Eating healthy cost more money??

jillmarie125

Ok- so I always here people say "i want to eat right but it is soooo expensive." Do you agree with this? I can see where they would say that when just starting out.

When I first started to make better choices my grocery bill did go up. I was buying tons of produce...more than I was eating and it would go to waste. It took me about a month to figure things out. See- I don't like vegetables. I just dont. I eat them because they fill me up and are good for you. But for 10 bucks I can buy a months worth of frozen veggies. Are fresh better than frozen...i don't know...and i really dont care. So I was able to cut a huge cost there. So once I stopped buying tons of fresh veggies my grocery bill has gone down...because I am not buying a lot of snack foods and stuff.

I have always been a lean meat eater...so not cost increase there. And I have never been a fan of boxed meals.

Overall my grocery bill has gone down. How about yours? Have you found creative ways to cut your bill down or still trying to figure things out??

Steeners

I had the same problem with my fresh produce going bad before I had a chance to eat it--frozen veggies are great! And I've just gotten used to making a mid-week grocery store trip to buy more produce. My bill is higher though when I need to buy more fresh items, but I try to mitigate it by shopping the sales. I also used to shop at Aldi a lot to save $$, but we moved recently and there's not one anywhere near me now.

Steeners

Oh, and to save on waste when I have buy celery but only need 1-2 stalks for my recipe, I just chop the whole bunch at once and freeze what I don't need for later! Same with bag of carrots and onions. I also save all the veggie scraps and freeze them to make vegetable broth.

jillmarie125

Oh, and to save on waste when I have buy celery but only need 1-2 stalks for my recipe, I just chop the whole bunch at once and freeze what I don't need for later! Same with bag of carrots and onions. I also save all the veggie scraps and freeze them to make vegetable broth.

Now thats awesome! I have always told myself to do that. Save the scraps for broths. Same with turkey legs and parts I dont eat. I am sure there is a way to make soup or something with it. But I am such a lazy (i prefer lazy over bad...) cook that I never do it.

M00NPYE

Frozen veggies are great! I stock up on the microwave steamer bags, they are so fast. I will occasionally buy fresh veggies if its something I want to really cook that day or the next day (usually a weekend). Fruit is where my expense comes in... my kids love bananas so I feel obligated to keep them and either apples, oranges or grapes on hand for them to munch on... I get frustrated buying apples and oranges, because you don't really know how good they are until you buy them. A lot of time I end up throwing at least half of them away.

M00NPYE

Oh, and to save on waste when I have buy celery but only need 1-2 stalks for my recipe, I just chop the whole bunch at once and freeze what I don't need for later! Same with bag of carrots and onions. I also save all the veggie scraps and freeze them to make vegetable broth.

Now thats awesome! I have always told myself to do that. Save the scraps for broths. Same with turkey legs and parts I dont eat. I am sure there is a way to make soup or something with it. But I am such a lazy (i prefer lazy over bad...) cook that I never do it.

I have done this but usually gets lost in the freezer... or I forget about it.

rondaj05

My grocery bill has gone up! My family isn't eating what I eat so I am buying "regular" groceries and my healthier items. The good thing is I am now eating things that I grew up eating that everyone else turned the nose up! LOL and I only have to cook and prepare for ME!!

jillmarie125

My grocery bill has gone up! My family isn't eating what I eat so I am buying "regular" groceries and my healthier items. The good thing is I am now eating things that I grew up eating that everyone else turned the nose up! LOL and I only have to cook and prepare for ME!!

I went thru that too. Where I was buying two sets of grocerys! It took some time but i found a happy place in the middle!!!

kbolton322

My grocery bill has gone up! My family isn't eating what I eat so I am buying "regular" groceries and my healthier items. The good thing is I am now eating things that I grew up eating that everyone else turned the nose up! LOL and I only have to cook and prepare for ME!!

I won't do this... I buy a few snack foods for the kids but everything else is the same as what I'm eating.. I din't like cooking 2 differant meals... plus if I get my kids eating better now it will stick with them the rest of their lives(I hope). My husband don't ***** much cuz I'll tell him he can go to the store and cook and he don't like that answer so he just don't say much at all..

kbolton322

95% of the time I buy fresh fruint and veggies but I buy them twice a week so they don't go bad... It seems like I spend more now that I'm eating way healthier but it will be worth it... and this spring I'm going to grow a garden so that will cut back on my fruits and veggies... I may even start this month..

