Tight Budget and weightloss

Buy stuff that is on sale and prep meals in advance little more up front cost but long term is cheaper. but only if you have the freezer space.

keeping it simple will help. if you eat to the amount of calories you should be eating, you will spend less on food! I would suggest protien (fresh or frozen -- whatever is on sale), frozen vegetables, and frozen fruit. Fresh produce may be cheaper right now if you could get it locally. eggs are cheap.

have you considered purchasing in bulk? I see you're located in KY. Do you have sam's club, bj's, or costco nearby? you should be able to buy bulk meat at a lower price. the upfront cost may be more, but pound for pound, unless your local supermarket is having a sale, its cheaper to purchase from them. When you start to buy "ready made" foods is when it could get expensive. for the price you'd pay for say, a lean cruisine meal, you could make double that with a ton of nutrition. you could buy a bulk bag of brown rice from an asian food market and portion out EXACTLY the amount of rice you'd need to consume to fit your daily calories. Finally, eating eggs and veggies or just eggs in the AM is amazing and cheap. my fav recipe is poached eggs, sweet potato, and steamed kale. delicious!

good luck!

Buy as little processed food as you can. It is more expensive, less nutritious, and you get less out of it. Buy in bulk if possible. This doesn't necessarily mean buy everything at a bulk store like Costco, but some stores like Whole Foods have bulk aisles for grains, pasta, dried fruit, and other ingredients. Sometimes they even have spices in bulk, so you can get just a little bit of a spice instead of wasting money on a bottle you may not go through. You don't need to buy 10 pounds of anything, I usually go for 1/2-1 pound in the bulk aisle, sometimes more if it's a product I use often.

EX: Minute rice is great and all, but you will pay way less if you buy rice in the 1 lb bag or in the bulk aisle. Same for oatmeal - I buy steel cut and rolled oats in the bulk aisle, rather than the prepackaged oatmeal. Buy dried beans in bulk instead of canned (way more bang for your buck). Buy lettuce and other greens whole instead of bagged, and veggies whole instead of pre-chopped. If you eat a lot of meat, buy that in bulk, not pre-chopped, marinated, etc.

You may also try to find a blog that has the grocery deals in your area. I live in Phoenix and use www.thecentsableshoppin.com. They break down the deals at each local grocery store and match with any insert or printable coupons to help you get the best deals. These blogs are all over, and they can be really helpful.

You don't need to buy anything special for weight loss; eat what you've been eating but less of it. However, some things do make you feel more full: protein, fat, and fiber. If you combine legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas) with brown rice, you get complete protein and a fair amount of fiber. And rice and beans are cheap. That's one reason that rice with legumes is a common part of many different peasant cuisines around the world.

Dried legumes are a lot cheaper than canned ones, and you can control how much they're cooked. Soaking them makes them cook more quickly but it's not absolutely necessary; lentils and split peas don't need soaking. Rice in large bags will be cheaper than smaller packages, as long as you have a cool, dry, dark place to store it. Frozen vegetables are almost as nutritious as fresh, and if you look for deals, they're often cheaper. You can also check out farmers' markets: some of them are upscale and expensive, but others are cheaper than the supermarket. There's a list of Kentucky markets here:
http://www.kyagr.com/marketing/farmers-market-directory.aspx

Spices are a cheap way to liven up rice and beans. Louisville is probably big enough to have an Asian grocery store. You can usually get spices at them a lot cheaper than a supermarket, plus you can get cheap rice there (though it's often white rice). Some spices are worth splurging on: a $6 bottle of smoked Spanish paprika will add a delicious smoky flavor for only a few cents per serving.

Use meat as a flavoring, rather than as the main part of a meal, unless you get a good deal on it. Canned fish (tuna and salmon) is a good source of inexpensive protein (cheaper than fresh). Eggs are also a good, fairly cheap form of protein.

There are plenty more tips on eating well on a budget. Epicurious has some interesting recipe suggestions:
http://www.epicurious.com/on-a-budget-recipes

One theory: buy what you were buying before. Except eat less/portion control. So you're eating less.

This ^

This may not apply to you at all, OP. But my ideas are a little different.

I definitely agree with all of the other fantastic food related ideas that you have been given, but is it possible at all to lower some of your other expenses?

I understand tight budget could mean there's REALLY no wiggle room - and you may be at the mercy of a household of others who like things a certain way, or contracts you can't get out of...but just for the heck of it here are some ideas I would suggest:

~cutting out cable/satellite/Netflix/whatever and streaming content online or even borrowing DVDs (remember those?) from your local library

~going with a provider like ting (or something else cheap) for phone service, and/or cutting back your phone/data plan if applicable

~drinking only at home if you drink

~cutting out the little extras that you don't really need wherever you can. I may be overly frugal in some ways but some of the stuff that I do is like, using cloth dish towels exclusively so I never have to buy paper towels...using multi-purpose cleaning products instead of separate ones for each task...stuff like that. When it comes to toiletries I find that I can't skimp on shampoo, moisturizer, foundation...but can go w/ cheaper products for body wash, mascara & eyeliner. Just some ideas.

