A full 37 percent of millennials aged 21-25 say they’ve have gone without eating at least once in the past year because they had no money, according to a new study from Schwab.
Don’t assume you can’t afford to eat, though, Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, a financial adviser, board chair and president of the Charles Schwab Foundation, tells CNBC Make It. “It’s all about prioritizing.” Create a monthly budget that accounts for your needs, she says.
That’s advice Jamika Pessoa, co-host of Let’s Eat, on the Food Network, can get behind. She says, a lot of the time, people say it’s too expensive to eat, or to eat healthy, but it’s possible if you think creatively.
“There’s no reason a millennial should be hangry throughout the day,” Pessoa tells CNBC Make It. First, think about what you want your plate to look like and what you feel like eating, she says. Then figure out how to make that easy.
She keeps inexpensive but effective ingredients on hand: chicken broth and canned beans, as well as balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar. Vinegar in particular can really boost the flavor of a meal.
“That can change the flavor of something that you had on Tuesday. You reheat that, add some sriracha or red wine vinegar, and you’ve got a new meal by Thursday,” she says. “You can make a whole new meal from what you have left over.”
Always have Dijon mustard in your kitchen, Pessoa says. It’s an ingredient she calls her “secret weapon” because it can be used for so many things: to make a salad dressing, to “bump up” a sauce and as a base for a marinade for chicken, shrimp or pork.
“You want to keep things in your pantry that have multiple uses,” she says. Again, you don’t need to spend for the expensive or brand-name item. “A lot of times the company that’s making the stuff in the fancy glass jar is also making the store brand too — and you don’t even realize it,” she says.
Once you have your pantry sorted, Pessoa says there are four simple approaches you can take to create cheap, healthy meals.
Host Jamika Pessoa and her blue cheese-aged rib-eye steak
Change the way you think about when you’re eating what, Pessoa says. “Who says breakfast has to be for breakfast?”
Try soup, like a hearty beef pho. “That will fill you up and give you all your carbs and proteins, and you’re fueled throughout the day,” she says. Making foods that aren’t necessarily considered “breakfast foods” and eating them in the morning can change how you feel, how you eat and how you spend your money.
“If people just changed the way they think about how they’re eating, the times they’re eating, what they’re eating, you can really fulfill everything you need to do and eat throughout the day,” she says.
Smoothies and shakes can be a great way to get a lot of nutrients, but skip the Starbucks and fancy pressed-juice shops.
“You can make that stuff yourself,” Pessoa says, and it will be a lot cheaper. For a basic smoothie, get some protein such as an inexpensive yogurt, and then add some fruit and peanut butter. Or you can throw some oats in. “Oats are so filling and so good for you,” she says.
What your mom and grandma say is true: buying in bulk can really cut costs. But a lot of times, if you buy masses of fresh foods at once, they go bad before you can eat them all.
The secret: Freeze them. Pessoa says to look for fruits and veggies that in-season and on sale. When you get them home, immediately wash them, pull the stems off if needed and then individually freeze them on a cookie sheet. When they’re frozen, put them in a plastic bag and they’ll keep much longer.
This works for things like herbs and spinach too, she adds. “If it’s in-season and on sale, take advantage of that,” Pessoa says. “It’s going to taste better and you’ll feel better because you’re saving money with it, too.”
It can pay to make a good old-fashioned casserole, Pessoa says. A lot of recipes call for inexpensive ingredients like grains and pastas as a base. Plus, you can make one meal and live off it for days. “A good lasagna could last you throughout the week,” she says.
At the end of the day, there are really no excuses, she says. Even if you’re not an experienced cook, or you’re a busy professionals, there are so many recipes and gadgets out there to make cooking fairly painless.
Don’t miss: U.S. families waste $1,500 a year throwing out food—here’s how to save more and eat better [
Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!
