Cost of food rant

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135

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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I've decided one of the hardest things about eating well isn't the time it takes or missing out on cake and cookies. It's having to choose between healthful food and cheap food. There are so many times at the grocery store where I'm comparing foods and have to take the less-good-for-me option because I can't afford the good stuff. Especially breakfast cereals. I wish I could buy Special K or Kashi cereals because they taste so good, but they're too blinking expensive. My little ones love them too, and I feel terrible giving them sugary crap, but I'd spend half of my grocery budget just on breakfast if I bought the good stuff. I really should get up earlier in the morning and make oatmeal more often, but that gets really boring really fast. Anybody else sick of the compromise?

    Ditch the boxed cereal and get some oats in bulk...better yet, start your morning off with eggs and maybe some in season fruit. Eggs are cheap...in season fruit is cheap...bulk oats are cheap.

    Avoid foods MARKETED as healthy...and just eat more whole foods. Staple, whole foods are generally pretty cheap....

    Here are some of my staples...

    - Dried beans, either black beans or pinto...whatever we're in the mood for. I make a big batch of them every weekend to last me the week...dried beans are dirt cheap

    - Potatoes

    - Oats

    - Eggs

    - Brown Rice

    - Broccoli

    - Cabbage

    - Onions

    - Radishes

    - Carrots

    - Frozen Peas

    - Meat/Poultry/Fish (I can always find sales)

    Usually people have issues here when they are buying into "healthy" marketing gimmicks and pre-packaged "health food" rather than just eating naturally healthful foods. Our food costs have gone down quite a bit in the past couple off years eating more whole foods, eating out less, etc....
  • bamagrits15
    bamagrits15 Posts: 131 Member
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    I come upon this right after thinking maybe I should increase my grocery budget, which is difficult because as a single mom there isn't a lot of wiggle room in my budget. I was actually going to post asking for feedback on what people's grocery budget is. I made a list of some cheap dinners like sandwiches or eggs and biscuits. We don't have a Trader Joe's or even a health food store at all in my town. I buy a lot of stuff from Publix when it is BOGO. Especially cereal because I can get it for under $2 a box. Check out some of the coupon blogs. moneysavingmom.com, southernsavers.com, and crazycouponlady.com. Honestly 90% of my budget and healthy eating gets blown by buying fast food since we are always on the go. I'm committed to going the next 5 weeks without any eating out just to see how much better my food budget is at the end of the month.
  • D1v1neQueen
    D1v1neQueen Posts: 13 Member
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    thanks for the wonderful pdf!

    I find that I spend less money eating healthy. When I go off of my meal prep grocery list I always spend more. My advice to you is to plan your meals according to what's in season. View all the sales paper for your local stores and plan your meals from the sales. Always seems to save me tons and if its an item I really enjoy and it freezes well I stock up on it before it goes out of season.
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
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    I don't eat breakfast anymore, but I use to make overnight oatmeal. Mix oats with flavoured yoghurt and a little milk, refrigerate overnight. Next morning just add a fruit if you'd like. :) If you vary the yoghurt flavours it tastes different everytime.

    I agree - overnight porridge is very nice and tastes sufficiently dessert-like for kids to love it and oats are cheap. I use plain yoghurt and add whatever fruit I can find - here frozen berries can be quite cheap when fresh are expensively out of season. I know children love sugary cereals but they may be developing a sweet tooth.
  • kwantlen2051
    kwantlen2051 Posts: 455 Member
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    Thank you, Great advice for everyone!
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
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    I've decided one of the hardest things about eating well isn't the time it takes or missing out on cake and cookies. It's having to choose between healthful food and cheap food. There are so many times at the grocery store where I'm comparing foods and have to take the less-good-for-me option because I can't afford the good stuff. Especially breakfast cereals. I wish I could buy Special K or Kashi cereals because they taste so good, but they're too blinking expensive. My little ones love them too, and I feel terrible giving them sugary crap, but I'd spend half of my grocery budget just on breakfast if I bought the good stuff. I really should get up earlier in the morning and make oatmeal more often, but that gets really boring really fast. Anybody else sick of the compromise?

    I don't eat cereal....ever and never have, because the first time I went shopping for myself with my own money ( almost 50 years ago ) I figured out that cereal was expensive and had no real nutritional value. I eat eggs, left overs from healthy and nutritional meals from the night before and corn tortillas . As a treat I sometimes eat good (multi grain, heavy, home baked) bread with just butter and sometimes with home made jam for breakfast.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
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    I'm a retired foodie with time on my hands and a tight grip on my wallet. For me, writing about food and cooking is fun so I'm using my MFP blog to share ideas and shortcuts for healthy food.

    For example, here's how to make great Greek yogurt from cheap supermarket yogurt at 2/3 the price: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/HeidiCooksSupper/view/bargain-greek-yogurt-hack-694810

    I've also got a hobby cooking blog that has many recipes and ideas, some of them specifically about money saving cooking.

