I NEEEEED UR SUPPORT!!!

Go ahead and add me! We ALL need support!

Living on my tiny island I know exactly what your saying about food going bad. Good Healthy and Cheap! Here are some great foods for times between shopping. All from Costco! Can last for months!

Breakfast: Old Fashioned Oats...Can be cooked with water if milk runs dry. Add Raisins, berries, apples, etc and Honey.
Lunch: PB&J...the healthy way. Maranatha Almond Butter and Jelly. Alpine Valley Organic Whole Grain Bread. keep bread in freezer!
Dinner: Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, Broccoli and any other frozen veggie in mushroom soup. Yummo. Whole grain noodles work great if you have to hike the next morning!

Congrats on your 5lb loss! Good Job! I am also like you in that I have a very limited food budget for my family. I buy a lot of frozen veggies when I buy groceries. And that holds us over when the fresh run out. Plus I hate throwing out food. And Frozen lasts a long time. You can also buy your fruit fresh and cut it up and prep it yourself and then freeze it bcuz frozen fruit is really expensive but since it seems like you and your kids love fruits and veggies you should go thru it fine before it gets freezer burned. One of my favorite treats when I was a kid in the summer was Popsicle made from cantaloupe. My mom just peeled the cantaloupe and cut it into crescents and laid it in a zip lock freezer bag then when we wanted a snack or Popsicle we just grabbed one and ate it frozen. That is just one idea I am sure you can think of many more. When ever we notice the bananas getting to ripe we just throw then in the freezer as they are. When we have a few we let them defrost and then peel them and make banana bread or cake or muffins. My daughter says the freezing of the banana breaks up the cells of the fruit and there is a better banana flavor in the breads and cakes. This way little goes to waste. You can also turn your fruits and veggies that are getting to ripe into smoothies for you and your kids for a nutritious snack. I recently found a lot of awesome recipes on skinnytaste.com Hope this helps and good luck

Some tips I've acquired:
Make sure to wash and completely dry fruit and veggies before putting them in the fridge. I put it all through 1 part vinegar 3 parts water, then rinse with cold. The vinegar kills the mold/bacteria (like the whitish film on grapes) and helps clean off any pesticides. Don't store it in the plastic bags they cone in because the plastic traps in moisture and makes things rot faster. Mushrooms should be covered so they don't wrinkle up so fast. Buy bananas in various stages of ripeness so they are ready to eat at different times, feel free to take apart the bunches if you have to. And don't put them in the fridge.

Also, freeze berries and grapes in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and once they're frozen, transfer them to a bag or container and throw them in the freezer. It keeps them good longer, and they taste great frozen. you can also slice up bananas or other fruit and do the same thing, for small chunks that blend easily into smoothies.

Congrats on your 5lbs! Off to a fabulous start :-)

Like others have said, frozen veggies!! Nothing wrong with that. Dried beans are a must in my house. I pretty much have cut out meat because it's cheaper to eat beans. I make a lot of soups - it makes things last longer! Just made a vegetarian chili using ~ half a bag of Goya 16 bean soup (it's a dry mix), a can of black beans, 1/2 of a red pepper, 1/2 a green pepper, 1 yellow squash, 1 green squash (you can always use frozen of course!), a whole sweet onion, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, and some seasonings. It's about 180 cals for a large bowl (it's very filling and I can eat A LOT) and makes about 6 servings. It's only me, so whatever doesn't get eaten gets frozen. There are 25 g of protein in this veg chili!!

Buy bread on the day old rack if your store has one and freeze it, clip coupons, shop the flyers if you can, buy in bulk, etc. There is a food co-op down the street from me that has bulk beans and grains - because it's not pre-packaged it's a lot cheaper to buy this way and you can buy only what you will use. I think Whole Foods has a section like that. I will also buy stuff at the dollar store (although sometimes you pay a little more than you would in the store so you have to be aware of prices) and there aren't too man healthy choices but you can find veggies usually and some other stuff.

Good luck!!

oh and I totally forgot about this

free fruit.. can't get better than this!!! plus it's fun, not sure where you live, but in a lot of places the law is that any fruit that grow on or over public land is fine to pick. Many places are starting to map where these fruit trees are, and of course it's seasonal. Here we get pears, blackberries, walnuts, pecans, cherries, mulberries that grow on public land and are free for the picking. Take the kidlets and a basket and have some fun! ( double check that your state/city allows this) but most do. I've even seen public fruit maps for other countries, (not sure where you live)

also there is some etiquette to this, never take more than you can carry, never pick a tree bare, take some leave some, and utilize alternative means of getting there, ie walk, bike, bus etc.

http://www.fallenfruit.org/index.php/about/

Feel free to add me... I'm only 22 with no kids but live with my BF and like to stick to a low food budget while eating healthy. I have tons of budget friendly meals and ideas and am a very supportive MFP friend!

Ooooh girl do I feel your pain! I also have three kids and was a single mother for 13 years! Money has always been tight and healthy eating has always been a problem. I would love to offer some support on here and we can swap some money saving tips! It would be great to get some mutual support from someone who knows exactly how hard the struggle is!

Hello and welcome. I will be sending a friend request and you can look at my profile and add me if you would like to. Why don't you buy frozen veggies like the steamfresh ones and also frozen fruit. They are the next best thing to fresh and they won't go bad. I like very few veggies so the steamed ones are how i get my veggies in. You can do this and we are all here for you, my daughter is on here and she is a single mom too.

Bev

oh and I totally forgot about this

free fruit.. can't get better than this!!! plus it's fun, not sure where you live, but in a lot of places the law is that any fruit that grow on or over public land is fine to pick. Many places are starting to map where these fruit trees are, and of course it's seasonal. Here we get pears, blackberries, walnuts, pecans, cherries, mulberries that grow on public land and are free for the picking. Take the kidlets and a basket and have some fun! ( double check that your state/city allows this) but most do. I've even seen public fruit maps for other countries, (not sure where you live)

also there is some etiquette to this, never take more than you can carry, never pick a tree bare, take some leave some, and utilize alternative means of getting there, ie walk, bike, bus etc.

http://www.fallenfruit.org/index.php/about/

Great info,,,,

I have several friends who purchase produce baskets from local co-ops and get great prices: http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/

Or, if one particular store near you has good produce prices, decide how much money you have to spend on fresh produce every month. The week you go shopping, spend 25% of your produce allowance on fresh produce and put the remaining 75% on a reloadable gift card. Then, you can pop in each week and spend another 25% of your monthly produce budget to buy fresh stuff that you can eat before i t goes bad.

Frozen veggies are good too, but for some things, fresh just tastes better. Even if you can only afford a few things each week, you'll have some yummy fresh produce from time to time.

Welcome and gratz on your 5lbs lost!

We live on a tight budget also, a fix income and hubby's a full time student, so grocery money is always tight. I got into couponing, as this not only helps me make the money stretch but it helps me lose weight as i walk the isles. I use online sites to tell what coupons go with what sales, so it probably takes me about 1/2 hour a week but been saving my family about $300 a month on food alone.

We buy a lot of fresh fruit in the summer when its really cheap and dehydrate or freeze it for in the winter when its too expensive to buy. Frozen veggies go on sale a lot so you can stock up on those. Oats are awsome, can make them in banana bread, or oatmeal. I have a great recipe for steel cut oats in the crockpot that's very good and good for you. Filling too. I make my own yogurt in the crockpot also, since its better and much much cheaper than store bought.

there are so many cheap and healthy sites and ideas out there. Add me if you'd like, we can run this race together!