How to lose weight on a budget??

Going vegetarian one or two nights a week saves a lot of money. Pasta with tomato sauce and frozen veggies make a good, cheap, and filling meal. Making things from scratch can also save cash. For example, when I want to make that pasta with tomato sauce, I buy a couple of cans of store brand diced tomatoes and run them through the food processor with a clove of garlic, some olive oil and seasonings. I end up spending about $1.50 (figuring that I typically have olive oil and seasonings onhand) on the sauce intead of buying a jarred sauce for $4.

Switch out your hamburger for ground turkey or pork and that will be a step in the right direction. You can also stretch your ground meats by adding 1/2 C. rolled oats to it. That adds in grains and cuts down on the amount of meat per serving and no one will notice.

Also, Campbell's Kitchen.com has a lot of easy recipes that could be adapted with leaner meats and the low sodium, low cal versions of their products. It's pretty cheap.

So then don't necessarily change what you buy, change how much you eat. The biggest problem with unhealthy eating (most of the time) is portion control. Instead of chowing down on a whole box of Mac N Cheese by yourself, try only eating the serving size.

If ground beef is what you have then make it work! Instead of spending the extra $$ to get ground turkey or ground chicken... just use portion control and add a salad (instead of the potatoes etc) ... not only will you be cutting our costs of the higher starches but adding fresh greens to your families meal! ... Sometimes it's not about WHAT we eat, it's how much!!

I don't know if you have a Jewel by you, but right now they have Ground Turkey buy one package for $3.99 get one free, so it's only $2.00 a pound abut the same costs as ground beef (at least out here)

I know exactly what you mean. I'm a single mom with 3 kids so budget is a BIG thing with me. I look for the meat that is on sale and buy whatever is the best price that week. I was looking at my local flyer today and Lean Beef is $3.99 a lb, but I can buy Turkey Drumsticks for $1.49/lb, Chicken drums/thighs 99cents/lb, and port roast for $1.99 a lb. So chicken and pork are the way to go in my town this week! There is always something that is on sale in the meat department. I happen to have a large freezer, so when the prices are good, I stock up and buy a larger quantity, separate it, and put it in bags in the freezer. My family loves chicken and turkey and it is very easy to prepare.

Watch your portions. I have a family of 4 and used to struggle keeping down costs of healthy food. Being married to a semi-vegetarian doesn't help. My grocery bill hovers around $35-$40 a week.

Buy different bags of frozen veggies and steam to add as sides, keeping them on rotation. Peas, carrots, corn, broccoli, and green beans normally top our list. Top with any Ms. Dash, sprinkle of Parmesan or salt and pepper. You can buy an in-pot steamer that folds down to 2 inches tall and fits in your regular pots from Bed Bath and Beyond, Target and sometimes Wal-Mart for $7.

Also, adding a side of beans (lots of frozen varieties but rinse first if you use canned) or whole wheat pasta with spaghetti sauce will make the meal more balanced. Alternate the pasta from bow tie, penne, ziti etc. and no one should get bored. Brown rice is pretty easy to cook once you get used to it and you can make it ahead of time to add to your meals during the week.

If you have kids you may want to serve the food in two courses leaving the entree on the counter and plating the veggies first while they are still hungry. If you need more ideas let me know. Good luck!

I am so not a cook! I was raised eating mac and cheese, and all that other cheap boxed stuff- so this is what I know I know I should eat more chicken, fish and fruits and veggies- but it is so hard on a budget. We are a family of four and I have about $400 a month to spend on groceries. Its hard to buy a thing of chicken when for the same price I can buy hamburger meat that will go towards 3 meals instead of one. And yes I have heard the saying- that in the long run it is cheaper because you will not have the hospital bills- and I agree! but if I dont have the money, I dont have the money. I would love some advice, recipes- anything will help! thanks!!

I feed a family of 7 on a budget of $500 per month. It can be tricky, but it is possible! We buy the bags of frozen chicken parts (each are between 6-8 dollars) and I buy a lot of fresh veggies and fruits, it's low cost per pound. When you see something is on sale, buy a bit extra and freeze it--I stock up on chicken breasts this way. We do a lot of sandwiches--bread is pretty cheap too. I try to sub veggies and fruits in place of chips and sweets. We buy big bags of shredded cheese, a pack of tortillas and various meats (pepperoni, hamburger, chicken) and make different types of quesadillas. I do a lot of scrambled eggs, eggs are cheap!

