More Fruits and Vegetables!

Focusing on your health is of huge importance to the Frugal Lifestyle, as you want to enjoy as many of your years as you can, and without wasting tons of money on healthcare costs. You could become vegetarian, although this still relatively uncommon in the US with a Vegetarian Times Magazine survey back in 2008 revealing that there are 7.3 million million US vegetarians (3.2 percent of the population). Being vegetarian can certainly be a great frugal step but if this is a little extreme for you, upping your fruits and vegetable intake is likely to be a significant health benefit to you, as judged by a plethora of medical research findings.

Moreover, lowering your meat consumption is likely to have a significant impact on your wallet, and this can be boosted even further if you can grow some of your own vegetables. Mrs Frugal Prof and I seem particularly good at growing tomatoes and strawberries here in SoCal, and we will be expanding our produce production this year, as I have found that citrus, zucchinis’ and watermelons seem to really like this climate too.

You could also be quite adventurous if you decide to include meatless dishes, with plenty of international cuisines to try, particularly Thai food or Indian dishes, with the later country having 40% of its (very large) population being vegetarian. However, if attempting to cook unfamiliar international dishes is a bit of a stretch for you in the beginning, there are simpler ways to boost you fruits and veggies intake, and that is through homemade  smoothies and juices, which can be simple and quick to prepare and certainly delicious!