MrsG31

I think it depends on what your idea of healthy is - if I were to buy all organic produce and meat, along with all the other things we use to make dinners, lunches, breakfasts, etc, it could get real expensive. We cook at home almost every night, I pack my daughter's lunchs and snacks for school, and my husband and I try not to eat breakfast or lunch from take-out during the work week - so we buy a lot of food! We have 2 fridges and I don't know what I would do without the 2nd one!

I am not good at "budgeting" so I honestly can't say if I spend more or less. There are times when I don't go grocery shopping for 2 weeks or more, so when I do end up going I am buying A LOT of stuff and spend A LOT of money. But if I go on a regular basis, my bill will be smaller, but if I add them all up it is probably the same, if not more, then when I went only a few times a month.

I agree that food goes bad, especially fresh vegetables, in my house too fast. My kids aren't big veggie eaters, so I if I buy summer squash or zucchini which the hubs and I love, it ends up going bad before I find a chance to use it. We buy a lot of frozen broccoli (my daughter does love that), frozen mixed vegs, etc. Strawberries and bananas go bad if we don't eat them every day. (Bananas especially because they are usually used to go along with breakfast on the weekends and I don't eat 'em.)

I am super excited about this new grocery store in our town though. It sells only meat (that is cut and packaged on site), produce (local and organic), seafood, and dairy- no boxes, no drinks, no cans, just real food. The cost on the meat was amazing and the produce was so fresh, the strawberries especially since the ones I get from the regular grocery look like they are already going bad in the store! We bought 2 whole pineapples for $4, went home and chopped one up - BEST pineapple I have ever had! It was super busy the day we went though, so will need to find a better time to pop in and not go with the whole family- too chaotic!

ELMunque

My kids eat what I eat, I have 6 kids, a husband and a live in friend that's going through chemo. Too many people in my house for picky eaters. I'm actually the most picky eater anyways. I don't eat meat, and I have recently turned my husband into a vegetarian too, so we buy less meat, I still cook it for the kids on occassion, but buying less meat and more frozen fruits and veggies has actually made my grocery bill go way down. I never knew how expensive meat was (hubby does the grocery shopping). We buy fresh too, but we shop once a week, so usually things that last, or we choose the stuff that isn't ripe yet so it will last. Also, to keep the bill down we make a weekly menu so we don't buy anything that we won't use, and nobody is allowed to get food without asking me first so they don't eat something that's supposed to be for dinner some time during the week.

Forever4me

Three things I've done to help with fresh produce getting eaten (I know this isn't quite the topic, but it seems to be a conversation withing the topic)

1. Cut/clean it all the day I purchase it.
2. I've re-arranged my fridge to keep it all on the top 2 shelves where I can SEE it...and my kids see it too, and we now almost always it all. (I've moved my dairy - eggs, yogurt, string cheese to the crisper)...the kids love that stuff anyway, so will look for it there.
3. Tupperware makes these great containers that you can vent depending upon the type of produce in them, and they will keep SO much longer - some things for up to a 3 weeks! Definitely worth the investment. I have several of all sizes, and now my fruits and veggies are stacked, visible, cleaned, fresh and ready to eat! And we do eat them!

WinoGelato

I realize I'm a little late on this topic but I was commenting on another thread earlier about pre-logging and it reminded me about using a meal planner. When I was using my meal planner a year or so ago (before I was using MFP and for different reasons), it really did help me cut down on throwing away food. I really like to cook and I actually really like going to the grocery store, so if I don't have a plan for what meals we are going to eat at home and which nights, and all the ingredients down on my list, I can really over estimate what I will need.

Even if I write, "veggies, salad, fruit" on the list without specifiying which ones, if I get to the store and don't know that we are only going to eat at home 2 nights this week and therefore I only really need 2 kinds of veggies and maybe no salad, then I could end up with asparagus, green beans, snap peas, and squash because it all looks good at the store and I don't really know what I'm making. What ends up happening is then I throw half of it away and get really annoyed.

I like some of the frozen vegetables but to be honest some of them do seem to have a different texture when cooked. Maybe it is because when I cut it up and prepare it myself I can control the thickness of the slices and that may have an effect.

Anyway, both of these topics are reminding me that I need to dig up that old meal planner and start using it again!