Losing weight with no money?

sweettalkinggirl

I am having financial problems right now, & it seems so much harder to lose weight with so little money Junk food is cheaper than healthy food & now that i have no gym membership it sucks. It's freezing where i am so it's not like I can run outside.
Idk what to do....
Any tips?

I have to disagree about Junk Food being cheaper than Healthy Food. Junk Food is not as nutritious or filling as healthier options, is also full of sugar, saturated fats and salt and are usually larger portions that what your should be eating. Think of your body as a temple, you need to treat it with respect and filling up on Junk Food all the time will put you at a higher risk of developing health problems (like diabetes and high cholesterol) later down the track.

My first tip for you in regards to food - Add up how much money you spend a week on just junk food and see what healthy food options you can buy with that money. Remember you don't have to buy brand name food items, if you want say milk try the generic brand rather than the brand name product - it is the same thing but you aren't paying for the name. Look out for weekly sales, if you can buy some things in bulk (i.e. canned tomatoes) that way you have them on hand when you want them and don't have to go out and pay full price. Also for fresh fruit and vegetables compare the prices of the supermarkets with the local green grocers. You will be surprised at the difference in prices. As it is convenient for me where I shop I usually visit the two major supermarkets, the local independent supermarket and 3 different green grocers on a Saturday to see what specials I can find. Also once a month we visit the local butcher and fish monger for fresh meat and fish. Something else we buy in bulk and just freeze what we don't want straight away in small portions. In the long run you will notice that it is cheaper than Junk Food and more substantial.

My second tip for exercise - You don't need to have a gym membership to get some exercise in. Someone previously suggested going to a library and getting some fitness DVDs which is a great idea and another person suggested a web link to follow and these are great ideas take these on board!! Also don't forget about your TV ... I know we use to have them here in Australia at 6am but Aerobics television shows where you can follow along at home and you don't need special equipment. Cleaning also burns calories but if you don't fancy that take to google and look up some exercises you can do at home.

Good luck with your goals. I hope these tips help

jbaca9602

We're saving for our vow renewal so we're pinching pennies wherever we can! I work out in my pajamas, to videos on YouTube. I shop the "eat it now before it goes bad" section at the co-op and otherwise shop sales. It's actually pretty cheap to eat healthier - my lunches are typically a salad with bell peppers, mushrooms, and chicken. The spring greens are $5/lb which lasts the weekdays, 2-3 bell peppers is $3-4, a basket of mushrooms is $3, and 5 organic chicken thighs is $5. So less than $20 for all of my lunches for a week, with bell peppers and mushrooms to share for dinners & such. And that's at the co-op for organic with nothing on sale. If I was shopping at Wal-mart, I'd pay $3 for the salad, $2-3 for the bell peppers, probably the same $3 for the mushrooms, and $5 would buy me two weeks worth of chicken thighs.

Our dinners are usually pretty inexpensive because we have a meat, a carb, and various veggies (so beef strips sauteed in garlic cloves with roasted peppers & a baked potato, $8 for ingredients makes 3 servings twice). Base ingredients like that are really inexpensive. Try to leave out additional ingredients and anything with preservatives, and your food budget will drop, as long as you actually commit to it! Every halfway "shortcut" like canned options or a $5 pre-made meal will mean one individual meal instead of sustaining ingredients and add to your cost (not to mention, you're still hungry after 3 people have shared it). Our total food expenditure, with buying a majority of it organic at the co-op, is about $250-300 for 3 people depending on sales.

Just DON'T do it halfway! I used to think adding fruits and veggies to our diet was so expensive, because I was putting them on top of our meal plan and half didn't get eaten and ended up thrown away when they went bad. Replace other food with natural food and the cost stays the same.

uhhuthatsright

Just thought of a couple of ideas.

You can save a lot of money buying in bulk from a bulk store or health food store. Spices especially are a better deal a jar of spice at the grocery store might be over $3 you can get that same amount from bulk for about 50 cents! Stocking up on herbs & spices is a good way to make affordable foods like tofu & beans tastier.

