Why is eating healthy so darn expensive?
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It is more expensive, but I try to control the expense by selecting store brands when cheaper, buying produce at our Sam's Club & buying fresh meats & fish in bulk. I also find meal planning helps minimize waste. We'll also be utilizing a few local farm stands this summer for produce, in our area most farm stand produce is a better value then even the club store prices & better quality.
Coupons are great for household products though. I don't find many for the food items I'm purchasing now, but last week I did get my yogurt for .96 a 4 pack because there were coupons stuck to them in the store.
ETA: We also buy frozen vegetables and fruits when possible since they tend to be a better value. We tend to stay away from canned fruits & veggies though, the taste is too far off from fresh for me.0 -
if you're in the US, here is a hint, the Dollar tree, yes "where everything is a dollar"
the last 3 weeks they have had bags of frozen blueberries and strawberry/rasp black berry blends for 1.00 , for a 12 oz bag,
and freezing doesn't hurt them ,
and for blueberries, well
my kids have COMPLETELY switched off popsicles etc for fresh frozen fruit as a snack ,
it works and they love it , and its fruit, so i dont have to limit them ,
if they manage to snack through a bag in one day its ok...
we also make yogurt pops, i bought the pop containers from the dollar tree, got 4 dozen of them , so i dont have to whip it up every day, and 1 bag frozen blueberries
1 32oz container yogurt,mixed together and frozen , equals a happy bunch of littles...
Dollar Tree in my area has no refrigerated or frozen foods. Just candy and snack items. In the north I think Sav a Lot and Aldi are pretty good for cheap deals. Where I live you have Kroger, Walmart Supercenter, or Market Baskets (which are locally owned food chains.) I have a family of four and we only buy healthy food and it costs at least $800 per month--and it gets pretty skimpy around here. When we bought all the junk, we spent a lot less and shopped a lot less often. There are NO coupons to buy fresh veggies and fruit or lean meat.0 -
some tips i have learned (as i use the same budget for healthy eating that i did before):
-go frozen for veggies. or farmers markets. if you can do a farmers market buy as much as you can store and process and freeze it. a food sealer works good for this. we bought another freezer for this purpose alone. i just cook or blanch my veggies then freeze in serving size bags.
-buy fruit on sale. so this week you may eat watermelon and next week apples. bananas are always inexpensive and easy to transport.
-bread on sale? buy and freeze.
-buy meat in bulk and then repackage and freeze in smaller servings.
-dried beans can be your new best friend.
-most yogurts can be bought on sale or with a coupon. or better yet made yourself for even cheaper.
-you can add veggies (this is where frozen comes in handy) to a lot of meals to bulk them up so you have to use less of your other ingredients.
-love fish. but frozen tastes just as good as the stuff from the seafood counter and is a lot cheaper. where i buy my fish it comes in individually wrapped fillets and i get 5 of them (2 lbs) for 3.50. where to buy it fresh i would be paying almost 8 a pound. which is way more convient where i can just pull out how many fillets i need for a meal from my freezer no planning on when i can go to the store and get the fish and make sure i use it right away.
- check out the discount stores around you. the ones where you have to buy your own bags and they don't bag things for you kind of stores. i have hit the jackpot on fresh produce and frozen fish at these kind of stores.0 -
You'r dollar tree has fruits? That's awesome. I wish ours didif you're in the US, here is a hint, the Dollar tree, yes "where everything is a dollar"
the last 3 weeks they have had bags of frozen blueberries and strawberry/rasp black berry blends for 1.00 , for a 12 oz bag,
and freezing doesn't hurt them ,
and for blueberries, well
my kids have COMPLETELY switched off popsicles etc for fresh frozen fruit as a snack ,
it works and they love it , and its fruit, so i dont have to limit them ,
if they manage to snack through a bag in one day its ok...
we also make yogurt pops, i bought the pop containers from the dollar tree, got 4 dozen of them , so i dont have to whip it up every day, and 1 bag frozen blueberries
1 32oz container yogurt,mixed together and frozen , equals a happy bunch of littles...0 -
I have kroger stores by me, and there is always organic food on sale. I also go to a meat market by my house, and they have very good prices on meat. 5lb's of fresh chicken breast is around 11$, lean ground turkey is $2.79 a lb. So it may be a good idea to check around at local meat markets, you never know what kind of prices they might have.0
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Great ideas! Thank you![
quote]
some tips i have learned (as i use the same budget for healthy eating that i did before):
-go frozen for veggies. or farmers markets. if you can do a farmers market buy as much as you can store and process and freeze it. a food sealer works good for this. we bought another freezer for this purpose alone. i just cook or blanch my veggies then freeze in serving size bags.
