Clean eating on a budget???

Hootsmamma

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smileyface45

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TrishDoller

I'm a proponent of menu planning and weekly shopping, as well. I tend to be as thrifty as possible in the middle aisles, buying store brands or sale items, so I can splurge on the fresh produce and meat. Even then, though, I buy sale fruit, heads of lettuce (instead of bagged salad mix), and if meat is on special, I'll buy an extra package to freeze.

Grokette

I love the idea of eating clean, but I find myself eating the same foods everyday because they are somewhat affordable/easy to throw together. When I try to look for new things in the store I feel almost overwhelmed with all the choices. So, how do you eat clean on a budget? Feel free to add me as a friend so I can get some ideas from your food diaries, or you can post your favorite 'clean' recipes here. :happy: Cheers to healthy eating!

Now that I am on a strict budget due to being unemployed, we only buy fruits and veggies that are on sale every week. Mostly this is buying what is in season and local.

The only exception is we buy bananas for my husband because they help with lowering his blood pressure along with eating everything else natural.

The ONLY processed food my husband eats is Organic Vanilla bean sandwich cookies and he take a serving of these cookies everyday in his snack pack to work. His snack pack this week includes: baby carrots, brocolli, greek yogurt with blueberries, banana, plum and his serving of cookies.

My husband eats 3 eggs cooked in coconut oil and nitrate free bacon (that we get from a local farmer) every morning for breakfast, takes his snack pack to work with him to munch on during the day and then we eat protein, fat and green veggies for supper.

Nuts4play

bumping this so I can come back to it

Thexplodingirl

File this under "don't knock it till you try it", make fun of me if you will... Though of course i've only done it twice..

I live in salinas, ca "the salad bowl of the world", much preferred to the "murder per capita capital of the world" but I digress...
It's not uncommon to find boxes upon boxes of produce on the side of a road, victim of an over confident truck driver.
I'm just sayin

maremare312

I try to eat a base of beans and grains (rice, quinoa, corn tortillas mostly to be gluten free) and add in lots of veggies and just a little meat. I shop at a cheap grocery store where you bag your own groceries, I don't how anyone on a budget can afford to shop at Whole Foods.

lipt8611

plan your meals/food list based on what's on sale- if grapes aren't on sale, don't buy! I also recommend buying bags of fruits- like bags of apples or oranges, because the price per fruit is much cheaper. i find i am much more likely to eat the fruit when i have a lot of it and don't want it to go to waste!
buy a whole watermelon on sale and cut it yourself- SAVE YOUR MONEY and do not buy pre-cut fruit!
cut your coupons and use them to stock up on frozen veggies- just make sure to read the labels, some of those frozen vegs are NOT a good choice- way higher in calories and fat than they need to be! (just saw yesterday the honey glazed carrots are like 90 calories per serving, what a waste! make them yourself!)

i'm a freak about saving money in the grocery store- it's my responsibility in our house!