Healthy grocery shopping on a budget! :-O

My husband and I have started to use a program called Emeals. It is subscription based, but there is a groupon that makes the fee only $20 for a FULL YEAR. You can choose your menu type, and we use the "Low Calorie" option. All the dinners are 500 calories or less. It generates the menu and the shopping list. We also only spend like $50-$70 a week for groceries and it's for the 2 of us!

It has REALLY helped our weight loss goals by having set amounts of calories and the foods are really different and exciting. We've been using it for about 3 months and not a single recipe has repeated.

This might be more of a long term solution than something to help this week, sorry .

But overall, it is really great!

Yeah....the budget. Ok, maybe not the best thing to do. But, for pure budget, go to a bulk barn, load up on trail mix. That is a great appitite suppressant. Buy a jar of peanut butter, a loaf of whole wheat bread. and you are good to go for the weak. Throw in some spagettini if you feel dangerous.

I buy canned black beans and rice and eat that on low-calorie wraps (that I sometimes put in the pot and make a quesadilla). I will add cheese to the mix and voila! Awesome food. In fact, canned food is your best friend. You can stock up at walmart on vegetables in a can. MAKE A SOUP. Get ground beef and a ton of canned vegetables and make a tomatoe-based soup. You can pair this with cornbread. My husband and I do this when we are really tight on money, and one good pot lasts us 2 weeks.
I buy lots of baked chips for sides and Tostito's dips.
Potatoes are cheap and make a lot of food that you can leave in the fridge for people to eat with canned green beans.
Meats: This is where it gets more difficult. Find the cheapest meat you like.
Bananas are super cheap. Buy some peanut butter and you have a wonderful breakfast.
Bread is cheap (PB&J sandwiches).
It's pretty easy to catch lettuce on sale if you still want to eat salads during this tight time.

I also vote for the soup idea. When I lived by myself, I'd make a big pot of veggie soup that would last me an entire week. And you can almost never go wrong with soup.

Box of brown rice and 3 lb bag of chicken tenders (less than $10 total), spent a few hours one night preparing and my daughter and I had lunches for the next week all prepped and ready to go. Can cook with seasonings or a couple of the days I made a dressing to throw on it, 1 tbsp evoo, 2 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp organic maple syrup-could leave out if you don't have on hand. But it was like a honey mustand dressing and mixed in with the rice and chicken in one bowl, yummy! We've been eating all week, each day for lunch, not tired of it yet.

My Husband and I do our weekly shop on £15 per week (Roughly $26.00) and have done for years.

The key is making a menu and sticking to it! Label Monday to Friday - all meals for however many people and stick to it.

Fill up on cheap, low calorie foods and look for tinned, frozen or small portion alternatives. We always buy budget varieties or own label if there is no alternative

Pasta, Tinned Tomato, Tinned Fruits and Tinned veg is all cheap.

For desserts, we have meringue with frozen berries or jelly with berries.

Snacks like grain bars or fruit keep me going and I just remember to drink lots of water.

Good luck on your low-cost week!

Kaela x