I make very little money. I am 80lbs overweight. This is not me. I am a very active person. Being fat slows me down tremendously. We eat alot of pasta (10 for $10) and potatoes ($2.99/bag) which I know are wrong but that's what I can afford. Does anyone have any ideas for me?

It is so hard to eat "right" because food tht is good for us, fresh produce, chicken, fish, etc are so expensive. I try to make meals, like with a whole chicken, that I can make other meals with and keep for the next night or freeze. Sometimes I just make a soup that we all love, with spinach, onions, chicken, smaller amt of noodles or rice than I used to make, carrots, bay leaf, no salt and low fat broth ( I use the granules or powder), 3 small pieces of turkey bacon crumbled after I fry it up, and we all love it and eat on it for several days. It's not easy but kind of challenging and of course, we buy on sale items and freeze as much as we can in our tiny freezer.

Good luck...hope this helps some. It just is not easy, that's for sure.

I feel the same way, there is a great all natural foods store close to us that I have been in maybe twice because it is SOOOO overpriced. Chicken is great "diet" food and we always get the bulk bags of boneless skinless breasts that are usually 6 pounds for 8$ Also if you look around you can find ground turkey at a good price but you may have to try different stores. If you have a Wal Mart I used to be able to get it there for $1 a pound.

Other than carbs is pasta really that horrible? Just go very light on the sauce and stay away from the white sauces those are the worst!

Yea and I just look for sales when I go, last time I was able to find Tilapa (fish) buy one get one at $4 a pound so got fist at $2 a pound basically.

Whole grain rice is also good for you and not to expensive and it fills you up. I have been able to find either the Uncle Bens bags or Rice a Roni at 10 for $10 recently at my store.

Hope this helps and I havent typed to much of a novel

you can also get great deals on fruits n veggies at ur local farmers market especially at the end of the day when all the vendors are slashing prices! here we also have a fish market that works the same way .. great deals there near the end of the day!

I'll be honest, I've made sacrifices in other areas of my life so I can eat better. I spend way more on groceries than I ever did before. However, when I think about how we used to eat out at least twice a week, I guess I'm not spending much more than I always used to.

I shop at Walmart and they do have some pretty good deals. If you have a local grocery market, look for weekly sales and stock up on the healthy items. I figured I was worth it, so this is a gift I give myself each week.

I have the same problem. I am lucky if I have $70 a month for food. I buy a lot of my stuff at Walmart. Their price on Weight Watchers frozen dinners are lower than other places. And, I get the Jenny O lean turkey burgers there, 12 patties for about $5.00. I do the rest of my shopping at a discount grocery store. Lots of canned veggies 50 cents a can.

It just really ticks me off that they take advantage of people by raising the prices on the "good for you" foods. Then they go and wonder why so many people are overweight.

Check in your freezer section as well for deals on veggies! If you can't afford the fresh veggies the frozen ones are better for you than the canned ones. I'd seriously look and see where I could trim money from. I sacrifice things in order to have healthier food choices. I do this because I finally decided I couldn't worry about the money when it comes to my health and my families health so I trim and cut and clip coupons where I can!

I spend $20 a week. I buy things that I can stretch and use over a week or two. For instance last week, I made turkey chilli. Cost me $7. I had enough to last for several meals and I also save 1/2 lb of ground turkey to make burgers out of. This week I bought chicken breast and rice and vegetables. I got 5 thin chicken breasts for $5. Should last me at least a week and a half. Pre-planning helps. I am unemployed and can not spend more than $20. If you think things through you can make healthy options without spending a fortune.

This is a very interesting topic.
Food, healthy food is not that expensive if we make the effort to find the deals as people have mentioned.

Another very important point to to buy food that is in season. That's when it is the cheapest. Preserve and freeze if you have the means but at the very least consume lots of that food when it's in season. Better yet, go and pick your own produce for the cheapest price and a bit of exercise.

Local food is also more reasonably priced than food that has to travel 100's of miles (fuel is expensive) to get to the grocery store. Here we have many greenhouses that produce pepper and cucumbers, the crooked and deformed ones are always cheap at the local vegetable market.

Processed food is also more expensive. Anytime a food is touched, processed, packaged and shipped, it will become more expensive. The exception to this rule is when the packaged food is handled by cheaply paid workers, then filled with cheap additives and fillers that not healthy things to be eating anyway.

Sure a bag of 6 fresh local apples could cost $2.50
.. but a large bag of processed corn tortilla chips is 2.99

Winter squash is cheap and easy to store, 8 might cost $6.00
... a Big Mac meal cost $6.00

Bread is another area to cut costs ... a loaf can set you back from $2 to $4
... but you can make 2 loaves for 60 cents.

