Healthy food shopping on a tight budget

Use the bulk food section in your grocery store! It is so much cheaper than buying things already packaged (for most things). I get things like brown rice, dried beans, oatmeal, nuts, etc.

Lentils! Work out what veggies are in season and use them.

GG

canned black beans.
canned tomatos.
jasmine brown rice.
eggs.
chicken.
canned tuna.

if there is a farmers market, hit them up. i really only eat produce on sale, especially if i get them from a grocery store. really, two or 3 apples, a thing of bananas, [grapes if they're on sale] a few oranges or nectarines will last me a whole week especially if i eat normal or semi normal meals.

Get split chicken breasts instead of boneless skinless. Doesn't take much to cut them out and will save some money. Buy freezer bags and when you catch real good sales buy as much as you can. Get a salad spinner. I have bought the expensive ones but it broke after a few months. I found one at the dollar store cheap and it has lasted longer and cost a couple bucks. When you put lettuce in these it lasts much longer than a bowel, due to the way it is vented. I am not sure what area you live in but we have a few discount stores like, Ollies and Big Lots. I always find salad dressings there that are light, fat free or reduced calorie.

I'm really big into couponing and money saving. We are a family of 5 and only have one income since I am a stay at home mom. I have found the best money savings requires some time on your part, but if you don't buy a lot of packaged pre made food you can save a lot of money. Things like regular oats eggs, and dried beans are super cheap, healthy and easy to make. Someone earlier mentioned buying regular chicken breasts and removing the skin and bone yourself. That is super easy to do and often you can find chicken breast on sale for under $1 per pound. Also when stores have cereal, pasta, crackers and other such staples on sale I usually find the healthier whole grain versions are also included in the sale and coupons apply to them too. I live in Indiana and I love going to the farmers market in the summer and getting great deals, but the rest of the year I have to buy my produce in store because of the climate here. I will stock up when prices are cheap in the summer on berries, and then freeze them to make healthy smoothies in the winter when a pint of berries costs upwards of $4. I also buy seasonal on sale produce for my family, so we always have a variety of produce, but not all at the same time. I also play the drug store game at CVS pretty heavily to get my personal and household items for free so I can apply more of my groccery/household/personal items budget to produce. A great site that I love is www.moneysavingmom.com she has store matchups, posts her healthy family menus every week and even did a series on doing p90x on a budget including recipes for her own protein shakes and bars. Good luck! Don't let your finances hold you back from taking care of yourself. You will either pay for your health now or pay later with expensive medical bills and perscriptions.

I also found planning my meals helped as well, it meant a) I did not buy impluse buys b) meant I could buy and cook in bulk and freeze meals for the following weeks.

I am in the UK and not sure if you can but I also found by growing some veg (tomatoes, letteuce, potatoe and beans) cut my food bills down. I also try and bulk my meals up with extra veg, beans and lentils (again all cheap products) so that everything goes further.

I eat clean, cook all my meals, and love it. The Clean Eating magazine website has a section of budget recipes (usually around $2 per serving) that I make a few times a week.

http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/Recipes/Budget-Recipes.aspx

Also, a good thing to do is make large batches of these things soups, burrittos, veggie burgers (I am a vegetarian) and then freezing them... you can calculate the calories before hand and they just pop the healthy, homemade food in the microwave when you need something fast.

Definitely try to buy what is on sale and in season in terms of produce. The grocery store I shop at has "ad previews" that is puts out a few days before the ad starts and I like to look at those to see what produce is on sale next and if I should buy something this week or wait until next week when the ad starts. Also, it's usually cheaper to buy the produce that isn't already pre-cut for you. Yes, you do have to spend some time cutting and chopping, but it's actually cheaper. Look for this with carrots and celery. Buy a head of lettuce instead of the bagged salad -- it's cheaper and it lasts MUCH longer. I have found that if I take care of prepping my produce right when I get home from the store, I will actually take care of it and then eat it. Also, try to buy produce that is in-season, as it will be cheaper. I also buy frozen veggies quite often. It's a lot cheaper and I can stock up when it's on sale. The nutrition content of frozen veggies is also very high, and you avoid the sodium that comes from canned veggies.

I agree with some other posters -- see if you can use some of the coupons for the healthier versions of various foods.

I got this book from the library "Wildly Affordable Organic" by Linda Watson and it seems really good. Lots of ideas for eating healthy at low cost. I've only made a couple of the recipes but they were good.

(I wouldn't recommend making something out the dessert chapter like I did - that was a mistake - it was too good!)