Is it possible to eat clean cheaply?

Lead image: Cold pressed juice and store bought smoothies – the enemy of frugal living – via Instagram.

So. You want to eat clean, but you’re also on a budget, so you want to do it without spending too much money.

Hahaha. Good luck with that. If you need me, I’ll be over here, blending up organic goji berries, sheep-milk yoghurt and chia seeds in my $2000 Thermomix.

No, I jest. I am just as poor as you. I have no Thermomix (although if someone from their PR team was to send me one, I certainly wouldn’t be adverse to it) and I rarely go to health food stores in the fear that my savings would go from insignificant to non-existent.

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But I still try to eat pretty well. And of course, there are some things that are just impossible to do – but there are some things that, if you’re smart and plan accordingly, you can totally pull off while spending barely any precious money.

So here’s what you can and can’t do on a budget.

You can… buy healthy food

Don't be fooled into thinking that you're limited to eating two-minute noodles, mass amounts of rice and homebrand chicken nuggets. You can buy healthy food - the difference is that you'll probably have to make sure that you're meal-planning, meal-prepping and cooking it all yourself. So stay away from the chain salad bars ($10 for a medium salad that's mostly lettuce anyway? What??) and step towards the supermarkets.

Fruit and veg are cheap when you buy the stuff that's in-season. Harris Farm just launched a programme called 'Imperfect Picks' where you can buy fruit that is still fresh and delicious - but a little bit ugly - for a discount.  Then there's frozen stuff (which isn't necessarily less nutritious, and can be much cheaper). Also, canned is okay - buy as many canned chickpeas and lentils as you like.

Add vegetables to everything - pasta sauces, soups, sandwich fillings, rice paper rolls, smoothies, salads, etc.

If you're not sure exactly what to buy, just try to go for as much colour as possible. According to dietician Nicole Senior, the more of a rainbow you have on your plate, the better.

For non-fruit-and-veggie items, try buying in bulk wherever possible. I buy huge amounts of oats, natural peanut butter and quinoa because I eat them all the time. It can get a tiny bit boring, but life is sometimes boring when you do not have the bank account of Gina Rinehart.

Also? You don't need to buy any kind of drink. Water is fine. If you must get something, get herbal tea.

You can't... buy everything organic

The price tag on everything goes up as soon as the word "organic" is added. For example, you can buy 1kg of plain mince at Coles for $5... or you can fork out $15 for the organic, free-range version of the same thing.

Work out what's important to you and how much of it you can afford. I can't afford to buy a lot of organic meat, so I eat mostly vegetarian dishes through the week.

Also, there are some fruits and veg that you really don't have to buy organic - that's because they require barely anything to grow well, and won't be likely to hold many pesticides on their skin. Feel free to go for the non-organic versions when it comes to these 15 fruits and veg.

Finally, don't be seduced into buying anything just because it's labelled "organic". Corn chips are still corn chips, even if they're organic.

You can... make green smoothies

Some clever brands have twigged on to the fact that not everyone can afford a decent blender. As a result, there are currently a whole lot of decent blenders out there that are really affordable and also really clever.

I bought the George Foreman Mix & Go blender for $35 and have recommended it to so many friends that George should really be paying me a commission. It's amazing - you throw all ingredients into a bottle, put that bottle on the blender, whizz it all up, throw a different lid on and walk away. Minimal mess and minimal washing-up.

I've also heard great things about the Blitz2Go from Kambrook which is very similar and around the $49.95 mark.

As for what to put in them? Pick whatever's in season and experiment with flavours. At the moment I'm loving carrots and spinach in my smoothies. Beetroot adds sweetness to anything, no matter how vegetable-y it is. Lemon juice is great to add if you want to add freshness to grassy flavours. And frozen berries are a must to keep in your freezer and add to anything - you can buy in bulk and they last forever.

Speaking of frozen things - it's way easier for a cheap blender to properly pulp frozen greens than fresh ones, so bulk buy cheap, leafy greens, steam them for a minute or so, then freeze them. That way you don't have to worry about wasting food either.

You can't... buy up big on superfood trends

Yeah, it's fun to try adding maca powder to your smoothies one week, and goji berries the next week. It's great to buy different flavours of vegan protein powder and coconut water. But it can also be the fastest way to send yourself broke.

There is no way to get around it. Walking into a health food store and stocking up on superfoody ingredients can cost an absolute fortune - after all, all these items have recently become super-trendy and plenty of places are maximising profits on this popularity.

If you can afford it, go for it. But your diet won't be desperately compromised because you can't afford raw cacao powder/coconut oil/camu camu.

Cook for yourself, stick to your healthy basics and you'll be absolutely fine. Brown rice, beans, fried onions and steamed greens is a perfectly acceptable meal, and it'll cost you about $2 a person.

You don't need pricey detoxes and you don't need to sign up for meal delivery of lunches that are gluten-dairy-everything-free. Don't pay attention to the ads and the mixed messages - just listen to your body.

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How do you eat healthy while on a budget?