Eating healthy costs

You just have to plan.

Eg. A whole free range chicken 1.5-2 kg will cost you circa £8. Last night we had roast chicken with brown rice and steamed veg, then strip the carcass, leave it in the slow cooker overnight, and tonight I will make chicken soup with the stock and leftover meat, which will yeild enough for mine and my husband's lunch tomorrow too. So three meals from one chicken. You could probably make it go further still but my husband has a v physical job and eats big portions!

Half a kilo of lean mince (circa £5 for decent quality from a butcher or farm shop) will do a huge chilli or bolognese which you can freeze for another meal, or a smaller batch and say burgers on another night.

Roast pork at the weekend, then stir fry another night with leftover meat and lots of veg.

With a couple of tins of crab meat (£1.80 approx) you can make delicious crab cakes and serve with noodle salad.

If you're happy to eat less meat/fish, then bulk up your meals with beans and pulses etc.

I buy all fruit, veg, tins, packets, dairy etc from the supermarket and spend about £50-60 a week, then we spend another £20 or so at the farm shop on meat or fish. So £80 a week for breakfast, packed lunch and dinner for two adults and one child, usually including a roast dinner with family at the weeked. That's less than £4 per day per person. It took us a while to get the routine down so that we don't waste food and use everything we buy, but when you compare that to how you can easily spend £5 a day on a sandwich and drink, or £40 on a meal out for two, we've made big savings. The most effective saving has been shopping at the buther/farm shop for meat. I think it's easy to be sucked in by offers at the supermarket, but it's often false economy, plus I like to know where my meat comes from. We eat really well too, you could easily trim it down a lot further if you're on a very tight budget.

But don't be fooled into thinking it's cheaper to eat crap, because it's not true. It's not cheaper, just easier sometimes.

Although I can maintain my diet pretty well atm, I have been noticing that eating healthy comes with a very heavy price tag here in England. Prices of good food is nearly trough the roof whilst junk food is dirt cheap... And they wonder why the UK is having so many people who struggle with obesity!

i'm in england an i think this is rot.
if you're willing to cook from scratch then you can live healthy and cheap.
a lot of the junk looks more expensive than what i'm eating.

the exception seems to be bread.

I'm uk based.

I buy my meat from the butchers - this weekend I got 14 chicken breasts for £20 which I was really pleased with. You can grab a bargain on fruit and veg on market stalls with the "£1 a bowl" option. I also but cheap beef cuts and make my own mice / burgers / meatballs.

The only things I really get is household stuff from the super market and sometimes the odd bit of shopping. I can easily feed myself and my husband on £50.

I also get tesco value porridge oats 75p a kilo

Is that £50 a week or month?

£50 a week - on food only

I think it all comes down to..you get what you pay for. Crap food is cheaper. It's cheaper to make, has tons of fillers, sugars, chemicals. Healthy food, mainly organics may cost more, but it's your body, and you have to treat it right. But you can still find the items you need to create a well balanced, healthy meal in places like your local grocer, Wal-Mart etc. Avoid processed meals, go for lean meats, chicken, fish. Pick out a bunch of fresh veggies, salads. There are tons of resources and websites on how to make home made dressings, sauces out of natural products without having to buy the processed ones. There are even tons of recipes on how to make the fattening dishes we love, lighter and healthier. You can eat better and healthier within a budget, it may require a little more effort but it can be done. Good luck to you

Ramen noodles are dirt cheap but unhealthy. Can you name something healthy that can feed you as much as ramen for the same price? I can't think of anything so if anyone knows anything please tell me! (Other than dried beans!)

A bag of barley is less than £1 here - you could make a meat and vegetable stew with barley for an entire family for under £5.

I'm uk based.

I buy my meat from the butchers - this weekend I got 14 chicken breasts for £20 which I was really pleased with. You can grab a bargain on fruit and veg on market stalls with the "£1 a bowl" option. I also but cheap beef cuts and make my own mice / burgers / meatballs.

The only things I really get is household stuff from the super market and sometimes the odd bit of shopping. I can easily feed myself and my husband on £50.

I also get tesco value porridge oats 75p a kilo

Is that £50 a week or month?

£50 a week - on food only

wow thats loads

shop at markets. i can normally get a weeks worth of fruit and veg for a tenner
mind you thats only for one person but i eat ALOT of fruit and veg! its like 90% of my diet

I have found this year in particular the price of fresh produce has rocketed in the UK. Potato's have almost doubled in price along with many many other things. The poor summer and terrible flooding meant as a country the UK has not produced as much as usual this year so we are paying a hiked up price. Buying junk food i.e frozen chicken nuggets and chips is actually cheaper then buying all fresh produce tho eating take outs cannot even compare as its way more expensive. Personally i would rather pay the higher price and have chosen to shop about at markets as you would be AMAZED how much you can save over going to a supermarket.

You can't put a price on your health but yes i understand your point and i agree with you that its a bit more expensive but to me its a small price to pay Good luck on your journey xx

Ramen noodles are dirt cheap but unhealthy. Can you name something healthy that can feed you as much as ramen for the same price? I can't think of anything so if anyone knows anything please tell me! (Other than dried beans!)

What's wrong with dried beans? I feed a family of three (myself and two big eaters) on dried beans and brown rice or whole grain flour, all from the bulk section. We augment with different spices, vegetables, and sometimes tofu or cheese, depending on the meal. We eat fabulously and on the cheap, even with everything coming from Whole Foods!

Because so much global cuisine uses beans and rice as a base, we have a pretty exciting diet; with a few basic cooking skills, it's like we eat at a restaurant every night: Thai one night, Mexican the next, Afghan after that. Dishes from Turkey, Morocco, the Caribbean, Ethiopia, India, China, and South Africa are all easy to make with just a few combinations!

