Eating healthy on a VERY tight budget! tips please

Markets are great for getting cheap veg - we have one in Birmingham where the veg gets sold at ridiculously cheap prices but you have to use it up pretty quickly because it goes off quicker. Other than that there is nothing wrong with it though

This is a hard one. My grocery bills have gone UP since I started eating healthy. I think there are cheap veggies and fruit out there, but I tend toward berries, which are expensive.

Oatmeal in bulk, is cheap and has lots of fiber.

I buy the store brand meats--- but oddly, turkey is more expensive than beef! P*sses me off

I also buy store brand yogurt....

Hope this helps...

Buy meat when it's on sale and freeze it. You can also freeze berries and some cheeses. Plan your meals/snacks around the weekly specials at your grocery store. Try to avoid buying meals/snacks on a whim (they're pricey and probably less healthy than what you would get at home). Nuts and some other things are cheapest (in the stores around here, at least) in the bulk section of the store and more expensive in the baking and snack aisles. Good luck. And remember that the healthy choices now will pay off big time later.

This is going to sound common sense I suppose.

Eating to reduce weight (not sure if that is your goal but from your signature I will guess yes), is cheaper than eating with no goal.


First, adopt the mindset of making hunger a FRIEND. Every time you feel that nagging hunger, it means your body is LOSING WEIGHT. I have learned to love the feeling of being a touch hungry all the time. I also found that feeling this way leaves me "primed", and I mean in a primal, ready to lift heavy objects, run my *kitten* off, of swing a sledge hammer at a tire kind of primal.

Second, no more empty calories. Empty calories are junk food that you spend money on but you get no health return. Cut em out, and you save money.

As for your partner, break the partnership as far as food goes. Tell her no junk on the joint bill. If she doesn't want to support your diet, FINE, but you are not obligated to buy her chips and chocolate bars either! Its a two way street right? She won't support your diet, you won't support her gluttony. Stand your ground on this one.

Third, eat smaller portions. You do not actually have to change your diet to lose weight. People can eat less and less of whatever they normally eat, via smaller portions, to lose weight. A nice side effect is you end up with left overs when you cook, which becomes tomorrows lunch. This will save you lots of money.

Develop a go-to snack. If you are surrounded by junk food, as it sounds like, you need a go to alternative. Keep some fruit you LOVE around at ALL TIMES. Ideally something with a good dose of fiber in it, but most fruit has that. Everytime you get that junk food wantings, drink a HUGE glass of water, and eat that go to snack you have. 4 pounds of apples is cheaper than a big bag of chips, and more filling.

I hope this has helped.

I like!!

First, adopt the mindset of making hunger a FRIEND. Every time you feel that nagging hunger, it means your body is LOSING WEIGHT. I have learned to love the feeling of being a touch hungry all the time.


I LOVE THIS!!!! Thanks!

Ground turkey varies in price a LOT. I won't buy it unless it's under $3 a package, sometimes it's up to $7 a package.. it's ridiculous. Also bulk dried items (beans, lentils.. etc...) very cheap. I get all my vegetables at a mexican market by my house. They have specials like 7lbs of carrots for $1, or a bag of spinach for 99 cents. I try to stay away from the big brand grocery stores where it's four times as expensive unless I need something specific.

I gave up buying stir fry, couldn't use it quick enough! Now I buy the offers on at the supermarket and tinned stuff but I'm with ya it can get really expensive. Buy jacket potatoes and eggs. Tesco do a salad cheese which is 50p at the moment. It's like feta but 36 calories. Only get the turkey that is on reduced shelf and buy lots of fish. Hope this helps :-)

I know it's not a popular opinion, but a great way to reduce your bill is to cut back on your variety. While healthy option do tend to be pricier, I find I save money when I do low carb, as my variety is greatly reduced. I stick to on sale chicken, turkey and fish, and buy lettuce, carrots, radish, celery, onions, peppers and cucumber for daily salads. I spend more on olive oil, but save on 4 different kinds of salad dressings. Then switch up your menu every so often. But save variety for a weekly switch, rather than a daily one.

I'm sorry about the hubs. That def. makes it more difficult, as you are having to buy two different menus! Good luck!

Hi just wondering if anyone has any tips for buying healthy on a budget. It seems so difficult especially as my partner buys quite a lot of junk and isn't to supportive I tend to have to buy frozen or tinned veg and have about £15 a week max to spend on me after all the baby stuff and junk so things like meat are very rare in my diet. Any tips would be great.

Since you are in the UK ... head over to Moneysavingexpert forums, hunt out Weezl74's many threads. Last I heard she was doing feed a family of four healthily on £100 a month so that is way less per person than you have. It was not meant to be a long term diet because it's obviously restrictive, but you might get some ideas on meals. Also consider growing your own fruit or veg if you have any outside space and even going bramble picking in the summer.

If your partner is going to be a complete idiot can you agree a budget together? Pay out all the bills and all the baby stuff, agree a budget to cover ALL the groceries and ALL lunches/ snacks out of the home then divide it in two. He can buy junk with his half if he wants, you have a fair share of what remains to feed yourself. If he won't agree to that you might suggest relationship counselling because frankly he is selfish beyond belief. To enforce the budget neither of you carry bank cards, just take out cash for groceries at the start of each week and split it.

I am also in the UK and have priced up some foods for comparison. Cheap ones include organ meats like pork liver (£1 a kilo), canned oily fish like pilchards and mackerel (<£1 a 400g can), Asda Smartprice multipack eggs (9p each), dried beans and lentils, brown rice, porridge oats, pearl barley. Frozen veggies like sweetcorn, green beans and broccoli, canned tomatoes, frozen rhubarb, fresh pineapple, Smartprice/ Value mixed dried fruit.

I live alone and still buy multipacks of all sorts - 4kg red onions from Tesco (£2), frozen veggies and rhubarb from Farmfoods (3 packs of 750g for £2), Asda Smartprice fresh carrots (2kg for 90p), Aldi whole red cabbage (~65p and well over a kilo) are some of the cheapest. As long as you keep them cool and dry many last for weeks, some you can even chop and freeze yourself. All the fruit and veggies I have listed are 4p to 10p a serving (80g-100g to allow for some waste, dried fruit 30g). I don't eat much root veg or squashes so haven't priced those, you might well get some bargains there.

Frozen veggies are a very thrifty way to get good nutrition! (You cook only what you need and the remainder is preserved for use at another time.) In college, I subsisted on hard-cooked eggs, peanut butter banana milk shakes, yogurt and salads (salad bar once a week splurge all-you-can-eat lol). Lifted weights and ran three days a week each, did one 10K a month. At body weight of 101 lbs., best decline barbell press was 135 lb. I'm sure some people would advise against the eggs and peanut butter, but I was lacto-ovo-vegetarian at the time and didn't have a lot of protein choices that tasted good. When you add raisins and shelled sunflower seeds to your cup of yogurt, it really sticks to your ribs.

Hope this helps!

P.S. Now I'm old and fat but hoping to improve.:bigsmile: