How to eat better foods that you really cant afford? (here is a before during and current picture)

I'm baffled by everyone saying to just keep doing what she's doing when you can't see her food diary. What we eat is not simply a matter of losing weight. Can you lose weight drinking less pepsi and eating flour tortillas and cheese? Yes. Will you be healthy? Maybe. We don't know because we don't know if that's a treat or her every day. If your every day is carbs and cheese and meat with no vegetables you are missing massive amounts of important micronutrients.

OP- I would say to get some whole food cookbooks out from the library. You really can eat well for the same price. As someone else said beans and rice are cheap. Buy marked down veggies if that's all you can afford. Often ones that are just not as nice visually cost less even though they taste just as good. If you are on a tight budget I certainly would try not to waste any money on things like Pepsi or buying "junk" for other family members. I know it's a challenge to change your food habits but it is worth it not just for how you look but how you feel. Where we live there are ways to get free or cheap produce through Good Food Box programs so that's also worth looking into! Good luck!

www.budgetbytes.com

I don't understand why people always go for junk food when they don't have much money, when there are much healthier options that really don't cost more.

I have been doing this for a little over 3 years. The fact is, if you take all of this advice, it is cheaper than eating out and junk food. Trust me. I pay a lot less for groceries now than I was paying pre-MFP. We rarely eat out. I lost over 160 pounds and have been maintaining my weight loss for 17 months. My husband eats all of the same foods I do, just bigger portions, and he has lost 35 pounds not even really trying. Everyone in your family can benefit from this and at a savings for your family grocery bill. Pay attention to sales, buying in bulk, farmers markets, or whatever it takes. Portion size is key. Weigh and measure and stick to it.

Best of luck to you!

I have a blog post (the only post on my mfp blog) about this. I'm a real life poor person, so I empathize.

Okay, I understand your question. You have made good progress just controlling the portions of foods you already ate.
But now you are not progressing it seems, so you joined a gym. And you feel you should make some more changes to your diet but wonder how to "afford" healthier eating.
I think you are doing an awesome job!!!

So maybe just increase your veggie (lots of non-starchy veggies) intake with your meals every day. Like:
-- cook up some veggies in the pan with your morning eggs...a good investment for your money is ghee (it's a good fat that can sit on your counter while you are using it up, and it is good for high temp cooking).
--make a small pot of vegetable soup enough for a couple of days
--make a salad

This will add nutrition and fiber and make your meals go a long way. You'll feel more satisfied.

mamapeach910 wrote: »

Mr_Knight wrote: »

serafinelaveaux wrote: »

I sympathize with you, I really do. I hate when people say oh it costs the same to eat healthy as it does not to. What crap! I go to the store and I can get 3 boxes of generic Mac&Cheese for $1, or 1 bell pepper IF it's on sale.

What does the bell pepper have to do with anything? You can get real rice, real lentils for less than you're paying for the nutritional wasteland known as boxed mac&cheese.

Cheap, and super easy to "cook".

For real. Bag of lentils: 89 cents. Bag of rice? What? $2.00?

And how many meals is that compared to boxed mac and cheese?

And yes, while red bell peppers might be sometimes expensive, not all produce is. Look in the front of the produce department for that week's loss leaders. They will be on sale that week, sometimes with coupons. Frozen vegetables are VERY inexpensive and just as nutritious as fresh.

I have a giant vat of navy beans cooking in the crock RIGHT now with some cheap frozen veggies, ketchup, tomato juice, garlic and onion powders, and a heavy sprinkle of seasoning salt. Will serve with buttered white bread. Total dinner cost? Pennies.

My husband eats a lot of junk, so I understand how that is. I make a grocery list for myself and our boys (they're only 21 mos old so they eat what I give them) and then I tell my husband to write down or text me his list. More to the point though, staples on my list are milk, eggs, plain nonfat yogurt, 1% cottage cheese, apples, at least 2 bunches of bananas, 1 bunch celery, 1 bag baby carrots, 2 red bell peppers, 1 seedless cucumber, and bread. The milk is for the boys, yogurt and bananas we share, the veggies and apples are for my lunches, and bread is for the boys' lunches and sometimes mine. I make a huge pot of soup for the week for my lunches, or lately I've been bringing sandwiches. We also go through a lot of oats, rice, cream of wheat, wheatena, lentils, barley, pasta, canned veggies, some canned fruits, unsweetened applesauce, peanut butter, jelly, and honey. Then just whatever random stuff for dinners during the week. Fresh produce can be pricey depending on what you get. Frozen and canned are great options if you're on a super tight budget. I would really recommend going heavy on the rice, lentils, barley, and oats. They will keep you full for cheap and you can find some really easy, cheap, healthy recipes using those things if you do a little searching online!

I hear you; while I've mostly only been cooking for myself the last few years, I did that on a graduate student's budget (ie: dirt cheap). And now I'm adapting to cooking for my meat-eating, not-in-love-with vegetables fiance (I'm a vegetarian). It sounds like you've done a great job. Most important: don't give up because of an *apparent* lack of results. Just keep going. There's already great advice above on foods, getting moving, etc. So a bit about my own attempts to shop more cheaply:

I unabashedly shop in the "discount" section of the produce section. You know, the little cart or corner most stores have with the bruised tomatoes, overripe fruit, the not-pretty-enough yams that look like a toddler's play-doh creations. I buy these and use them as soon as possible. If it's something that freezes well I buy as much as they have and make my own veggie packs (wash, chop, freeze on wax paper covered baking sheet, portion into bags for the next stir fry, soup, to add to spaghetti sauce, etc.). Depending on where you live, you might want to look for a local ethnic market--prices are often much lower than at standard chains. We're lucky to have a walking distance Mexican grocery store that often sells produce and staple pantry items much cheaper than our chain store. Avocados for only 75 cents each, peppers for 50 cents, mangoes for 69? Yes, please! I used to live near a Polish deli that practically gave away summer produce (tomatoes, squash, beans). Plus shopping at these places is kind of fun and takes no more effort than the shopping you have to do anyway.

My answer to this: Anything on sale at Sprouts and anything on sale (meaning I eat in season fresh food - it's difficult during the winter, though) at any other grocery store close to me. I'm excited that it is spring and all my favorite fruit and veg are coming back! Now to wait for the sales to pop up!

Around here our farmers market has a lot of seconds. I bought a whole flat of blueberries for $10. Now, there are plenty of bad ones, they have to be cleaned and so on. But, that's 10 LBS of blueberries for $10. I've hardly made a dent at all in the flat and have 28 ounces of cleaned frozen berries in the freezer. I bought a flat of strawberries for $9, which is a bit less than a dollar a lb, but most of those are decent.
I bought a couple large papaya for $1 each, had to trim em up a bit as they had some bruising, but, those are cleaned up and ready to go.

Beans are about the cheapest thing out there. Even decent rice doesn't cost much.