Cheap healthy eating?

robynmac91
robynmac91 Posts: 12
in Food and Nutrition
Hey all,

I am a 22 yr old college student on a tight budget. Anyone have any suggestions or recipes..etc. for healthy eating and meal planning?

Typically I go to the store and buy as many fruits and veggies as I can.. Though Im at a loss of what else is affordable, and actually healthy for you..

I'm new, anything helps!

Thanks so much.

Replies

  • carinaut
    carinaut Posts: 15 Member
    I'm a student too, right now I have a little more money because I'm working quite a lot, but the last few years I've also been living on a tight budget. I don't know if my tips will help you that much because I live in Europe and I've heard that food in the USA is really expensive, but:

    I couldn't really afford to buy meat, but when I did I got for example one whole chicken, its a lot of money at once but you can cut it yourself and freeze individual servings, so you have enough meat for a lot of meals, if you calculate its usually A LOT cheaper than buying cutlets.

    Beans and rice are really cheap and with some veggies on the side, you have a meal!

    Also I adapt my mealplanning to the special offers they have at the supermarket, especially veggies are a lot cheaper if they have to get rid of them because its the last day they can sell them before they have to throw them away...and if you cook them right away, they have still a good quality.

    I suppose you know that, but of course cooking at home is always cheaper than eating out or takeaway, and a lot healthier too! Sometimes, instead of going out with my friends, we cook together, thats fun too!

    Hope that helps (fyi, English is a foreign language for me, so please be gentle :-))
  • metacognition
    metacognition Posts: 626 Member
    plain oatmeal

    lentils and dry beans

    egg whites

    seasonal fruit (bananas are among the cheapest as is melon and corn this time of year)
  • taidasrictar
    taidasrictar Posts: 100 Member
    check your local dollar/99 cent store a lot of them are incorporating grocery and produce in them

    there is a story of a of a guy who was broke lost 250 pounds shopping at the 99 cent store
  • goshnames
    goshnames Posts: 359 Member
    The dollar store around here also has some snacks like dried fruit and nuts...for so cheap!
  • phw426
    phw426 Posts: 92 Member
    even whole eggs are good...70 calories in an egg...
  • phw426
    phw426 Posts: 92 Member
    even the frozen vegetables go on sale a lot and they are cheaper than the fresh..though not as good
  • katinachaos
    katinachaos Posts: 90 Member
    Plan your meals for the week around the sale ads. Buy stuff like frozen chicken and fish when it's on sale and pop it out when you're ready to cook (or, with the chicken, cook it all at once and eat it throughout the week). If you have Amazon Prime (don't students get a discount?), look for stuff like bulk quinoa, rice, beans, etc. You may be able to get it cheaper and shipped for free. I've begun eating eggs a lot more, too, super cheap, protein, and filling. If you don't want them hard boiled or fried, poach them in leftover tomato sauce or canned tomatoes with some broth. Learn to eat leftovers and adapt them into new dishes. Also, look out for stuff like rotisserie chicken that has been marked down. You still are safe to eat it for a few days and it can be shredded on salads, made into chicken salad, just gnawed on, or whatever. I like looking at the ads for inspiration rather than pulling ideas out of nowhere and ending up spending a ton because I craved something in particular. Takes out the stress.
  • SlimJanette
    SlimJanette Posts: 597 Member
    Do you have a weekly market? I know here you can bargain on pricing for most stuff if you go later in the day.
    Buy bulk when it is on sale and repackage it so you can have individual servings.
    Dollar stores are cheap and carry food items.
  • dangerousdumpling
    dangerousdumpling Posts: 1,109 Member
    I was also going to suggest beans and rice. Black beans and brown rice is a great combo. You can't get any cheaper than that. Try it with an over easy egg on top. Delish!
  • karl39x
    karl39x Posts: 586 Member
    Homemade casseroles can be cheap and there are lots of easy recipes for casseroles on youtube, allrecipes.com, and the america's test kitchen website. And chicken can be pretty cheap sometimes; it's also is a bit cheaper if you buy in bulk, like Costco or Sam's Club type stores.
  • littlebrownbat3
    littlebrownbat3 Posts: 54 Member
    I feel your pain...I'm a grad student... I buy lots of frozen vegetables (better for you than canned) and eggs. I look for sales, and stock up on staples when they are on sale. Pasta is good if you can watch portion sizes. I don't like rice, but that's usually a good bet. Canned tuna is another good bet. If you have a local bulk discount store, go in with friends to get the membership, and you can all stock up
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Treat meat as a flavoring. For example, tonight we are having a chick-pea/green-bean dinner salad with a little bit of salami cut in small pieces for flavor. The chickpeas provide the protein.

