Tips to make eating healthy cheaper

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  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I love these threads. I don't want to repeat all the great ideas already provided so I'll try and be original.

    If you are running in to fancy paleo/gluten free/sugar free recipes calling for fancy ingredients, try substituting. I will run any nut or seed I have on hand through my blender for a fancy nut butter. Or just use peanut butter. Raisins, prunes and dates are pretty well interchangeable. You might need to simmer the drier fruit to get the same consistency.

    For making healthier versions of your children's favourites:
    • Spaghetti - see if they like spaghetti squash with the sauce.
    • Mac and Cheese - The price of the box can't be beat. You can reduce the fat significantly by making with skim or 1% milk and just a tablespoon of butter. Offer it with a side of vegetables. My children hated it every time I tried to doctor the Mac and Cheese so for the sake of domestic peace I suggest you don't mess with it.
    • Pizza - I bought thin crust pizza shells and put our own toppings on it, low fat mozzarella. It was very good and mine had more cheese than the store-made version.
    • Vegetable and Fruit kebabs - a way to involve your children in the creativity of cooking.
    • Protein Bar - I make my own protein bar using the Puffed Wheat Square recipe as my base. I replace the puffed wheat with millet, and I add 1/2 cup protein powder or whey powder. It is tasty enough children will gobble it up.

    For convenience, try slow cooker meals like sloppy joes or chili that are ready when you get home. Convenient, cheap, and ready after a long day.

    For more creativity and variety for your children, pick up a children's cook book and help them start preparing food from scratch. If they made it, they will eat it. This could be a once a week event.

    Leftovers for lunch! My biggest savings right there.
  • bubbajoe1066
    bubbajoe1066 Posts: 95 Member
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    Coupons..coupons... there are plenty of site to print weekly coupons... just google grocery coupons.

    check when your grocery store marks down it meat ,chicken and fish... the last thing they want to do is toss it after the sell by date.... today i picked up 2 oven roasters for $8.00 just over 10 lbs of chicken... i'll save the carcasses and make stock for soups and cooking rice . so easy to make home made stocks.and you can control what you put into it
    tilapia, a freshwater white fish sell for just over 11 dollar for 4 pounds.. each fillet is wrapped seperately. little bread crumb on top, some spices, little lemon... bake.... mmmmm
    sweat potatoes. are also inexpensive..one large potato feed 2 in my family..
    don't discount frozen veggies... they are frozen when they are at their best and taste pretty darn good. most grocery stores sell them 2 for or even 10 for ..when they do stock up

    i think i saw this posted before... but try your hand at gardening... small patch of dirt can yield a huge amount of fresh herbs and veggies... get the family involved... if you don't have a yard..garden on your deck... grocery stores with bakeries use 5 gallon buckets of frosting .. they will give you the used ones for free... i say this because you have to make sure the plastic is food safe... one 5 gallen bucket will hold 1 tomato plant, 2 or 3 lettuces and maybe some basil... put the tomato in the back then basil then lettuce... the lettuce will grow faster and you harvest and replant... loads of fun watching things grown and eating what you grew.

    think outside the box..you know what your family likes ..figure ways to make it healthier.

    good luck

  • skbrodie
    skbrodie Posts: 81 Member
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    I just want to say that almond milk is not better for you than regular milk.
  • MissDeeDee78
    MissDeeDee78 Posts: 415 Member
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    Kinda off topic but do you use the Flipp app? It goes through all your weekly grocery flyers and you can ad match sales on whatever items you need. Anyways I'd buy regular eggs and just separate them. Greek yogurt is usually on sale somewhere. lol Good luck :smile:
  • rgbmore
    rgbmore Posts: 85 Member
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    When my local Sprouts grocery stores releases its weekly ad each week, I look at the main things on sale.
    Pork chops on sale this week? Ok.

    Then I search Pinterest, google, my own recipes, (or if you have a pressure cooker, PressureCookerToday and such), my favorite food blogs for recipes that involve pork chops. I buy a big pack and try to make 2-3 meals involving that item.

    Same thing with fruits and veggies. If avocados are on sale, woohoo! I get avocados that week. If they are not, I settle for something else. Apples on sale? That's the fruit in the kid's lunch then.

    Good luck!
  • HotAshMess
    HotAshMess Posts: 382 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Protein powder, PB2 and protein bars are a bit of a luxury item. I thought I needed them. I'm doing just fine focusing more on eating more clean.

    Eat in season, obviously. I will not pay $1 an avocado when I know they'll go on sale for $.69-.79. Don't EVER pay full price for meat. It all goes on sale on a schedule, you just have to watch it a bit.

