WHY IS EATING HEALTHY SO EXPENSIVE?!?!?!111
HazyEyes93
Posts: 89 Member
Seriously, guys, my fiancé and I have saved a little over $200 in two weeks since we have stopped eating out and started counting our calories. Turns out, not buying and eating more than your body needs is actually a good thing.
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Plus as my mass shrinks, I have less square footage; to bathe & shave, so I am buying less body wash, shaving gel, razors and lotion! Also I'm spending less time, doing those things & since time, is money; I am saving even more money!12
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Yeah, it's mad expensive to eat out. I'll go for special occasions, or maybe hit up a food truck, but anything more than $10 a person and it's usually not worth it haha.1
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Misleading title!
Yeah it's pretty amazing how much money you can save by...changing your shopping and eating habits. Most of my peers are spending $20-40/day on food for a shift (eating 2-3 meals per day). I bring a fully loaded cooler for probably under $5 per day.
Not all grocery stores are created equal either. The biggest "chain" store around me is also the most expensive. I only shop there as a last resort. I typically find that I can get the same foods for (often much cheaper) from other places. I pretty much only shop at Sam's Club and Aldi.8 -
Love the clickbait title
Awesome, isn't it? Our family lives very modestly, and eating within our means (health wise) equates to living within our means money wise.
I am passionate about both frugal living and developing healthy ways of eating. They really do go hand in hand. Glad you've had the same epiphany.
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Yes!! Fresh veggies and fruit are a lot more reasonably priced than I thought!5
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Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...6
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Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
I eat out but I only order 1 or 2 items, off of a dollar menu!0 -
When weighed against the future costs of illness and disease, eating healthy is cheap.
You need to look at the expense and an investment, and you either see value in that investment, or you don't.
People who reach potential have that unique ability to think forward while most of the herd can't think too far past this week's TV guide.5 -
This is a false equivilency. It's cheaper to cook healthy food at home than it is to eat outside the home all the time, but those aren't really comparable. If you are already eating at home most of the time anyway then grocery shopping is going to run you a lot more eating lean proteins and produce than it will eating lots of mac and cheese and Ramen noodles. Beans and rice are healthy, but also have a lot of calories.
Likewise, it's more expensive buying healthy food while out and about than it is buying unhealthy food in many cases. I can buy three slices of pizza at 7-11 for less than it would cost me for one container of fresh fruit. Which do you think is going to stick with me for longer?10 -
Because I live on an island that doesn't grow a majority of foods so they have to be (literally) shipped over.0
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Wish this applied to Vancouver. Come for the overpriced housing, stay for the expensive food.5
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I don't even spend $150 a week for 4 people.2
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hereforthelolz wrote: »This is a false equivilency. It's cheaper to cook healthy food at home than it is to eat outside the home all the time, but those aren't really comparable. If you are already eating at home most of the time anyway then grocery shopping is going to run you a lot more eating lean proteins and produce than it will eating lots of mac and cheese and Ramen noodles. Beans and rice are healthy, but also have a lot of calories.
Likewise, it's more expensive buying healthy food while out and about than it is buying unhealthy food in many cases. I can buy three slices of pizza at 7-11 for less than it would cost me for one container of fresh fruit. Which do you think is going to stick with me for longer?
What you're saying isn't wrong, however these are things that can easily be avoided by planning ahead. I bring my lunch to work, and I prep my lunch on my day off for the entire week (and this is from someone who can work 20 hours a day, and no, I am NOT exaggerating). I suppose it also helps that I subscribe the the IIFYM train of thought. I literally eat a $1 microwavable pizza every single night, but nutritionally, my diet is pretty solid. The only thing I'm still trying to figure is getting more potassium into my diet. Finally got the hang of iron and calcium, so I'm going in the right direction.0 -
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Where I live, it's cheaper to cook at home than order food generally, but it's by no means cheap. There are some healthy foods I don't even bother with anymore, they're too expensive to risk having them go bad before we eat them. Looking at you, strawberries.6
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Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
This is a sweeping generalization and not true for all people who say "eating healthy" is too expensive. Besides, what is considered healthy? It's all in the perception.
