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The BIG thing that a lot of people don't mention or don't realize is that while initially the prices of "healthy" food appear to be considerably higher than that of say, Ramen, over the long term they are considerably cheaper as you don't need to eat anywhere near as much of it, and the packages aren't necessarily just one meal's worth.
For years, I lived on Ramen, other cheap pastas and egg noodles (oh god, I LOVE LOVE LOVE a pot full of egg noodles slathered in a pound of butter and a ton of oregano ), Little Caesars, bagged pretzels and ranch dip, and other "cheap" processed foods. But I eventually realized that while I could very easily put back half a dozen bags of Ramen noodles, and I would feel stuffed to the max, I never got to the point of being "not hungry". Literally, I would eat so much Ramen that I would feel like my stomach was over flowing with noodles, and 5 minutes later I would be STARVING again. Little Caesars large pepperoni pizza? Entire thing gone in 10 minutes. 10 minutes later? STARVING. 16oz box of pasta and a huge jar of sauce? Easy, and 30 minutes later - feel like I'm going to puke because I ate so much, yet at the same time - STARVING!!!
Then I decided to make a change, and started eating heathier, and found a small breast of chicken and a handful of broccoli would make me feel full for hours. A salad for lunch with some cheese and a bit of meat chunks - feel full, and satisfied for hours. I found that yes, a package of chicken may cost me $10, and DAMN! That's a LOT of Ramen noodles!, but it stretches for a long time. Don't think in terms of making one meal at a time. Buy in bulk, cook in bulk, refrigerate/freeze extras.
My weekly grocery bills + what I ate for lunch at work used to be easily $75-$80, full of the "cheap" stuff, and I never could understand how anyone short of a 6 figure income could afford to eat "healthy".
My weekly grocery bills now? This week - about $30. That $10 package of chicken became the basis for some chicken stew that I have less than $15 total into, but that's also nearly two weeks worth of food if I ate it every week day. Or, about $1.50/meal. Slightly more expensive than if I was eating nothing but Ramen all day, every day.
I think the biggest mistake a lot of us make is thinking pasta is cheap....But, too many carbs can have a long term negative effect of our health, so investigate quinoa and other grains in lieu of regular pasta.
Eat red meat, chicken, pork, turkey, fish....whatever health proteins you can find. Salads, fresh steamed veggies. Pick out a few recipes....and build up your "go to" list of recipes as you can.
You're so lucky to have the internet these days. Good luck to you.
Fresh vegetables are very expensive, often more per pound than meat. Also, most supermarket produce is cold storage that has been shipped for days to get to market. By the time you take them home and store them in the refrigerator for a day or so, they have very little nutrition left. They also have a short shelf life, so if you don't eat them all you end up throwing part of them out. Fresh vegetables are premium foods that are not appropriate for low budget cooking. Of course there are exceptions, like the winter squash that is in season right now and will keep for a couple weeks, fresh potatoes or onions, but leafy vegetables will probably end up in the garbage.
It is much cheaper to eat frozen vegetables, and they are better for you. I worked in a Stayton Canning Company (Santiam brand) freezing plant when I was younger. The vegetables came out of the field, were processed immediately and flash frozen, with all the trimmings removed so there was no waste to the customer. The field agents selected vegetables for harvest that were at their absolute maximum of flavor, and then the food grade was assigned after the food was processed.
I have a freezer and buy frozen vegetables around May, when they are clearing out the cold storage warehouses for the new crop. You can buy a pound of premium frozen vegetables for 87 cents. If you don't need the whole pound, you can just put a twist tie on the package and put it back in the freezer.
I think the biggest mistake a lot of us make is thinking pasta is cheap....But, too many carbs can have a long term negative effect of our health, so investigate quinoa and other grains in lieu of regular pasta.
Eat red meat, chicken, pork, turkey, fish....whatever health proteins you can find. Salads, fresh steamed veggies. Pick out a few recipes....and build up your "go to" list of recipes as you can.
You're so lucky to have the internet these days. Good luck to you.
It is true that too many carbs are bad...I lived on rice and pasta and pancakes for years because that's what we could afford, and now I'm diabetic. I should have focused more on beans but my husband won't eat beans when he has to work the next day. You can get pasta with more protein and it is much more filling than regular pasta...they didn't have it back in my pasta days. It costs twice what regular pasta costs but you can't eat much of it before you're full.
Quinoa is pretty pricey...grains on a budget would be barley and lentils. Barley is surprisingly tasty and filling...a cheap way to cook it is with some beef bouillon or soup base, a couple sliced carrots and a can of diced tomatoes.
Salad is also really expensive and doesn't provide many of the calories that the body needs. Frozen veggies are the way to go. In the winter, cabbage is cheap and it's pretty good roasted and then brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. In the summer, there are more veggie choices.
If you have a 99 cents only store near you, check out their produce. It's usually ugly, but ugly produce cooks up just as good as pretty produce, and it's very affordable.
