Eating well with no money

godlikepoetyes

Back in the day when we were strapped, we became vegetarians. As others have said--beans, peas, rice, peanut butter, tofu, milk, eggs (eggs!). And I'd like to make a plug for canned--canned gets a bad rap and it really shouldn't. You can rinse whatever veggies or beans you buy canned to cut the sodium. (I know lots of folks worry over the lining or whatever, but that seems rather silly to me.) But you will stretch your dollar with dried beans. Visit ethnic markets and food stores. You will find awesome deals on rice (10 lb bags or bigger) as well as other items that would be more expensive in a conventional supermarket.

Organ meats tend to be cheaper and famous chefs sure do love their pig ears and liver and hearts and sweetbreads, etc (have you watch Chopped?!).

Here in my town, most of our farmer's markets offer double SNAP and EBT points.

You can make your own yogurt.
You can start a sourdough and make your own bread.
Buy the whole chicken when it's marked down. Other meats as well.

The Internet is full of sites where you can get recipes to try, if you have access. If not, the library has tons of cookbooks.

Simple, simple foods and recipes as someone mentioned above--chili with beans + potatoes, very filling. Spaghetti sauce you make yourself with just a few ingredients. Soups and Stews--I make Pottage in the crock pot and there is nothing more satisfying--lentils, rice, barely, a can of chopped tomatoes, Bragg's Aminos or any hearty sauce would work--steak sauce, soy sauce, etc. I throw an onion in there, too. And boy, a crock pot--if you don't have one, get one. It doesn't have to be an expensive one. White beans with pasta (there's a fancy Italian name for it. CABBAGE! Black beans. Red beans. Chickpeas!! (I can't eat beans anymore and my heart is broken!)

Eating well doesn't have to be expensive, and eating healthy doesn't mean "organic" "fresh" "local" "in season" or any of that stuff. If you can get affordable fresh, by all means do. But it isn't necessary. Frozen or canned veggies often, OFTEN, have more nutrition than the fresh that's been flown in from halfway around the world. And I love canned fruit.

You can find ways to make this work for you. And don't worry over the fat content or whatever. If you stay away from packaged foods, you should be fine. (Unless you coat everything with lard and sugar, of course. ;-)

miz_ppyn

I know the feeling of making the $ stretch. New zealand is one of the expensive countrys in the world to live althou its where i am born n bred wouldnt change it for anything. I use to buy what was cheap n freeze it. Buy cheap frozen veg. And also buy canned foods. Id also take clippings of plants and grow my own produce. I still do it today. Admiring my 3 peach trees 1 apricot tree 2 feijoa trees 1 orange and 1 lemon. My citris grow in pots. Also have a little herb garden filled with different herbs. If you have space n a lil time its worth doing in the long run plus good excercise to have to maintain ☺