Eating Healthy on a Budget

Will keep an eye on this post, as i'm very interested to know as well!
"Good quality" fresh fish, meats and veg are pretty hard to find cheap here in the UK.

Here are some ideas:
One thing I do is buy a bag of frozen chicken breast tenders and I can make many meals out of it. You can make salads, wraps (buffalo chicken), put a slice of provolone cheese on a cooked chicken breast and have it with some spaghetti sauce, et. cWatch sale ads for produce, etc.. Wal-Mart price matches. A friend of mine last week told me about the website pricematcherz.com. They combine all ads in your area and then you can take it to Wal-Mart and price match.
Make soup or chili and eat leftovers.

Someone (I can't remember who, but they're wonderful as a result) posted this link the other day about cheap, good, food/recipes

https://8e81c55f4ebf03323905b57bf395473796067508.googledrive.com/host/0B2A2SnkA9YgxaHdzbEhGSmJOZDg/good-and-cheap.pdf

Doesn't 100% work for me being UK but it is a brilliant read.

Oooh, thanks for the link. :drinker:
I'll have a read of that later.

This thread had some good ideas.......

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1442745-eating-healthy-on-a-budget?hl=BUDGET&page=2

There was a cookbook idea....I'll post back if I can find it.

People on this site have various definitions for "healthy foods" so without knowing yours:

Dried beans are probably always going to give you the best nutritional profile for your buck.

Eggs are usually affordable, as is canned tuna, and frozen white fish such as tilapia or pollock.

Frozen fruits and vegetables are usually a fraction of the price of fresh vegetables and many times have a better nutritional profile since many vitamins are lost when exposed to light. Also, produce picked before ripe and allowed to ripen during transport will not have the same nutritional profile as produce allowed to ripen before harvest. \

Clip coupons and buy whats on sale then plan your meals around it, rather than planning meals first then buying items not on sale to fit your menu.

Grow as much of your own produce as possible.

When something is on sale for a really good price, I buy in bulk. If it can be frozen, I'll freeze it. I very rarely buy anything full price.

Great ideas! I also buy frozen chicken breast because we can make several meals out of them! The challenge is getting my kids yo eat healthy!

If they see you eating it, they will follow suit. Some things we had to introduce several times(they had to at least try a bite), but now my children eat just about everything.

I've found that it costs the same to have healthier eating habits (or even saves you money you'd usually spend at the drive thru or restaurants). If you buy meat/cheese on sale and produce in season, and watch your portions, your food will go further. Salad dressing takes us forever to get through now that we only use 1-2 tbls at a time. You do have to make a conscious effort to 'buy less' at the grocery store too. Choose smaller packages of food (a lot of meats are packaged 1-2lbs or 3-4lbs, so dig around in the case), stick to 4oz of meat (each) per meal, and see what's on sale before you go shopping.

Meal planning has always been my friend too, to save money. Got chicken, but no potatoes? Got a jar of spaghetti sauce but no noodles? Spending ages discussing what to eat and nothing seems to work so you just go out to eat? That scenario has been 90% eliminated in our household check through your fridge/cupboards/freezer to see what you have and base meals around that, and only buy what you will need for those meals.

The foods we have 'taken off' our shopping list have also saved us money - cereal and cereal bars, bags of chips and chocolate, bacon ($5 a pound!), sodas, juice, etc.. We replaced them with more bread & eggs for breakfast and fruits/veggies for snacks, and a giant pitcher with a filter for nicer tasting tapwater.

And we did most of this stuff BEFORE deciding to lose weight just to save us money, so our budgeting lead to healthier eating. So good luck!

Stick to the basics and do not eat out: Meats (Chicken, Roasts), Carbs (Oatmeal, Sweet Potatoes, Rice). Cook in bulk and freeze the rest into prepared meals.

I buy chicken 6 lbs at a time, Oatmeal 10 lbs at a time, Sweet potatoes 5 lbs at a time. Pay attention to the price per lb/serving on what you buy.

the biggest thing that works for us is to make a meal plan for one to two weeks then I do an inventory of what I have on hand already and then I make the shopping list. I do not deviate from my list. I try to buy in bulk packages of meat so that it can be used for two to three different meals, I buy all generic or store brand (if you watch hows it made ever- you will know its the same products as most name brands), I plan for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and even desserts for the entire week. this cuts down on a lot of added costs just by not impulse buying in the store. I am a shopping cart Nazi when I go there. Nothing gets past me if its not on the list. If it does I get it out in the check out lane before it rings up. (my hubby is always trying to slip at least one past me). I look for recipes that call for the least amount of ingredients but will fill us up and also taste good. Yes, it can be done. You just have to put a little time into it instead of sitting mindlessly in front of the tube, you can go check out a recipe site for few minutes. I use my crock pot. I pre make the meals occasionally too by having the ground beef already cooked, the vegies pre cut, etc. I freeze all leftovers. I portion out just enough for anyone who is eating and if there happens to be any left over in the pan, I immediately put it into a freezer container and put it away Before serving the plates. This way nobody can over eat and also I can break out with it at a later date like it was just freshly made. I started doing this when I got sick of constantly throwing out the leftovers that were turned into mystery food in the fridge after who knows how long. Now I don't throw that much away at all and it comes in handy when the grocery budge is low and all I got is some leftovers and my creativity for the day.

Those frozen chicken packages are not that expensive and can make quite a few meals. I also freeze a lot of my fresh vegies and fruits, just not the watery ones like melon or lettuce. Most can be frozen (you can blanch them first if you prefer or just use a nice freezer container) again: I got sick of throwing out vegies or fruits gone bad too many times. now I don't. You can go meatless sometimes if you make it tasty. Nobody will really know if you get creative. Like a delicious eggplant or zucchini lasagna or vegie stif fry with rice,

you can skip the sugary drinks and encourage more water drinking. you can not purchase any chips/crisps and go with carrot sticks instead. they are much cheaper and last longer. SHop at the dollar store for some things too. That's all I got for now.

In for ideas...great thread!