How can i eat healthy on a budget?!
Question: other than just fruits and veggies..what should i look for at a grocery store..that wont put a hole in my wallet..breakfast,lunch,dinner...for about 50-60 a week
Answers: other than just fruits and veggies..what should i look for at a grocery store..that wont put a hole in my wallet..breakfast,lunch,dinner...for about 50-60 a week
Slowly cut out one food at a time that you eat that is unhealthy or expensive for you. Stop buying prepackaged frozen dinners, unless they are small "healthy choice" types. Eat what you have in the fridge until you are completely out of food and try to reduce your spoilage. Make you own lunches. Oatmeals are cheaper and better for you than sugar cereals. A can of soup with a veggie makes a good lunch. Stay away from buying too much beef if at all. Stick with pork, chicken breasts, and fish....and think of different ways you can fix them up yourself.
Make sure you have a good store cupboard with dried herbs, spices, tinned tomatoes, dried pulses, soy sauce etc. Frozen veg are cheap and useful, and if you go to a freezer store you should get cheap cuts of chicken etc which you can defrost and use in stir fries etc with frozen veg. Pasta and rice are essentials, and bread is a staple. Buy large size packs of breakfast cereals and a pack of budget dried fruit - sultanas, raisins etc to add to it to liven it up. Make bulk quantities of tomato and basil or similar pasta sauce and freeze portions. Same with chilli or bolognese type sauces. Eggs are cheap and with the addition of some chopped onion or other frozen veg, and some dried herbs can be made into a tasy omelette. Soup is also a good cheap filler and can be refrigerated for a few days.
I use cereal as a cheap meal even for supper. Some of the tv dinners taste good if you add peppers ,onions and bread.
If you cut out all fast food, that can easily save you $50/week. I never took lunch to work and I was spending much more than that. I realize now that the food was giving me cravings and I had to go back for more. I live alone and can get by with about 160/month and I eat really good. You have to get into the rhythem of cooking in the evening stuff that you'll need for lunch. What makes it hard is it's really hard to prepare an inexpensive meal when you come home starving; and that after you stuff yourself with junk food, there is no desire to make anything for your next meal. It takes some dicipline to get into making stuff for the next day. I started making tuna with celery/onions and lemon and letting it sit in the fridge so the flavors would blend. It was a simple matter to make the sandwiches in the morning and put them in the fridge at work. I would also keep a pot of beans in the fridge for times when I didn't have anything else ready. When you make yourself a salad for dinner, cut up a little more than what you need and get it ready for next days lunch. Get in the habit of keeping plastic wrap or zip lock bags handy so you can save half a tomato or onion for something the next day. Much goes to waste if no effort is made to keep it from drying up. I keep the baggies in a certain place in the door so I don't forget that I already have something cut up..otherwise, it will get lost in the back and then rot. I can splurge on specialty cheeses, breads and crackers often because my food bill is low. I found that soda don't satisfy, make a gallon of various tea and take it in a thermos. I found that after eating good/natural/home prepped food, fast food and sodas would give me too much of a rush and many times upset my stomach..but that gave me the incentive to be better prepared for next time. It may take several months of practice to get into the swing of it.