I visit my local .99 cent store weekly for all my fresh fruits and veggies. If you have a similar market I would suggest that or even the farmers market for those items. Cook in the crockpot. I throw a whole chicken in mine. You get a juicy tender chicken that's better than a rotissere and you can eat several meals off of that. Good luck!

One of the things that we have done is to eat vegetarian once a week and beans are a great way to get in fiber and protein without spending a ton of money. We do them in a stew/soup-1 bag of beans soaked(lentils or black eyes are good) 1 can of diced tomato, half a small onion diced, 1t of garlic, 1T of olive oil, 2 medium carrots, 1 large potato, 2 stalks of celery, salt, pepper and 1t of Harissa.(Mediterranean hot sauce) Soak the beans and then in a different pan combine the celery, onions, oil and garlic and cook them down then add in the rest and bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. When the carrots are soft it should be ready. It is great to freeze and really delicious too.

*Some of the stores near me have "value fruit/veggies" its stuff thats best used ASAP and about to go. But I'll get a dozen bananas for 0.90 and make Banana bread or muffins.

I do the same thing, but I let the bananas get super ripe on the counter, then cut them up and throw them in the freezer for smoothies. Sometimes I can even get a whole bag of organic bananas for $0.90, which is a good deal!

Farmers markets, grocery outlet centers, there are a lot of options. I know where you are coming from and its so easy and cheaper to eat out or pick up something quick and easy. Its cheaper to feed a family of say four at a fast food joint then it is to sit down and have a healthy balanced meal together and thats a huge problem our country faces. Whats helped me is portion control and eating small meals through out the day. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner...this is a great place for advice and you just have to find what works for you...trial and error. Good luck and stay focused!!!!

Two things I've done that make the biggest difference for the least amount of effort:

1. Don't let anything go to waste.
2. Eat less.

I started out (before I was calorie counting) by eating only until I wasn't hungry, instead of eating til I could eat no more. The other was to eat the leftovers no one else wanted (at another meal, not on top of my own) and those little bits that weren't worth saving before, suddenly could be a whole meal or even a snack.

Like a few bites of leftover meat and veggies were an omelet the next day.

I've always wondered why there are those who think that it's more expensive to lose weight than it was to eat in such a way as to gain it. The whole idea is to eat less of what you were eating before so it should be cheaper to lose weight, right? I get that you might feel you need to eat "clean" or "healthy" whatever that means to you, but it's not necessary to eat any special way to lose weight, just to eat less.

As far as eating on a budget, buy a crockpot/slow cooker if you don't already have one. It can turn cheap cuts of meat into fabulous dinners. You can also make things like chili, soups and stews in quantity and portion them out and refrigerate or freeze for future meals. Buy fresh fruits and veggies on sale and freeze. I do this with berries and bananas, especially, and use them to make smoothies. In fact, try to buy everything on sale as much as you can. Places like Costco are great for toilet paper and laundry detergent. If you have friends who are interested you can go in together and split up the packages and all save some money.

Avoid prepared foods as much as possible because you're paying for the prep not just the food. Buy whole carrots in bulk and cut them up instead of buying baby carrots. Buy a head of lettuce instead of the baggies of pre-washed and cut salads which are crazy expensive. Buy whole chicken breasts and debone them yourself. You get the idea.

I hope this doesn't come out in the wrong way but...

on a tight budget could mean buying less food? be more selective? buying less food and eating less is the key to weight loss, isn't it?

So with this happening, it is hard to buy all the things I would like food wise to help me lose weight.

Losing weight requires eating less, so your food bill should be going down, not up.

I buy everything frozen, esp. veggies and fruit. Carefully heat in the microwave--I'm a microwave queen. Stuff never goes bad and it's easy to throw veggies in everything.

Lunch today was 1.5 cups of greens beans/carrots, 1/4 cup black beans (don't remember the grams) and one tilapia filet (all frozen). Put the veggies and the beans on the bottom, the fish keeps them moist. Microwave. Ta-da! I also do that with my "chicken." Or tuna/salmon pouches.

I do not buy organic veggies. I buy generic. They're cheap and I buy blends to get a variety.

I choose to spend money on bread. I buy low carb/sugar, high fiber/protein bread.

Dinner is usually a bunch of veggies cooked in a skillet with a teeny bit of olive oil and some egg whites. Usually another protein source like shrimp, trader joe's 96% lean ground beef or morning star farms grillers crumbles. Sometimes I throw beans in there and if I'm feeling really wild and crazy I'll toss in some shredded plain potatoes.

I buy expensive dark chocolate (sweetened with stevia) and organic peanut butter. I pick and choose my expensive stuff and still do keep my grocery budget to a minimum. Cheap staples, more expensive special treats.

I buy with my health and goals in mind. Usually.

KALE!!! Kale is super healthy , nutritious and CHEAP. Plus it can be used in a variety of different combinations.