If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, RUN (don't walk) there! They have great produce for MUCH cheaper than the regular grocery store.

Also, like someone else said, I buy meats on sale---like when chicken breasts are buy 1 get 1, i buy about 6! LOL! Same with ground turkey.

Also staying on the outer perimeter of the grocery store- int eh fresh fruits & veggies, meats, dairy, etc is healthier for you, but saves you a lot of $$. Skip the sodas, juices, etc and go straight for water. Make your own 100 cal snack baggies (MUCH cheaper than buying the pre-done ones!). You can buy the snack sized ziploc baggies at Walmart for cheap. Once I get home from the grocery store, I wash all of my fruit, veggies, etc that I would use as snacks and put them in the snack sized baggies. It helps me with portion control AND it makes more economic sense! I bought a bunch of grapes for $3.00 and got about 8 servings out of it. Much better & healthier than 100 cal doritoes or what not.

Lots of luck!

making homemade soups are healthy,low cal and you dont need to use as much meat, also using beans or pasta and adding some meat and veggies help to cut down on the amount of meat you need. ex: I made a mexican ground turkey soup the other night, you can get jennie-o ground turkey for about $1.79 lb I browned it with some salt pepper, garlic, cumin and chili powder and added water and chicken bullion cubes, then added a can of corn , a can of stewed tomatoes and a can of kidney beans, it was really yummy. you can also make mac n cheese and add a can of tuna in water to it and also some frozen peas, and then eat a proper serving size it is good and makes it lower in calories and better for you, if you add a salad or some canteloupe to it , it is really filling

Go to this website:
www.fistfulofcoupons.com

she has a bunch of stuff on there about couponing.

Heres the other thing, you need to MEAL PLAN. That way, you don't over buy each month. You only buy enough of what you need. Anythign that happens to be left over goes towards the next month for eating. Meal plan out your lunches and your dinners. Begin to measure things.

Also, chicken is SO SO CHEAP! At Costco, you can get a BIG bag of Foster Farms Chicken breasts for $1.99 per pound, boneless and skinless. So it ends up costing $24 ish dollars a bag, and you get A TON of chicken. Those breasts are 7-9 ounces each. thats 2 full servings!

An even cheaper way to buy chicken is to buy it wiht the bone in and skin on breasts. These run around $.99 cents a pound! Just peel the skin off before you cook it. Cooking it on the bone makes it juicier too. Then you just cut the bone out before you serve it. Or you can clean up your chicken breasts before you freeze them. 1 extra hour of prep work on saturday or sunday can save you BUNDLES of $.

Finally, here is an example of a meal plan i do for my hubby and myself. This is what we are having this week for dinner:

Monday Lunch: Whole Wheat Turkey Wraps
Monday Dinner: Chicken Stirfry (cook 6 total breasts. 2 for dinner, and 4 for the week to use with lunch.
Tuesday Lunch: Chicken and Spinach Wraps (Chicken that was grilled on Monday)
Tuesday Dinner: 1/3 of a Pork Loin Roast in the Crock Pot with Salad (I buy the HUGE loin roast from Costco and cut it into 3, 4-5 pound Sections) Refrigerate the Leftovers. You shoudl have enough left over to make 2 more meals!
Wednesday Lunch: Chicken Salad (Chicken which was grilled on Monday)
WEdnesday Dinner: Using half of the pork roast left overs, make BBQ pulled Pork Sandwiches with Sandwich thins
Thursday Lunch: Tuna sandwiches or Tuna and Spinache salad
Thursday Dinner: Pulled Pork Verde Taco Salad (Using the remainder of the pulled pork, make Pork Verde. Put this on top of a taco salad!
Friday Dinner: Grilled Chicken and Zuchini Skewers



There, that is an example of a meal plan!

Good Luck!

