Kicking excuses to the curb - How to Eat Healthy on a Budget!

bennettc2

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately this is the first time I have signed into MFP in quite a few months. I, like some, have found the motivation to lose weight extremely hard. After gaining 50+ pounds in a comfortable LTR, the challenge of getting healthy has been full of excuses! How many of you used to use these excuses and what helped to get past them?

-I am on an extreme budget: $200 for two adults a month. I use this low budget a lot against my motivation to lose weight (ex: If only I had more money - I would go crazy - almond milk, Odwalla juice, vegan options,etc)

-I am super busy, as a full time student and a full time employee balancing two jobs and school, I tell myself I don't have enough time to prepare meals/cook/meal plan. (Who wants to spend a day off cooking and creating meal plans? ...eck, the lack of motivation!)

If anyone has any inspiration stories or tips on how they overcame these type of excuses (which I think are quite common!), please let me know...


Thanks

XO

jgnatca

I went on a bulk cooking frenzy yesterday so maybe my story will inspire. I cooked a whole chicken (30% off for quick sale) in my slow cooker on a bed of baby potatoes. I threw in some dried shiitake mushrooms, sage, onion and celery for good measure.

We had some chicken breast, half the potatoes, and coleslaw for supper.

After dinner I poured the chicken juices in a mason jar and put it in the fridge to encourage the fat to rise and solidify.

Meanwhile I separated the meat from the bones. The rest of the white meat was cubed and put in a ziplock for later in the week.

The bones were roasted in a 350 degree oven, bagged and frozen for a future soup.

The random dark meats were cubed and put in an aluminum takeout container (I get these from the dollar store).

I melted some butter with garlic onion and pepper, then added a half cup buckwheat to braise. I siphoned off the fat from my chicken juice and added about half the juice to the buckwheat. I let that simmer until it was all absorbed.

I chopped up a carrot and microwaved it for two minutes to soften. I cubed the baby potatoes and the mushrooms that had been roasting with the chicken. I added the carrot, buckwheat, mushrooms and potatoes to the chicken, and covered the casserole dish with puff pastry. The dish was labelled and put in the freezer for later in the week.

I took the rest of the chicken juice, added it to soaked chickpeas back in the slow cooker with some more fresh water. I let that cook while we went out to the movies. The cooker was turned off when I got home. In the morning I made my favourite hummus recipe. This time I used a hand blender directly in the slow cooker and this by far was the fastest and the easiest.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/35059/leahs-homemade-authentic-hummus.html

If you were counting I got at least three meals (for two) not counting snacks, out of that one chicken. I saved on chicken stock, too.

The hummus went straight in to the freezer too, poured in to ziplock and scored in to squares so I can take a tablespoon at a time for snacks.

kristydi

Budget Bytes has great easy, inexpensive, recipes. Black bean quesadillas, Chipotle Orange Pork Tacos, and Honey Sriancha Chicken Thighs are all favorites here.

Lots of her recipes are big enough to freeze some for later. So cooking once gets you several meals. And the crock pot bean recipe linked in the quesadilla recipe is awesome. Dry beans are really cheap and good for you.

Dandelie

We have a budget of 200 dollars a month for three adults. I garden to supplement fresh veggies. I get local produce (super easy this time of year) from roadside stands. With my mother, we have a huge garden at her house and we can what we have extra of. What that 200 dollars buys is discounted meats, rice, beans, potatoes, some fruits/veggies, milk, cheese, staples like flour and sugar, eggs, and bread (not for me).

It isn't the best budget for 3 people. We cannot afford organic fruits and veggies unless we grow them. And we grow them. Even with a little room, we are able to grow zucchini, pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, salad stuff, blueberries and raspberries on our porch. This week, I have eaten (just me) two meals of stuffed zucchini with quinoa, chicken pieces, and cheese. It was delicious.

My suggestion on such a low budget is find a local warehouse store for canned food. Ask the butchers at your local grocery store when they mark down their meat. I am lucky in that the store I pass every day marks down the meat every day. That allows me to go in and buy discounted meats that are still good. Buy from local food sources. It is always cheaper - i.e. local organic eggs are 3 dollars a dozen versus 6-8 dollars a dozen in the store.

And...learn how to bulk meals up. When we make tacos, we add potatoes or rice to one pound of ground meat. If you want more bang for your buck, buy bison. It tastes similar to ground beef without shrinking. Learning how to cook at home and garden at home helps immensely when you have a low food budget.

Also, shop sales. When one of your local stores has fruit b1g1, buy it. Freeze it for later.

rainbowbow

Purchase items that are not only cheap but can be purchased in bulk and used in MANY different recipes during the week.

I don't know the specific prices in your area but some good staples to buy would be:

plain chicken breasts (which can be frozen or bought frozen)
spaghetti noodles
pasta sauce
white rice
black beans
potatoes
oats
lentils
eggs
bags of frozen veggies
bags of frozen fruits
fresh fruits which stay good for a while like apples and oranges
fresh veggies that are cheapest in your area like zuchinni, green beans, and carrots
plain white bread
Milk

The idea being to buy a large amount of individual items that are cheap and can be used in multiple meals. EX. With the above you could make:

breakfast:
Egg omelet (eggs and veggies)
Eggs in a basket
French toast
Oats with fruit
Smoothies

Lunch & Dinner:
Beans and rice
Spaghetti
Stir fry
Lentil Soup
Chicken with veggies
Zuchinni boats

For snacks:
Carrots, oranges, cheap oatmeal bars, hard boiled eggs, apple slices

I also suggest you try couponing, and familiarize yourself with store sales and how and when these items go on sale. Buy in bulk when possible. For canned items i suggest you go to a cheap dollar store.

Best of luck!

teanahk

There's a cookbook called "Good and Cheap" that aims to work out to $4 a day. The PDF is free from the authors website. A lot of the recipes are super easy, but stuff you might not think of otherwise (like mixing a tomato in with your scrambled eggs).

My local discount grocery store has a different item on sale each day for insanely cheap. Like $2 chicken drumsticks and $3 bricks of cheese. Definitely keep an eye out for that sort of thing and check the weekly fliers for good deals. Try to plan your meals around what's on sale and stock up a bit if you have freezer space.

JanetMMcC

Here's an earlier discussion you may find useful. Lots of links and suggestions, a few of 'em from yours truly.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/32779813/#Comment_32779813