Healthy eating on a budget?

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-21-2003
Healthy eating on a budget?
10
Sun, 06-26-2005 - 7:29am

Hi there,

there are quite a few posts on this board and the budgeting one, the frugal living one etc., that circle around the question: What to have for dinner when you don't have that much money.

What, honestly, does surprise me regularly is the 'Cheese and Mac' or 'Ramen Noodles' answers. I know that there's about a ton of scientific studies around here (Germany) which show that there's a strong link between low income, and dietary induced health problems like overweight. And the same studies usually point out that the real problem is not that people don't have the money to eat healthy, but usually don't know how to eat healthy and then buy cheap convenience products, chips, fast-food.

Maybe I am a bit out of synch with the mainstream lifestyle (at least sometimes it feels hat way...), but I have a large kilo-bag of muesli at home, with dried fruits and nuts and no sugar added. One kilo costs appx. 2,50$, and gives at least 20 servings. Add milk, and that is a good lunch or breakfast. In-season produce is fresh, nurishing - and cheap. And pasta is not that expensive, either. Our food costs are at less than 50$/week, and that already includes sweeties, wine, and other luxuries. All without much effort in compairng prices, or having large storage capacities (our freezer has a net volumen of 10L!)

I once gained 12 kg in three months - when I switched from what I usually eat (without much thinking, I have been simply brought up to eat healthy) to standard high school cafeteria fare, french fries and gravy, 'salads' not containing one green leaf in them and peanutbutter-and-white-bread-dinners.

I know that lowering your grocery bill and at the same time eating healthy can be quite tough when you live in a small town, and there is only Aldi and Wal-Mart to go to. But it works. I have a great cook book, called 'Less is More'. It was originall put together some time in the 80's, with the thought I mind that the developed world consumes too much meat and other raw protein sources, and if the whole world ate like we do, there'd be definitely no way to feed the whole world. I definitely recommend it as a good reading for anyone in search for ideas on how to cook a meal for half a dozen people with seasonal produce from the market, your own garden, and yesterday's left-overs :-)

I think it is our shared main goal to get debt off our backs. But IMHO it definitely does not pay to neglect health and dietary issues in the process. Think of it as investment, I tell myself: What I spend now on healthy food (which is not hat much, after all!) reduces the probability of having to pay more money later in medical and dentist bills.

Just my two or three cents on this issue,
have a blessed sunday,
Jordis

ivy_jordis

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 06-26-2005 - 8:07am

I agree that eating healthy and eating cheaply don't have to be opposites. I do get frustrated that some of the healthier products cost so much more for no apparent reason-i.e. why is unbleached flour more than bleached? Why does anything with whole wheat cost 1 1/2 times white flour products? We've switched to all whole wheat because of DD's constipation. Pasta has suddenly become far more expensive and while white rice has very little nutritional value brown rice is much more expensive. Having said that, we've made the changes and I'll be increasing the budget to $200 a month for a family of 4 instead of $180. Still not bad.

Taleyna

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-20-2004
Sun, 06-26-2005 - 10:14am
Jordis,
I think you bring up an excellent point. For example, my usual lunches (when I am not scraping by) are salads, and turkey sandwiches on wheat bread. When money is an issue, I end up eating ramen noodles, hotdogs, etc. Fruit is almost more expensive than any unhealthy snacks. For example, a single orange costs 62 cents, while I can buy a small bag of chips or a candy bar for less. I have been gradually upping my consumption of fruits and veggies...I don't really like red meat but eat a lot of chicken and turkey. As for bread, the cost is outrageous and decent wheat bread is almost always more expensive than white bread. I have been known to make my own wheat bread, which is excellent but time consuming. We pay a high price for convenience.
Another thing contributing to our society being obese is our reliance on cars. I was shocked to hear from my German penpal that nobody in his family owned a car....is this really that common in Germany? we own two, and I would say car payments and insurance, gas and maintenance eat up about 25% of our disposable income. Recently, a big deal has been made over the fact that the voters of a large US city (Denver) recently approved a measure that would expand mass transit in that city at taxpayer expense. we spend, as a society, too much time in traffic jams. Anyhow, we would really be in trouble if we didn't have two cars in the area that we live. there is no public transportation here...it would take hours to walk to the nearest grocery store.
I hope to someday live a simpler life. What it will cost to get there, i don't know. Have a great day. Heather
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2005
Sun, 06-26-2005 - 11:32am