Just wondering how you would get by if you were poor/didn't have a lot of money and didn't want to eat packaged meals or processed food all the time. How would you manage to still eat healthy/hearty meals? Is it possible to cook from scratch even if you didn't have a lot of money? Alot of poor people i know ( including me, im semi-poor..not poor enough for food stamps) seem to survive off of hamburger helper, pasta roni, ramen or some other packaged food but there has to be a better way .
oh my, I can think of a lot of ways to eat relatively healthy and still keep the cost down, but it takes some planning: meatwise: chicken including chicken leg quarters and thighs are very inexpensive if you watch sales. They do a long way and can be cooked pretty quickly if time is an issue: Beans, canned or dry are not expensive and are filling plus healthier than rice dishes and hamburger helper. Even regular rice works. Homemade soups can be made with the cheaper fresh veggies, canned broth and a little bit of meat for flavor. Right now our local grocery store has hamburger on sale for $2.00 lb. Fix with a baked potato and maybe a small salad, depending on the price of salad greens. You have a cheap, tasty and healthy meal. When making salad don't buy prepard dressings, make your own: oil, vinegar and a little mustard makes a wonderful dressing. You can add garlic powder an soy sauce for added flavor or a little something sweet for a different flavor. Pork is another healthy, tasty and very inexpensive meat. We eat it at least once and sometimes twice a week, much more often than beef.
Veggies that are almost always on the cheap side: carrots, some types of potatoes, and cabbage. If if the cabbage looke expensive, it goes a long way. Onions usually are within anyone's budget and add both vitimens and flavor to most dishes. I know a lot of people talk farmers markets, well, first they are usually very pricey and second, most areas only have them from April to about Oct, but if you have one and you go one just before they close you can get some good deals. Squash is another veggie that is normally cheap cause it really doesn't weigh much. I have heard, but am not convinced frozen veggies are as healthy as fresh. Check your local store for sales. A lot of times you can get a bag for under $1.00. The first thing I do when shopping whether it is at Sams or the local grocery store is hit the reduced sale section in the meat dept and/or the discount sales basket in the other section of the store. I got a lb of snow peas for a buck the other day in the basket. Snow peas last for ever.(well not literally)
We have also found shopping at ethnic stores usually saves money. We buy some foods at our Mexican market and Asian foods at the Asian market.
How about starting the morning with a bowl of oatmeal. And for juice, try apple or tomato, Both are on the cheaper side.
I am sure many have other suggestions, but just keep in mind, processed foods do not need to be your whole diet when watching your budget and health. We all like some processed foods or use them when in a hurry, just don't think it is necessary.
If your screen name is any indication to where you live, you have lots of choices of discount grocery stores and not all the far from some good produce farming regions.
Use meat as more of a garnish than the main event.
If reduced price vegetables are on the verge of turning bad, cut them up and freeze them. The you can put them in soups or roast them.
Beans, rice, soups, potatoes are all your friends.
If you find eggs on sale they can be a good source of protein. Learn to make omelettes and frittatas.
When it turns spring, grow your own vegetables. Lettuces are easy. So are tomatoes. Haven't you heard about how zucchinis multiply? You can grow all of these in containers on apartment porches even.
If possible buy your fruits and vegetables from a farmer's market instead of the grocery store. This past weekend I bought a whole pineapple ($3), 3 zucchini ($1) 2 heads of romaine lettuce ($2), 4 oranges ($1), green beans ($1) and 2 peppers ($1) all for $9. These same items would have cost me about $20 at the regular grocery store.
I don't have a clue where you live, but some of those prices are so low; most farmers markets are higher than the grocery stores. Some of what you got seem to be standard at our famers markets. Yes, right now zucchini is abut $2 for a buck and so are peppers. I got tomatoes 8 for $3 last weekend, but remember many of us do not have farmers markets from now til spring.
Larry Caldwell: your experience with frozen produce coming directly from the field to the factory might be true in some cases but not always. Sometimes inferior produce is used. There seems to be a huge debate on whether fresh or frozen is healthier.
I don't have a clue where you live, but some of those prices are so low; most farmers markets are higher than the grocery stores. Some of what you got seem to be standard at our famers markets. Yes, right now zucchini is abut $2 for a buck and so are peppers. I got tomatoes 8 for $3 last weekend, but remember many of us do not have farmers markets from now til spring.
Larry Caldwell: your experience with frozen produce coming directly from the field to the factory might be true in some cases but not always. Sometimes inferior produce is used. There seems to be a huge debate on whether fresh or frozen is healthier.
The grade of the vegetable is standardized and marked on every package. I don't recommend buying anything but Grade A. Grade B and C are used in dried and/or processed foods. I also don't recommend using canned vegetables unless in dire straits. The pressure canning retorts cook them to death.
There also isn't any disagreement about the healthfulness of vegetables. If you pick it yourself, or pay premium prices at a farmer's market, that is your choice. If you are shopping at a supermarket, the frozen vegetables will be both more healthful and more economical.
I have to disagree with that...I have no problem chopping up a whole chicken, but it's more expensive that way. I can buy the bone-in breasts for $1.29/lb or the boneless skinless breasts for $1.97/lb. The skin on the bone-in breasts always comes with big chunks of fat. It's true that bird bones don't weigh much, but the skin and fat is pretty heavy and I don't come out ahead when I buy the bone-in chicken.
I guess the lesson here is to comparison shop wherever you are. Because boneless/skinless is nowhere NEAR that cheap where I live. And a whole chicken can be had for under $1.00/lb.
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), Little Caesars, bagged pretzels and ranch dip, and other "cheap" processed foods. But I eventually realized that while I could very easily put back half a dozen bags of Ramen noodles, and I would feel stuffed to the max, I never got to the point of being "not hungry". Literally, I would eat so much Ramen that I would feel like my stomach was over flowing with noodles, and 5 minutes later I would be STARVING again. Little Caesars large pepperoni pizza? Entire thing gone in 10 minutes. 10 minutes later? STARVING. 16oz box of pasta and a huge jar of sauce? Easy, and 30 minutes later - feel like I'm going to puke because I ate so much, yet at the same time - STARVING!!!
