Eating healthy on a very tight budget

Raw fruits and veggies are a lot cheaper per pound than frozen pizzas and hot dogs. I can fill a cart with fruits and veggies for $50, or I can fill a cart with a bunch of frozen and boxed stuff for $150.

Yogurts are cheap, you can get 6 Tillamook or 6 Yoplait yogurts for $3 at Fred Meyer right now. Try to avoid boxed stuff and get whole, raw foods and make your own meals. It will taste a ton better and you can make it however you want with seasonings and spices.

I make a vegetarian (I'm not vegetarian, just sometimes I don't want meat) spaghetti with 100% whole wheat noodles. I pan fry red, yellow and green sliced bell peppers, a yellow onion, red jalapenos and minced garlic in some olive oil with red pepper, Cayenne and a pinch of sea salt. Put on top of noodles with a small splash of Sesame oil and eat with a piece of dry toast, I like Sriracha sauce on my toast.

Make a bunch of it and put into a resealable container in the fridge and heat some up for a snack or lunch next day.

Have you ever heard of the show 10 Dollar Dinners? it's a Food Network show (that I think they took off the air because she started another show), but it's Melissa d'Arabian and she has GREAT tips and tricks to stretch your dollar and keep it healthy. She has a book out too. Also keep things frozen, as was said before. And as a personal tip, try to go vegetarian a few nights a week. This has really helped me out since meat is expensive. I'll make cheese ravioli or rice with veggies so that we can still feel full, but don't have to have that expensive meat. Also, try growing a few things. You Grow Girl is a great site that offers a lot of ways to grow you own food without spending a fortune. Even if you only have a window.

If you have a local farmer's market, lots of them do some sort of "sale". We have a market here that bags things that may need to be used ASAP, but are only $1! A lot of them have cheaper produce than the grocery store. They're also tastier, as they've been picked within the past few days, not a week or weeks and can be local too.

I don't buy produce at the grocery store if I can help it. If I'm that poor, I'll buy frozen. All the vitamins, but cheaper.

I also tend to only buy in season fruits and veggies. It's cheaper to buy a pint of blueberries in July than December.

I tend to eat oatmeal in the mornings. A box of 10 packets last me ten days. That's $5 for breakfast for a week and a half as opposed to 2 boxes of cereal at $4-$5/box. It may not be the most imaginative, but it lasts.

If you like salad, you can get romaine heads (or spinach) for ~$2, give or take $.50, each. One head of romaine and one big bundle of spinach costs me $5, and that's a week's worth of salad. A cut hard boiled egg, tomatoes (sliced), and some cucumber...that's $10 for a week of lunch! You can make your own dressings, too.

I stock up on basic sides like rice or pasta. If you're not starch adverse, potatoes are really cheap by the pound. So are yams.

I talk a lot. :x

Egg burritos are good for breakfast...tuna salad for lunch....soups for dinner.

If you have a local Farmer's Market you'll likely pay a lot less for produce, deli and milk than you will at a regular grocery store. If you have an Aldi's Grocery store nearby, check it out! They have a nice variety of healthy items, a triple money back guarentee if you don't like anything you buy, and their food is cheap.

I like to buy frozen veggies for the most part because the nutrients are locked in upon freezing and I know they won't go to waste, plus there are almost always bags for 99c each week at pretty much every grocery store out there. I also always buy canned tuna when it's 88c or less as I usually eat only half a can in one meal. If you're on a super tight budget, you can buy chicken leg quarters super super cheap (like as low as 59c per pound) - cook them all in the crockpot with some onion, seasoning and water, then let it cool in the fridge once done. After that, you'll be able to easily pull out any bones/fat and have plenty of meat leftover. If you can afford it, stock up on boneless/skinless chicken breast any time it's $1.99/lb or less.

I always also try to keep an eye on quantity when I'm comparing prices, many times a sale will look great until you realize the item right next to it for less than a dollar more has more than double the amount as the sale item.

Hope this helps!

I would focus on buying versatile foods; things you can cook/prepare in multiple ways. Things like:

-Spinach
-Peanut butter
-Chicken
-Rice
-Bags of frozen veggies
-Eggs
-Pasta

Dried beans and lentils are cheap and packed with nutrition. If you have a crockpot you can set up chili or dal or any number of soup recipes in the morning and have dinner ready with next to no effort, too. I googled awhile back and came up with some articles about which vegetables were cheapest canned/frozen/fresh. I mentioned them in a fairly recent blog post here, if you want to look into them.

We are also on a super tight budget here. I grow a lot of my own vegetables like string beans, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, peppers (sweet and hot) and tomatoes. I just cooked a stir fry for less than the cost of chicken nuggets and fries. Most of our meals are very inexpensive. If you like, I could send some recipes your way with cost estimates.
If you have the space for a vegetable garden, its definitely worth the effort that it takes to grow your own.

Can I have some recipes?!? (Purely becuase I am on a mission to save for a holiday!)

man, if i was single i'd go back to being a raw vegan again. great skin, great teeth, cheap grocery bill, and i never had to cook. i just bought whatever fruits and veg and nuts that were on sale, organic if there was an awesome deal. soak everything in a cap of vinegar and cold water, wrap in fridge and just pop it out and eat as i got hungry. was easy and i looked great.

also you can container grow some amazing fruits and veg cheap. go on pinterest and search container gardening. there are these amazing guides to super-high-yield plans. 120 cukes in a season from one pot. potatoes, etc. good luck.

Look up Angel Food Ministries on google. They are a non-profit that sells food at about half off and are all over the county. They don't require that you "qualify" to buy a box of food.

