Grocery shopping just got more expensive!

I never noticed eating healthy being more expensive unless you fill your cart with all organic items. (or full of processed diet food or things labeled "low-cal", but I don't consider those healthy...)

When you look at all the money you spend on food, whether groceries or restaurants, eating unhealthy is far more expensive. I don't buy junk food; I consider junk food really expensive! Shop the perimeter of the store, eat produce that's in season, and don't depend only on animal products for protein. Mix it up with eggs, beans, and yogurt. Makes the cost of eating healthy a lot more reasonable.

I find that it is way more expensive to eat junk food, but it may be because of where we live. A box of fruit loops is $8, a bag of oatmeal is $3. A bag of chips is $4, same as a bag of apples. We definatly get more for our money by buying healthy instead of buying crap or fast food.

For our family to go for a fast food meal it costs at least $30, usually more. For that same price we could buy an entire chicken, ($10) a bag of salad, ($3) 2 bulk russet potatoes ($1), Gravy ($2) Angel food cake ($6) , strawberries ($3) and whipped cream ($3). It feeds us an amazing meal, and there are leftovers for the next day. Sure beats a tummy ache from the McDonalds.

The tips that I have learned over the last few years (and I feed 5 people, so this will be different if you are just cooking for yourself)
-Look through the flyers before you go to see sales and make a list
-Chicken thighs and legs are much cheaper then chicken breast. I take off the skin myself and we get 2 meals out of each $10 pack of legs/thighs.
-Make your own sauce. Its really very easy and you can control what goes into it.
-We always make a little bit extra at dinner so that my husband has leftovers to take for lunch the next day. it really doesn't add much to the cost of dinner, and it cuts down on the cost of sandwich supplies.
- Bake! I bake all our treats. I don't have a choice with allergies in our house, but I would do it anyway. In the end its much cheaper to bake 3 dozen cookies then it is to buy a bag of oreos.
-frozen veggies are cheaper and last longer then fresh. Same with fruits.

I don't spend any more eating healthy than I did before. But I also used to eat take out pretty often and drink 2-3 energy drinks a day ($2-$2.50 each).

I stock up on things like chicken when it's on sale, it was $1.90/lb a couple of weeks ago and I bought 20lbs. Yes that was about $40, but it will last quite a while. I put 2-3 breasts in bags and freeze them and thaw as needed.

I get fruits and veggies depending on what is on sale that week. Can's of tuna are pretty healthy and cheap. You can also do frozen veggies instead of fresh ones and big bags of them are usually pretty cheap. I eat tons of greek yogurt and I just eat the kroger brand because it is almost 1/2 the price of the other brands. I eat a lot of eggs (whole eggs) they are cheap and you can do lots of different things with them. I eat lean ground beef which isn't terribly expensive.

I spend on average $30-$40 per week on groceries (for just me).

It really isn't more expensive... It is at first, but then you learn little secrets and it gets cheaper and cheaper and eventually cheaper than eating crap.

junk is easier and quicker to buy, it certainly isn't cheaper..

There are tons of posts already in the forums.. search for them and you will find lots of hints.

I absolutely agree! I spend FAR less now than in the past when I was going the fast food route and eating packaged crap! If one really sat down and figured out how much was spent on fast food, pre-packaged foods, all the junk purchased before, I think it would far exceed the cost of eating healthy food!

Plus in my experience healthy food makes you feel sustained much longer and not crash and burn an hour after eating it..

I've found the opposite is true -- our groceries bills have gone down by about 50% since we started eating healthier. We also don't go out to eat as often and are saving that way, too.

I think planning is key. I plan a week's recipes (breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and snacks - I actually do a nerdy little grid and my husband loves to check it to see what's for dinner that night!) on a Thursday and do my shopping on Friday. I only buy what we need and nothing else. It's easier to plan ahead for leftovers this way, too.

I buy individual items whenever possible. For example, if I need two red peppers for the week's menus, I buy two red peppers instead of the "value" bag of 6 or 8. We're guilty of wasting a lot of food in our house and those extra peppers would probably just turn to mush in the fridge before I used them all up.

Just wanted to second the CSA (community supported agriculture) share and farmers market ideas. The great part about either is you may be able to make friends with the people growing your food.

Since you asked for a method: I don't talk about my weight loss goals specifically, but I'm very vocal about trying to get healthier overall. I'll say things like "wow, those potatoes look great, you know, we've been trying to do healthier eating for less cost lately, and I bet those would be a nice addition." Often the farmers will share healthy recipes and point out what else you should or should not pick up at the market that day due to price or freshness.

We're still pretty new to our new location (Midwest) but on the West Coast we regularly attended one farmer's market. There some of the vendors started telling us up to six weeks in advance what would be coming in at good prices and providing us with recipes!

Mine is the same way...he say's that he'll pay for lipo suction...lol But I keep telling him that the 60-90$ a week we spent on delivery pizza does not happen anymore, so now it cost less in groceries...if you think that it use to cost me between 130 to 150$ a week plus pizza (let say 60$ is twice in a week) so realy it use to cost us 190 to 210$ a week and now it's only 160 to 170$...so I save. I just keep telling to shut up at least he's eating good food!

Good luck!

Exactly. I think the whole "junk is cheaper" argument is BS.

I totally disagree! We live in London, UK and don't do takeaways and yet, if we were to live on refined carbs, processed & frozen foods, chips and cheap cuts of meat we would save a fortune. We decided a long time ago though that the benefits of healthy eating by far outweigh the costs!

I think the whole expensive/not expensive issue depends on where you are from. With all the floods and droughts and tornados and hurricanes and wildfires.......some of us can't get inexpensive food because it's shipped 1000's of miles to our stores and the price goes up.

For instance: a dozen corn on the cob - got last year for $6. Just heard from a local farmers market lady and she said the projected price when it finally gets here - fresh - $11 and we grow it 200 KMs away! I don't even want to guess what it will be in the Northwest Territories or Alaska!

In the places where you grow fruit in your backyard it's cheap to buy a bag of apples. Fruit doesn't grow here unless you have a green thumb and a lot of time on your hands. We ship it in from BC or Washington or California or South America.

It is all relative to where you live on this wonderful planet of ours.