I understand the budget deal. I have a family of four also. I started out mine drinking more water and leaving soft drinks alone and limiting tea to one a day. which is hard because i love tea and mountain dew. then i cut out sweets except maybe once a week. then i eat breakfast and walk and eat small lunch a sandwich and walk and supper i either skip it or eat a bowl of ceral. I am still trying to limit what i eat as far as portions size and a little a long. but it is working. I started out 160 and i weigh 145 now. its slow but easier for me to do slower than to scare my system to deaf. Weekends are harder for me but I am still trying. Cuttting back on portions and etc. helps and exercise and staying active to burn off calories helps alot. and i also love mac and cheese. that is another big weakness for me. and i use lowfat milk and whole wheat bread. i have a few recipes on my page. like i use flour tortilla wraps for breakfast with sausage and egg. and i limit myself to one. But it is a small one. its a step by step process for me. I learn new recipes and some i come up with myself and some i find. but sometimes i eat a bigger lunch and light supper or and sometimes small lunch and bigger supper. but always eat by certain time so i will not eat and then go to bed. worst thing to do.

There are 4 adults, 3 children and 2 dogs in my house and I do the shopping for $150 per week and feed everyone with that amount of money. How??? Home cooking!

I know you said you don't cook, but honestly...start experimenting. You might enjoy it. As for meat - you CAN work ground beef into your diet - just watch portions - it's higher in fat/calories than other options, but workable.

One of my favorite go-to cheap meals is pasta and meatballs. I can make dinner for all 7 of us for under $10. I make my own sauce too - my grandmother's recipe - old world Italian recipe so it's just fantastic. Yummy!

Wow, some great suggestions up above! Since you mentioned you have some freezer space, here are some things we do with our freezer....

If you have access to stores like a walmart super center, super target, stater brothers, winco, or fresh & easy, watch their sales ads - (some of those don't advertise prices, so you just have to keep an eye on what you need and go to the store that's the best choice)

When meat is on sale, we buy it - london broil for $2 per pound? buy 10 lbs - some of it, ask if they'll slice to 1/2" or 3/4", and then cut them down when you get home, and lay them flat in gallon ziplocks - mark the date and the cut, so you know how and when to cook it..... use some, freeze some. stuff that's not sliced thin, cube for beef stew (perfect crockpot meal), cut into strips for stir-fry (meat goes pretty far this way, toss in lots of frozen veggies and serve over brown rice!), etc.

Ground beef or ground turkey on sale? Buy tons..... chop onions (if your family likes onions like we do, we do a 1 lb meat to one whole onion ratio..... again, stretches and flavors the meat), put them in while you're browning the meat, and then drain well and divide into family-size servings, put in ziplocks, write dates/amounts on them....... can use sausage the same way. For ground beef/turkey, we use these pre-cooked packets for hamburger helper, tacos, chili, spaghetti, burritos, scrambled eggs, etc. With the sausage, you can make spaghetti, gumbo, or biscuits and gravy (though that's not exactly "healthy"!)

Chicken on sale? We get the frozen boneless, skinless varieties and toss bags in our freezer too - the tenderloins (when cheap) make great "quick" meals as they're small enough to cook quickly from frozen..... if it's a whole chicken, or "half-breasts with ribs attached" at $0.99 per lb, we'll buy several or tons.... whole chickens are easy to bake, and the half-breasts are a god-send...... bake a ton of them in the oven with a cube or two of boullion and some herbs on top, as many as you can/want to cook. Save the broth! Let them cool, pull the skin/bones off, and then chop the meat into 1" cubes, put a family size serving into ziplock freezer bags, pour a little of the broth into each bag, label, and freeze flat..... these we use for enchiladas, chicken quesadillas, chicken tacos, chicken helper, chicken soup (ramen noodles, 1/2 the seasoning, tons of frozen veggies, and some chicken.... takes all of 20 minutes to make), and also thaw and drain the broth and make chicken salad (stretch it with shredded carrots, chopped celery, chopped onion, etc and make it with light or low-fat mayo)....

Veggies on sale? Most freeze - our favorites to freeze are chopped onions, bell pepper and onion combos (perfect for stir fry, homemade pizzas, or to toss in crock-pot spaghetti, etc), squash, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower.... just watch, because sometimes it's cheaper to get the already-frozen-in-a-bag stuff. :laugh:

Some of that stuff takes time, but it also "saves" time later, as you've done the prepwork for several meals at once.... sure makes for a quick school/work night meal when the meat is already cooked, and when it's frozen flat, it thaws quite quickly, either the night before or under cool water!

Good luck! And for reference, we have a family of 5 (2 teens in that mix) and typically spend about $80 a week on groceries..... your budget is just fine! You can definitely make it work and still do it the healthy way! :flowerforyou: