But eating right is so expensive...

musycnlyrics

Eating healthier foods has been easy, taste-wise, but not so easy financially (at first)

My family of 6 goes through about $600 in groceries per month...I don't recieve government assistance and even though both myself and my husband have good jobs, I feel the "pain" when I check out at the grocery store and see that my total is over 300 every two weeks

I used to get "stock up" items:
ramen noodles, chef boyardee, sugary cereals, etc

Then I met MFP

I can't get those items now, knowing the amounts of crap they contain, so I now shop the perimeter of the store and get meats first, then I get cereals, (with added fiber/protein) and milk and very little junk food
My grocery bill is more expensive, but I coupon to get keep the cost under control. With coupons and store discounts, I rarely go over my 300 threshold (and I am usually saving 100-150 per trip) Without the coupons, I would probably cry every time I grocery shop.

And I make a lot of whole wheat pasta dishes to make up for the chef boyardee my kids used to miss. We also eat a lot of fruit and yogurt...I am going to invest in a crockpot to make meals easier to manage and to throw in more veggies...

I am lucky enough to have been raised in a household where meals were cooked every day and we ate out rarely, so eating out still feels like a treat for me instead of a necessity. And I possess the know-how when it comes to cooking fresh veggies

I see the destitution of many people every day (because of where I work) and I consider myself blessed to be able to give my kids healthy options and to teach them to enjoy them.

Here is what helps me:
I track what's on sale and get a lot of it. I actually caught bananas on sale for 27 cents a lb and got so many of them that we barely went through them. The same with the apples I caught on sale for 89 cents per lb
If chicken breasts are on sale, I download a bunch of chicken recipes and I buy a bunch of chicken. We will eat chimichangas, chicken alfredo, stuffed chicken, chicken penne, chicken omelettes, etc
I usually get a lot of cabbage and carrots and greens on sale, and whatever frozen veggies are on sale
We eat a lot of brown rice and potatoes, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta (always the brand on sale that has the highest nutrition value)

ETA tips

JaxDemon

Went Iceland (UK food shop) and with how cheap everything is I could feed my family and me for around £50 a fortnight. Yet I spend £50 on 10kg of chicken breasts the other week. But it's not all doom and gloom lol.

Acg67

It's only more expensive if you buy into organic produce, whole wheat pasta, 'healthy' TV dinners, and other fad stuff that really has no effect on anything.

If you just shy away from junk like cookies, chips, etc. and stay away from eating out, then eating healthy is significantly cheaper for you. My entire dinner tonight cost me less than $3.50/serving and comes in at under 650 calories.

Organic is a fad? Lol. I'll be sure to let my naturopath know that and my father in laws John Hopkins oncologist know that.

Lol naturopath and organic foods

But I do wonder how everyone is spending so little money a week, I suppose quality doesn't count for much

bcattoes

It's only more expensive if you buy into organic produce, whole wheat pasta, 'healthy' TV dinners, and other fad stuff that really has no effect on anything.

If you just shy away from junk like cookies, chips, etc. and stay away from eating out, then eating healthy is significantly cheaper for you. My entire dinner tonight cost me less than $3.50/serving and comes in at under 650 calories.

Organic is a fad? Lol. I'll be sure to let my naturopath know that and my father in laws John Hopkins oncologist know that.

Lol naturopath and organic foods

But I do wonder how everyone is spending so little money a week, I suppose quality doesn't count for much

What do you mean by "quality"?

musycnlyrics

Just because you can access healthy foods, doesn't mean everyone can. Lower income areas have less access to healthy foods, and when they can get them, the prices are often greatly inflated. Never work on the assumption that everyone can eat healthy just because you can.

I call BS on this. If it were true, the lowest income earners wouldn't have the highest percentage of smokers in their group.

I shop at Trader Joe's for certain items and notice that the average shopper there is fit, to slightly overweight. In their carts are a mix of what many on this site would consider 'more healthful' items. They seem to have no problem paying for them.

I shop at the local Mexican Supermarket because they have great produce & fresh meat prices. The average shoppers I see there are obese to morbidly obese. In their carts are a mixture of tortillas, sugary drinks, some produce and lots of carbohydrates. They also seem to have no problem paying for their groceries.

The real difference in these shoppers: education, upbringing and attitude.

QFT

^^^THIS!!

I live in a low-to-moderate income area and most of the people who shop in our local grocery store are obese-morbidly obese; in their carts (because I am such a shopping-cart-snob now) are sodas, chips, cookies, frozen pizzas, ramen noodles, canned meats/pastas and very little fresh produce/healthier items. and their carts are usually full to overflowing. I used to be one of those people, I wont ever be there again

rowanwood

We have forgotten that food is supposed to provide us nutrition as well as energy to keep going. Where is the nutrition in a package of ramen or $5 carry-out pizza? Can you pronounce or recognize any of the ingredients in some of this "food" that is so cheap?
There are a million websites providing guidance on how to eat healthy and plan meals on the web. People just need to put their priorities in order. I've made all the excuses myself with no time, etc. It is a pain in the *kitten* to plan and prep meals, I agree!!

I don't know, looks like it has nutrition to me.



From: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/soups-sauces-and-gravies/7979/2

Acg67

It's only more expensive if you buy into organic produce, whole wheat pasta, 'healthy' TV dinners, and other fad stuff that really has no effect on anything.

If you just shy away from junk like cookies, chips, etc. and stay away from eating out, then eating healthy is significantly cheaper for you. My entire dinner tonight cost me less than $3.50/serving and comes in at under 650 calories.

Organic is a fad? Lol. I'll be sure to let my naturopath know that and my father in laws John Hopkins oncologist know that.

Lol naturopath and organic foods

But I do wonder how everyone is spending so little money a week, I suppose quality doesn't count for much

What do you mean by "quality"?

Things in which there is a significant difference in taste, dry aged beef vs non dry aged, high end balsamics and olive oils, various cheeses etc etc

VeganLexi

I pretty much only eat organic produce, I don't consume animals or their by-products either, it's all worth it for me...

Each to their own.

shannashannabobana

I never said low income earners spend their money wisely, but they do have less access to healthy foods. I put links in a post above if anyone's interested in facts outside their personal experience.

When most people complain about low income earner having less access, they are thinking of big city food desserts, but they always forget about public transportation and in rural areas, cars. People who want foods will go get them.

Frozen veggies = cheap and healthy
Cheaper cuts of meat = cheap and healthy
Beans and rice = cheap and healthy

If you have a fridge and a stove, you can eat healthy foods for a reasonable amount. I always spend more money buying processed crap. Cereal and potato chips and cokes are horrendously expensive. Cut those and you have plenty to spend on other stuff.

If you have problems eating healthy on a budget, you are probably buying non-gmo, organic, out of season produce and expensive cuts of meat or processed stuff. Learn to cook and love frozen veggies and in season produce and you will do fine. Crock pots and leftovers are also your friend, if time is a consideration.

KANGOOJUMPS

um, not

SummerLovesPhil

I process folks at the local food pantry and it brings home to me each week how tough some folks have it. Imagine first that you only have a few hundred dollars coming in a month, you are already living in someone's basement or old trailer for the lowest rent you can find, you don't have a car or access to public transportation and your cupboards are bare. You have been looking for work but even the part-time, minimum wage job you had disappeared. In the US, the sequester means your food stamps were just cut to $30 or less a MONTH. These are the people I deal with every Monday afternoon during my volunteer stint.

They don't have many choices and they can only return to our organization once every thirty days. Some of the people I see are young, some old. Some healthy, some sick. I see people with severe handicaps, both physical and mental. Yesterday there was a victim of a drunken driver who had suffered a traumatic brain injury. These are the people that come to the food pantry.

Yesterday, one client said, no, he didn't have trouble with utility bills because he no longer lived somewhere with utilities. He lost his job; he lost the roof over his head. Although some of the people I see are overweight, many are thin, some painfully so. Sometimes they have cancer or degenerative bone disease, worked hard all their lives and have been wiped out by medical expenses. These are the people I see each Monday afternoon.

So, yes, I do believe you can eat very healthily as well as you can eat junk IF you have access to good food at reasonable prices and the knowledge to cook the healthy food. The people I see on Mondays may not have access to a pot to boil beans or the knowledge of how to do it. No one gives them salt and pepper to make the beans palatable. One mentally handicapped gentleman yesterday asked me what he could do with the bag of dry beans someone gave him. I explained how he could cook them in his crock pot like potatoes. He didn't have a stove. He really didn't know and had no one to tell him. He'd had the beans for a year.

So, it isn't easy. How healthy could you eat if your TOTAL income were $700 a month and $30 in food stamps?

Yes, this EXACTLY. I work for Medicaid. People don't realize how expensive it is to be poor...

SummerLovesPhil

I never said low income earners spend their money wisely, but they do have less access to healthy foods. I put links in a post above if anyone's interested in facts outside their personal experience.

When most people complain about low income earner having less access, they are thinking of big city food desserts, but they always forget about public transportation and in rural areas, cars. People who want foods will go get them.