    Maybe one of these suggestions will help you. http://www.morethancheeseandbeer.com/search/label/cheap eating
  • stephanie20314
    stephanie20314 Posts: 81 Member
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    Amazon subscribe and save is awesome for bulk pantry staples. Dried beans, rice, flour, coffee, tea $150 and free shipping for 6 months supply. Bulk stores and farmers markets for produce. Dates are usually cheapest at a place like costco, same with pb2 and frozen fruits. Ditch the protein bars.
  • knp90210
    knp90210 Posts: 34 Member
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    I love these threads. I don't want to repeat all the great ideas already provided so I'll try and be original.

    If you are running in to fancy paleo/gluten free/sugar free recipes calling for fancy ingredients, try substituting. I will run any nut or seed I have on hand through my blender for a fancy nut butter. Or just use peanut butter. Raisins, prunes and dates are pretty well interchangeable. You might need to simmer the drier fruit to get the same consistency.

    For making healthier versions of your children's favourites:
    • Spaghetti - see if they like spaghetti squash with the sauce.
    • Mac and Cheese - The price of the box can't be beat. You can reduce the fat significantly by making with skim or 1% milk and just a tablespoon of butter. Offer it with a side of vegetables. My children hated it every time I tried to doctor the Mac and Cheese so for the sake of domestic peace I suggest you don't mess with it.
    • Pizza - I bought thin crust pizza shells and put our own toppings on it, low fat mozzarella. It was very good and mine had more cheese than the store-made version.
    • Vegetable and Fruit kebabs - a way to involve your children in the creativity of cooking.
    • Protein Bar - I make my own protein bar using the Puffed Wheat Square recipe as my base. I replace the puffed wheat with millet, and I add 1/2 cup protein powder or whey powder. It is tasty enough children will gobble it up.

    For convenience, try slow cooker meals like sloppy joes or chili that are ready when you get home. Convenient, cheap, and ready after a long day.

    For more creativity and variety for your children, pick up a children's cook book and help them start preparing food from scratch. If they made it, they will eat it. This could be a once a week event.

    Leftovers for lunch! My biggest savings right there.


    There are so many great ideas here :) Thanks guys :D

  • cbelc2
    cbelc2 Posts: 762 Member
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    Get the we whole lot of you out there and plant a garden. You can easily and cheaply build boxes 2x10 feet and fill with garden mix. Plant square foot style. Kids love to plant and harvest and weed. Look up gypsy stew. As huge pot is cheap to make and quite filling and super healthy.
  • ldowdesw
    ldowdesw Posts: 222 Member
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    How about a good old fashioned meal planner? Did you shop on an empty stomach? Looks like a lot of unnecessary food to me.
  • swift13b
    swift13b Posts: 158 Member
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    Seconding an earlier suggestion of checking out budgetbytes.com and making a meal plan. I'm only feeding myself but I do meal plan/prep to help cut costs and save time. All the recipes I've tried from budgetbytes have been really good, though the prices don't mean much to me as I'm in Australia. Just in general you'll find that making a meal plan (and sticking to it) will help save you some money. Also, when meal planning, look for recipes that use simple ingredients instead of all the fad health foods. I can't really talk though, I have so many bags of nuts/seeds/dried fruits that I've bought for recipes that I really need to use up.

    You've already mentioned buying fruit that's in season - that logic applies to veggies too. Whatever is on sale is usually what's in season and in its peak. There are some veggies I always buy frozen like broccoli, corn and cauliflower and then there are somethings I know to avoid and sub for something else in recipes (like red bell peppers can be twice the cost per kg of green peppers but I hate the green ones, so I just use a different vegetable all together). Sometimes I'll check what's in season before planning to make a veggie-heavy meal, just in case whatever I need is out of season and will therefore be expensive.

    Finally, depending on where you live and what you have access to, you can probably save money by a. shopping at a cheaper grocery store like Aldi/Walmart, b. buying local produce at a farmer's market or c. using coupons or all those wonderful apps you have access to in the US to give you cash back.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    smnovosad1 wrote: »
    We don't have the best eating habits as a family. We eat out a lot, which I am trying to change, and the kids eat a lot of cheap stuff like spaghetti, Mac and cheese, pizza. I always include fruit -- whatever is cheapest during the current season.

    I have started to try to eat better myself, to make me healthier and to lose weight while retaining muscle. I have been buying egg whites, avocado, whole grain breads, stevia, PB2, protein powder, protein bars, Greek yogurt, almond milk, etc. I still don't have a supply of what most "healthy" people seem to have in their cupboards -- I am forever reading recipes I want to make and then I run into dates, ground flaxseed, or something else and I don't have it? But I've only been working on this for 2 months.