    Buy good food with lots of flavor and eat less of it. For example, tonight's salad will probably also have some shavings of a good parmesano reggiano which is $14.95 lb. at Trader Joes. How can that be frugal? Well, the hard, aged parmesano reggiano packs a LOT of flavor per ounce -- more than the regular grocery store stuff -- so a little bit goes a long way.

    Olives add flavor and are relatively cheap to cut up for flavoring a dish, especially if you do as we do and buy them 5 lbs. at a time via Amazon prime.

    Mustard is cheap. Asian grocery stores sell flavor for cheap. I've spent the last year or so working on a $2.45 container of mussamun curry paste. Who knows how many meals we've gotten out of it and there are probably 4 more meals to go before I need to get another.

    Cook a whole chicken. Get several meals out of the meat and then use the skin, bones, and gizzards to make stock. Flavor some stock by boiling a leftover parmesan rind in it -- one doesn't throw parmesan rinds away -- one keeps a baggie of them in the freezer.

    There are lots of frugal ways to eat very well. My nieces, who are about your age, have asked me to write more of these down for them so watch for developments on my blog www.heidicookssupper.com where I will be making more pages of this kind of info for them.
  • shannashannabobana
    shannashannabobana Posts: 625 Member
    even the frozen vegetables go on sale a lot and they are cheaper than the fresh..though not as good
    They are plenty healthy though. I like frozen veggies in winter best.

    Eggs and bananas are always cheap. Try shopping sales and in season for meats, fruits, veggies. Buy ingredients, not pre packaged stuff (and if you're pressed for time prep/cook on the weekend). Chop your own fruits and veggies, it always costs more to get them pre chopped.
  • anyamb
    anyamb Posts: 52 Member
    When I first got out of college and decided that I had to teach myself to cook stuff that didn't come frozen or dried in a box, I didn't have much money for food. I eventually stumbled upon a blog of a woman living in Brooklyn that almost single-handedly helped me do it. It's called Cheap Healthy Good.

    http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com

    She no longer blogs, but the site is still up in its entirety.

    We're talking YEARS worth of recipes that have both nutritional and cost breakdowns. Everything is simple to make with no difficult to find ingredients. There are articles about grocery shopping, eating well in college, learning cooking skills, nutrition info, what to do when dining out or at parties, recipes and info from weekly vegetarian features, etc. And it is all very entertaining to read and well written, as well as very well organized.

    I've been reacquainting myself with the site recently and have found it very helpful a second time around.

    Hope this is helpful.
  • robynmac91
    robynmac91 Posts: 12
    Wow, thank you all so much. Lots of great input, I really appreciate it!
  • smichelle65
    smichelle65 Posts: 45 Member
    When I first got out of college and decided that I had to teach myself to cook stuff that didn't come frozen or dried in a box, I didn't have much money for food. I eventually stumbled upon a blog of a woman living in Brooklyn that almost single-handedly helped me do it. It's called Cheap Healthy Good.

    http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com

    She no longer blogs, but the site is still up in its entirety.

    We're talking YEARS worth of recipes that have both nutritional and cost breakdowns. Everything is simple to make with no difficult to find ingredients. There are articles about grocery shopping, eating well in college, learning cooking skills, nutrition info, what to do when dining out or at parties, recipes and info from weekly vegetarian features, etc. And it is all very entertaining to read and well written, as well as very well organized.

    I've been reacquainting myself with the site recently and have found it very helpful a second time around.

    Hope this is helpful.

    That is a great blog; thanks for the link!:flowerforyou:
  • MissyPoo2013
    MissyPoo2013 Posts: 190 Member
    Bump!
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Buy Sunday Newspapers for the coupon inserts (SmartSource, Redplum, P&G). Shop your grocer's ad weekly, buying the sale items (that work with your diet). Combine the sale with the coupons you have. You'll drastically reduce your grocery bill, I promise. You can find coupon blogs that people do coupon matchups to the weekly ads, and tell you exactly how much you'll be paying for such and such item after coupon and sale. It really helped me out alot. If you don't coupon, then still shop the ads weekly. Fruits/veggies go on and off sale all the time, but I stock up when they go on sale. My Shoprite has blueberries on sale for $1.99 a pint this week. I'll be stocking up on those, plus blueberries can be frozen, so I can still have them when they're not on sale anymore.

    Hope this helps!

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