What worked for me is probably the answer for you!

Just curious how you can afford organic fruits and veggies and grass-fed beef on food stamps. I don't buy processed food, junk food, prepared food, whatever you call it and I rarely eat out. I also have a decent food budget for 1 person ($300/month) but even I can't afford grass-fed beef and all-organic.

We have a strict budget of $105 a week which is $420 a month, as you will see I said most of our food is the best quality where we can get it, I've learned to buy Ralph's or Trader Joe's meat when it's on clearance and prepare it that same night for dinner. We shop a lot more often about every two or three days in small amounts vs the old weigh every two weeks in large bulk. We have learned to scale back in the meat/dairy product all together and don't consume nearly that much of either anymore we stick to plant based proteins, seeds and beans. We only buy organic for the dirty dozen which you can read about here- http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214 and we grow many seasonal fruits and veggies ourselves in pots on our apartment porch my son loves it, it teaches him to be responsible and about nature, I love it because it's cheap!! We eat seasonally and we menu plan our foods. We also learned to utilize what's in our cupboard or fridge to eliminate waste and work with whats on sale or clearance for the days meals. Other than that we also buy in bulk when we can and we buy a lot of our fruits/veggies frozen (the ones we use in smoothies or to cook with like spinach I would but in a stir fry). Anyone who is interested can check out this site, she did an experiment with her family, eating clean and living off an amount per week that is less then food stamps- http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/100-days-on-a-budget/

I also want to point out that we don't buy a lot of the convenience foods that other households buy, we make our own condiments (like ranch, bbq sauce, salad dressings, humus), soups, lunches etc. so that actually saves us a lot of $ you would be surprised how much a lunch able cost is vs. breaking up the cost of my sons homemade "mom-able" I make him

Thanks so much for asking because it is one of my biggest passions to get people who are low income to realize that they don't have to settle for crap and can eat well with the right knowledge and a whole lot of effort and patience (it was def. trial and error for us)

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Yep. That's all that really needs to be said.

That was my main point lol Eat whole REAL food that has nutritional value and be aware of what your putting in your body, educate yourself and take control thats it didn't realize this post would get soooo off subject and misunderstood yikes :noway:

Wicked post, thank you for sharing! I've found that eating (mostly) clean and becoming passionate about vegetables, and fruit, and nuts, etc. has made my whole life better overall. Weight loss is happening but also mental clarity, and cheerfulness, and the ability to combat some long-standing addictions. It's so much more beneficial to embrace things than to deny things, at least in my case. Haven't seen the documentary but will check it out tonight. Thanks again.

Thank you! and yes exactly about not only weight loss but over all health, I always had extreme acne and since starting this way of eating in december I dont even wear make up anymore! its great and I feel so much better thank you so much for your positive feed back my intention for this post was to expose people to something possibly new and possibly encourage someone to make changes or help them through a difficult time.