    My problem is apparently our grocery bill went up $150 last month and my husband is upset. He blames all the "crazy" things I'm buying for the increase. The stuff I'm buying isn't mainstream and doesn't go on sale like the other stuff we get. I know people are going to say it is cheaper to cook/eat at home, but cooking/eating different things seems to be negatively impacting our budget.

    I know it's all about choices, and we may have to allocate more money to food, but I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about how I can make healthy food more cheaply?

    Thanks so much!

    Flaxseed is a total fad and should be mocked at every opportunity. :smiley:

    Ignore anyone who is trying to promote a food as "healthy".

    All food nourishes in one way or another.

    Eat the foods you love within your calorie limit.

    Being restrictive just makes it more difficult to lose weight.
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    I agree with @jkhoffe; are you sure that $150 'increase' isn't actually just a reallocation taken from a savings on the eating out side of the equation?
    If it really does represent new food spending, some of this will probably reflect the establishment of a broader pantry & even out over a few months.
    I'm not the best person to give advice on bare bones food budgets. We've never eaten out much & have always viewed food as a health care expense and entertainment expense as well. Nobody takes expensive supplements or medications, and we invite folks over to eat with us a lot. Plus my husband & children participate in endurance sports like trail running which means everybody needs to eat well and often!
    My biggest weekly shop is at Costco. I also hit a nearby Asian market and Latin market for things Costco doesn't stock. Prices on fresh veg at ethnic markets is usually very cheap! I like a variety of organic dairy items that I can only get at whole foods but I don't buy a lot else when I'm there. There are two small local grocery stores that I follow for sales. One in particular has great deli prices and very good local fish contracts on salmon, dungeness, etc in season. I usually buy whatever they have featured in their sales flier that week.
    So I shop several different stores each week to keep total costs down. I meal plan & do the biggest shop on Saturday, then hit the smaller places thru the week as my job as a school sub takes me to different parts of town.
    I use or freeze every last scrap. Food waste is a pet peeve of mine. It's sloppy, expensive & bad for our planet! A few years ago I went through our family recipes & really streamlined what we cook because I felt like I was chasing my tail always cooking new recipes (and needing new ingredients!) Maybe that is happening a little bit here? Once you get some new routine meals established you may find you don't need to buy as much new stuff.
    Best of luck to you! xo
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    I really like the app Paprika for recipe storage. I've transferred all our recipes over to it, and it generates grocery lists as well.
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    I have to say I've never had much luck with coupons. We don't buy things like pasta sauce or salad dressing because I make those things from scratch. You don't find a lot of raw ingredients on coupon, and bulk prices usually beat coupon prices if you do.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    @scolaris I have to say my coupon experience is much like yours. Coupons likely are more helpful for non food items like toiletries and food storage.
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I get the very best prices on food storage items at the restaurant supply outlet Cash & Carry. And it's not even a membership type place.
    But we don't get coupon doubling anywhere in this market. That could be a game changer.
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    Recently I've been stocking up on toiletries at Target. They run things like deodorant and shampoo on sale, and then offer a $5 target gift card if you buy four. The best part is you can spend the gift card on whatever you want! LOL
  • wizzybeth
    wizzybeth Posts: 3,573 Member
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    I want to chime in and echo the posters who've stated you don't need to buy all that fancy stuff to eat healthy. You really can eat healthy on normal, everyday foods!!!

    For a short while I got on a kick there I felt I needed to migrate to a more vegan diet - (a friend had me convinced, after giving me paraphernalia from the likes of Dr. Neal Barnard or Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Thank GOD MFP forums delivered me from that thinking - I love my friend but I can't go for that lifestyle) It was very expensive when you try to create these crazy-good sounding meals with crap you can only find in health food stores.

    Honestly - just keep it simple. Chicken breast, tuna, lean beef meals. Nothing wrong with home made tacos, home made pizza....eggs are a miracle food.

    The extras may be nice - but if you can't afford them, you can't afford them. Just go for normal stuff. Maybe once in a while if a particular recipe reaches out to you and screams "MAKE ME!" you can . :)

    ALSO I really see no real beneift of PB2 over ordinary peanut butter.
  • toe1226
    toe1226 Posts: 249 Member
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    Costco, big bag of quinoa, a couple stacks of black/garbanzo beans, a big bag of brussel sprouts (they keep for a long time) and or broccoli, big bags of frozen fish or chicken breasts, big bag of carrots, almonds...and now you could stirfry for days!

    Also, bulk isles.

    I say don't pay atttention to some of the "fancy organic" products, if you like almond milk, buy it, but I wouldn't feel obligated to all that stuff...just stick with the basics, nuts legumes grains veggies - you'll be golden.

    and kudos!
  • toe1226
    toe1226 Posts: 249 Member
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    also, what better way to spend money than improving the health of yourself and your family?!

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