cutting cost of healthy food

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Define healthy food. :huh: Are you shopping for salmon or chicken? Dried beans or gourmet french green beans? Organic everything or... The point I'm making is that there are a lot of healthy foods out there as well as unhealthy ones. :grumble: Some are always more expensive, like fresh Alaskan Salmon. Part of your challenge is to find good places to shop, and part of your challenge is to make choices that will fit into your budget. There is a real learning curve and you're up to the task. We'd been buying frozen chicken breasts at Costco. Then we read the package and discovered they've been injected with salt water. :noway: They do have frozen packaged chicken without the salt water injections, but it costs more. Now we're buying fresh chicken at the grocers when it is on sale and freezing it ourselves. I hope you'll learn to enjoy "the hunt" for nutritious food because it is a lifelong project.:flowerforyou: Here are some ideas: discount stores, farm stores, farmer's markets in the city, sales... Always read labels. Good luck.:flowerforyou:

I agree with the suggestion of Aldi. Their produce is very good quality and probably 30-50% less than even Walmart.

Buy in bulk whenever there are deals and freeze some. For example, in-season fruit like berries will often be on sale at some places and you can buy a few boxes and then freeze what you don't need right away. Same with meat or fish. Buy frozen fruits and veggies when possible.

Shopping at places like Target or Walmart for certain things like yogurt might be a good idea. Or how about Sam's Club or Costco? I like to buy my Greek yogurt in the larger containers which are multiple servings. Also I always get the plain version and add my own fruit or honey. Usually cheaper and those containers usually say they are 2 servings but I typically manage to get 4-5 servings out of each one. Avoid buying pre-packaged meals and just cook everything from scratch too - that'll save you a lot of money in the long run. Buy plain oatmeal in the big old fashioned paper containers, not the smaller individual-sized bags.

Well, a lot of people say healthy food is not expensive. This annoys me to no end. I used to spend 60 bucks on an OVERFLOWING shopping cart. 60 bucks for 40lbs of pasta, 10 jars of pasta sauce, 5 boxes of high sugar cereal, 5lbs of high fat ground beef, 3 bags of frozen fried chicken (tyson chicken strips), 2 gallons of milk, and some chocolate cake. I am a very good bargain hunter but there are hardly ever any good coupons for healthy thing, or good deals at all. 60 bucks barely buys any healthy stuff.

Anyway, buy frozen if possible. Berries are always going to be expensive, even when in season.

1. Eat what is in season - anything out of season you're paying for production costs (poly tunnels, extra water etc.)
2. Buy local if possible - otherwise you're paying for transport and storage.
3. Buy special offers ONLY if you can use (or freeze) the whole lot before it goes off - if you buy 3 cabbages but know you only want one, cook the other two and then freeze.
4. Bulk out meat dishes with pulses and beans - a good cassoulet can have only a few sausages and a bit of bacon, but still be tasty because the meat will flavour the rest.
5. Use a slow cooker - a cheaper cut of meat (like silverside) will come out beautifully tender and cost a lot less than a rib roast.
6. Look for things which are marked down because they;re close to their use-by date, and either make soup or cook and freeze them if you can't use them immediately. But other than exception of meat and dairy (with a "use by" date) products such as fruit and veg with a "best before" can be safely stored in the fridge and eaten after a few days - just don't get anything obviously mouldy/deteriorating and you can easily keep it a couple of days.

ETA - why buy 40lbs of pasta at a time? Dried pasta is just as good as fresh and keeps for ages, but I rarely have more than 6 kg (12lb) at a time in my larder, and even then Hubs thinks I'm stockpiling.

I alternate between Kroger and Publix, I find that Kroger actually has a better selection and price for store brand organic. I use southernsavers.com to figure out what's on sale at each store (she also does sales for Aldi, Walmart and Target), and based on the weekly sales, I decide which or both stores I'll go to. I buy whatever fruit and veggies are on sale that week to eat, I buy and freeze meat when it's on sale and I stock up on nonperishable healthy food when it's on sale. Now that it's spring I'll also hit the local farmer's market for produce.

Many great suggestions here. For the cheapest frozen fruits I go to Dollar Tree. I get berries, peaches, mango and pineapple for $1/pkg. WAY cheaper than same at any grocery store. This allows me to make excellent smoothies super cheap. For fresh produce, buy in season and it will always be cheaper (and better for the planet). As a previous poster said "enjoy the hunt"

If in your area, Bountiful Baskets though I know that other areas have their own produce coops. I spent $16.50 this morning and got:

6 peppers
4 tomatoes
4 avocados
2 heads of lettuce
1 bunch of celery
3 bunches broccoli
6 bananas
2 mangos
1 honeydew melon
6 oranges
2 grapefruit
2 clamshells of blackberries

I never buy produce from the grocery anymore and it's been a huge savings for the pocketbook.