While fresh fruits and vegetables are best, I find that very often frozen ones are less expensive. And you can stock up when they go on sale. Had a good laugh when the first poster mentioned muesli - that's what I have been eating all week! In the US it is more expensive but I find that you can make your own. This is a recipe I use:

2 cups plan yoghurt
1 cup milk
3/4 to 1 cup oats (plain, instant or regular non-flavor oatmeal is fine - no need to cook it))
1/4 sliced almonds (or any nuts, or unsalted sunflower seeds - which are less expensive than nuts)
1/4 cup raisins
1 apple, chopped
1 banana, sliced
1 orange, choppe
1 peach, chopped
1 pint strawberries

Mix everything together. Makes 4 servings. Keeps in the fridge for a couple days. You can substitute with frozen fruits or whatever you like/in season/on sale. It is also a great way to use up fruits that are slightly blemished (just cut away that bad part); or to use bananas that look a bit "black" and are marked down. It can be served as breakfast, lunch, or dinner (with some bread if you want a more substantial meal). I like it more tart, but certainly you can add sugar/honey to make it sweeter.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-1999
Sun, 06-26-2005 - 2:37pm

I have health problems and have to eat healthy but I've learned to cut corners.
One thing I've done to save money is I buy rice and grains at asian markets. I can get a 20lb bag of brown rice for about $11 & that lasts us about 3 months.

Canned veggies are cheaper (I don't mind that I can't read the label - I just make sure I know what's actually in the can, one time my son slipped a can of squid in the basket & I didn't find it till I got home).

Spices are cheaper at the ethic grocery stores too(and normally more potent). Now that I think about it there's a lot of little things I buy there that are cheaper. Any way just an idea...

Sal

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 06-26-2005 - 11:21pm

I have heard that and need to try again-the one time I've attempted this the store keeper
was very hostile and they carried only white rice and a very small noodle selection. August might be a great time-my DH will be home some so I might be able to do some browsing without my "helpers". I've thought the same thing about health food stores that I really need to go back and compare prices now that we're being more specific about grain types etc.

Taleyna

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2005
Mon, 06-27-2005 - 7:37am

I too just started up using wheat pasta for spaghetti, b/c my dd is eating the same meals as us now and it occured to me I've been doing white all these years. It has been bothering me to notice so much is bleached- flour, pasta, (i have always done wheat bread) but the small box of wheat pasta costs 2 times as much as the white! I am hoping to go to a produce sale in amish country- they have it once a week and my dad said the prices are so wonderful, a 50 pd bag of potatoes for instance is $3. I used to be a vegetarian and I would love to go back to it..... but my son and dh would never go for it and to be honest I am thin and my husband and friends said i was way too thin when i didn't eat meat. My dh says i looked anemic. The quality of the food we eat is really bugging me, I just emailed a complaint letter to our local grocery store about their meat not being fresh enough several times i have bought it and I think we are going to try a meat market. But i want to know how you guys can feed a family of 4 for $200. By the time you add in all the drinks, lunches etc. i could never do it.

Shannon

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Mon, 06-27-2005 - 9:21am

A couple of things-some I like and some I don't

1) DH travels extensively during the school year so we do have some months where I'm just feeding 3 for 12 days or so.

2) We eat mostly vegetarian meals and beans are cheap! I buy the dried, soak them overnight and then cook in my crockpot.

3) DD suffers from encopresis and can't have cheese. While I do use cheese for the rest of the family it's sparingly.

4) I switched to generic cola. Actually, I can't think of anything I'm name brand specific on anymore-DH still prefers name brand cola

5) Price comparisons-the price book approach that Heather posted about it great

6) I do one large monthly shop and then a mid-month shop for produce. I rarely make last minute trips to the store for anything. When we ran out of baking powder-I looked for recipes without until the next month came around. One notable month-I spend the grocery budget before hitting the bread thrift store I either made bread or we used other items until the end.

