Why does eating healthy cost so much 🤷♀️
britishbombshell08
Posts: 95 Member
Bought fruits, salad, and shrimp from the grocery store and it came to $90.33 🤷♀️🤦♀️😂 Oh well, now to devour it all
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Replies
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Shrimp is often expensive, fruit is likely out of season, depending on where you live (and perhaps you bought organic), and if the salad is premade, of course it has extra expense attached (probably same if from a salad bar).
It's not inherently expensive to eat healthfully at all.35 -
It really varies based on location, but that seems really high? Did you buy all fresh? I only buy fresh veggies for my salads and then frozen for everything else (veggies that I use for sides, stir-frys, rice bowls etc). I also buy a lot of frozen fruit (smoothies, baking etc), which is cheaper than fresh fruit usually. Fresh fruit I only buy on sale/store's weekly loss leaders. We also use some canned veg/fruit.
Frozen shrimp-I can get 'salad' shrimp, which is cooked/peeled for around $5 a bag/4 servings. What did you pay?8 -
Yeah, that seems really high. High-end groceries stores, organic, and anything that's already prepared will make the cost go up. It's possible to eat healthy on a budget. I buy a lot frozen, too.7
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That's almost 2 weeks shopping for me and I eat plenty of fruit and veg. Shop around a bit more, buy what's in season or on special offer.14
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Geez. I live in Seattle which is a pretty expensive city and I can buy enough shrimp for four servings for $5.99, a large bunch of romaine, some peppers, tomatoes, carrots and avocado for another $6, and then enough fresh fruit to last me a week for another four or five dollars.
Where do you live?13 -
admittedly I only buy shrimp when its on sale - but its 6.99-8.99 a lb typically; most of my protein is make up of chicken/pork tenderloin etc
did you buy the salad off like a salad bar - because that easily triples the cost?2 -
It may depend on where you shop.
It’s actually cheaper for me now, I buy salad ingredients and fresh fruit every week. I’ve never purchased fresh shrimp, always frozen. As another person asked, where do you live? Seems very excessive to me. I guess it depends on how much you purchased too.2 -
When I am eating "well" my grocery bill is higher, too. I try to stock up on things when they're on sale, like frozen veggies I can use when I run out of fresh. Same with lentils. I buy loads of those when the bags are 2-for-1, and they last for a long time.3
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just_Tomek wrote: »britishbombshell08 wrote: »Bought fruits, salad, and shrimp from the grocery store and it came to $90.33 🤷♀️🤦♀️😂 Oh well, now to devour it all
WTF? How much of that did you buy? I call BS.
Yes, please show us a list of what you bought. Maybe we can give you some insights on how to save. I buy tons of produce and my bill is way less. That does seem quite high.10 -
It doesn't have to be expensive. The price of shrimp varies widely depending on the size of the shrimps. If you are buying jumbo shrimps, they are going to be a lot more expensive per pound than small shrimps. Fruits and vegetables depend one the produce and if they are in season or local or not. But there are always a ton if choices you can buy that are cheap. So are things like eggs, chicken, lean beef (relatively), and many other things that can be staples of a so called healthy diet.
I spend less now that I am eating healthy than brofre when I wasn't healthy, especially since I am eating out less. Eating healthy can certainly be made expensive if you want it to be, but depending on a person's budget, there are a lot of ways to do it on a more affordable basis.7 -
it's about smart shopping. buying when stuff is in season or on sale. I love celeri but right now it's like $6/bunch. BUT luckily cuccumber has come down so i'm eating that. carrots are cheap. so i play around.
fruit can add up but again, stick to things on season mostly and i now buy many berries and such frozen when they come on sale. not that i never buy fresh but often frozen works just as well, keeps longer and is cheaper (especially stocking up on sale).
healthy meets/proteins again, it helps to stock up on frozen things when on sale and shop around for what's on sale. the other day they had chicken at 50% off because it was getting close to expiration. i cooked it all and frozen in portion for my meals. made for a steal in chicken.
sometimes we want things out of season and that's fine if it's in your budget especially if you saved overall by sticking to mostly things that are at a good price.5 -
britishbombshell08 wrote: »Bought fruits, salad, and shrimp from the grocery store and it came to $90.33 🤷♀️🤦♀️😂 Oh well, now to devour it all
How much did you buy??
Healthy eating is NOT expensive unless you are picky, impulse shop, or live in a food desert somewhere. You can buy produce in season and local (so buy the stuff that's plentiful and cheap), buy bagged frozen store brand veggies, and then there's eggs, cabbage, potatoes, dried or canned beans, oats, and canned tuna which are always pretty affordable.
I don't mean to pick OP, but the myth that "eating healthy" is expensive is usually based around an overly-privileged view of what constitutes healthy food, and the myth often keeps people who can't afford expensive stuff from even trying.15 -
What do you mean by “healthy”?10
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Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »just_Tomek wrote: »britishbombshell08 wrote: »Bought fruits, salad, and shrimp from the grocery store and it came to $90.33 🤷♀️🤦♀️😂 Oh well, now to devour it all
WTF? How much of that did you buy? I call BS.
Yes, please show us a list of what you bought. Maybe we can give you some insights on how to save. I buy tons of produce and my bill is way less. That does seem quite high.
Yes, I have fed myself for $200 a month. Some of the produce was organic, and the meat and dairy was from animals that were more humanely raised.
None was premade/ready to eat, for example: no salad bars, or packaged salads, nothing pre-cut.
I'm not saying people shouldn't buy food that is more convenient/ready-to-eat, just be aware that there can be quite a mark up on it vs chopping/cooking it yourself.
