STOP saying healthy food is more expensive

What kind of meal is rice, beans, and eggs? and with teen boys?

It's calorie-dense, cheap as dirt, and easy.

And the exact diet many many people in this world live on. In fact rice and beans might be the MOST popular diet on earth

Have to disagree with you on that. It runs about $120-$180 a week for two getting groceries from Fresh Direct or Whole Foods. I don't buy any junk food, soda, or any crap like that. That's with us mostly eating home Mon-Fri. Doesn't even touch the going out during the weekend.

Not complaining about the price though. We busted our *kitten* in college for a reason.

What kind of meal is rice, beans, and eggs? and with teen boys?

It's calorie-dense, cheap as dirt, and easy.

And the exact diet many many people in this world live on. In fact rice and beans might be the MOST popular diet on earth

And totally devoid of the "fresh veggies, whole grain bread, meats, milk and cheese." the OP was talking about.

I'm with the bulk of you here, but I wanted to add a lifesaver for my fiance and I - we buy almost all of our lean proteins at Costco, plus a giant bag of broccoli, stoplight bell peppers, seasonal fruit, and organic baby romaine heads (they last longer than the larger ones, and you can use them for lettuce wraps!). I usually buy groceries at our local market (more peppers when we run out, baby carrots (the ones at Costco are always very dry), and milk and plain soymilk, and I spend maybe $30 every week and a half.

$200 for Costco + $75 groceries = $275/2 = $137.50 per person per month. Not bad for a relatively healthy diet! I would say we eat "clean" most of the time, but I'm a fan of moderation and make a mean homemade pizza (chicken + broccoli + a sprinkling of aged cheddar instead of your usual cheezy pizza = perfect)!

PS - we live in DC, but this worked for us in TX and OH before. I personally wouldn't cut my budget much more because I think eating healthy is worth the cost.

It can be more expensive depending on what you're comparing it to. I used to feed my teen boys and I those $3 all in one boxed dinners. I can't make a healthy meal for 3 people for $3. I'm glad that your grocery bill hasn't gone up but don't assume everyone shopped the same way as you.

And don't assume that everyone has the same cost of living as you. I go to school in one of the most expensive and highest cost-of-living cities in Canada, and $30 doesn't get you much in the way of produce here, and doesn't amoritize across a long period of time, whereas I could get a $5 sub at Subway and still win.

Not all of us have the luxury of investing a lot of money or time to start up (and maintain) a large vegetable garden, nor do some of us even have yards to do it in.

Congratulations on your success, seriously. I'm just saying that it can be very challenging for those of us who live under the poverty line and have to be wise in our purchases so we can stay away from food banks.

Reasonable Quality Steak: $26.99 a pound
Potato Chips: $3.99 a bag

Just sayin!

Aha, apples and oranges, a Bentley Continental versus a Hyundai Accent.

A better comparison: homemade potato chips which take about 10 minutes to make in the oven.

For the sake of argument, let's say that the process of turning potatoes into chips drives off half their weight in water and the $3.99 bag of potato chips has 12 oz. of chips. What is the price of 24 oz. of waxy potatoes plus a bit of oil and salt and heating up the oven for a few minutes?

24 oz. potatoes = $2.39 (assuming using Yukon Gold potatoes which are $5.99 for 5 lbs at a local supermarket this week but you could wait for a sale or use a cheaper potato)

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil using a pump spray = about $0.20 (based on an average per ounce price at local supermarket)

1 teaspoon of salt = far less than $0.01 (based on $1.00 for a 26 oz. container)

30 minutes running an standard electric oven = about $0.08 (based on http://www.pickyourown.org/costsofcookingmethods_ovens.php)

$2.39 + $0.20 + $0.01 + $0.08 = $2.68 for homemade potato chips which were made with better potatoes, better oil, and have no transfats or mystery chemicals in them.

Yes, there was my time in making them. And, yes, they don't taste exactly like a good bag of Cape Cod chips (my favorite brand). But they were NOT more expensive than the processed item from the store.

And, yes, I do throw together a potato or two of homemade chips at the drop of a hat. Often sweet potato chips which are even better for me.

Reasonable Quality Steak: $26.99 a pound
Potato Chips: $3.99 a bag

Just sayin!

Amen!!

Buy the whole filet at Costco and you're eating filet mignon at $12.50 a lb......

