Health Food is too.......

I don't have cable, I check out movies from the Library. I don't have a cell phone, only a home phone. I do have dial up internet at home. We go out to eat maybe once every six months. We buy all of our clothes at the thrift store. Trust me, there is not a dime to squeeze from anywhere. When you have to buy less expensive food, you just learn to cook it without adding more bad stuff. But I can tell you, it is not easy and it is not intentional or for lack of knowing better. It just is.

dial-up? what is that? :huh:

What is killing us is that we really want to move and we would need to pay double what we pay now for our mortgage. And we RENT now...we can't even find a rental for less than double what we pay now. Then I hear how the housing market is doing better and people are buying houses which will in effect raise the prices of homes. If I had no faith I would be crazy...for real!! LOL

Oh let me tell you!! I am SOOO thankful that we even have a home, b/c in our area, people are losing their jobs due to the car industry crashing. But, we moved into our house 5 years ago thinking we'd build a little equity and be out in 3-5 years. Ha! I have no clue when we will be able to move. We have a tiny house, and with 6 of us, it doesn't work so well! But that's ok. I'm just plugging along until things pick up a little bit more.

:flowerforyou: Ok...here it is...I keep reading how so many people would love to have tips


http://www.extension.org/pages/Stretching_Your_Food_Dollar

http://extension.unh.edu/FoodNutr/FNStretch.htm

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/clarke/news/stretchingdollars.htm

http://extension.psu.edu/livingbetter/stretch_food_dollar.html

http://healthyrecipes.oregonstate.edu/

It does cost more because a whole skinless chicken breast is $4.29 per lb and leg quarters are on sale for $0.66 per lb. A bag of regular spaghetti noodles is $1.25, whole wheat are $1.85. A can of peaches is $1.18 and a lb of fresh peaches is $2.99. So yes, it is more expensive to eat healthy. When you are on a strict budget and have to feed more than yourself, you will choose the leg quarters, white noodles, and canned peaches because you can make two meals out of it instead of one as well. You don't have the luxury to buy hot pockets and soda pop or chips. You buy food so you don't starve and the bag of white rice at $ 0.85 that you can get 4 or more meals out of makes a lot more sense than the bag of brown rice at $1.95. I am happy for those that can eat healthy and not worry that they will still have enough food around to feed their family for a week. Some just don't get that choice.

I hear you on this one too! I'm trying very hard to cook/eat as healthy as I can. I also have 4 kids to feed. I would like to be able to afford to have everyone go to a much healthier lifestyle as well. I just keep telling myself that it's baby steps. I'm making sure that they always have some kind of fresh fruit to snack on. I'm not buying the junk cookies and crackers. I offer as many healthy choices as I can afford right now, and I'd LOVE to know how to best stretch my dollar in this area.

For whoever suggested turning off the cable...good suggestion. We did that over a year ago to save money. We also have the smallest possible phone & internet plan within reason. We have to have higher-speed internet b/c both me and my husband go to school online.

Do you know that here (Canada NS) for 5 skinless boneless chicken breasts it can cost UP to $30 and about $25 normally.....a *sale* is when it goes to about $14
We buy frozen skinless boneless when we can afford it....that stuff is $29.99 for about 15-18 pieces (some are small!)
When it goes on sale for $19.99 or even $24.99 that's when we buy it.
Crazy how much some of the healthier stuff does cost.

That's crazy! I think about 4lbs of skinless boneless chicken breasts are around $15 here, but I always wait until they go on sale. I can usually get them for around $8.

ive nevered used it as an excuse...but i have noticed when i eat healthier I spend more money...the price of turkey and chicken are more expensive than hamburgers and usually by double...the produce here is only cheap 2 out of 12 months because the other 10months are winter....I actually just spent 7dollars on a bag of clementines the other day (2lbs)....the fresh brocolli was about 3 dollars for a small head of it ... but its not so much the produce that's expensive it's the meat...I love getting my protien in and i love the fact of eating meat...so when i change my eating habits i only buy chicken (skinless boneless) and ground chicken and ground turkey ...and the skinless boneless chicken was 9.50 for a little over a pound the ground chicken was the cheapest and thats what i mostly eat which is only 5dollars a pound and ground turkey is usually 8 dollars a pound

American's are spoiled and they'd rather give up on their health before they turn off the cable or operate on one car unless absolutely necessary or cut out all text messaging packages on their cell phones or worse...their kids cell phones.

