Impossible to eat healthy when in debt

I agree it's all about planning. But what do you do when you're in charge of the food planning, you've already figured your budget, and then someone takes money from you? Do you make half the food and make the person responsible for their irresponsible actions? Or do you substitute with UNHEALTHY options until funds become available again?

I'm half tempted to buy a gift card for my budget amount to my grocery store to make sure this doesn't happen again

this is where everyone has said there are communication issues. If you have a budget of x for food and someone just decides oh well I feel like buying something else. then there is a communication problem in your marriage. Just because your wife makes the money doesn't mean she gets to decide how it's spent. The money belongs to you too and the two of you should sit down and decide how it is spent. Each of you should have an allowance so if she wants to buy something not in the budget (fast food because she doesn't like what's for dinner) she can use her allowance, but the budgets amounts in each category remain the same.

on another note though, I don't understand how a parent would want to feed their child a diet of crap (fast food) rather than a nutritious (maybe not perfect but definately many steps above fast food) diet.

Hey guys I've been looking at different ways to cut down on my grocery bill, and so I figured I'd share a few things. http://www.blissfulanddomestic.com/2012/06/how-does-she-live-on-budget.html
http://www.grocerybudget101.com/content.php/26-Grocery-Budget-101-How-to-Use-this-Site
Also if you have the food network a great program to check out is Melissa d'Arabian she also has a great cookbook that has yummy recipes such as broiled broccoli with Parmesan cheese.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/ten-dollar-dinners-with-melissa-darabian/index.html
Hope this helps,

Some of these folks are such grumps. Some have given great advice. I just want to say that I like your "no food after 7pm" category made me chuckle.

My advice? Avoid "health foods" and eat healthy foods. Everyone sells healthy food at a decent price (brown rice, beans, produce...) The marketing is what robs people. I don't need goji berries, pomegranates, and quinoa to lose weight and feel healthy.

And remember that we don't need animal products everyday, just 2-3 times a week is enough. This is a good news as animal products are the expensive ones. Beans and legumes are cheap source of protein.

Not as cheep (hurhur) as chicken or whey.

And remember that we don't need animal products everyday, just 2-3 times a week is enough. This is a good news as animal products are the expensive ones. Beans and legumes are cheap source of protein.

I tried Beans and Legumes. I'm going to try it again tonight or tomorrow, but they destroy my digestive tract. I'm okay with peanut butter, but all dry beans (triple washed already before packaging) I cook turn out to cause me distress.

Try cooking beans with a chunk of kombu or other seaweed in them. It's supposed to help with digestion.

I agree it's all about planning. But what do you do when you're in charge of the food planning, you've already figured your budget, and then someone takes money from you? Do you make half the food and make the person responsible for their irresponsible actions? Or do you substitute with UNHEALTHY options until funds become available again?

I'm half tempted to buy a gift card for my budget amount to my grocery store to make sure this doesn't happen again

If your weekly budget is $80 get the gift card at the start of the month for $320 and then it's on you to budget it out for the month. What happens if you come in under budget? Does it get absorbed back into the household budget? I keep a grocery cash envelope I put $70 a week in it and if I go under I still have the money so that when I need to stock up on something we are low on I can do so without going over budget. This past week I spent $11 (All we needed was milk, lettuce, apples and yogurt) and the other $59 is sitting in the envelope. It sounds like you are expected to spend that much on all groceries but you're not given the money for it. One thing I would like to bring up for budgetary comparison only: In the US food stamp recipients get $35 a week per household member of only food. I would be in heaven if I had that much money coming in! I use the $35 a person for toiletries, cleaning supplies and food. You can make it on less, I do, it's just hard and if no one is giving you the money to shop it becomes even harder.

My answer would never be to buy unhealthy food but we just don't eat that way. Even junk food if I want it I have to MAKE it. Mixing up an entire batch of cookies because I'm craving chocolate chip cookies, well, you think about how much you really want it before you go turn the oven on and measure out the flour! I would choose less expensive options like brown rice instead of quina, chicken instead of fish, beef isn't even in my budget so if you are given less money those are the choices that need to be looked at.

Speaking respectfully and honestly about the cost of food now a days and the budget allotted to you might be a next step too. Communication is important maybe she does not realize how much things cost or isn't realizing that the cost allocated for "groceries" is food plus cleaning supplies plus toiletries and that you really aren't spending $80 on food but more like $55 - $60 for a family of 4 to eat for 7 days. Sit down at the table and talk about it.

Google survive on $35 it was a blogger challenge a few months ago and they were asked to eat healthy on a $35 weekly food budget. Some decent recipes. Good luck to you!

I disagree. I've ended up saving tons of money since I've started eating healthy and recently discovered that the farmers market is way cheaper than the grocery store and you get a TON of fruits & veggies. If you plan ahead and shop smart you'll end up ahead. I promise.

I totally agree, since we have started watching what we are eating and how much of it, we have almost cut our food spend in half, and that is WITH more fruit and veg, just cutting out junk snacks (crisps, chocolate, alcohol)! It can be done and there are a ton of great recipe ideas on the internet, for example check out http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/healthy/cheap-and-healthy/ (I know it's a UK page but measures are easily converted ).

Like you say, being healthy is much more important than being debt free (otherwise you will only spend the money saved on food on healthcare bills), and life is too short to not live it well! x

bump.

on another note though, I don't understand how a parent would want to feed their child a diet of crap (fast food) rather than a nutritious (maybe not perfect but definately many steps above fast food) diet.

Only a person who cares more about the black ink at the end of the month would. My wife is an accountant by profession and she was raised by business minded parents who were emotionally disconnected to her and her siblings. They were also farmers who treated animals as food and not as pets. There is a complete lack of empathy I'm fighting here. And to think, she wants to be the one home so she can motivate the kids to do better at school.... A lot of good motivation is when they don't have the nutrition to be capable of doing the work without cognitive disorders or disruptions.

how can it be that all she cares about is the black ink, when eating out (even the dollar menu) costs more than making and eating food at home. Have your kids had a physical recently? blood pressure, A1C, lipid panel, etc. are they all where they're supposed to be or is their poor diet affecting them?

Marketing tactics are tricky! I'm surprised that an accountant fell for them though! She had to take marketing classes in business school (or I did at least). I realized I could not deal with the pressures and stress in accounting though and by nannying I realized I really want to teach so just changed majors. Accountants are an interesting group though. I really wish she understood her own finances better, why is she paying for extravagant vacations and not for food? Where is the disconnect? I keep going back to it but, does she know what food costs lately? Prices have increased dramatically in the last 4 years.