'Save money': Six-week healthy eating challenge begins on March 4

The Reset challenge, which is free, will help people eat healthy food within a budget.

The challenge will be run through the University of Newcastle's No Money No Time website, which was designed to help people eat better in a cost-effective way.

Professor Clare Collins said participants receive an email each week with advice.

"It has interesting links to help with the goals you set in the first week, whether that's to save money or do better at sport - whatever it is for you."

A similar healthy eating challenge was run last spring, which found "significant results".

People lost more than half a kilogram and saved money, "without even mentioning the o-word [obesity]".

"It wasn't a weight-loss challenge, but by focusing on not having takeaways, saving money and improving the variety of healthy foods, people reduced body weight," she said.

"If you improve the variety of your vegetables, that is health superannuation."

She said this could translate to "less visits to the doctor and medical expenses".

This could be as simple as "adding potato, pumpkin and peas to the corn and zucchini in your trolley".

If the results are repeated in the autumn challenge, she plans to take them to health departments to seek wider public participation.

She said that helping participants think about their spending, "really hit home".

"People improved their diet quality overall - I mean the variety of healthy foods they were purchasing at the supermarket.

"We found they had a statistically significant reduction in the amount of money they were spending on food away from the home - that was $9 a week."

This was achieved without significantly increasing supermarket spending.

"We were thinking if they were going to cut down on money spent on takeaway, snacks and coffees, they might spend more at the supermarket, but they didn't."

This showed a lot of this spending was unplanned.

"Like when people go to pay for their petrol and get offered two chocolate bars for the price of one," she said.

This also applied to those attracted to neon-lit fast food venues and ordering takeaway online.

"Raising people's consciousness about what they spend has meant they can rein in their spending," she said.

"We're not saying never have a takeaway coffee, we're just saying plan and think about how much you spend.

"Does your household really want to spend $70 a week on coffees when two people have one a day?"

She said weekly emails sent in the spring challenge received "an 85 per cent click rate".

"So we know people like the information coming by email and that they're interested in a healthy diet for a range of reasons."

The results will be presented at an international behavioural nutrition conference in Omaha in the US in May.

Participants must sign up to the challenge before March 4. Visit nomoneynotime.com.au for details.