Still, I can't imagine a scenario in which fruits, salad, and shrimp came to $90.6 -
She's in UK... May be wrong conversion.. pounds/Euros to dollars.?5
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OP I can feed a family for what you spent.
1. Learn what fruits and vegetables are in season in your area--buy those if you want fresh, if not, buy frozen.
2. Comb the supermarket ads in your area and buy on sale.
3. My favorite supermarket likes to give out bonus coupons for every $15 spent. I do most of my
shopping there and it saves me money.
4. Buy items that are not quickly perishable in bulk when on sale--stock up on beans, chick peas,
lentils, canned goods, etc.6 -
Yikes! That does seem high, but as others have pointed out there's a lot of tricks (like buying frozen fruit/veggies if you're going to make them into something like stirfry or smoothie) that can help you budget.
The cost of healthy eating definitely varies by region! Unfortunately your location/proximity to farms definitely influences the cost of fresh produce, as does the season. Buying in season is always good advice, or at least watch for coupons & sales.
I find it pretty easy to eat well on my budget. I average about $35/week on groceries (I'm single so only feeding myself). Can't afford things like almond butter or premade frozen meals on a budget like that, but it's not too hard to get fresh/frozen fruit & veggies, beans, eggs, tofu, the things that keep me going. Actually, I realized some of the unhealthy foods I've cut back on (namely chips ahoy...how I miss them!) were more expensive than the healthy foods I've added!3 -
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RelCanonical wrote: »
Well one can only guess if the op did the conversion wrong.. 💵💶💷2 -
RelCanonical wrote: »
Well one can only guess if the op did the conversion wrong.. 💵💶💷
Or perhaps OP is British but doesn't live in the UK? For now we are still allowed to live other places
#HappyNotBrexitDay lol 20 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »RelCanonical wrote: »
Well one can only guess if the op did the conversion wrong.. 💵💶💷
Or perhaps OP is British but doesn't live in the UK? For now we are still allowed to live other places #HappyNotBrexitDay lol
Or she bought 20 pounds of shrimp at one time . Haha
Fried shrimp
Shrimp gumbo
Smoke Shrimp
Grilled shrimp
(Buba voice over)13 -
It doesn't. You're buying too much.2
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tinkerbellang83 wrote: »RelCanonical wrote: »
Well one can only guess if the op did the conversion wrong.. 💵💶💷
Or perhaps OP is British but doesn't live in the UK? For now we are still allowed to live other places #HappyNotBrexitDay lol
Or she bought 20 pounds of shrimp at one time . Haha
Fried shrimp
Shrimp gumbo
Smoke Shrimp
Grilled shrimp
(Buba voice over)
Expensive shrimp is like a box of chocolates - the all look the same on the inside, but the inside is squishy and delicious.6 -
I don't know what kind of shrimp you are buying. But if you are purchasing stuff out of season then the cost will always go up. My entire food bill for two people next week I have estimated to be around $61 (54 euro). And that includes several meats, seafood, and snacks for my S.O.
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Edit.. nm.. misread
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https://www.foodthebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/FOOD_The-Definitive-Shoppers-Guide.pdf
Great resource for eating well and responsible sourcing.
It amazes me, the money people spend on prepackaged stuff and beverages.
They’re drinking a $3 energy drink, feeding their kids fruit snacks, car full of empty water bottles and Starbucks cups, and telling me that they’d eat like me if they could ‘afford’ it.
There is some time cost associated with buying at multiple stores, buying in bulk and repackaging at home, and buying ingredients rather than ‘ready foods.’
I find it WAY more affordable to eat real food, including abundant produce, meats, nuts, seeds.
I splurge on quality condiments: vinegar, spices (even these I source from ethnic markets.) I drink filtered tap water (sometimes just tap water) and make coffee at home with beans from Costco.
NO value judgment: we all spend our time and money in different ways.
However, the ‘healthy eating isn’t affordable’ line needs to die already.
In the age of CSA’s, coupons, internet sources - 99% of the time it just isn’t true.
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Try shopping at a less expensive store. Do you have Aldi near you?
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I buy my fruits, veggies and shrimp from the overpriced fancy store and it's not even close to that for two people.4
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Obviously location makes a difference. In Australia, my family of 2 adults and 1 child budget $200AU per week food & groceries, most of this is food.
We do a fortnightly shop at an inexpensive fresh food market (meat, vegetables, fruit) and discount chain Aldi, and in between pick up extras that run out from our local chain supermarket and bakery.
Our costs would be twice this if we didn’t make sensible choices; buy foods when they are cheaper (on sale or in high availability). Buy some of your meat in bulk and freeze in portions for later. Buy cheaper cuts & types meats (chicken is cheaper than duck; beef is cheaper than lamb, etc) but also with health considerations (chicken breast is healthier than chicken wings). You have choices whether to buy whatever you want at huge expense or choose the cheaper options.
Cost of something like capsicums can double from one week to the next just depending on availability - I buy lots when cheap and might skip it when expensive - price can drop again the next shop. At the moment cauliflower is $6 a small/medium head! But a few months ago it was $2.50 a large head. If you don’t pay attention to prices, you can run up big bill.
We do buy some convenience meals - premade quiche, frozen meat pies, frozen dumplings - for days when time is short as these are better options than falling back on takeaway or fast food. (These foods are for my daughter and partner who are not following my diet). However I don’t think it would be much cheaper to make these from scratch as they are not hugely expensive - they’re only from Aldi.
Compared to very unhealthy food: it costs more to buy McDonalds for 1 adult than a quiche/meat pies/ dumplings/lamb shanks from Aldi to serve 2-4.4
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