1 25 lb (10kg) bag of ww flour costs $12 in Canada .. that's $0.48 a pound

2c. hot water
1 tsp salt
2 TB honey
4-5 cups of ww flour
2 TB of instant yeast

I also use this recipe to make pizza crust, bread sticks, crackers, rolls, and so on

Now, I hear you all saying that you don't have time to make bread but bread takes very little time. Mix it, let it rise and bake it. All can be done while your watching the evening TV programs.

There are cheap way to eat healthily .. keep on looking for them

This one's not exactly a quick fix, but what about growing your own veggies? Even if you live in an apartment or don't have much ground of your own to use, there are books you can get from the library about edible container gardens. A few small pots of herbs (no, not THAT kind of herb, LOL) would also be a cheap way to make your homegrown stuff taste really fancy.

I definetly understand the frustration here. I work in a grocery store so I am all to aware of the rising costs of healthy foods. What irritates me is that everybody keeps going on about how overweight our country is! Well if healthy food was a little cheaper maybe people would eat better. I have seen far to many parents lately refuse to buy produce because it costs to much and they end up with chips and other unhealthy things that are on sale. I try to just buy apples by the bag because if you buy them individually it costs a fortune ( You might get two apples for the price of a bag). As of right now I have stayed away from the oranges in my area simply because they cost ot much and do not taste good. Bananas however I eat a lot of because they are the cheapest produce in our store at .67/lb. Hope you have better luck with this in the future!

Thanks for all the help. It looks like I should shop at Walmart. Our Farmer's Market is very expensive too but I didn't know about going at the end of the day.

I tried growing my own veggies, had a HUGE garden started. I killed it. It was really hot here and I didn't water it enough. It was sad because the whole family was involved.

I'm glad to see everyone pitched in. I thought it might be a stupid question but based on the answers, I am not alone.

I do love homemade bread and I'm going to try your recipe. I love the fact that one of you can only spend $20/wk. That's within my budget. I did make the tiny meatball soup, it was inexpensive and good.

Speaking of Frozen foods, I bought frozen fruit in the bags, I put about 2 cups in the blender with one cup of water, it makes a pretty good fruit smoothie.

I agree with JJCHEYENEE, if they made it affordable we would have an obesity problem.

Thank you everyone for your support. I'm off to the grocery store to see what I can find........cheap!

I love the fact that you've been able to find things that work for you with your grocery shopping. Do you have a discount grocery store near you like Aldi's or Save-A-Lot? The whole idea of Aldi's used to freak me out a little bit for some reason but it's become a huge life saver for me. Also see if someone you know has a membership to one of the club stores like Sam's or BJ's. We got to Sam's from time to time and can get huge packs of frozen veggies/fruits and really good meats. The initial cost is more, sure, but considering we won't have to buy again for 5 or 6 years makes it worth it (yes, I'm exaggerating ... but they ARE huge bags!).

I know this is kinda a late reply, but I too have less to spend.. I have gotten into dried beans. You can get a bag of dry beans for about a dollar.. I throw in some canned tomatoes ( $1)some ground turkey ($2) and some seasoning..depending on what you have but ($1) and get a big pot of chili . I can make that last all week for lunch at work thats $1 a day. Veggie soup is good too.. soup is filling and if you add some beans to it you get protein.

I have found an organic produce coop and the food is half the price of food in the stores. It is picked the day before also. The only thing I go to the store for is paper products. So get off the carbs and junk food and eat fresh veggies and fruit. You will feel better and look better.

I use egg whites instead of egg beaters add some Fat Free Milk and scramble, pour in a pan with spray and add salsa, or peppers, if you can afford buy some low fat cheese. Then I buy the cheapest light multigrain or wheat bread and have two slices with I can't believe it's not butter light (this is usually on sale with coupons, which I stock up on and freeze). I also am on a very limited budget as my husband is disabled, although I work we have two daughters in college and some months the money does not stretch very far. Also, I really work my coupons, I have not had to pay for toothpaste in about 3 years. The same for shampoo. By saving this way I can make my budget work at the food store. If you can, get into a neighborhood coupon trading group.

Another idea you might try is to go to the library and get a bunch of diet cookbooks out at a time. I figure even if I find one recipe each time I go it helps.

Another way I have of saving money is to hang up my wash. I found that this saves me 40 to 50 dollars a month. I still dry the towels and undies in the dryer though because I don't like the feel of the towels on the line. I don't think people realize how much they can save by hanging up the wash. Good luck to you because I know how hard it is to be on a limited budget. I will look through my low fat recipes and see what I can find that is cheap.

