Eating on a budget

Grokette

What are some things you recommend when dieting on a budget?

Go to the grocery early in the morning and buy meats that can be frozen as this is when they mark down what is needing to be sold quickly.

Buy only vegetables and fruits that are on sale for the week, this includes frozen veggies. Doing this not only saves you money, but also gets you eating a huge variety of vegetables and fruits as the sales change weekly.

Don't buy the packaged, processed, nutritionally void foods, such as hamburger helper, breads, pastas, etc. They have no nutrients other than what was put back into them after being stripped and they are rather expensive.

Stick to bags of long grain rice - this goes a long way...........

CaptainGordo

In addition to ideas gathered here, I would suggest searching the forums for ideas, using the Search button above. There are a lot of great ideas out there. Here's one thread that had some great ideas: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/305918-does-anyone-else

Some things that we do to help keep the grocery bill down...

FROZEN VEGETABLES
Frozen veggies are typically a great value, and very nutritious. Less sodium and more nutrients than canned. Plus, you can choose if want them crisp or soggy. Canned are always soggy. :laugh:

BEANS
Crock pot (slow cooker) is great way to go. Cook 'em overnight and then freeze any surplus. If you go with canned beans, I would recommend rinsing them to cut down on the sodium. Some nice folks have even added the rinsed versions of most canned beans to the food database.

OATMEAL
Oatmeal is another great, cheap, healthy food.

EGGS
A great low-calorie, protein-rich food. Don't fear eating the whole egg!

GROCERY STORE PRICE MATCHING (WALMART)
We have been able to buy a lot more fruit and veggies (along with meats and other items) thanks to Walmart's price-matching policy on groceries. We check all of the special that come in the junk mail for local grocery stores, jot them down and head to Walmart.

The best fruit and veggie prices here are found in the Latin markets -- it's not uncommon for us to pick-up 6 lbs of oranges for $0.99, for example. Sometimes, though, the quality can be poor at the store offering the sale, so we just take that price to Walmart. It will also save you time and gasoline/bus fare. Walmart's price match policy is that you don't have to bring the ad -- just be able to tell them where you found the offer. They keep the local ads there, supposedly. We've never gotten any hassle though.

Dtho5159

I have several tips I use:

1. Buy in bulk when on sale. I get split chicken breast at my Kroger for .99/lb and stock up. I cook it in the crockpot with some chicken stock and when its done, I shred it and have several meals meat ready to go.

2. My local Food City has a produce shelf with goods that have a day or 2 til expiration. Last week I found a cauliflower for .99 and they are usually $2.99 at my store and grapes for .79/lb when they were over $2/lb normally. That was on a Sunday and they lasted thru Thursday but saved us a bit of money.

3. Coupon. I use coupons for a lot of things and buy in bulk when on sale. CVS had Pantene shampoo/conditioner on sale and if you spent $30 you got back a $10 gift card. I bought 5 newspapers the Sunday before and there was a coupon in it for them and I got 9 bottles for $15 and got back a $10 gift card to use this week. Now Im set for at least a year on shampoo/conditioner and got name brand for very cheap and have extra $$ to put towards grocery items.

4. Collect reward points. My husband takes coke and powerade to work with him and brings me back the caps for the coke rewards website. Several times, they have had gift cards for stores I shop at, free coupons for things like coke, powerade, ritz crackers etc. Ive gotten a ton of stuff by entering and saving my points.

5. Shop early in the morning and early in the week if you can. My Kroger marks down produce and meat on Sunday and Monday mornings. One week, I scored a lot of chicken, beef, STEAK and turkey for about $25 and it lasted me the whole month (we have a family of 4)

6. If I see something on closeout, I stock up. My store recently had a whole cart of Juicy Juice boxes on closeout for half off. I bought nearly all they had and was stocked for a good 6 months for the price of 2. My son takes them to school for snack time and we use them occasionally for when we are out etc.

naturallykat

The humble egg - versatile and cheap as egg and chips!

Make your own meals, rather than buy ready meals or already prepared things. a bag of potatoes will do you jackets, roast, mash, soup etc.

Rubber chicken. Roast a chicken, have roast chicken with whatever on day 1. Day 2 is cold chicken and salad or in a sandwich. Day 3 reheated chicken breast or leg with veggies. Day 4 Chicken stir fry with the shredded little bits you can peel off the carcass. boil up the bones in water with an onion and a carrot to make stock, so hey presto! Day 5 Chicken (and whatever veggies are lurking) soup.

jaynniembaby

All of you are definitely giving great ideas and a great start to my grocery list! Thank you all so much!
Now I'm really happy my sister works at Sam's club, I will for sure buy some things in bulk!

BabyGrl726

Good ideas here...