Poor student trying to lose weight!

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  • harphy
    harphy Posts: 290 Member
    Each of us has on average 500 deficit calculated in our menu to force our bodies to burn it's own supply - fat! That's one big meal every single day. If you sum it up you come up to big savings every month. Processed food is actually more expensive because costs of processing are incalculated. Try new food like: milk, oatmeal, tuna, apples, oranges, bananas, lentil, beans, plain yoghurt, barley, frozen vegetable...

    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/12/27/cheap-and-healthy-food/
  • MarKayDee
    MarKayDee Posts: 196
    As a grocery store employee I have this to add:

    -buy broccoli florets in the bag, they last a good while and you can get about two heads worth for around two dollars
    -never pay more than a dollar for an avocado
    -frozen spinach goes a lot further than the fresh stuff and when drained can be added to pasta and a handful of other veggies for a filling healthy dinner
    -buy green beans fresh and bulk, cut the ends off and keep them in water in your fridge they last longer, same with carrots and celery. Disposable Tupperware work great for storing veggies you want to keep fresher.
    -check and see if your local grocery store has a rewards card, or better yet a way to load coupons onto it online. The store I work at let's me do all my couponing on my phone, saves me a crap ton of time and an extra $60 on my last big trip.
  • rockmama72
    rockmama72 Posts: 815 Member
    If you live in or near a city, the smaller ethnic markets (rather than the big chains) have some nice prices on fresh produce and meat. (But you often pay way more for packaged/processed food, so watch out.) They usually have a much better selection, too.
  • 89nunu
    89nunu Posts: 1,082 Member
    http://www.budgetbytes.com/

    Have a look at this site! Lots of recipes and they all state how much each serving costs
  • rockmama72
    rockmama72 Posts: 815 Member
    http://www.budgetbytes.com/

    Have a look at this site! Lots of recipes and they all state how much each serving costs

    Wow, this is a great site! Everything looks pretty healthy too. Nice find!
  • LIswimmer51
    LIswimmer51 Posts: 96
    I'm a broke student as well. I like trader joe's a lot, they're very cheap and reasonable with their prices when it comes to organic food.
  • Healthy4Once
    Healthy4Once Posts: 4
    I do not know where you live but for me its ALDIs that saves the food budget. There have a line of products called Fit & Active and its all wonderful. They also have fruits and veggies that are very inexpensive. Just remember to take your own bags and a quarter for the cart (you get it back), I save a ton of money and my children get to eat fruit and veggies to their hearts content. I LOVE THAT STORE.
  • donthesitate
    donthesitate Posts: 255 Member
    I do not know where you live but for me its ALDIs that saves the food budget. There have a line of products called Fit & Active and its all wonderful. They also have fruits and veggies that are very inexpensive. Just remember to take your own bags and a quarter for the cart (you get it back), I save a ton of money and my children get to eat fruit and veggies to their hearts content. I LOVE THAT STORE.

    Sounds just like the PriceRite here in RI, guess it depends where OP lives...
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    There are plenty of Aldi's in RI (I know of at least 2 within 10 minutes of my house.) I'd recommend Aldi's over PriceRite any day.

    And OP, what's wrong with pasta every day? I eat pasta at least 5 times a week.
  • Shetchncn1
    Shetchncn1 Posts: 260 Member
    Eggs are very cheap, healthy and a good basis for a lot of meals; veg is actually cheap if you shop around too (avoid prepackaged stuff). Generally by avoiding processed ready meals, I would have thought your food bill would go down not up...

    This. Processed food are so expensive. If you go back to the base foods it helps. Yes fruits are very expensive but veggies are a little better. Good luck!!
  • Josalinn
    Josalinn Posts: 1,066 Member
    I say freeze things if you can. I made about 35 cups of soup last weekend, and a big batch of risotto (I know THAT's not cheap) for my friends, but I divided up the leftovers for the following week.

    Bottom line is that I have meals for about 2 weeks in my fridge and all i really need to go out an buy is almond milk once a week for my cereal. I also go to a bulk food store (my mom's account) and stock up there. I got about 30 greek yogurts for I think less than $12.

    If you have a Wegmans near you, their store brand greek yogurt is about 80 cents a container I think.

    Since you said you have limited fridge space, if no one has really claimed the freezer, stake your claim and fill it with homemade frozen dinners. I work, have evening classes (4pm to 10pm) and workout on the days i don't have class. I'm TIRED when I get home and cooking is the last thing I want to do. Also my campus has microwaves available so I can just bring my dinner with me and avoid the overpriced cafe.

    I do my cooking on the weekends and just package things up.

    Check out skinnytaste.com loads of yummy soups and other things like Easy Garlic Cheddar Biscuits (which are so freaking good!)
  • cheripugh1
    cheripugh1 Posts: 357 Member
    Low budget's are hard to deal with lol. I shop for fruits and fresh veggies normally at our Farmer's Market, but I live in the South so they are always open on weekends. I have (well had we bought a freezer) a small freezer but I would plan out and stack neatly, my meals, I buy meat marked down, they will mark it down 1-3 days before sell by date, go early in the morning for the best choices, take it home and freeze it (stack neatly) I make soups/stews and divide into servings and freeze some.

    Mainly though I do buy bulk sizes or family packs, I buy a turkey every other month (Target has a great price year round) this gives me LOTS of meat and many things I can make with it, I cook it and take it off the bone, remove skin and fat and freeze it in recipe size baggies (which I think mark with a marker and put in a large freezer bag) if you do this as soon as it cools it is very easy to do and you get all the meat. I do this with all large packs of meat, separate, bag and freeze. Bags take less space and tend to stack nicely (I actually freeze stews, thick soups and chili this way)

    I also watch sale flyers, I have three stores within the same area that I like to shop at, two run ads, so I make a list and what their prices are, grab coupons if I have any and go to the store that has no ad, either it's a better deal or I know it's not and I go to the one that has it less UNLESS it is the only item left on the list then I'll just get it (save gas/time) don't forget to watch your pharmacy ads, like Walgreen's or CVS they often have sales that beat the grocery stores!

    It takes some time, which I know is short but you can do and once it becomes a habit you will find it as normal as brushing your teeth! Good luck!!!
  • Cyan99
    Cyan99 Posts: 84 Member
    Look on this blog: http://agirlcalledjack.com/category/recipes-food-etc/ - she does healthy recipes that can all be made really REALLY cheaply..,

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