-buy fruit on sale. so this week you may eat watermelon and next week apples. bananas are always inexpensive and easy to transport.
-bread on sale? buy and freeze.
-buy meat in bulk and then repackage and freeze in smaller servings.
-dried beans can be your new best friend.
-most yogurts can be bought on sale or with a coupon. or better yet made yourself for even cheaper.
-you can add veggies (this is where frozen comes in handy) to a lot of meals to bulk them up so you have to use less of your other ingredients.
-love fish. but frozen tastes just as good as the stuff from the seafood counter and is a lot cheaper. where i buy my fish it comes in individually wrapped fillets and i get 5 of them (2 lbs) for 3.50. where to buy it fresh i would be paying almost 8 a pound. which is way more convient where i can just pull out how many fillets i need for a meal from my freezer no planning on when i can go to the store and get the fish and make sure i use it right away.
- check out the discount stores around you. the ones where you have to buy your own bags and they don't bag things for you kind of stores. i have hit the jackpot on fresh produce and frozen fish at these kind of stores.
[/quote]0 -
I agree totally!! I tend to buy bulk and freeze things. When I am lower on cash I buy a bunch of canned beans/cheap package of ground chicken/turkey and make a good batch of chili, which i portion out and freeze as well. You can do this with soups and casseroles as well. Plus, it saves time in the long run as well!
Do you have a local veggie market? I have a little fruit/veggie store down the road and find it waayyyyy cheaper than the actual grocery store!
Good luck0 -
[/quote]Great ideas! Thank you![
quote]
some tips i have learned (as i use the same budget for healthy eating that i did before):
-go frozen for veggies. or farmers markets. if you can do a farmers market buy as much as you can store and process and freeze it. a food sealer works good for this. we bought another freezer for this purpose alone. i just cook or blanch my veggies then freeze in serving size bags.
-buy fruit on sale. so this week you may eat watermelon and next week apples. bananas are always inexpensive and easy to transport.
-bread on sale? buy and freeze.
-buy meat in bulk and then repackage and freeze in smaller servings.
-dried beans can be your new best friend.
-most yogurts can be bought on sale or with a coupon. or better yet made yourself for even cheaper.
-you can add veggies (this is where frozen comes in handy) to a lot of meals to bulk them up so you have to use less of your other ingredients.
-love fish. but frozen tastes just as good as the stuff from the seafood counter and is a lot cheaper. where i buy my fish it comes in individually wrapped fillets and i get 5 of them (2 lbs) for 3.50. where to buy it fresh i would be paying almost 8 a pound. which is way more convient where i can just pull out how many fillets i need for a meal from my freezer no planning on when i can go to the store and get the fish and make sure i use it right away.
- check out the discount stores around you. the ones where you have to buy your own bags and they don't bag things for you kind of stores. i have hit the jackpot on fresh produce and frozen fish at these kind of stores.
You got it down! Take a calculator with you too so you now actually how much your spending. Go from store to store but try to do your shopping all at once, the more you go to the store to pick something up the more you'll buy.0 -
Here it is very expensive to eat healthy( Nova Scotia) $8 for a bag of milk , close to that for cheese. For three of us to eat for two weeks we are looking at about $150 to $170 a week I am really the only one who eats healthy here and I can be a bit of a food Nazi here because it is so expensive I try to make sure everyone is eating portion sizes and not sitting there eating the entire box of cereal all at once and also my hubbys side of the family has really bad food issues, most of them are obese and have health issues related to their diet and it will be over my dead body before I allow my daughter to be like that to, my moms side is the polar opposite where they will not eat most processed food and my mom will not eat sugar at all. I am trying to teach my daughter to be in the middle and it is such a fight. My hubby will eat out of boredom and will polish off entire box's or bags of food in a sitting.0
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I'm feeding myself, husband and my daughter. We spend between 150-200$ every 2 weeks. My daughter is 17months and VERY picky, so I'm still having to buy some of the baby food. She's tired eating a lot of things but isn't ready to take to it yet. My husband doesn't eat healthy so theres all ranges of food on my list. Yes it al depends on where you live that plays a HUGE part in it. It takes time and pratice to get your grocgery bill down. Take advice given here and google shopping on a budget to get more tips! I'm looking for ways to spend less right now. I'm a stay at home mom so having 1 income is really hard.0
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I'm feeding myself, husband and my daughter. We spend between 150-200$ every 2 weeks. My daughter is 17months and VERY picky, so I'm still having to buy some of the baby food. She's tired eating a lot of things but isn't ready to take to it yet. My husband doesn't eat healthy so theres all ranges of food on my list. Yes it al depends on where you live that plays a HUGE part in it. It takes time and pratice to get your grocgery bill down. Take advice given here and google shopping on a budget to get more tips! I'm looking for ways to spend less right now. I'm a stay at home mom so having 1 income is really hard.
