Health and Money Diet

Maybe buying fresh fruits/veggies and making smoothies with them???

Canned veggies are usually less expensive (in my experience) than their fresh counterparts, but they do have a lot of sodium, so make sure to rinse them before you eat them if you go that route. Beans and lentils are a great source of fiber and protein (pair beans and rice to make sure you're getting all the essential amino acids, because beans themselves aren't complete proteins), and they're cheap (even more so if you buy the dried ones and take the extra time to throw 'em in a pot of water before you go to bed so they're ready to cook). I also love carrots because they're cheap--maybe you could try looking for recipes used to "hide" veggies in food, because those usually involve cooking them so they're not crunchy or rough. Pasta sauce and veggie soup are my two ways to use almost any vegetable, and they both involve cooking everything down until it's soft.

Great job for going ahead with this even on a restricted budget.

I would stick to the cheaper veggies, like broccoli and carrots rather than bell peppers.

And only drink water and skim milk so you don't spend any money on low cal drinks or diet sodas.

I find that alot of "diet" snacks (the 100 cal packages) are expensive too. But apples are cheaper and are usually around 100 cals too. If you have a costco they sell a big box of Thinaddictives for 7 dollars and there are prolly 20 packages of 100 calorie "cookies".

Applesauce slightly heated with cinnamon makes a tasty dessert for low cal and minimal cost.

Beans and fat free cottage cheese are good sources of protein and don't cost too much. (BTW cottage cheese and apples is good together)

Maybe check the frozen isle for cheaper bags of frozen veggies rather than fresh?

Deffinately steam the veggies so that they are softer to chew

Good luck!

I just moved to a new city and have been on a tight budget as well until I start my new job. Here's what I've found has worked well for my boyfriend and I-

1-We're lucky because we have a Costco below our apartment building!This is good for certain things, but I think the savings we get on the things we can buy at any grocery store.
-We like buying massive bags of veggies (broccoli, snap peas, ect) and freezing them so we don't have veggies going bad
-Rice is great to pair with veggies & incredibly cheap. Toss the veggies in some sauce & place over rice & you have a great meal. The other night I had a yam I wanted to use but didn't really have something to go along with it. So I took some of the broccoli, some onion & yam in the pan, added some thai red curry sauce, placed over rice & it was the best meal we've had in a long time!!
-We also like buying the roatisary chicken from grocery stores every once and a while if we're really craving chicken. It's typically between $6-$9 & we take it home, slice it off the little bones in to small chunks, place some in the freezer & then have some on hand in the fridge for things like pastas, stirfries, omlettes, ect. It seems to last forever!
-Egg whites are also a staple in my grocery cart. Cheap & filling!

2-We love treating ourselves to a meal out with a sweet at the end. We've been sooooo satisfied with the quality of the meals we've been making at home lately that we haven't found the need to go spend tons of money eating out. We made sushi the other night for about $5 for a MASSIVE portion & we still have ingredients to make lots more. We finished it off with a bit of ice cream that would have cost us $7-$10 out, but instead we got a whole container for $7 that will last us for weeks. Plus, we're finding we're having way more fun & the sense of accomplishment is great too.

I would encourage you to keep track of your grocery bills & see what's really needed & see if you're buying any excess. Go to the grocery store with an amount of money already in mind & set that for your limit. We try and go to the store only once every week and a half-two weeks. So, stretch the dollar as far as you can & only buy quality ingredients & things you need.

Hope this helps some!

If you have an Aldi's by you--use them--they are the cheapest in gorceries by me and the produce isn't bad--better than the larger name brand stores!!

Look for sales for fruit/veggies and meats--you can search online as well-most stores have their sales adds online and some even offer their own coupons (krogers does this)

If you spend less$ on the proccess bad for you foods you will have more $$ for healthier groceries.

Home made soups are both cheap and nourishing and they freeze well so you can do batches of them.

I use saute onion and garlic in olive oil as a base for most soups and a variety of herbs and then add any of the following:

Cooked carrot and tinned tomato blitz in a food processor/blender/smoothie maker to desired thickness then add either low fat evaporated milk (makes it taste creamy) or beans/ lentils or ground meat for protein

Cook Brocolli dont bother draining water add cheese then blitz

Mushrooms and/or chicken with lowfat evaporated milk

Tomato and red pepper

Infact there isn't much that I dont make into soup. I live alone and it is hard to buy thingsin portions small enough for 1 and get a good variety so making soup and freezing it is a good cheap way of using them while they are still fresh. I did try juicing but I didnt like it.

Jenna, First, you are doing great to want to change your diet and life. I love to recommend soup for you. You can make anything tasty and healthy, and it's not rough on your teeth. Look online for healthy receipes and go for it! Good luck.

Brown rice does do well in the rice cooker. Might check the book that came with it if you have it. My rice cooker has the markings on the inside for brown rice on one side and regular long grain white rice on the other. White rice is processed and like white flour products it is considered a bad carbohydrate because your body turns it into sugar that gets stored as fat.. Brown rice is much less processed. More fiber in the brown rice makes you feel fuller faster and takes longer to digest.

Something else you might be interested in is oatmeal, dried beans and lentils. Split pea soup made with a ham bone or pork knuckle is good too.

Great job on the loss so far! Keep your focus and you will do great!

My budget is extremely tight too. We have 2 teenage boys and we're raising an 18 month old granddaughter. I shop at Sam's club and Aldi. If you have an Aldi nearby- they have very nice, reasonable fruits and veggies and also frozen fish. I plan out my menu a month in advance and use items in more than one meal. Like if I buy a large container of sour cream, I try to have several dishes during the week that include sour cream. Steamed veggies are really good with Mrs. Dash on them. It adds a lot of flavor with no sodium or calories. I always look at day old meats- take them home and freeze them immediately. I freeze fruit in plastic containers to make it last. Frozen grapes and blueberries are the bomb! So are bananas that are getting a bit too ripe. Oatmeal is cheap and great for something soft. Sweet potatoes are a good source of vitamins and are soft. I find that shopping once a month by list and not returning on a daily or weekly budget helps me save a great deal.