Food Costs Are Killer

If you didn't know, I am a broke college student. Not only that, but I drive about 3 hours (round trip) four days a week to get to class. So basically, the little money I do make goes straight into my gas tank. What does that leave for food? Not much.

That is my problem. I desperately want to eat healthy, I do, but my current budget won't allow it. The first few weeks I really was trying to loose weight, I had some extra money in my pockets. Working at a toy store around Christmas means working a lot of hours. Add not driving to class on top of that and I had more money for food then I knew what to do with. So for about two weeks I bought organic foods and fresh produce. It was glorious, but now reality has set in.

Point blank it is just easier to eat unhealthy foods. It is cheaper. I am still trying to avoid foods like fast food and ramen. I have not completely given up all hope, but some packaged foods have found their way back into my cabinets.

Not everything I have is unhealthy though. I have started buying dried beans. By cooking them in the crock pot and then freezing them, I am saving myself from tons of sodium intake. Can't say I don't try. I also make sure I am shopping the sales and using coupons. Greek yogurt was on a sale a few weeks ago and I stocked up.

Even more than the price of fresh foods, I don't have the time to prepare them. A few days a week I leave my house at 8 am and don't make it back until 11 pm. There is just no time to spend hours cooking. When school was out for winter break I would use my day off from work to prepare meals for the entire week; even that is not an option now. There is no such thing as a day off in my life right now. I am either at school, work, or both every day of the week.

For now, I will do what I can with the time and resources I have. I will just have to step up my exercising if I want to keep seeing progress. Come May though, things will change for me. Either I will graduate and not be driving quite as far to work, I will have a "adult" job, or if I am lucky both. No matter what, healthy eating will be a priority as soon as I can truly make it one.