    Here's a post that looks at how much cheaper cooking chicken on the bone is than buying boneless chicken: http://heidicookssupper.com/blog/2009/08/16/chicken-leg-quarters-true-or-false-economy/

    Here's another on how to stock your spice cabinet "on the cheap"
    http://heidicookssupper.com/blog/2009/03/06/travel-to-exotic-places-like-cincinnati-and-buy-spices/

    I'd love to try to answer any questions or do research to try to figure more ideas like this out -- just give me a holler and set me going!
  • MomTo3Lovez
    MomTo3Lovez Posts: 800 Member
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    need to read this later
  • jigsawxyouth
    jigsawxyouth Posts: 308 Member
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    When I was at my last job, I was on a really tight budget and made due with just shopping at Aldi and Dollar General Market.
    Now with more income, I still shop at Aldi and can easily spend 60-70 dollars for HEALTHY food for a family of four. Fresh fruits and veggies (organic!), greek yogurt, cereals, milk, bread, lean meats, beans, EVERYTHING. (they have their own version of Kashi's Go Lean and Go Lean Crunch)

    If you have the means to get to one, I highly recommend checking out an Aldi if there is one by you. All you need is to bring some bags (or buy some there) and take the time to check everything out!
    Good luck!
  • dlr165
    dlr165 Posts: 118 Member
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    I've decided one of the hardest things about eating well isn't the time it takes or missing out on cake and cookies. It's having to choose between healthful food and cheap food. There are so many times at the grocery store where I'm comparing foods and have to take the less-good-for-me option because I can't afford the good stuff. Especially breakfast cereals. I wish I could buy Special K or Kashi cereals because they taste so good, but they're too blinking expensive. My little ones love them too, and I feel terrible giving them sugary crap, but I'd spend half of my grocery budget just on breakfast if I bought the good stuff. I really should get up earlier in the morning and make oatmeal more often, but that gets really boring really fast. Anybody else sick of the compromise?


    I use coupons and shop sales. I never pay more than $1 a box for cereal. We have a huge stockpile of cereal. I paid .85 a box for Kashi early this summer. Check out the couponing websites. They spell out exactly where to get the coupons and how the deal works.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    The thing is, if you really like junk food, you can live on Little Debbies for about $2 a day.

    That's $60 a month.

    And it doesn't get any junkier than that.

    For a time I was so poor, and apparently so sodium-deprived, that I ate a bag of sunflower seeds a day. $1.19 (of course that was in the 90's).

    ETA for to be helpful: Check if there are any CSAs in your area. That's where you sign up with a local farm or farm group and pay a flat fee for a weekly box of whatever they're harvesting. They're usually a really good deal, although you'll generally get more bang for your buck in the summer and fall months. (Unless you want 20 squashes a week)
  • jen_mv
    jen_mv Posts: 21 Member
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    I like to make legume and grain-centered soups and chilies. A vegetarian chili packed with kidney and black beans is very cheap to make (and you don't have to cook as many meals for the week). The same goes for curries and soups like barley soup or lentil soup. The spices can be expensive, but you can find some spices cheaply at the dollar store, Aldi, or (sometimes) Walmart.

    For breakfast, you can buy the huge cannisters of oatmeal for usually under $3, and they last way longer than any cereal. I usually mash a banana or blueberries and mix it in with some cinnamon and sugar.

    I also second everyone suggesting coupons, shopping around, and shopping at Aldi.
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
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    I've gotten a PM saying that the link for that SNAP cookbook still doesn't work, even from the blog post.
    :sigh:
    If you can't open or download it yourself, PM me with your email & I'll send you the PDF which I downloaded.
    This is a public document, doesn't belong to me, so I don't know why it wouldn't open for some of you. :(
    No one NEEDS (unless for medical reasons) to ingest thousands of thousands of calories a day
    Harvard Medical School (link below) says that to maintain weight (when active about 30 min a day) we should eat 15 cal per pound.
    For a 133-lb person (small woman) that's 2000 calories.
    A large man (200 lb) would have 3000.
    http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HB_web/calorie-counting-made-easy.htm
    no one has ever died for eating once a day (as we do)
    Plenty of people have binge eating problems.
    This is the only site where I've ever seen people try to promote it as healthy.
    I've lost almost 91 pounds and husband around 50.
    Congrat's!
    And it's surprising because usually men lose weight quicker & more easily than women.
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    quaker 1-minute quick oats cost the same as other oatmeal, but you don't need to get up early to make it. it's cheap, filling and healthy, and tastes great with a variety of additions - my favorite is cinnamon and stevia, and i use milk instead of water.