^^^^^ This. Except I got mine at BJs and came out to around 8.99/lb. Cooked the whole thing on charcoal for a work party at Christmas, and it was the best darn steak I EVER had.
If you have space at home for a chest freezer, I highly recommend it. It'll allow you to save money by buying your meat in bulk, and you'll have a place to store the occasional sale purchase. ^_^

So, please stop with the excuses that eating healthy is too expensive. Grow a garden, pack some carrots, stay up an extra 10 mins to prepare a meal for the next day. Jeepers Creepers, quit complaining and research what groceries you have locally and what seasons good food comes in season/what freezes for winter when fruits and veggies go up in price.

OP, I know your heart's in the right place here, but do you actually grow your own garden?

Ok, a pack of carrot seeds may set you back only $1.19, but I have also spend a huge chunk of money making sure those carrots (and my other vegetables) actually grow into something edible. Before those carrots even went into the ground, there was $$$ going into that soil to make sure the earth was fertilized and healthy. Chicken wire fence was erected to keep the bunnies and raccoons out (kind of worked!), and hours upon hours every week making sure that the weeds didn't overtake the seedlings and it was properly watered. We pay for water too. All in all, we probably spent close to $300 on our garden this year and I'm sure we won't get that all money back through grocery savings.

Don't get me wrong, I love gardening, but I don't do it to keep my grocery bill down.

This content has been removed.

I'm not buying organic apples or $30 steaks. I'm making healthy choices of bags of apples and babies carrots over $4.00 bags of chips and cheese whiz. There are plenty of ways to have produce during the entire year by canning/freezing while the items are in season. I am just tired of people's excuses on why they make unhealthy choices.

Not everyone has a good income. I don't. I just finished my degree and my hubby works at a gas station. I am willing to pay for quality food over stupid cable TV. Sorry. I have priorities. My body being one of them.

When you eat the way you should as an adult, you don't need to eat a HUGE amount... I'm not talking about growing teens or families. I'm just saying that the normal suburb living young adult with potentially a spouse could afford to not eat chips and soda pop and instead eat a much more sustainable diet... a dinner for 2 adults at mcdonalds can be over $15... I can make 3 dinners with $15 that are delicious and nutritious. So sorry that ya'll would rather feed yourselves microwave dinners and juice boxes.

You're starting to get offensive. You started out sounding angry, and now you're getting accusatory.

I don't think anyone on this site is advocating microwave dinners and juice boxes, but nor are they slapping at the people who know full well and have experienced how poverty can affect your nutrition. Chill right out.

To save money, I raise a small garden. I have all of the green beans, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and onions I can eat.

I have a very limited budget, so every dime I can save really helps. I made the decision to eat healthier and I'm going to stick to it.

$30 for 2 people for a week?! Where do you live?! I spend around $50 on produce every week for my family of 4. $60 on protein, and then you have to add in the dairy and bread items. I buy only items that are on sale (except bananas - they never go on sale!) & use coupons when I can find them, and I still spend around $150/week for 2 adults and 2 small kids. Definitely would be cheaper to live on chicken patties & Kraft mac & cheese.

This^^ I buy for 2 adults and an infant and I am £200+ per month - I save as much as I can on frozen veg and tinned fruit. The fresh stuff doesnt last as long and is more expensive, eg 1 pineapple is £2 - 2 tins of pineapple is 32p. And above all, its cheaper buying fish fingers and chips. So I will stand up and say healthy food is more expensive. Glad its not for you though

To clarify, $6-15/lb beef tends to be 'grocery store beef.' Things like "angus prime" aren't real grades of beef. USDA choice, USDA prime, those are real grades of beef.

There really isn't a difference in walmart beef and grocery store beef.

IF you buy from a butcher, ask where they get their beef. One around here buys it bulk frozen... No more cows.

That said. Whole Foods is a decent place for steak.


But anyway, I was joking about steak vs potato chips. I frequently shop at Costco for steak. It isn't terrific, but they do cut it at 1.5" which should be the minimum thickness.

I honestly just bought $30 worth of fresh veggies, whole grain bread, meats, milk and cheese. I know it will last my hubby and I at least an entire week....

I calculated how much it would cost to get mac and cheese and chips and soda and crappy foods, I could get about the same amount of food, but a bag of chips goes so fast and it's not filling and makes you feel uber icky. I know that if I bought $30 of junk food, fast food, quick meals - I would not be able to sustain more than a few days between two people.


