Clean Eating on a Budget

Losingheather2018

Hey everyone!! I was wondering what your tricks are to keep your grocery bills down when it comes to the healthier foods!! I'm a madre of a little man and its just us, so money is always budgeted. I'd love to go hog wild and completely fill the pantry with only wholesome foods but find my pocket can't always do that!! What are your cheap go to items to have?

tonkacrew3

Hi Heather
My name is Daria. I have been on this app before and left because I found no support for trying to eat healthy on a strict budget. I'm back now, kind of beating a new path. I have a family and can't afford to buy all of the foods or drinks, or even the vitamins and supplements ones on here say you have to have to eat well and lose weight.

So, if you don't mind my goofy, yet hopefully balanced way of eating mostly fruits and veggies, I would be happy to share my recipes, thoughts, exercise hopes and weight loss craziness with you. I am TonkaCrew3. 😊

DeserveVictory

I have found that removing most or all meat, dairy, and processed foods has made my groceries much cheaper! Stocking up on beans and lentils is drastically cheaper than buying meat. And finding recipes based on potatoes, carrots, squash, rice, or other filling and relatively cheap main ingredients help reduce cost and my tendency to overeat. I also try to cook large meals and freeze the leftovers in single portion containers for quick and easy meals in the future. Lots of soups, stews, and curries can be mostly cheap ingredients and freeze well. And for fresh veg, avoid buying re-chopped and bagged salads and veggies. They are more expensive per serving. If you can, I'd recommend investing in a collection of single meal containers (Glad and Rubbermaid are good options), a slow cooker or instant pot, dry beans and lentils, and stock the freezer with frozen veggies when they go on sale.

Generally, I find that the more convenient something is the more it costs. But with a little pre-planning (and some pinterest searching!) it can be easy to have cheap healthy meals. I used to plan 1-2 slow cooker meals a week which provided lots of freezer meals for later (which I used for easy work lunches). I also use my slow cooker to cook dry beans and then freeze portions in bags for later (like this: https://kalynskitchen.com/how-to-cook-dried-beans-in-crockpot/). This is much cheaper than buying canned beans! The beans are then used in soups, stews, curries, burritos, wraps, salads, and buddha bowls. When I ate meat, I did a similar thing with chicken. When chicken breasts were on sale, I'd buy lots then use the slow cooker to make shredded chicken and freeze it in bags. The shredded chicken was very easy to add to sandwiches, wraps, soups, salads, etc. It was much healthier than buying deli meat! I would do something like this: http://lovegrowswild.com/2015/03/slow-cooker-shredded-chicken/

If you'd like, I have a whole Pinterest board of meat free recipes you can check out: https://pin.it/hgoocdpih5nvbo

GoldieAuStein

One thing I can add is by using the phone application Ibotta. You go through the grocery stores that you shop at and clip the rebates. for example, save 50c on 1 box of Pacific Foods Classic Broth, can be redeemed up to 5 times per receipt. What this means is that you buy up to 5 boxes of Broth at Whole Foods (or whatever), scan the receipt, and you get 50c per box that you purchased. If you bought 5 boxes, you would get $2.50. This is added to your account. When your account reaches $20 you can either transfer that money to your paypal or transfer it to a gift card. That is cash in your pocket. Personally, I have a debit card for my paypal account so I can use it at any store that I want. I get anywhere from $20-80 a month cash, that I can use.

It takes a little time to get into the habit of using it, but to me that extra $80/month means something.

Another thing to look at is the majority of the rebates are for food we do not buy. That being said there are enough organic and non-gmo products and produce to allow me to make $40-80 a month. Give it a look, it is well worth your time.

--Goldie