How can I Shop Healthy w.o. Emptying our Accounts?!

Brown rice, dried beans, whole grain pasta, canned tomatoes, tuna, salmon, spices, cost very little per serving.

Frozen veggies, fruits, all are cheap and don't spoil.

Coupons are your friend!!

Oatmeal, barley, split peas.....

I buy meat (chicken/fish/shrimp) in large quantities when it's cheap and freeze it. Defrost when needed. Buy fruit and veg that are in season. A tray of eggs lasts a couple of weeks? 1 loaf of bread/week.

Not sure where you live but I can get 4 chicken breasts/ground meat + vegetables to make enough lunches to last me a week all in <15$. Where as if I were to eat out lunch, I'd spend 15$ in two days. Stuff like seasonings/rice/pasta/potatoes/beans/canned stuff I always have sitting around in large quantities so I don't spend on those things on a regular basis.

I lived off of cooked dried beans and frozen veggies when I was in graduate school and had a very tight budget. The plain, store brand frozen veggies are cheaper and can be bought in bulk. I also ate canned salmon and canned tuna for a meat source. Dried beans are a wonder-lentils, limas, black beans, pintos, etc and nutritious. They are cheaper than frozen dinners/pizza and can be made into large quantities. For beverages, I made unsweetened ice tea, watered down juices, made powdered milk and avoided the coffee shops. Buying heads of dark green lettuces are half the price of the "bag o salad" and dressing can be made from scratch. Don't buy the "baby" carrots-cut up your own. Fresh fruits do cost but were an area I chose not to skimp on.

I still eat like this!

Like someones else said, price matching is your best bet. Gather the flyers and price match the produce and meat from all the weekly sales all at one store. Adding coupons will make things even cheaper for you. Check out some couponing websits to see what you can do.

there's a huge price difference depending on where you shop, I live right in front of Giant Eagle the main grocery chain by me that offers "member discounts!" "double coupons!" "fuel perk discounts!" that is easily 3 times as expensive as some of the discount stores that are just a little further away. I'm a HUGE Aldi's shopper, they're owned by the same company that owns Trader Joe's so you can get a lot of nice stuff for super cheap. Sure I have to provide my own bags and use my own quarter to "rent" a shopping cart but I can get enough food for my husband and I to eat for a week for under $60 and I am super picky about my food. This weeks haul included almond milk, lactose free milk, eggs, frozen veggie pizza, chocolate covered bananas (Diana's brand) ground turkey, frozen fish, a stirfry mix, a few bags of frozen veggies, salad mix, green bell peppers, crimini mushrooms, shampoo, conditioner & greek yogurt... I'm sure more than that but thats all I can think of, and I spent $58. I couldnt have gotten half that even with coupons from Giant Eagle.

Check for local farmer's markets & fruit stands for cheaper in season stuff and skip brand names & prepared healthy foods. You can buy bulk staples like rice & beans that will last for awhile from mexican or asian markets.


Good luck!

If you're willing to do a little homework, it's possible. Believe me- I recently moved out of my parents after graduating college (where I lived on the cheap junk food) and I found out quickly that eating healthy was EXPENSIVE. But I've learned a few techniques that save me TONS of money every week.

Here's where to start:
1. Get added to the mailing lists of the grocery stores around you. Even if you don't shop at them (or they're out of what you want that's on sale), if you take an ad to WalMart that has the same product as they do at a cheaper price, Walmart will price match it, which means STOCK UP! (I do this a lot with frozen vegetables, salad mixes, tuna, etc.) I get alot of things cheap at WalMart this way.

2. By all means, if you have an Aldi's close by, shop there FIRST. Their produce is WAYYYY more reasonable than anywhere else I've looked. They have almost any vegetable you'd want as well as fruit. They also have frozen veggies. I would warn you to be wary of their Fit'n'Active brand foods, they all seem to appear healthy, but you really need to read their labels good. Some are great foods, but some aren't. Just gotta do your homework. (Example- Their Fit'n'Active brand italian salad dressing, it's titled "light", but you can get much better at WalMart for the same price with less calories and fat.) I also love their frozen fish selection, they have salmon, flounder, tilapia, scallops, shrimp- all for WAY less than anywhere else.