If you don’t already know about protein complements, read some about them, and mix in more vegetarian meals:

http://www.vegetarian-and-low-calorie-recipes.com/protein-complementation.html


There’s an easy protein-complement chart in this one:

http://www.nutrition.org/asn-blog/2011/03/protein-complementation/

Frances Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet (oughta be in the public library) has a good and useful discussion, although I always thought the recipes were mostly dogs.

Hunt up vegetarian cookbooks in the public library to browse for ideas; fetch recipes from the Internet.

All of these recipes do not begin with “Harvest the wheat”:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/series/recipes_for_health/index.html


Grow your own bean and seed sprouts in jars in the kitchen. This takes mere tablespoons and a few days. :

http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/food_and_drink/503137/how_to_grow_sprouts_at_home.html

(Cheesecloth, to cover the jars, is wildly cheaper in auto stores than supermarkets. Dried mung beans, for example, are available at many food coops, health-food stores and Asian markets. I get alfalfa seeds cheaper at agricultural –supply stores. Food coops tend to have the widest variety of whole grains, and the best prices on those, too. Coops and/or farmers markets for veggies and fruits. Couscous, which is actually a pasta, requires just boiling liquid to cover and left to stand for a few minutes.

(As an aside, Mexicans use epazote both to flavor cooked, non-sprouted beans and to cut down on the gas; it should NOT, however, be consumed by expectant mothers: http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/epazote.html There are really very, very tasty bean recipes that are NOT flavored with meat; I find that onion, bay leaf, garlic, peppercorns, a few whole cloves and a few allspice berries are great. You probably know not to add salt to beans until they’re almost done, or they’ll be hard.

(The word for the property of herbs and spices that reduce gas is “carminative.” You may find one with a Wiki or other Web search that’s more to your taste, budget or availability. )

Make a lot of stir-fry and curry dishes, with relatively little meat and a variety of vegetables of different textures. A big cast-iron skillet can work about as well as a wok.

Make your own yogurt, overnight in the oven. Experiment with the unflavored gelatin in the classic Whole Earth Catalog recipe to get the consistency you like. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to it at the moment, but it’s out there on the Internet. I find it works best with a gas oven that has an oven light.

You can invent recipes, and figure out what’s in them nutrition-wise using the “Track Food” feature of this Web site (which is what brought me here) and save them on the Web site.

I think spices are the key to making vegetarian, and indeed any, meals appetizing. You can grow those at home, too, in pots, if need be. They can be sun- or air-dried on the kitchen counter.

In the interests of time management and being able to turn out tasty things right quick, devote a morning or afternoon or whatever once a week to things like getting sprouts going, making your own chicken and vegetable broth. (I love the chicken-broth recipe in James Beard’s American Cookery, which also oughta be in the public library. Having refrigerated it overnight and scooped the fat off the top, I freeze it in ice-cube trays, pop ‘em out into Zip-Loc bags, and pluck what I need at the moment. Great as the liquid for cooking rice, barley and other grains. Can be diluted with water.)

I myself am an omnivore, but have my mother’s habit on a limited budget of buying what’s in season and on sale. The only difference now is I do that with more of an eye to lower fat and cholesterol, and not just to balanced meals.

Those are my first quick thoughts. Good luck, and happy eating!

see if you have a produce co op in your area called Bountiful Baskets www.bountifulbaskets.org you can get lots of produce (usually every other week) for $15 + processing fee of $1.50 you don't get to pick what you get but we have never been disappointed. Runs on volunteers so if you volunteer at the site you get even more stuff

Sorry, also forgot to mention to check your area for food pantries. In Texas we have Mobile Food Pantries that have drop off locations that will go to a community once per month, no minimum income requirements. Some of these mobile food pantries will close down if not enough clients participate so they want people to come out. I stayed with my parents (social security income) for 6 weeks and when they went they asked me to go so they could get more, so I did...there was lots of food given out and always TONS of food left over so they always asked everyone to tell there friends. *And before you all blast me, yes of course I pitched in to help with bills and food during the six weeks I was there and I also do lots of other things for my parents during the year*

Crockpot Lemon Rosemary Chicken

1 Whole Chicken $9 (depends on where you live- cheaper in Tx, more expensive in Ca.)
1 pk Fresh Rosemary $3 Produce section (or jar)
3 Fresh Lemon $2
Salt, Pepper, any seasonings you like


Place whole thawed chicken (guts removed) breast sided up in lined or sprayed crock pot
Cut Lemons in Half and squeeze Lemon juice around chicken and place in cavity or around chicken
Place Rosemary in cavity or around chicken
Salt, Pepper and sprinkle with seasoning (we love Tony Cacheres) and salt makes the lemon really pop

Cook on High 6 hours or Low 8 hours or until done
Serve with Salad or Green Veggie
This is really really really good

A lot of communities have a food pantry where you can take home a bag of groceries once a month. Granted, it will be canned goods and staples like pasta and rice, some of it not that greatest food, but it should help stretch your budget. If you're not sure if your area has a food pantry, call the local churches or Google "food pantry" and your town, city or county.

One cup of lentils has the protein of 3 eggs. Lentils have some of the highest protein in beans, plus you don't have to soak them. They cook in about 30 minutes. Boil and then cover and simmer until done. Lentils cost $1.20 a bag here in my grocery store, less in bulk at the health food store. Add some brown rice and vegetables and you have a complete meal. Lentils are especially good with onions, winter squash like butternut and acorn, tomatoes, and anything else. Add leafy green vegetables like collard greens, one of the cheapest greens.

I read on MFP that Mexican/Latino grocery stores often sell produce at lower prices than chain grocery stores. Curious, I went to the local Mexican grocery store and was surprised to find tomatoes, avocados, onions, lettuce, and some fruit at half the prices. Check the stores in your area.