forced to open a chequing account with them to get paid so I opened an account and held both the CIBC and BMO chequing accounts concurrently for a few years. Now I don’t recommend holding more than one chequing account as I see no immediate benefit for splitting the cash between two accounts and shuffling them back and forth. Plus, you’ll be hit with twice the monthly and maintenance fees.

Fourth Chequing Account: TD Canada Trust

Shortly after came temptation with TD Canada Trust‘s iPod Shuffle promotion. TD offered a free iPod Shuffle if you completely switched over your chequing account and set up at least three direct deposits. This iPod was worth $129 I thought, so without hesitation, I signed up, transferred my BMO account, cancelled my CIBC account, and a month later, received my Shuffle in a white plastic, bubble wrapped envelope. At this point, I kept only the TD account and because I was a student, I had the Value Plus account for no monthly fee.

Sweet. Life was good, I thought.