The food deserts you're talking about are frequently more than one bus away. It can take someone several hours to shop for food and carry it home. Imagine doing so with three kids after a shift on your feet! That's why folks end up at 7-Eleven instead.

xTattooedDollx

My husband and I eat a mostly "clean" diet. Its much cheaper than the crap we were eating. We buy virtually all fruits and veggies from local Farmers Markets. You just need to budget and shop smart. So many people complain about being overweight and eating healthy is too expensive yet they have cable, Starbucks, daily, $300 purses, tons of crap they can live without if they really wanted to be healthy.

bcattoes

So, yes, I do believe you can eat very healthily as well as you can eat junk IF you have access to good food at reasonable prices and the knowledge to cook the healthy food. The people I see on Mondays may not have access to a pot to boil beans or the knowledge of how to do it. No one gives them salt and pepper to make the beans palatable. One mentally handicapped gentleman yesterday asked me what he could do with the bag of dry beans someone gave him. I explained how he could cook them in his crock pot like potatoes. He didn't have a stove. He really didn't know and had no one to tell him. He'd had the beans for a year.

So, it isn't easy. How healthy could you eat if your TOTAL income were $700 a month and $30 in food stamps?

How does this person eat unhealthily on that budget? What food could you buy fpr $30 that didn't need cooked and would keep a grown man from being hungry?

harleygroomer

YOU GOT IT CHICKIE !!!!!!! I just don't know why people haven't gotten this yet. PLUS---you forgot the added cost of PLUS SIZE clothing !! It amazed me how much money I was saving when I went down in size. My biggest cost was adding a MEAN trainer to my routine and I can truthfully say she is MEAN and I love her for it. She keeps my honest.... But if the 20 to 30 dollars it cost us to NOT eat crap is for more important to some people than they are missing one great life. I get sadden when I see people with cart loads of JUNK FOOD and then they roll up to the counter and get out their EBT cards for it. There should be rules for that stuff. If you deserve it, you deserve, but try eating better, JUST ALITTLE!!

RCottonRPh

I make a good salary, and still find my food bill a bit ridiculous. But I made the conscious choice to go organic and the sticker shock is one of the results. When I was broke in college, I could have eaten better, but not by any stretch of the imagination like I do now. I used to go in the grocery store and play a game. I'd take in 10 dollars, buy 10 of the 10 for 10 items and see if I couldn't eat off that for at least 2 days. Guess what is 10 for 10? Carbs, processed stuff, junk, and sugary food.

MsWallwoman

Lmao! :laugh:

shannashannabobana

It's only more expensive if you buy into organic produce, whole wheat pasta, 'healthy' TV dinners, and other fad stuff that really has no effect on anything.

If you just shy away from junk like cookies, chips, etc. and stay away from eating out, then eating healthy is significantly cheaper for you. My entire dinner tonight cost me less than $3.50/serving and comes in at under 650 calories.

Organic is a fad? Lol. I'll be sure to let my naturopath know that and my father in laws John Hopkins oncologist know that.

Lol naturopath and organic foods

But I do wonder how everyone is spending so little money a week, I suppose quality doesn't count for much

What do you mean by "quality"?

Things in which there is a significant difference in taste, dry aged beef vs non dry aged, high end balsamics and olive oils, various cheeses etc etc

All those things are nice, but they are splurges. I buy stuff like raw milk cheese and good steaks and fish sometimes, but they are not necessary for health. IF you are someone who is on a budget, you make choices. High end balsamics may not be on the list (although they would probably last a long time and might be good if you have extra room in your budget).

And yes, it's cheaper to eat in the US, but I think the general principles of avoiding processed foods and cooking at home will lessen your costs regardless.

shannashannabobana

I never said low income earners spend their money wisely, but they do have less access to healthy foods. I put links in a post above if anyone's interested in facts outside their personal experience.

When most people complain about low income earner having less access, they are thinking of big city food desserts, but they always forget about public transportation and in rural areas, cars. People who want foods will go get them.

The food deserts you're talking about are frequently more than one bus away. It can take someone several hours to shop for food and carry it home. Imagine doing so with three kids after a shift on your feet! That's why folks end up at 7-Eleven instead.

Have you ever lived in a big city? I have. More than one bus away is not a big deal. I had a big cart that I rolled when walking to the grocery store. If you CARE about this stuff, you will do it. It's not like you have to grocery shop every day. Go once a month and stock up on frozen stuff.

Brige2269

I have to agree. My grocery bill is a lot less than it use to be. In a week, I spend $17 alone on fruits and veggies. Then another $35 or so on odds and ends to go with it, and includes non food items. Before the life style change I was spending up to 100 a week. That's with barely any fruits and veggies. I think most people who say it expensive try to ADD healthy food to their current unhealth food list. You should be replacing, not adding.