3. Grains & beans are your friends. Brown rice (Aldis), black beans (Aldis, but if you buy canned, go with Bush's reduced sodium at WalMart, and still rinse with water first), quinoa, etc. (although I find quinoa to be a bit pricey at times). I usually have some type of grain or bean with most of my meals- my favorite is I'll cook up about 4 cups of brown rice on a Sunday and use it throughout the week as a side with my meals (top with salsa and pair with chicken, mix in with a salad, etc.)

4. Be a pack rat when it comes to meats. If you find it on sale, buy as much as your budget allows, and freeze what you aren't going to immediately use. I like to buy ground turkey and chicken buy the pound and split it up into 1/2 lb. pieces and freeze in individual sandwich bags so that I don't have to thaw the whole block when I don't want all of it at once.

5. You can also freeze fresh veggies (after you chop them up). Green peppers, onions, corn (on the cob, I boil it and cut if off the cob to freeze), fresh green beans, etc. Stock up if you find that you have extra funds and freeze for when there's a week that you find you can't afford to go out and replenish your fresh veggie stock.

6. You can save by making homemade versions of things that I feel zap the money out of your wallet. Example- I hate buying canned tomato sauce. I buy tomatoes, remove the skins, and boil them down, add my own seasonings- onions, garlic, etc. (this way you can avoid the extra sugars and other things that are always added into canned sauces). You can freeze after making, but I don't like to let this sit for more than a couple months or so.

7. I don't buy eggs by the dozen. I know it seems expensive when you look at how much Egg Beaters cost, but if you think about the shelf life compared to a dozen eggs, it makes sense. It would take me at least three weeks to eat a dozen eggs, which would go bad by that point- so I've just thrown my money away. Egg beaters (which Aldis also now carries under the Fit'n'Active brand) have a rather long shelf life compared to regular eggs (and also have less cholesterol & calories).

Hope that helps! I know I've saved a lot of money myself by doing all of those things!

I've developed a strategy for shopping.

1. I get all the flyers for the local grocery stores. I shop at up to 4 stores every two weeks, and because I buy everything on sale, I get everything cheaper. My meal plans are based specifically on what's on sale.

2. I talked to the produce manager at the small local store and found out when they put their produce on clearance. They bag it up, and each bag is a dollar. I've gotten 25 kiwi fruit for a dollar, 4-5 red peppers for a dollar, 2 heads of broccoli, 5 pounds of oranges, 2 heads of lettuce, 2 heads of cauliflower, 5 pounds of apples, etc.

3. Find out when they put out the reduced meat. Take it home, portion it out, and freeze it. I generally get meat and seafood for up to 75% off.

4. Check out some websites on frugal living. My favorite is Hillbilly Housewife. Google it, and it pops right up. They have a page on healthy eating (Healthy Hillbilly Housewife), where all the recipes are lower cal. I adjust the recipes for my personal dietary needs, and enjoy. They even have the nutritional info for each recipe.

5. Check out places like Big Lots. They are a store that buys overstock from other companies. I get a lot of my favorite health food items from them at a much reduced price.

Yes all this is somewhat time consuming. I take out 2 days per month to do my shopping days, but it allows us to eat much better than before. I just had to make it a priority.

Good luck.

I have managed to save so much by using a Foodsaver/vacuum sealer machine. I buy the meats etc when on sale and then freeze it all. Keeps it so much better, and you don't waste much at all to freezerburn. Learn to cut up whole chickens...its so much cheaper than ones that are pieced out!

Coupons coupons coupons and sales sales sales. If you have a Safeway you can get online and do the just4u thing that hooks up to the club card and it can really help!

Best thing I have ever done tho is sit down and figure out a menu for the week, and stick to it. I know just what I need to get and I know I already have stuff in the freezer etc to make it with. On weekends, about 1x a month or more depending on how much we go thru I cook a whole mess of food, portion it, and freeze it. Then I can thaw it and cook it or heat it according to my menu.

Makes life so much easier!