So, are you living off apples or actually buying groceries? Yes, an apple is cheaper than a Snickers bar, but Kashi meals are $4.00 compared to .94 cents for a Banquet meal. 93/7 beef is close to $4 a lb, and 80/20 is close to a $1 per lb. Kashi cereal is about 3.94 for a 12 oz box even a Wal Mart, and the huge 3 lb bags of Walmart Brand Capn Crunch are like $2.50. Nature's Pride all natural bread is 1.97, and the cheapo white Walmart bread is .89 cents. It's not an excuse, it's a legitimate reason for difficulty affording healthy, fresh food, and especially for anything pre-made and healthy.

I think the difference for most people (especially those with LOW income)...
Is that they can't afford to run back and forth to the grocery store all the time to pick up fresh things, especially when those thins go bad quite quickly.

......and I don't know where you guys are from but here in NS Canada, we pay a LOT for produce (depending on the time of year).....but then when summer hits we get the good deals from locally grown stuff...
I LOVE fresh cherries, grapes, etc- but I can't afford to pay the high prices in the winter...and I've seen a head of brocolli cost $3.99 before, for a very SMALL one....it's crazy!
I think it depends on the income and where you live- personally I think it is quite expensive to eat 100% healthy all the time.
Take for example low fat whole wheat tortilla's....LOVE those.....they are $3.99 here for a 10 pkg. A pack of 10 does NOT last long when you have three kids and two adults to feed.

lol edit// except one of the three kids only eats breast milk at the moment..=oP

So true! I live in Japan, and let me tell you, grocery shopping, especially for vegetables and fruit, is a whole different story here. When grapes are in season, for example, I can get about thirty of them for four dollars. That's the cheapest they ever are! Broccoli is usually a couple dollars, apples are a dollar a piece when they're in season, etc. And there are times when it costs about 70 or 80 us dollars to buy a single melon.

I have a suggestion for everyone that is talking about how expensive boneless skinless chicken breast is. Have you considered buying either whole chicken (not as healthy a breast but still good for you) or chicken breast with the bone and skin still attached? I know around here is can be much cheaper (I've seen bone-in chicken breast get as low as $.99/lb) and you can remove the bone and skin yourself. More work but WAY cheaper. Also, you can grind your own meat. A manual grinder is about $30 new but it can be a lot cheaper to by the meat and grind it than buy it pre-ground but again it can be a lot more work.

I have a suggestion for everyone that is talking about how expensive boneless skinless chicken breast is. Have you considered buying either whole chicken (not as healthy a breast but still good for you) or chicken breast with the bone and skin still attached? I know around here is can be much cheaper (I've seen bone-in chicken breast get as low as $.99/lb) and you can remove the bone and skin yourself. More work but WAY cheaper. Also, you can grind your own meat. A manual grinder is about $30 new but it can be a lot cheaper to by the meat and grind it than buy it pre-ground but again it can be a lot more work.

I have a suggestion for everyone that is talking about how expensive boneless skinless chicken breast is. Have you considered buying either whole chicken (not as healthy a breast but still good for you) or chicken breast with the bone and skin still attached? I know around here is can be much cheaper (I've seen bone-in chicken breast get as low as $.99/lb) and you can remove the bone and skin yourself. More work but WAY cheaper. Also, you can grind your own meat. A manual grinder is about $30 new but it can be a lot cheaper to by the meat and grind it than buy it pre-ground but again it can be a lot more work.

the only thing is a lot of people dont have good self control...I know i dont and if i buy the chicken with the skin I will devour it...I'd crisp up the skin and eat all of it...*sighs* one of the reasons I dont indulge ever... because with my addictive personality type I will not just stop at one...as is true with prob a few other people...atleast i hope im not the only person with this prob lol (cuz maybe i should see a shrink if i am):ohwell:

Even the chicken with the bone IN is quite expensive most of the time (the chicken breast that is)....
The WHOLE chickens are crazy expensive too- these teenie tiny SAD little birds were $13....and I"m talking....they made a pigeon look tasty!