you spend that much on 2 adults?0 -
I'm feeding myself, husband and my daughter. We spend between 150-200$ every 2 weeks. My daughter is 17months and VERY picky, so I'm still having to buy some of the baby food. She's tired eating a lot of things but isn't ready to take to it yet. My husband doesn't eat healthy so theres all ranges of food on my list. Yes it al depends on where you live that plays a HUGE part in it. It takes time and pratice to get your grocgery bill down. Take advice given here and google shopping on a budget to get more tips! I'm looking for ways to spend less right now. I'm a stay at home mom so having 1 income is really hard.
you spend that much on 2 adults?
No thats just total. My daughter does eat chicken, pasta and hamburger and some other things I eat, just not the full force. My husband eats ALOT, he doesn't eat just a serving so we go through food a little more. He will eat 3-4 scramble eggs, 2 handfuls of hashbrowns, 4 toast and ketchup for breakfast and hes skinny as a rail.
And my daughter is like her father, eats eats eats but doesn't weight much so a lot money goes into her as well.0 -
Here's some food for thought...pun intended...lol.
The cost of fresh food is invariably less expensive than processed food when compared pound for pound. For example....compare the price of a pound of potatoes to the cost of a pound of potato chips. There's a big difference!0 -
Try buying frozen veggies and fruits, oats, whole grain pasta, things like that. Healthy foods go on sale just like other foods do, just gotta look through the papers. Also, Publix has a lot of Buy One Get One sales, and Aldi is super cheap if you have one in the area
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I spend ~$50 a week on myself only, and eat about 3500 calories of clean food daily.
it's absolutely doable. you just have to be smart about it. I buy bone-in chicken which is way cheaper. I buy things in bulk, cook in bulk, and refrigerate/freeze. I go to Trader Joe's.
Once I cut out most processed stuff, I started saving a ton of money.0 -
What I've been able to find for the Hoover Dam says ~$50 million in the 1930's, today that's roughly $690 million. The entire Boulder Canyon Project cost around $165 million, which included the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam has 17 hydro electric generators, capable of generating 2,074MW, which is quite large. The cost of a hydroelectric dam will be dependent on the river it crosses, the storage lake (how big does it need to be, is it man made, or already present, etc.), and how big it will be (how much electricity can it generate), and a host of other factors. I know of a 45MW (enough to power a small town, say 20,000 people) that cost $7.3 million in the 1930's.
Eating healthy doesn't even compare to dam expensive.0 -
TRUE!!!
I did raw vegan for a week - to try it and as a detox - and spent $150 for ONE PERSON for the week. Granted, I shopped at Whole Foods and picked things I liked (lots of berries, which are expensive), but I know how you feel.
Do you have a local co-op where you could get fresh fruits & veggies? Here's one in Houston as an example: http://www.rawfullyorganic.com/. If not, frozen is your friend... and Costco has some great organic produce, and fish in bulk that you can portion out and freeze.
Good luck!0 -
While my food items do cost more (meat, eggs, veggies) I actually save 15-20% because I eat so much less than I used to. However, if I were eating high carb/low fat and needed to "fill up" with gigantic salads and snack all the time to fend off hunger, I would likely be spending MORE than before I changed my lifestyle.0
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I know how you feel! Grocery prices have risen so much over the past year, especially produce and fish. I just look through all the grocery flyers I get in the mail, and see who is having the best deals on the things I need, and if I have to, I go to 3 seperate stores (all within 3 miles of me) through the week and buy different items at different places.
I don't know where you live, but Aldis has good prices every week on wild salmon (frozen filets...very good), limited but good priced produce and chicken breasts.
There are always such good deals on chicken breasts (boneless), usually at $1.99 lb. Some say bone in chicken is cheaper, some is, but I find that the leanest cut (the breast) bought boneless is the best value. Thighs are full of inner meat fat that needs to be cut out, plus the skin and bone weight make them not really such a good deal after all. Legs are always cheap, if you like them, you can just take the skin off after cooking (if you do it before, the meat can dry out). Beans are very cheap, buy the dried variety and you can make a huge pot of bean soup (lentil, pea, navy) or multiple bean salad (which is so good as a summer lunch) for pennies on the dollar.
Coupons are always good, but you are right, junk food is always so much cheaper. So, I just cut corners on other things I buy at non grocery stores to help deflect the cost of high priced "healthy" grocery items.0 -
It really isn't once you adapt to it and start cutting out buying certain foods. For example. The average bag of chips is $3-4. A canteloupe is $2-3. If you cut up the canteloupe into 1 cup servings, you probably get the same number of servings as a bag of chips.0
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