So, please stop with the excuses that eating healthy is too expensive. Grow a garden, pack some carrots, stay up an extra 10 mins to prepare a meal for the next day. Jeepers Creepers, quit complaining and research what groceries you have locally and what seasons good food comes in season/what freezes for winter when fruits and veggies go up in price.

Must be nice to look into your perfect mirror every day and think - "Gee, why can't the world be more like me? It's easy!".

Here, let me paint you a different picture, sweetheart.

I live in an RV, full time, with no slide outs. Gardens are not permitted here. It's the option we're stuck with until we achieve saving enough for a home, after I lost mine in a flash flood - which was so massive and devastating that the President declared us a disaster area, one of my neighbors lost her four year old little girl, and another neighbor and her 6yr old son received massive burns over 70% of their body from when their home exploded due to being ripped off the foundation and rupturing natural gas lines in their home. My garden was swept away, and my larger home was reduced to rubble. We were lucky to get out alive, and used what we had left in our savings to put a roof over our head in the cheapest possible manner we could, which was buying a second hand 32" 350 sqft RV.

In our RV, we have a fridge that is half the size of one that is in a regular home. I have two teenagers, myself, and my husband. May I ask, have you ever fed a growing teenager before? How about two of them - one of them being 14, and already 6'1", eating like he's a fully grown man burning 3,500 calories a day and looks like he never eats at all, and the other being a 13 yr old full time ballet dancer, built tall and lean and eats about 2,600 calories a day? Yeah... $30 of food goes easily in one day in our home. Hell, that can go in ONE MEAL. Our food bill is $800 a month. That's $400 per pay period, which works out to $200 per week and depending on how big of a gap between pay periods, it can be that the that I am stretching meals to cover a up to 3 weeks on $400 for four people, at 3 meals a day, plus healthy snacks. I am the one who has to budget for it, plan the meals, and shop, so I can tell you exactly how far my money can take me on a non-healthy, pre-boxed, canned food diet vs a fresh produce, organic, varied healthy diet.

Sure, the non-organic is cheaper... but it comes with a bigger price...pesticides. I prefer not to eat that at all. I have had enough of a diet of processed toxins and pesticides, thank you. So one can easily argue that buying organic is like upgrading to first class on a plane - it's not necessary, but more of a luxury. I disagree though. While you may be replacing that twinkie with an apple, you're simply trading off processed sugars for pesticides. When you replace the twinkie with an organic apple, you go from toxin to natural. Thus my choice to truly eat healthy instead of PRETENDING to eat healthy by grabbing a pesticide grown apple over a twinkie, which means it actually is expensive to make that choice.

I buy whole grain breads (not the stuff that says "Whole Wheat" on the front, but the stuff that says WholeGrainsCounsil 20grams WHOLE GRAIN on the bread. That runs about $3.50 - $4 a loaf. I can't have a bread machine because we have no room for it. Yep, people take things like this for granted when they don't have to think about a minimalist life style. Making the bread from scratch COULD be an option, but it's summer time, and we do not run the oven in the summer time since it raises our electricity bill up by to twice the normal amount ... we live in Texas - no trees around us. So, buying the bread is the best option we have, and I freeze one loaf in my small, portable deep freezer (I do the same thing with reduced fat cheeses and reduced fat milk).

I buy frozen fresh vegetables where applicable (and I look for the organic frozen at that - not the stuff imported from China, packaged in Brazil and sold in the US). I rarely buy any canned goods for two reasons - one... most of it tastes nasty, and two - I have don't have the room to store a bunch of canned goods. You would think fresh frozen was cheaper, but it's not. Fresh is cheaper, but remember - tiny fridge - not much room.

Perhaps this isn't enough to convince you that various situations call for various pricing results for some of us out there. So let's get more practical - and just break down a healthy meal versus a not so healthy version of the same meal. This I can do very easily, as I have the prices for both memorized in my head - the not so healthy version because I used to eat this way, and then the healthy version because I just recently made this meal and bought all of these ingredients - so I remember what it cost me.

If I make a spaghetti for us and go the cheap route, I can buy the jarred stuff that has chunky garden, bell pepper, carrot, mushrooms, etc... for about $2 a jar. It'll be high in sodium and calories, and the noodles will be $1.08 for a box, but it'll be high in sodium too, and it'll be less than better for you grain wise. Buy some 85/15% ground beef? No problem... about $4.60 for two lbs. And they insist on having Parmesan with the spaghetti, so if I buy the el cheapo stuff... $2.50. So all together, that meal was $9.20. Not bad when you divide it by four people, which works out to about $2.30 per person.

