Two health bloggers share their 10 tips for eating well on a budget. (Yes, it's possible).

We are Elise & Sarah Mae, two broke friends from Byron Bay Australia. We’ve mastered the art of living a healthy lifestyle on a super tight budget. One thing that we know all too well is that the cost of living these days is expensive. It seems as though it is harder than ever to get ahead in life and to save money.

We both live with various food allergies, so eating healthy is a must for us. Life is especially pricey in Byron, so making this work on a budget is something that we have had no choice but to master.

If you too are up and down struggle street and wanting to maintain a healthy lifestyle, we are here to help.

Four ingredient nice cream bowls ❤️ Recipe will be on the @bareblends blog soon! Soooo yum ????

A post shared by Elise & Sarah Mae (@the.poor.girls.pantry) on Sep 5, 2017 at 10:54pm PDT

Here are 10 of our tips to help you live a poor girls lifestyle…

1. Not eating organic isn’t the end of the world.

One of the biggest tips we have to give is not to wait until you can afford organic produce to start. We know that there is lots of information out there about how important eating organic is, but for so many people who are struggling to make ends meet each week, the concept of eating organic isn’t even an option. We believe that it’s better to eat conventional produce than no produce at all. Just give them a wash with water and vinegar to take off as much of the pesticides as you can.

2. Aldi is your new best friend.

Aldi is one of the best things that has ever happened to us. We could nearly be ambassadors we love it that much haha (*hint – Aldi if you’re reading this, we’re so open to hearing from you lol). Most of our shopping is done at Aldi, and splitting the cost of groceries between the two of us makes our weekly shop soooo cheap! Just make sure you avoid the random section of things on special like snow gear and exercise bikes, especially if you’re prone to impulse spending!

3. Buy in bulk.

Whenever you can, buy things in bulk. It may seem like you’re spending more money at the time, but bulk buying always makes food go so much further. If you don’t have housemates or you usually shop for yourself, it’s worth gathering up a group of friends who you can buy in bulk with. If you don’t have friends, then you try asking a random at the bulk food store if they’re up for going halves…but that might be weird – actually, maybe don’t do that.

Listen: How to cut the cost of your weekly grocery shop. Post continues after audio.

4. Buy smart.

There are a few Poor Girls Essentials that we always have in our pantry because we know they are versatile and can be used in a variety of different dishes. Spending your money wisely and not just on random, one time ingredients that you’ll never use again has to be one of our biggest saviours.

One of the reasons we started creating our own recipes is because we would get so disheartened when we would look for recipes and they would list 20 different ingredients that we had never heard of and it would end up costing so much money just to make one meal. Cooking really doesn’t have to be that complex or expensive!

5. Get creative.

Being poor has forced us to come up with some of our best recipes. Don’t be afraid to experiment in the kitchen. You never know what type of food magic you will create until you try. It’s also likely that you will experience one or a few epic food failures that have you regretting every mouthful, but we live and we learn haha.

6. Scraps are the perfect filler.

We hate wasting food, so we are always experimenting with new ways to utilise the manky veggies that are left in the bottom of our fridge at the end of the week. Our favourite things to make with scraps are a Frittata, a Curry, a Soup or Savoury Pancakes.

7. Make food pretty.

One of the best things about eating out (aside from the fact that you didn’t have to cook) is that it always looks so beautiful. We honestly believe in being excited about your food and making it look pretty. When you’re broke, it’s not often that you can actually afford to eat out. We find that putting in that extra little bit of effort to make our food look pretty prevents the ‘food blues’ and keeps us excited about food/life (because food is life.)

This colourful bowl of delightfulness has to be EASILY the best damn meal we’ve ever made. Believe it or not it made THIRTEEN serves of this sized portion for $25.00!! You could feed an army. Filled with an array of raw veggies, rice noodles, topped with homemade mango chutney & satay sauce. We were lucky to swap some mangoes for a feed ???? it’s all about giving and receiving at the end of the day! thank you @nadia_leyson for the delicious mangoes!! This is a must try meal. Recipe will be up soon xx

A post shared by Elise & Sarah Mae (@the.poor.girls.pantry) on Feb 27, 2017 at 1:05am PST

8. Have a dinner party.

If your pantry is bare and you’re not too sure you even have enough ingredients to throw together a meal – phone a friend (or three).
Invite them over for dinner and ask them to bring one or two veggies/ingredients from their pantry. You should then have enough to create a meal, and you’ll have people to help you chop things/wash up, which is always a bonus!

9. Visit your family more often.

They say that blood is thicker than water, but we don’t know why they say that. What we do know is that it’s totally acceptable to go raid the pantries of the ones we love. We love our parents, and we know that if we are ever really concerned about where our next meal is coming from, we can always pop in to Mums for a visit/meal.

*Tip – eat as much as you possibly can while you’re there so you stay full.

10. Subscribe to our newsletter.

We always say that we aren’t broke for us, we’re broke to help others (that’s just what we tell ourselves anyway haha). We’ve done the hard yards for you and are always trying to come up with tips & recipes for you guys to make life easier and inspire you to eat healthier. So much so that we don’t even have furniture yet in Poor Girls HQ. Yep. We’re still eating our meals on the floor haha. Head to our website and subscribe to get our tips in your inbox.