Healthy on a Budget?

Frozen vegetables are about all I buy because they are super cheap and they last longer. A huge bag of frozen brocolli and frozen asparagus is about $2.50 here which will last me atleast 1 week eating 2 cups of steamed veggies a day. I also get frozen chicken breasts and fish filets. They aren't the cheapest thing but they last and are really convenient for quick low cal meals.

Good advice here ^^ Buy fresh when it's affordable and use frozen for the rest. Dried beans are probably the best bargain in the store and just happen to be very healthy and crock pot friendly.

Eat less meat! A block of tofu is <$2 and provides 4 servings with a high protein content.

I spend very little on groceries by omitting a lot of meat, and then I have lots of leftover cash for splurges like greek yogurt (also packed with protein) and real orange juice (limit myself to 1 c per day though).

Good luck!

Boneless skinless chicken breasts are a huge bargain most of the time. I buy them a LOT and it's around $2.00/lb, whihc is 4 servings at only 50 cents per. Brown rice is super inexpensive. Frozen veg like oither folks mentioned. I buy great value plain fat free yogurt and pour it into a coffee filter tucked into a strainer over a bowl. The result is thick and creamy like greek yogurt and a lot less expensive. I use it in place of sour cream. So-you can put some chicken in the crock pot. Use a rice cooker to make a batch of plain brown rice, which you can then keep in the fridge a portion out the right amount for a meal. If you do a lot of both things on Sunday, you can switch up the flavors by adding different seasonings and veg during the weeknights. Add a pkg of tortillas or tostada shells, plus a can of refried beans, some shredded lettuce, some of that chicken you cooked in the crock and a side of frozen veg you pop in the microwave and add salsa. Or add a partial pkg of taco seasoning and/or taco seasoning to the pre-cooked rice and leave the frozen veg plain. Buy or make some bbq sauce and add a little bit to some of the chicken from the crock. You can have 'pulled chicken" sandwiches with inexpensive buns. Add the last of the chicken back into a crock pot with some frozen veg and a cut up potato or some rice or noodles and you can make chicken soup.

Generally, you'll save the most money by buying stuff that you have to cook from scratch, but it's not too tough to plan to cook just one day a week and then heat up what you need during the week.

Check out bountiful baskets (dot) org. It's a produce co-op that allows me and the hubs to eat fresh fruit and veg that we wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. They are in quite a few places and if yours is one of them, it'll help you a lot.

With the price of food skyrocketing the last couple of years, it's harder and harder to eat healthy on a budget, but by managing your shopping and cooking it can still be done.

Barb

- eggs and produce are cheaper at the farmer's markets. i can get 2 dozen eggs for the same price i'd pay for 1 dozen at the grocery store. i also live near a chinatown so i can get fresh produce for ridiculously cheap. i just bought a 2 pounds of red potatoes for $1!
- i buy chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts. they are cheaper and have more flavor than breasts

What EVERYONE said thus far plus plenty of fresh produce. Simple fruit or veggie salads are quick to make especially a day ahead so you don't have to fix when you're actually hungry.
As for processed foods, do apples-to-apples (pun intended) cost comparison to fresh produce and unprocessed meats. 6 cents per oz is about $1 per pound. You may find that that bag of chips is a LOT more expensive than than the healthier options of unprocessed fruits/vegs/meats AND the latter is WAY more filling! (e.g. 2 apples vs. 1 oz of chips for roughly same cals)

*Edit to correct last sentence