Eat Healthy on a Limited Budget

Previously published on Examiner.com on my Atlanta Family Health column.

Eating healthy is essential your family's health. In todays economy it can be difficult to manage your money while keeping your family healthy. Besides putting food on the table, you have to buy shoes, clothes and other necessary items for your family. The great thing about Atlanta is that people are resourceful. Food shopping in Atlanta isn't all that hard if you know what you are doing. It just takes a little ingenuity to shop smartly.

Many grocery stores in Atlanta will mark down their meats, fruits and vegetables that might otherwise go bad. The stores would rather mark down these foods to sell them, rather than toss them out to be wasted. Some stores mark down their perishable items on a certain day each week. It really depends on if the foods are nearing their expiration date.

Most of the Kroger stores in Atlanta will mark down their meat and produce to half price a few days before the expiration date. Oftentimes, poor and middle income shoppers will come into the Kroger stores looking for deals. The Food Depot stores in Atlanta will mark down dairy products, meat, and produce to move them before they go bad.

If you want to know when the grocery stores in Atlanta mark down their meats, poultry, dairy and produce, just ask the store managers. They will be glad to inform you. This examiner will look for food bargains at the Publix stores. Most every day there are foods marked down for quick sale. There are also many types of boxed foods like stuffing mixes, scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese and others which are marked down.

Meats are one of the most expensive types of perishable food items. If your family eats meat, ask your store managers when they mark down the meat that are nearing or have gone by their sell by date. You can feed your family a healthy diet for less money if you know when to shop.