Healthy Eating on a Budget

kommodevaran wrote: »

Buy ordinary food, in bulk, fresh food in season, frozen off season, generic when equally good as name brand, not more than you need of anything, and eat it up - cheap.
Buy novelty foods/"health food"/"organic", prepackaged, fresh strawberries in January, always name brand, overdo protein or too low fat, letting fresh food spoil - expensive.

THIS!!

I often buy frozen foods. They are healthier than vegetables from a cup, tasty and easy to always have at home.
I also go the local market with all the stands every week to buy lots of fruits. Sometimes it's 4x as cheap on the market than the price which they have in the supermarket. Or visit a local farmer who sells his stuff. Spares all the costs that the supermarkets add up

Eat in season and bulk out meals with potatoes/rice/beans.

Also, get herbs and spices from Asian supermarkets - you can get huge bags for less than half what Schwartz or Oxo would charge.

dw920 wrote: »

vivmom2014 wrote: »

I didn't change what I eat, I changed where I shop.

Aldi is king. Seriously has cut my grocery bill in half (just like they advertise!)

Yes! I LOVE Aldi! Ours is fantastic, clean, and full of really cost effective organic options. I once did price comparison with a few of our favorite meals (between Aldi, Walmart, and Bi-Lo, which was our local grocery store at the time) and Aldi was lower on EVERY single item by at least 40% and a lot of the items were better quality (meaning, I could pay less there for an organic option than I would pay for conventional at other stores). There are only a handful of items our store doesn't carry.

Huh. I just realized that little store I went to once was an Aldi's. Does your have organic or humanely raised meat and dairy, or were you referring to produce? Do they still not take credit cards?

Chaagy wrote: »

Look up on YouTube - Brothers Green Eats - and find his series on eating for $3 a day.

Ijust finished watching this series of videos after reading your post! Thank you so much for sharing. I have so many ideas now!

I cut costs by shopping in a produce market that also has a small fresh fish department. The produce is about half the price of the supermarket down the street, and I mostly eat fresh vegetables and fruits anyway. Freshly baked breads and rolls are really inexpensive there, as well as dried lentils and beans. I splurge and buy fresh salmon usually once a week because I love it so much and it's about half price compared to the supermarket.

TaraTall wrote: »

So, people say that fast food is cheaper than eating healthy. I disagree (in the big picture) but also find that a lot of the meals call for food that can quickly add up at the grocery store. Beef and veggies/fruit skyrocketing right now.
What sort of things do you do to keep your budget in check when you grocery shop?
Sister recommended tofu, has any meat-eater opted that route?

I tend to eat more chicken and pork as they are much cheaper than beef. I personally don't care for tofu except for very particular dishes.

In season fruits and veg which means this time of year you're looking at things like root vegetables, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, carrots, etc. Also, frozen vegetables are often cheaper than fresh produce. For fruit in the winter I primarily stick to apples and grapefruit.

Other staples include dried legumes, lentils, brown rice, quinoa, oats, grits, potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggs, etc...

We don't buy meat (husband doesn't eat it and I just order it occasionally in restaurants) so that cuts a lot out of our grocery budget off the top. We sub with beans, chickpeas, lentils, eggs, etc..and since he will eat fish/seafood we do buy shrimp and fish but it's usually cheaper varieties.

Really I think planning is the #1 thing that helps us. Writing out a detailed list of about 5 different breakfast, lunch, and dinner options (a couple are repeated and we usually dine out 1-2 times on Saturday). Buying ONLY items to fill our menu list, and using up most items we have on hand. We purposely plan a mix of meals so we have easy/quick stuff for busy nights and more time-consuming options for lazier days, and very low cal (tofu veggie stir fry) along with more indulgent meals (Japanese curry and craft beer). This is helpful for us in staying on track with eating at home, and we still don't spend a lot. ALWAYS gotta have a freezer full of bagged frozen vegetables and staple items like rice, pasta, beans, etc. I'm a big fan of buying in bulk on things we truly use a lot of (oatmeal, peanut butter) and just grabbing the regular size for lesser used items (coconut milk). Bulk spices from the ethnic markets are a HUGE money saver.

We have almost zero waste in our household and we eat tons of fruits & vegetables. We are just very conservative in which ones we buy (in season, some for nearly immediate consumption within 48 hrs and then others that will last later into the week). I think that helps more than any coupon clipping ever could. I know my mom (just for example) goes to the grocery store with good intentions sometimes and then by midweek she has nothing that really "works" to make a simple healthy meal and winds up at McDonald's instead, and throwing out several pieces of bad produce. Cleaning out her fridge involves well intentioned frozen chili, casseroles, etc, and expired Lean Cuisines. We never really have anything like that in my house. If something is frozen it's usually thawed and eaten in a couple of weeks' time because we know we would be like "ugh" 3 months down the road and toss it.

Thanks!