    rice is cheap and healthy, as is barley, lentils and dried beans. and there are those generic cereals, which cost a lot less than the major brands.
  • Hearts_2015
    Hearts_2015 Posts: 12,031 Member
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    I've gotten a PM saying that the link for that SNAP cookbook still doesn't work, even from the blog post.
    :sigh:
    If you can't open or download it yourself, PM me with your email & I'll send you the PDF which I downloaded.
    This is a public document, doesn't belong to me, so I don't know why it wouldn't open for some of you. :(
    No one NEEDS (unless for medical reasons) to ingest thousands of thousands of calories a day
    Harvard Medical School (link below) says that to maintain weight (when active about 30 min a day) we should eat 15 cal per pound.
    For a 133-lb person (small woman) that's 2000 calories.
    A large man (200 lb) would have 3000.
    http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HB_web/calorie-counting-made-easy.htm
    no one has ever died for eating once a day (as we do)
    Plenty of people have binge eating problems.
    This is the only site where I've ever seen people try to promote it as healthy.
    I've lost almost 91 pounds and husband around 50.
    Congrat's!
    And it's surprising because usually men lose weight quicker & more easily than women.
    Seems to be working fine when I've tried it, both with the first link on 2 lines and the 2nd time you posted it with the hyperlink. Perhaps there's a space being left open when someone's is not able to access it?

    SO thankful you've shared it, I work with many types of ppl that are always looking for enjoyable recipes, that are healthier and low cost. :flowerforyou:

    Cheers to you MKEgal for finding and sharing! :love:
    Here's to everyone now being able to access it and sift through something that might work for you.
  • Hearts_2015
    Hearts_2015 Posts: 12,031 Member
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    Whew...long day...

    I wanted to mention this this morning but forgot. For any who may be on SNAP, you can shop at most farmer's markets so be sure to check out that option! This is something that I find a lot of people do not know even though this change was made quite a few years ago. You can buy plants/seeds to grow your own food but also purchase produce. This can get you a better price and quality than in many grocery stores if you buy in bulk, but it is also a great way to support local farmers. Just make sure that you call and ask first because, not all farmer's markets have to participate in the program.

    Regards,
    Rachel
    I love that this is now made available, ppl at any income should be allowed to feed their families healthy veggies and fruit! (seeds etc) Sometimes it's hard to find those in the store so the Farmers markets that do allow SNAP cards are pretty awesome opening it up to everyone!:drinker:

    The thing is, if you really like junk food, you can live on Little Debbies for about $2 a day.

    That's $60 a month.

    And it doesn't get any junkier than that.

    For a time I was so poor, and apparently so sodium-deprived, that I ate a bag of sunflower seeds a day. $1.19 (of course that was in the 90's).

    ETA for to be helpful: Check if there are any CSAs in your area. That's where you sign up with a local farm or farm group and pay a flat fee for a weekly box of whatever they're harvesting. They're usually a really good deal, although you'll generally get more bang for your buck in the summer and fall months. (Unless you want 20 squashes a week)
    Just to add, scholarships (sliding fee scales) are typically offered with CSA's in many areas. I pay $9 a week and get a huge bag of all organic fruit and veggies... it's been a good year!!
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,951 Member
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    Vegetables, meat, and butter are more expensive than boxed crap?

    Hmmm. Ok.
  • fitcrt
    fitcrt Posts: 76 Member
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    OP - I feel your pain. The healthy bread I buy costs double what the cheap bread costs (I am super limited due to a food allergy). My family is also very picky and there are only certain "healthy" foods they will eat which means I pay more for the healthy stuff they like... I've been working on changing DH's eating preferences for quite some time & it's not working. The lean ground beef costs more than the fatty ground beef. Even the canned beans I have to buy cost more than the cheap/generic canned beans, Organic products cost more than "normal" products. Plus I have teenagers that just seem to never stop eating so we buy a lot of food. All the condiments and staples I buy cost more due to the food allergy... it is frustrating! I do shop all the sales for any food items I can eat & I go to multiple stores for the lowest prices, I look at the ads when meal planning - but I still spend SO much on food.
  • missemmamm
    missemmamm Posts: 15 Member
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    Aldi's or Save a Lot is also what I was gonna suggest. (though I find Save a Lot to have less of my favs). I do like to have cereal for breakfast sometimes and can get a myriad of kinds cheaper at Aldis. When I was at home I would go to Aldis first and then to a dept or grocery store for whatever I couldn't get there. I can't get to an Aldis where I'm living right now and it irks me when I know I'm spending almost twice as much on some items. I needed to get a good deal of groceries the other day & spent almost $80. Some of stuff that I needed wasn't even offered in generic at this dept store. If I coulda hit Aldis and this store I think I'd have spent $60 or under. I also bought a big bulk bag of cereal at Walmart recently. It was a really good deal. I'm still eating it 3 weeks later so I'm sick of the same kind but still it includes 29 servings.

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