Now.... let's look at the healthy alternative. Making it yourself and buying healthier ingredients. Spaghetti sauce - based on where I live, rural area right outside of Mansfield, Tx - making that the city that is the closest to me for shopping - and I do my shopping at a Kroger's Marketplace - which is where they have the cheapest and widest selection of fresh and organic produce and meats. So here's the list for making it like the cheaper jarred stuff - and making it healthy: mushrooms (fresh organic) $4, bell peppers (fresh organic) $1.50 each, carrots $2.50 for a small bag of baby carrots, tomato sauce - no salt added ($1.50 a can - 2 cans), tomatoes (fresh organic) $4 for a vine of four-five small tomatoes (I would need about 10) ... or you can go the route of diced canned tomatoes - no salt added ($1.25 a can and I use two cans to feed the all four of us), black olives (canned obviously, $1.25 a can), lean ground beef from the market - as the pre-packaged stuff has "other natural flavors" added to it, and no one can tell us what those "natural flavors" are. So the meat costs about $4 a lb for 93/7% beef. I usually end up having to buy about 8lbs at a time to get through a week of meals. That's about a 1lb and a half of meat per meal, given we're not eating red meat every day, which we don't. So for one meal, that's $6 worth of meat to be used. Then there's the fresh grated Parmesan (not processed, and no fillers added to it) which runs about $4 for a small block. Add in organic oregano, organic basil, and organic rosemary - that's about $2 per bunch - so $6. Nope, can't find the organic stuff for cheaper in my city. I could drive to Arlington, 22.2 miles (round trip, 44 miles or $7.60 in gas) away, but that's about would cost me more in the end if you consider the amount I just burned in gas. So, might as well stick with what's available to you, right? Now, back to the list... salt (fortunately, I have that in stock! I use fine grain iodized sea salt) $0... unless I am out, then it's $1.80 for a new bottle. White onion - $1.25 per lb. I usually get 2 onions to chop up. And now for our noodles... whole grain wheat noodles with omega 3 and low sodium... $3.35 for one 12oz box. I need two of them though... so that's $6.70.

Let's add that meal up... shall we? My calculations come out to *drum roll please* $36.85!! And that's a healthy version of the cheap/high sodium/high fat/ high calories jarred spaghetti, jarred Parmesan, cheap noodles meal.

That meal feeds all four of us - satisfying the two bigger appetites in my home - the teens, my 6'3 280lb husband (who's also losing weight with me as well), and myself.

Sure, we could make some cuts, like forgoing meat all together - but you know, they say eat what you love and don't change anything except making it healthier and in moderation. Well, we love meat. And that's how it is. Do I complain about the costs? Nope. We deal with it. BUT .... if someone else is trying to make a change, I do not DARE presume to criticize them for feeling defeated at the costs of food, as we aren't all blessed to live in YOUR situation, where you have fewer mouths to feed, can grow a garden, store up foods, and/or buy from cheaper locations.

What incenses me about health gurus who think they're so much better than everyone else, is their quick to snipe mentalities that leave a person feeling even further defeated, degraded, and judged. You think those of us who started out with poor eating habits just fell into this world of change that involves eating healthier and better and just KNEW what we were doing right off the bat? You think we just snapped right over to a new shopping habit, not staring at labels and prices and never once glanced back over at the pre-boxed cheaper stuff that is 1/4 the price of the item that clearly is a healthier option? No. Every one of us who stepped up to the plate to change ourselves from worse to better - we have all various challenges and obstacles we have to get around, but we do it the best we can. Some of us may need to vent at the frustration behind that change and how it effects us from the wallet to the waist, but YOU, as the bystander, have two choices in this - REMAIN SILENT, or say something nice and encouraging. OK? It's that simple. Take option A or option B - but Option C: Be a judgmental jerk and criticize anyone who even makes a comment that doesn't fit into your box marked "happy thoughts"...this is not a viable option. Represent yourself better and be helpful with a positive attitude. There's my helpful advice for the day.

Hopefully you've been educated and understand now that there are different strokes for different folks out there and it does effect the wallet depending on who you are, how many mouths you have to feed, where you live, and what you live in.