There is nothing wrong with eating out, but it can indeed get expensive.3 -
If you meal prep, and only buy what you need and dont go out to eat all the time or anything, you end up saving a lot of money. Plus i grow a lot of vegetables/fruit in my own garden to make it a lot cheaper too. I grow strawberries, black Berries raspberries, carrots, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. Also planted 3 apple tree's 2 years ago and they produce so many apples so i always have a snack in the morning before leaving for work! Its a little bit of work every year, but totally worth it.3
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BudgetBytes.com is my favorite.6
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I have been at this for over 4 years. Very seldom eat out, and have saved a lot of money.
I cook meals from scratch in large quantities and freeze in single serving containers for future meals. Prep and package fruit and veggies on the weekend too, enough to last for the coming week. It takes planning and time for prep, but is really worth the effort. For the price of a salad eating out, you can buy veggies for salads for the whole week.2 -
Chicken breast - $23 a month
Ground Turkey - $13 a month
Tilapia fish - $23 a month
Broccoli - $8 a month
Green beans - $8 a month
Brown rice - $18 a month - It can be done much cheaper I pay for convenience here.
Oat meal - $3 a month
Protein - $60 a month
Sweet Potatoes - $12 a month
Blue berries - $15 a month
$183 a month for me total. That's just what I pay roughly. You can get some of these things much cheaper.
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One can eat better nutritionally, but eating alone isn't the only factor to improve health. One can have the best diet in the world, but if stress, lack of sleep, inadequate physical activity, unbalanced life in general isn't also addressed, then eating "unhealthy" isn't that much of an improvement. CICO still is what matter for weight loss more than WHAT you're eating.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Misleading title for sure. But I get it.
Our grocery store bill is more, we spend a lot of money on healthier foods. So its cheaper to not eat out yes,, but its not cheaper to buy better options at the grocery store, as in the extra lean meats and fish, fresh produce, spices to cook with etc.. it is def cheaper to buy boxed meals, already made jar sauces, big boxes/bags of sugary cereals, canned soups and noodles, etc.
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Yes, if all one is interested in is mere weight loss, eat whatever but in a deficit.One can eat better nutritionally, but eating alone isn't the only factor to improve health. One can have the best diet in the world, but if stress, lack of sleep, inadequate physical activity, unbalanced life in general isn't also addressed, then eating "unhealthy" isn't that much of an improvement. CICO still is what matter for weight loss more than WHAT you're eating.
Some of us are interested in weight loss along with optimal health and wellness.
And for such people, what you eat matters greatly!
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Agreed, OP. It's especially true if you don't think you need to buy organic produce from WholeFoods and other such places. Chicken breasts, lean pork, ground turkey, eggs, milk, frozen and fresh veggies, salad greens, and some fruit can be picked up inexpensively if you're careful where you shop.4
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Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
Try living on an island where the food in your stores is shipped in via boat and airplane. If you can find a fishing community, you might get a decent deal provided the fish caught don't break the moratorium.0 -
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It is cheap if you cook seasonal foods from scratch and avoid hype, trends n overpackaging. Lots of budget cooking healthy blogs exist to help us.2
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Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
It depends on where you start. If your "before" diet consists of off name boxed and canned food, generic white bread and the like, you are going to have a really hard time getting an equivalent amount of healthy foods including produce and fresh meats.
Back when my kids were very small and we were totally broke most weeks, a typical dinner for four would would consist of;
Stuffing, made from a box mix $.99 at the time from Save a Lot
A can of chicken mixed in $1.49 at the dollar store
A can of cream of something soup poured over the top $.59 at Save a Lot
A can of vegetables of some sort. $.39 at Save a Lot
Less than $3.50 fed us. Not well, but we weren't hungry. If I knew then what I know now, dried beans would have been a headliner but, I didn't know. I did the best I could at the time. There was no money for fresh vegetables, fruit or fresh meat unless it was on sale for a very good price.
I still shop at Save a Lot, but now I can shop the perimeter and I don't have to keep a running total and watch my pennies.
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Different people have different ideas about what is healthy. "Healthy food" can be very expensive and narrowly defined by some people. It may be that they won't buy anything but organic free range or they may have a medical condition that requires them to eat a very specific way. My understanding of healthy food is broader. To me it means food that has nutrients and is not spoiled or contaminated.
It is cheaper to buy ingredients and prepare food at home versus eating out or eating premade frozen meals if you are choosing budget friendly ingredients, planning meals, using what you buy, and have easy access to food. Reducing portion sizes can save money too.
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