How to eat healthy on a tight budget?

I eat the same things all the time and stock up when there are sales. everybody makes fun of me because I buy produce sometimes 3x/week to supplement my stockpile of basics.

lol I call myself a food hoarder - for some reason it really bugs me not having almost everything I might want in the house. I've never had to go without earlier in life..so I guess I'm just weird. but if its a great deal and it will last a long time in the cupboard or fresh meat on sale I can freeze why not get more when its on sale so you're set for a month or so if you have the available funds and the storage space. Also when I do one big shopping trip every 3 or 4 weeks I cut way down on impulse buying so that saves a little.

I don't think I saw this one yet - but cheese is something you can buy on sale and lasts a long time you can even freeze it if you need to.

I agree with the others - pick a few recipes you want to try or think you will like and go for it. After you're done cooking and enjoyed the first meal go ahead and store it in meal size containers so they are easy to heat and eat and grab and go if you pack a lunch. If you start to get sick of it after a few days throw it in the freezer and pull it out in a few weeks when you feel lazy or want something different.

Anytime my store has fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.98 a lb (usually once a month) I get a lot and freeze it right away. Maybe 8 or 9 lbs - how much I might eat in a month.

Much more economical to make a batch of chicken breasts baked in the oven stuffed with cheddar and frozen chopped broccoli..for the price of a bag of shredded cheese, a frozen bag of broc. and 3 lbs of chicken breasts thats 5 or six meals that are really tasty, healthy, and cheaper than 5 or 6 fast food meals!

Something else I watch for are the 'gas mile items' ...like buy a box of a certain brand of pasta and get 20 cents off a gallon of gas up to 15 gallons..time to stock up on pasta! last time I got 4 boxes and got $12 off my next fill up at store associated gas station. LOL when my cat's brand of cat food is a mile item man I stock up!!! one time I got like $2.63 off per gallon for 15 gallons of gas..woohoo!!

i look through store ads and base my shopping on that when it come to buying produce and my meats..plus i shop at Aldi sometimes but mostly i hit the local WalMart since they are usually cheaper and they match the prices of other stores if i can find something cheaper somewhere else. I am teaching my kids my way of shopping so they can make their money stretch when they are on their own.

Haha im glad im not the only one with this problem. I tried to switch to cauliflower-rice instead of my usual brown rice to help me cut down on carbs, but my local store (weis) has just 1 cauliflower head at $3.50 which is more expensive than a 2lb bag of brown rice worth 20servings! I guess i'm still stuck with those carbs for now....:(

So glad that you posted this. I noticed it too! Because with vegetables if you don't eat them fast they go bad. I spend like $200 a month o n food eating healthy, just for myself! it's crazy. im going to read the replies.

I'm going to be real here, I'm pretty broke lol. And I know I'm not the only one on a budget! I was watching some of the movie Food Inc today, and in one part they were talking about how cheap bad food is, and how much more expensive good food is! It's a conspiracy! Hahaha, anyway, I would really just love if I could get some tips on how to eat healthy without spending what I don't have.

I hear ya! It's quite expensive to eat healthy. I live on an island in the Atlantic, so getting fresh fruit and veggies is more expensive than most places. For example... a mango-$2, 8 oz bag of spinach-$5, 4 colored peppers-$6 milk-$4 for 2litres(a half gallon)
yet, a 2 litre of pop is under $1. I just make trips to the grocery store early in the morning and buy the salads that they pack from the salad bar from the night before. Check all the flyers for the weekly sales, and watch all the clearance bins. Good luck my friend. Keep trying

Sounds like some of the stores here in Seattle. lol

I make a menu for two weeks for me and my husband
I shop at aldi
Buy frozen veggies and frozen fish(fresh is better) but frozen is cheaper
I make sure that 1 ingredient can be used in more than 1 meal.
Buy fruit when it is in season.

The dinner I make tonight is lunch at work tomorrow.
Crock pots are great.
Freezing leftovers
Cooking from scratch helps
Growing your own veggies and/or herbs. I just started an herb garden this year. Going to try veggies next year

I don't know about where you live, but here if you get to the markets just before closing time they'll be selling out anything that wont keep until the markets next open for almost nothing. I've managed to get entire trays/boxes of fruit/vegetables for only a few dollars. It usually means you'll have to cook a few meals all at once and freeze them so things don't spoil but it's worth the effort.

Other than that, dried beans/lentils are really cheap if you buy them in bulk. Some beans and things can take a while to cook but you can cook them up and freeze them so it's convenient.

I've been a vegan for the past few years and I swear it's cheaper than buying meat, as long as you're not replacing it with processed mock meats and pre-prepared things.

Tofu is also pretty cheap if you don't hate the texture. I like to crumble it up and use it in recipes like you would use ricotta cheese.

shop store and no name brands rather than brand names... they're cheaper and for a lot of foods you shouldn't be able to tell the difference.

shop sales

use coupons/free samples (facebook is a great resource for coupon and free sample pages), watch for in-store tearpads and look in magazines or on product websites for other offers, you can also join coupon trading sites.

stack coupons on top of sales

the food bank (if you don't mind going there, I don't use it but I know a lot of people who do)

fresh fruit and veggie basket programs in your area

Peanut butter is an excellent source of protein and it is cheap!!!

If you have a yard or a roof, you can grow so many things. If you have space inside, you can grow many things. It is difficult to eat healthy cheaply. It really isn't easy. Because the best (IMO) is organic, local, free range, grass fed and non-gmo. And those things are more expensive. GMO's have been accused of causing obesity... so even if you are eating fruits and veggies- most, if they are not organic, are gmo.
I wish you the best. I know it is not easy.

Bump *

check out bountifulbaskets.org. .. You can get great fruits & veggies for cheap.. you can also do "add ons".. not sure what they have for your neck of the woods but I've seen bread, granola, olive oil, etc.. Please check it out!