Rahmen is also very convenient. Pour hot water on it, maybe add some vegetables, eat. I lived on it in college. Later, I saw how much fat and sodium had and stopped eating it.

I don't eat it anymore, but I love cheap rahmen.:blushing:

Eating healthy is not expensive because it benefits your health while processed food such as chips do not benefit you, instead they slowly burden your body. So what's more expensive? It would be the processed food. Think of all the medical bills you won't have to pay if you ate healthy and stayed active.

Eating healthy is not expensive because it benefits your health while processed food such as chips do not benefit you, instead they slowly burden your body. So what's more expensive? It would be the processed food. Think of all the medical bills you won't have to pay if you ate healthy and stayed active.

We get free health care in the UK! Well, our taxes pay for the NHS, but it's free at point of service. However, I agree that unhealthy food will not benefit you at all. I feel horrible if I eat something unhealthy.

I'm in the US and I agree that it is costlier to buy all healthy things than to get less healthier and pre-packaged food. For example, ground beef is cheaper than ground turkey. Pasta is cheap, but not healthy. If I substitute quinoa for pasta, it does cost more. Plus vegetables. I buy frozen broccoli florets a lot ($1.38/bag) because we love broccoli. I use 1-4 bags when I cook depending on what I'm cooking and how much leftovers I want to end up with. Ramen noodles are dirt cheap but unhealthy. Can you name something healthy that can feed you as much as ramen for the same price? I can't think of anything so if anyone knows anything please tell me! (Other than dried beans!)

Your dinner (for 4) = 2 pkg ramen style noodles + 2 bags broccoli. I don't know what they cost there because I couldn't tell where you live by your profile. Here they are about $.40 / pkg. Total cost for 1 meal @ $4.00 ( rounding to account for extras & drinks etc.) Still $20 for 5 nights dinner assuming you eat exactly the same thing.

1 dozen eggs $2.00
1 kg potatoes $2.09 (roughly 2.2 lbs = 8-10 potatoes)
5 lb flour $3.00
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@ $7

With those 3 ingredients you can make:
-perogies
-spaghetti, lasagne noodles, any other type of pasta you want
-gnocchi
-eggs of every type for dinner snacks etc..
-mashed potato, hash browns, baked, roasted..etc..

You can feed a family of 4 dinner very easily for a week on 20$ and have leftovers to spare for lunches too. The challenge is actually cooking at home and not using packaged food. Pasta is NOT expensive at all if you take the time to make it at home. You don't need anything special at all .. 1/2 cup flour + 1 egg will give you enough dough for a huge portion. Just roll it out flat with a rolling pin, fold it like a jelly roll, cut into strips and you have spaghetti. You can invest in a pasta machine that will do the rolling and cutting for you for about 40$ but I made pasta by hand for years before I ever got one.

Perogies are just mashed potato, flour and egg. Fill with more potato, maybe some onion or bacon or whatever you have on hand.

Food is not expensive but most people do not want to take the time to make it. If you take one day on the weekend and cook your meals then freeze them for the week you can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year. Yes it takes some time - this is why 'convenience foods' are so popular and expensive! But it isn't the food that costs..its the TIME that most people do not want to take to make it.

I wasn't meaning that I put ramen and broccoli together. I was just using ramen as an example of something that is dirt cheap. When we were hardcore budgeting and eating ramen, I was only buying probably 2 bags of broccoli a week and adding it to the pasta roni stuff. Now that we are eating healthier I am buying more broccoli and either mixing it into the recipes or using it as a side on its own.
Pasta isn't very healthy...it is all carbohydrate. Same thing with the potato products you mentioned. To me, that's falling back into our bad eating habits. I am trying to use more (healthier) vegetables and lean protein, not pasta and potatoes. And eggs are high in cholesterol...since my boyfriend is already on a medication for that I'd prefer not to worsen the problem by feeding him eggs. Believe me, he'd love to eat tons of eggs, and we would both love to eat tons of pasta.....that's why we're so overweight!

For those of you who mentioned cornmeal and barley, thank you for your suggestions as well.

But if you want those burgers to be healthy you have to pay more for leaner hamburger, better buns and good veggies! Lean hamburger in Illinois is about $6.00 lb.

On the east coast 93/7 Ground Beef is around $3.50/lb

I live on the east coast and it's nearly $6.50/lb where I live/

I found that buying bags of frozen veg has saved me money plus you don't have to worry about it's freshness before you cook, handy when you are not able to just pop out to the shops every other day. I do my main shop at asda getting it delivered every week for frozen/store cupboard stuff then usually pop to Sainsburys (which is my closest and gets me my exercise) to stock up on meat usually on their 3 for £10 offer. Fromt this I usually get a double pack of bacon, a ham joint which I boil for soup then use for sandwiches and a pack of casserole steak or a whole chicken. Although I like my 'brands' I also compare with the store's own and find that as well as being cheaper, they're sometimes better for you, for example I bought some yoghurts for my kids and Sainsbury's basics had far less sugar and other crap in them than the big brands.

My main expense comes from buying fruit, it is ridiculously expensive. I try and shop at the market, but its not always possible to get there, and with 4 of us to feed/cater for, I could easily spend best part of my bill on this stuff, especially with my 6yr old who would eat it morning, noon and night.

Can't wait to spend a live in the states over the summer, just to get a comparison of how cheap it is to live

Did you know that there are certain vegetables that you can regrow after you've used the majority of the veg? Celery, garlic, onion, ginger and potatoes are some of them...Google this subject and you will get an amazing amount of information on how to regrow these items. It might help with the cost of being able to add nutritious items to the table. (Fresh ginger and fresh garlic are through the roof everywhere. So costly!)
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