Stay at home Mom on a budget...

There are inexpensive and expensive choices within each food group:

Veggies - asparagus and bell peppers = expensive
Broccoli and cabbage = inexpensive

Fruit - kiwis and mangos = expensive
Apples and bananas = inexpensive

For both fruit and veg - try to focus on what is in season, it will be cheaper. Example - I picked up fresh green beans for $0.99/lb today.... A couple weeks ago they were around $3/per lb and looked sad. Right now I'm buying fresh berries most every week; in the winter I only get frozen berries, if I buy them at all. In the fall my focus is on apples and winter squash varieties.

Grains - grains tend to be inexpensive as a general rule, but buying in bulk (and not purchasing boxed items that come with seasoning packets and such - portion and season the bulk grains yourself) is a great way to save here

Meats - buying larger cuts of meat and doing some of your own butchering can be a huge cost savings; also there are some pretty cheap protein sources that come to mind - canned tuna and eggs for example.

Dairy - where I live whole milk and skim milk are the same price (I opt for whole because I too have young children and I don't drink milk very often myself), but natural cheeses do tend to be more expensive than low fat processed cheese - the difference is the flavor, lol. Buying natural cheese on sale, in bulk, and freezing some can help

You can of course continue eating what you were eating, just in smaller amounts. But eating "healthy" need not be super expensive. Plan your dinners, buy what's on sale (pick up store circulars if you don't already get them in the mail and base your meals on the items that are at deepest discount), buy in bulk and freeze what you can, and shop seasonally. When you buy less "junk" foods, you will find lots of room in the budget for nutritious food. I'm a sahm of four kids myself, so I understand the delimma. As for "treats" for the kids - I check out the circulars and only buy one or two "junk" items that happen to be on sale, assuming I can afford it (this week there was a heck of a deal on Klondike bars... Lucky kids ).

Dnarules wrote: »

2011rocket3touring wrote: »

Find a farmers market. They sell veggies super cheap compared to a supermarket.

This depends on the farmer's market. Our big farmer's market is often no cheaper than the grocery store.

Ours can often be wayyy more expensive at the farmers market too!

My cure for the stay at home mom with "no job, no life" was to start a cooperative playgroup. We started with a group of moms who were in the same position and met once a week at each others homes, or a park in nice weather, with our kids. This was awesome. When winter came around we approached a local community center and asked for free space twice a week. We "stocked' our play group from garage sales etc and met twice a week for years.

Honestly it saved my sanity having the group twice a week. I made friends for a life time and it cost me nothing. Plus my kids really benefitted from the story time, craft time and friendships.

I know the food and budget are hard. But frankly I would just buy frozen veg and add a big portion of it to meals. Kids need to see parents enjoying healthy food too.

Shop in Aldi! It's cheaper than anywhere else for fresh produce and spices etc. And buy frozen fruit/veg. That way you can eat a little at a time without it spoiling. We eat a lot of frozen blueberries in our house (my kids eat them frozen). They're cheap and available all year round.
Likewise you could cook a big pot of bean stew or lentil soup for yourself and freeze it in individual portions. Beans and lentils are the cheapest thing you can buy (I can get a huge bag for 75 cents) so I don't agree 'diet food' is expensive.

You can also make the whole family try to eat healthy with you as well? If you do that it does give you some support because it shows that your making their lives healthier in the long run . It might be rough at first but I promise it will work out