Healthy Foods are EXPENSIVE!

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MirandaAnn
MirandaAnn Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
Well, for me anyways. All healthy foods I've seen are really expensive and I can't afford them. Anyone know any inexpensive food to buy that won't break the bank?

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  • sazziecee
    sazziecee Posts: 143
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    Fruit and Vegetables are cheap if bought in season and veggies are often also cheaper if frozen or tinned

    Tinned beans are quite inexpensive, low fat, high protein and filling!

    Bulk buy your starches such as pasta and rice so the price per kilo comes down, etc etc

    Turkey is often cheaper than chicken but tastes pretty much the same in your curries etc.

    Oh and go to the end of day clearance at your supermarket for bargains on fresh meat etc and freeze them
  • Michellerw1
    Michellerw1 Posts: 367
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    I would steer clear of packaged healthy foods. They are expensive and alot of time you pay for markteing. Fruit and veggies that are in season are always the cheapest. Dried beans, oatmeal (plain, traditional stuff), and eggs are all inexpensive and healthy. I usually buy a bag of frozen chicken breats, beans and rice, and lots of fruits and veggies when I shop, as I can make alot from these items.
  • shell1205
    shell1205 Posts: 138
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    I agree!! I went grocery shopping yesterday (2 adults, and a 19 yr old boy and 16 yr old girl) and spent around $330 for 2 weeks...

    My suggestion? Generic, Generic, Generic!!! I get the Great Value brand at Walmart whenever I can, and 98% of the time, it tastes exactly the same as name brand...
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    The way I see it, I am paying to have good health now rather than needing loads of medication to treat future illness. Unfortunately, cheap calories are heavily subsidized, making good, unprocessed whole foods seem incredibly expensive. And we actually spend a far smaller portion of our incomes now on food than we did a few decades ago so we're pretty spoiled into wanting food to be cheap.

    But for your current question. Buying actual food and cooking at home is going to be cheaper (and probably healthier) than anything that has been made more convenient for you. Get acquainted with the crockpot as your new kitchen helper because beans are a great, cheap, healthy form of calories. Brown rice and lentils are great, too. Frozen veggies can be less expensive than fresh and as good (if not quite as pleasing from the texture-standpoint, at least for me). Check out your local farmer's markets and buy your fruits and vegetables in season and locally grown for the best prices.
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/

    This is a great resource.

    But, here are some ideas:

    Whole chickens. (I can get three meals for two people out of one chicken) brown rice. dried beans. fruits and vegetables from the farmer's market or a specialty produce market. The website above also has a list of fruits and vegetables that are in season, and in season is cheaper. Have a "meatless" day in which you eat vegetarian. Think of nutritional bang for your buck..a box of processed frankenfood may be cheaper, but it is so devoid of nutrients that it isn't really a bargain.

    Long story short, IMHO, you have to invest time to save money. I have a blitz cooking day (mine is usually Sunday afternoon during which I prepare meals and snacks for the next four or five days.

    I look at it this way: I spend all the money I used to spend on fourteen prescriptions a day on my food. Current daily prescription count: zero.

    HTH a little.:flowerforyou:
  • MirandaAnn
    MirandaAnn Posts: 5
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    Thanks guys. This really helps me out with 3 of us in the house trying to find jobs and one on disability.
  • porkchopz
    porkchopz Posts: 77 Member
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    The way I see it, I am paying to have good health now rather than needing loads of medication to treat future illness. .

    I agree with this completely. Healthy, whole, real foods are an investment in your current and future health.
  • Nina74
    Nina74 Posts: 470 Member
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    Check if you have a Trader Joe's near you. They have tons of healthy foods for CHEAP (especially their fruits & nuts)
  • leavinglasvegas
    leavinglasvegas Posts: 1,495
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    Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store and you'll be fine. Those are all the real foods anyways. Buy brown rice in bulk.

    "Healthy" packaged food does not exist. Low-cal/low-fat versions of junk foods are no healthier either.

    Healthy = Whole foods. Whole foods are cheaper, you can even grow them yourself and then they are free.
  • megamom
    megamom Posts: 920 Member
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    Bags of beans are cheap and can be made into a variety of things that taste great. Freeze freeze freeze if you have a freezer. Suck up to the neighbor with big garden:laugh:
  • vbennett0630
    vbennett0630 Posts: 2 Member
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    boxes of tilapia! i just had 8 oz of tilapia for dinner with veggies and the tilapia was 40g of protein!! i say, yay for tilapia! :) i'm new at all of this, but i agree also that to prevent illness and disease in the future, we may need to invest a little now...and what better investment than in ourselves! also, if you think about all the money we've wasted on fad diets, pills and otherwise, it makes it a little easier to justify the money spent on healthy food.
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
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    healthy food is absolutely not expensive; marketers have trained you to think that way. i'm documenting the costs of eating healthily at my blog http://scratch.kerimarion.com
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
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    I have a blitz cooking day (mine is usually Sunday afternoon during which I prepare meals and snacks for the next four or five days.

    i have a similar thing that i do, but it depends on the weather in the summer. i do all my baking on cool days and prepare for the coming week.

    i prep things as i get them, store them appropriately and get veggies once a week and sporadically from the garden when necessary or available.
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    healthy food is absolutely not expensive; marketers have trained you to think that way. i'm documenting the costs of eating healthily at my blog http://scratch.kerimarion.com

    BRILLIANT! I've thought of doing the same thing sometimes. The expense typically comes in the form of time. You have to be willing to buy ingredients, not ready-to-go, convenience foods and the costs become a lot more reasonable. I also have a CSA for veggies. Sure, still more expensive than Ramen and Coke or McDonalds for every meal, you will quickly feel pretty terrible on the Ramen & Coke Diet. :happy:
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
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    healthy food is absolutely not expensive; marketers have trained you to think that way. i'm documenting the costs of eating healthily at my blog http://scratch.kerimarion.com

    BRILLIANT! I've thought of doing the same thing sometimes. The expense typically comes in the form of time. You have to be willing to buy ingredients, not ready-to-go, convenience foods and the costs become a lot more reasonable. I also have a CSA for veggies. Sure, still more expensive than Ramen and Coke or McDonalds for every meal, you will quickly feel pretty terrible on the Ramen & Coke Diet. :happy:

    i just wrote a full article about this here: http://www.justmeans.com/Sustainable-Food-Is-Affordable/20371.html

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