At thrift stores you can find rice makers & bread machines for super cheap. You can find good bread machine recipies on line. Buy flour and yeast in bulk at the health food store and you can make healthy bread for cheap! And when you enter your bread recipie into mfp it will figure out calories etc per slice just like grocery store bread.

Aldi & trader Joe's are good for fresh vegetables. Or if you are in a city big enough to have a Mexican grocery store they have great deals on produce & good variety. Asian grocery stores are nice for sauces, tea, & noodles.

Good luck! You can do it!!

TheRealParisLove

I sold my car and bought a bicycle and a bus pass. You would be surprised at how much money you can save if you are car-free. Until last week, I lived in a city of 50k with public transport that really left a lot to be desired. I'm in a large metro area now, and am grateful that I don't have to sit in traffic during commutes. I just fly by on my bike, and hit the bike paths to work. It takes about the same amount of time as it did in the car, and I get to burn 500 calories at the same time.

And, yes, it's cold. But I have warm clothing, and all it takes is one good hill to have me peeling layers off.

jsdholland

I used to think of fresh pineapple of this very expensive luxury fruit because there is so much waste by the time you cut off all the skin, core. Well, I finally cut one down and weighed the fruit I had and it was 2 POUNDS!!!! This is about 6-8 cups for a medium pineapple. Not so expensive when a whole pineapple is $3. Now I eat as much as I want, use it in smoothies and it has made losing weight lots easier because I am treating myself.

keithmustloseweight

You'll warm up running outside pretty quickly.

dena789

One big hint that I was told years ago is - when dieting or on a budget, shop only the outside perimeter of the grocery store. That is where all the fresh fruit & veggies are, the meats, bread and dairy sections. The only exception to that is if you are able to make your own breads, then you need to go down that baking isle.

I'm in Alberta and we have a McGavins discount store here. They sell 10 loaves for $10.99 of the day old bread. I usually pick those up and pop them into the deep freeze. I always find a great selection of whole wheat and multi-grain breads available as well as white bread, English muffins, bagels, etc.

AnnaVee84

http://www.bodyrock.tv/

FREE and only 15 mins a day.

^^ I was going to post it but someone beat me to it great resource! There's TONS of exercise vids on youtube, like Jillian's 30 day shred, and even hulu - I used them when I didn't have money to join the gym.
The only thing I really wanted was some weights/strength training but maybe you can find some weights at Goodwill or on Craigslist?

And in terms of food - do you have a slow cooker? You can cook MASSIVE amounts of food for cheap with that, haha I just did salsa chicken with chicken breasts, salsa, and a can each of black beans and corn - probably cost $15 total for the ingredients and I have enough for the week now. Great kitchen tool for cheap healthy dinners!

DeckerDoll

oatmeal, rice, frozen veggies, sometimes even chicken...all fairly inexpensive. EGGS omg you can make so many different things with eggs...and they're pretty freakin' cheap.

MB_Positif

As far as food goes, it may seem like junk food is cheaper sometimes, but it really is not. Anymore a bag of chips is $3 or $4, but you can buy a canteloupe for $2.50 and get the same number of snack servings out of it that you can with the chips.

One thing I do to stretch out meat is make a lot of one pot type dishes and I will take two chicken breasts (which are usually gigantor from the grocery store, way more than 4 ounces each...an average of 9.5 where I live) and mix it with bunches of veggies and maybe some rice, etc. We get 4 to 6 servings out of it.

momwithacamera

I have been in the same situation, and here are some things that have worked for me: 1. drinking only water, it cuts down the expense for flavored drinks I didn't need anyway. 2. Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred (and some of her other workouts, but start with this one.) It was about $8 on amazon, and AMAZING results! 3. Getting really predictable about meals, and cooking from scratch. 4. Even when I have had to eat REALLY cheap, like all we had left were hot dogs, I still logged and counted it and it has resulted in a loss. I say, move forward and just do SOMETHING. Never mind if it is not perfect or all figured out at this point!

maserati185

Mimi, the biggest thing holding us back from improving our own lives/bodies/health... can be our own minds. Be it that you think you don't have enough money to eat healthy or you think you can't run in cold weather... or you think you can't possibly accomplish <fill in blank> like so-n-so can. DON'T let it hold you back.

