Why is eating healthy so darn expensive?

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?

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!

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.

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!

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.

I always have to remind myself that investing in my health is important when I wince at the receipt at checkout. Poor health is far more expensive in the long run and eating habits is one of the biggest contributors to poor health in the US today. Being fit and in good health is a treasure that many, many people would pay anything for.

Shop around. Do you have a Trader Joe's around you? Their milk is way cheaper than the grocery store. Their cereals are cheaper too. Their snacks are healthier. I also have a Produce Junction near me that I shop at often for produce. I got a huge 5 lb bag of bananas for $2. 5 lb bag of baking potatoes were $1.50. I also bought apples, oranges, pineapple, salad and grapes. We stock up on frozen veggies when they go on sale as well. I think if you shop around and plan ahead, you will be ok. For instance, I have a rotisserie and will cook a whole Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster. I can get an 8lb chicken for about $10 on sale. But I can get 3-4 meals for us out of that one chicken.

A lot of fresh food can be frozen....I try to balance out the grocery list by splitting the trips.....there are quite a few supermarkets here so if veggies are on sale I stock up, clean em and freeze em. Meats too. I freeze them in portions too. Now that its getting warmer my husband and I decided to grow some veggies.....we are doing green beans, big boy tomatoes, some cherry tomatoes and we love fresh basil. If you are fortunate to have a yard or some outdoor space I would recommend it. Vine ripe tomatoes can be upwards of 2.50 a pound. Locally right now they are 1.77. BBQ season has our local grocery having good sales on meats, chicken, ribs, chopmeat....1.77 a pound....they call it a lucky seven sale. Walmart does do price matching but they always take my flyers.

another way to save on the healthy eating is to start your own urban garden. it takes work, and patience, but if you consider that buying some potting soil and a small variety of seeds cost less than $30, your return for those vegetables is huge. and just think, your own "organic" veggies sans the pestisides and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for them.

I make a LOT of things from scratch. Today I am making bean patties. I will not pay $3 a patty at whole foods when I can buy the beans and ALL the other ingredients for $3 and it feeds my family!
I know it seems like it is more, but which is costlier- good food or healthcare bills?

I find healthy eating is LOADS cheaper! You just can't get tons of pre-made foods. Sick with basic veggies, meats, grains, beans and you won't see your grocery bill soar unless you need to stock up on basics.

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.

You think NS is expensive, try coming over to PEI. Our prices are insane here. I'm astounded seeing what people pay for food, if anything cost close to what I see in this thread I'd spending half of what I do to feed two of us. Haha.

I make a LOT of things from scratch. Today I am making bean patties. I will not pay $3 a patty at whole foods when I can buy the beans and ALL the other ingredients for $3 and it feeds my family!
I know it seems like it is more, but which is costlier- good food or healthcare bills?

I made bean fritters the other day...used half the cooked results of a bag of dry beans, two cups of flour, and some salsa and an egg...made 20 fritters! They were probably cents per fritter and my BF has been eating them for a couple days. Canned beans are WAY TOO expensive.

Tell me about it! Went food shopping for my son, boyfriend and myself for the week today and spent double what I used to!!