I just wanted to add there are a couple of good websites I go to. On Walmart.com you can get free samples. And on CouponCabin.com if you go to it you will see coupons for online stores, if you click the printable coupons you will see coupons for stores in the malls. These are not food stores but for clothes, books, etc. One time I got a coupon for 5.00 off a 10.00 purchase, another for 10.00 off a 25.00 dollar purchase. There are always different coupons each week. I also go to various web sites for food products, such as Proctor and Gamble, Dove Soap, etc. and sometimes I get coupons that way. Kraft foods will send you a magazine every 3 months, sometimes with coupons for free if you sign up with them. Also, the same thing with Nestle - go to Very Best Baking.com and sign up for the magazine, sometimes they send really good coupons with it.

If anyone else knows of any bargains, please post, I am always looking for ways to save money. This way it may help you have a little more in the food store or to pay bills.

I guess I disagree with people on this thread because I spend less money when I diet versus when I don't. I do the shopping in my household. Right now it's just my husband and I but we only spend about $30 a week on groceries. The keys to being able to do this is buying in bulk and buying what's on sale. I only buy chicken in family size packs and only when it's selling for 1.99 a lb. I also buy an entire pork loin, but it up and put it in seperate baggies when I get home. Sure it takes a little longer but I more than make up for it in the money I save. As for produce I buy generic frozen when I plan on cooking the veggies anyway, they end up tasting the same fresh of frozen after cooking. Things like broccoli are sometimes better to buy frozen for health reasons anyway. When broccoli sits around for any period of time the nutrients in it start to deteriorate, when they're frozen they retain their nutrition longer. When I shop I take the circular and go through it with a marker to circle the items that are both on sale and healthy. Then when I shop I only get these items and staples; milk, eggs, etc. Then when I go home I plan my meals around what was on sale that week. Use you freezer to your advantage too, make a large amount of something and freeze it in portions. I do this with soups all the time. Make a giant pot and then freeze several portions. That way you don't have to eat the same thing everyday for lunch that week and you have quick meals in the freezer to grab when you don't have time.
A while ago there was a challenge about saving money while dieting. You had to figure out what you spent on food in a day. Just by doing what I stated above, my average daily expense for a day of food (1 person) was $3. Believe me, there are ways to eat healthy and not spend a lot of money on it.

I was embarrassed to ask this question but it's been great for me. You have come up with some great ideas. When I signed in today, on the bottom of the home page, was a helpful hint's box. There are several easy recipes in there. One for Peanut Butter Cups which I've tried and it's awesome! There's Healthy Latte, chocolate covered strawberries, ice cream sandwiches (my kids ate them all before I had a chance, so I had to make more), roasted fruit, and baked apples. All good and cheap!!!!

If it's not there when you go to look, I've written them down and I can get them to you.

I just thought of another way I save on meat and fish. I buy in bulk at Sam's Club, bring it home and repack everything using my vacuum sealer. I think I paid about $30 for it on clearance a couple of years ago, but since it's just my husband and me it was the only way I could take advantage of the meat & seafood prices at Sam's. It has more than paid for itself, and the time invested in repacking everything is worth it. No more freezer burn and wasted food. Just wish I had the marinating attachment.

I cut up our jack-o-lanterns, removed the skin and baked all the chunks on cookie sheets for 45 minutes. The 4 pumpkins produced a heap of cooked food. I mashed the roasted pumpkin and froze it in 2c. portions stored in ziploc bags. Now I have a freezer full of ready to use pumpkin for pumpkin bran muffins, my favorite pumpkin soup and the occasional crustless pumpkin pie. Waste-not-want-not :-)

Salad dressing is at least $3 a bottle and usually tastes chemically.
It's much cheaper to make your own dressings.
Be creative !! It's easy to make great tasting dressings.

Basically ...

2 parts olive oil OR vegetable oil OR buttermilk OR light sour cream thinned with milk
1 part vinegar (cider, plum, raspberry or white) OR lemon juice OR lime juice

Add your favorite seasonings, herbs, pepper, crushed garlic, mustard, ketchup, touch of honey
AND shake it up !!!

A little goes a long way ... use sparingly and so you can taste the freshness of the salad.

This is gonna sound so wrong but I am glad to find so many sharing my struggle. To make it more difficult on me my husband believes in rice regularly n my dad who I care for loves pasta n potatoes. I have found that I can save money by buying chicken quarters by the case. I just find different ways to try n cook it healthier for me. While my hubby can eat anything n stay thin, not me. So I found places in my area that give out free fruit n veggies. Also if u live near a fruit/veggie stand they discount stuff that is close to expiring. Yea it means more frequent shopping but it is helping me. And of course pay alot attention to sales papers. I know it is extra work, but its hard out here. Also alot of dollar stores sell the artificial sweetner non name brands, salad dressing, n a few healthy snacks. Good Luck 2 all.

Eggs are cheap, oats, bagged beans and peas, canned fruits and veggies and even can get fresh fruits and veggies for pretty cheap at times. I also like canned tuna, turkey and chicken.


Maybe this might can help too

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22145/52070


Good luck!!