Bodyrock.tv is great for free, at-home workouts that teach you individual moves that you can mix up however you want to. They also often give tips on how to make use with what you've got.

Running is free. There are a few things you need to accomplish it in cold weather: hat, gloves, layers. Do this and the run can be comfortable weather-wise.

Eating healthy *is* a huge part, but as another suggested - buy in bulk eggs, rice, wheat bread, greens, etc. Junk is not cheaper - only quicker and craved more, when you are used to that. This is all a lot of info, but take it little by little and make changes and you'll find yourself feeling better than ever.

RenewedRunner

Read this:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/100-days-on-a-budget/

She fed a family of 4 on $125 a week. So dividing that by 4, you should be able to feed yourself for about $30ish a week, and her caveat was that she could only buy whole/healthy food!

Danielle817

bump for later

sarahcline7

I have an entire Facebook Page dedicated to healthy living on a dime! "Thrifty & Fit" check it out: facebook.com/thriftyfit

eldamiano

I am having financial problems right now, & it seems so much harder to lose weight with so little money Junk food is cheaper than healthy food & now that i have no gym membership it sucks. It's freezing where i am so it's not like I can run outside.
Idk what to do....
Any tips?

Junk food isnt really cheaper than healthy food and running in the cold.... well running warms you up.

StoneColdLiger

For me, when I was really tight on money, it actually helped me lose weight. Everytime I ate, I'd get one serving of each thing. Then when I was tempted to get another, I'd feel like it was a waste of money and would save it for another meal. I ate a lot of rice and chicken and only drank water.

And if you want to go to a gym, you could go to Planet Fitness, (Only $10 a month) or just workout at home. Walking, Jogging, Push Ups, Crunches, ect. I'm sure if you look online you could even find a workout plan you could do without any equipment.

thavoice

We touched on this subject on the thread about the cost of healthy food.

The biggest BS answer anyone can give as to why they cannot lose weight is becuase they dont have enough $$.

That is complete garbage.
To lose weight you dont need to go out and buy all those fancy foods.
You simply eat less food.

Period.

I have lost weight many a times, unfortunately I never keep it off. Each time I did it without a gym membership, and each time my bank account got bigger simply because I was eating less.

Stop using $$$ as an excuse!

bethlaf

eggs are super cheap right now thanks to easter , like less than a buck a dozen nearly everywhere, and they stay good in the fridge for 3-4 weeks, boil some they are great for anything you would use deli meat in .

"used" bread store - in other words the bakery outlet, i buy all my bagel thins there-(hopelessly addicted to them)
Frozen veg,
even frozen fruit(dollar tree)

its NOT as hard as you think it might be , you have to approach it right

yes Brown rice is Slightly more than white cheapo rice,

honestly , i am a coupon shopper , so I almost never pay full price for any of my groceries..

freemystery

I am having financial problems right now, & it seems so much harder to lose weight with so little money Junk food is cheaper than healthy food & now that i have no gym membership it sucks. It's freezing where i am so it's not like I can run outside.
Idk what to do....
Any tips?

When I first moved to NYC I had some financial problems. AND I lost weight.
I wouldn't recommend the method though. Basically blow all but $30 on cute clothes and realise you have about $2/day for food. Then fail to budget accordingly and spend that $2 each day on absolute rubbish. Instead of doing one sensible shop.

Can't deny, over that 2-3 weeks I did lose a significant amount of weight. :indifferent:

Okay, 6 years later I eat well. And it's cheaper than you imagine. You know how CHEAP stuff like lentils, quinoa, milk, pasta, brown rice etc can be? Just buy in bulk if you can and make sure you control portion sizes.
Do not fritter away your money on a gym membership, if you have no money then you can't afford it. Just walk, run, get to using some free online fitness videos. All you need is some time and motivation to do it. If you can't muster up the motivation to do it at home, you're wasting your cash because you aren't going to have the motivation to go all the way to the gym, esp if you're saying you can't run outside becuase it's too cold.

Eat well but eat less, move more.