Many people have said this to me during my years as an Extension agent. But as a frugal home economist and a person who raised two kids for nine years by myself, I respectfully disagree.

Several years ago I developed an Extension presentation called “Be Waist and Wallet Wise.” I wrote the program because I’d heard countless people say that it was too expensive to eat a healthy diet. I didn’t believe it was true and I set out to collect as many tips for low-cost, healthy eating as I could find.

Now, several years later, I continue to believe that it is possible to control costs and eat healthfully at the same time. And, thanks to budget-minded, health-conscious audiences across the state, I’ve added to my original list of healthier, less-expensive examples.

If you’d like to host this presentation for your group, just give me a call at the Hays office of the Cottonwood Extension District– 785-628-9430– and I’ll be glad to make arrangements to come and share. In the meantime, here are a few ideas that might be helpful as you try to eat well on a budget.

Online Grocery Cost Calculator
How much is a reasonable amount to spend on food for a family like yours? Now you can find out with a few clicks.

Figure your food costs with the online calculator at the helpful website from Iowa State Extension called Spend Smart. Eat Smart: www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings/fooddollar/. To do the calculation, you’ll be asked for the ages of family members and the number of meals each person eats away from home each week.
With a touch of a button, you’ll see the estimated cost of groceries for your family based on the USDA Low-Cost Food Plan. When reading the report, keep in mind that this information is based on nationwide averages, and it excludes non-food items purchased at grocery stores. I was happy to find that my grocery bills are below the national average for my size family– how about yours?

Is fruit really too expensive?
One of the examples from my lesson is the cost of fruit—bananas to be specific. Their cost rose pretty dramatically a few years ago and the price has never gone down.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when I could buy bananas for 20 cents a pound. Today, the cost of bananas is about 59 cents a pound. That’s nearly a 200 percent price increase. It’s no wonder families are tempted to buy snack food to satisfy their hungry members instead of fruit.

So, being curious, I decided to do a comparison. I bought 5 small bananas that together weighed 1.5 pounds for a total cost of 88.5 cents. That meant each banana cost 17.7 cents.

Next, I strolled over to the snack aisle and looked at a package of name brand flavored tortilla chips. The regular size bag cost $3.99. The bag said it contained 12 servings, meaning each serving cost 33 cents. Wow, almost twice as much!

Next, I wondered how many bananas could I buy for the cost of a bag of chips? The answer– twenty-two bananas! For a family of four, each member could have a banana a day for more than 5 days for the cost of one bag of chips.

The lesson for me was that the price of bananas may seem rather expensive, but when you calculate it per serving (a small banana is one serving), the cost is reasonable after all.

Bananas taste so good and cost so little, it may be hard to eat just one. Hmm, that sounds like the start of an ad campaign— “I bet you can’t eat just one.” Oh, right, that’s already been used by a national snack company to encourage us to spend nearly $4 for a bag of chips!

More resources for eating well on a budget
You are not alone in trying to eat a balanced diet on less money. Books, the internet and social media are full of ideas for food shopping, menu planning, home cooking and recipes. Here is one more resource from K-State Research and Extension to add to your repertoire. Check out the KSU website called Eating Well on a Budget at www.ksre.k-state.edu/humannutrition/nutrition-topics/eatingwell-budget/index.html

These resources are compiled by trained Extension nutrition experts whose job is to provide reliable, unbiased information to help you make good decisions for your family. You’ll find a wealth of helpful information to increase your ability to improve nutrition while controlling food costs.

I hope you’ll consider these examples and check out some of the additional Extension resources. Maybe then you’ll find you no longer have to say “it costs too much to eat healthy food.”

Linda K. Beech is Cottonwood District Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

Just before the trip, I received a telephone call from a very good friend, Lane. The first day of college, I was riding on an elevator, knowing no one. The elevator surged and my co-companion on the elevator and I looked at each other, wondering if the first day of college would be our last. That co-companion was Lane. We have been close friends ever since.

Lane and I have always been active together. For over 40 years, at least annually, we hunt, sometimes in Colorado and, most recently, in Kansas. Though it is only once or twice a year, every time we get together it seems as if we had just finished the conversation from the year before. Lane’s call to me in November was to inform me that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Earlier in the year, a good friend 30 years my junior, shared with me that one of her parents had received a terrible diagnosis of stage-4 cancer. She was beside herself, asking many difficult life questions.
In both cases, I feel so worthless in trying to help. I feel inadequate, helpless, frustrated and disappointed. I do not have the words.

Recently, I met with a woman in her 50s. She and her husband have been married over 30 years. They did all the right things, and though he is older than she, when he retired they had great travel ambitions. Within months after his retirement, he was diagnosed with dementia. Now, traveling makes him anxious to the point that he really cannot leave home (that is not an uncommon feature of Alzheimer’s).

This woman (now my client) said something interesting to me. Though they cannot travel, she quit her job to stay at home with him. It is not so much to care for him, but she said to me, “It is my opportunity to visit and spend time with him while we can both appreciate it, reliving old memories.” It was one of those conversations that I know will burn in my memory forever.

When Lane came up to hunt after I did the first draft of this article, it was interesting. Lane is a psychologist, and of course, I do what I do. Both of us deal with families facing devastating news.
Lane and I spent almost a week together during our hunt. On at least three occasions, we had really good opportunities to discuss what was going on. I had tried to talk to him and he assured me he was OK.

Finally, Saturday morning rolled around. His truck was literally running, warming up to take off to return him to Texas. It was only then that he said, “Can we sit down and talk?” With the sound of the truck in the background, Lane and I talked about his reaction to the diagnosis, his fears, concerns, and what he needed to do next. I think in my mind, I was a little bit like a deer in the headlights.

I thought it so curious that the two of us, as close as we are, had such a difficult time talking about this—dealing with a chronic illness and end of life.

I know there are many of you out there facing a chronic illness and may be facing the end of life sooner than you expected. It is okay for it to be a difficult discussion, but it is a discussion you need to have with your family.

I think that what I have learned in dealing with both Lane, my other friend, and my clients, is that sometimes you just need to step back, fly above the clouds and appreciate everything that has happened. You can then sit back down and deal with the decisions that need to be made.

Randy Clinkscales of Clinkscales Elder Law Practice, PA, Hays, Kansas, is an elder care attorney, practicing in western Kansas. To contact him, please send an email to [email protected]. Disclaimer: The information in the column is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is different and outcomes depend on the fact of each case and the then applicable law. For specific questions, you should contact a qualified attorney.