7) I don't buy very many convenience items. I've been stocking up for vacation but usually we don't do breakfast cereal, mac n' cheese, etc.

Taleyna

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Mon, 06-27-2005 - 9:24am

I agree heartily with you Jordis. I will add, though, that even with my very careful shopping (loss leaders at grocery stores, farmer's market for most produce except what I can get cheaper on sale, etc.), at least around here, eating lots of fresh fruits becomes very expensive compared to eating grains and beans or even carefully-shopped-for meats. I actually had to raise my food budget by 50% at one point because we had started eating only fruit for breakfast, and keeping that much fruit on hand, even the cheap varieties, was just terribly expensive. Even dried and/or frozen fruits typically are much more expensive than grains and beans.

And I second the comment that whole wheat (or amaranth, or quinoa, or any of the healthier grains) is *always* *much* more expensive than the bleached-white flour (why????).

Thanks for the muesli suggestion, though! We never buy cereal, because it is so expensive and relatively pointless (I don't believe all those "fortified" vitamins actually do the body much good), but muesli with whole grains and a bit of dried fruit and maybe some sunflower seeds (which are a relatively inexpensive nut/seed), is a really good idea. Again, though, we'll have to make it from scratch--store-bought, even at the health food store in bulk, is terribly, terribly expensive around here.

One fresh-fruit reasonably healthy but totally yummy thing we've been doing a lot is fresh banana smoothies. I buy over-ripe bananas for around 25 cents a pound, and peel and freeze in batches of three bananas. When I'm ready, I pull out a batch and throw them in the blender with about a cup of milk (made from powdered milk, which is about half as expensive as whole milk, and can be stored indefinitely until you actually mix it up) and a sweetener (usually maple syrup--my favorite but expensive, molasses, or turbinado), blend, and serve. Very yummy and filling, and you can vary the sweetener (or omit entirely--bananas are pretty sweet) to match your dietary needs. When we have other fruits, especially berries, that we've grown ourselves or purchased on sale for cheap, we throw in a handful to vary the flavor. I've calculated that, with maple syrup, this concoction costs us less than 30 cents per serving (each batch makes two servings). Cheaper with another form of sweetener, or none at all.

Anyway, my opinion on why so much of America, especially the poorer segments, eat so poorly so much of the time: People just don't know. They were raised on white bread, peanut butter and jelly, and mac n cheese. They don't know any other way to eat, except with expensive convenience "health" foods. I know SO many health nuts who go to the health food store and spend hundreds of dollars a WEEK on organically-produced, highly packaged, "healthy" convenience food. Sure, they're eating "healthier" than the neighbor who buys big bulk packages of conventional "snack mixes," but they're paying a HIGH premium for it. Because they just don't know how to do it any other way.

I'm rambling now, and I really need to go get a shower and get started on my day (yeah, it's 9:20 and all I've done today is lounge around with my kids and start a load of laundry--sheesh. I need to get off my bum!).

Blessings,

Heather

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Mon, 06-27-2005 - 11:16am

I agree, but it can be *really* hard for some families to stretch their food dollars in any direction, healthy or not. And I think we hear most often from people who are having pantry emergencies (BTDT). Just getting the kids fed in those situations is the first priority.

DH & I have been low-carbers for several years now, so we have essentially dumped the typical American diet (and the extra pounds that went with it!!) Although we no longer waste money on sugar, white flour, or trans fats (a staple ingredient in prepared/convenience foods), our grocery bill has gone up about 50% (and we do not even get sucked into buying the "special" LC foods). It would probably be harder for us to swing the kind of grocery bill we do if we were raising children.

Here are my suggestions for this thread:

-only buy the produce in season

-if you are buying pre-bagged fruit at a set price, weigh the bags to get the heaviest one

-buy several single fruits instead of filling a bag with one kind

-raisins, applesauce (unsweetened), and canned fruit (without added sugar) frequently go on sale and keep well

-buy lightweight veggies off the salad bar to get more variety (ie a couple of fistfuls of baby spinach will cost .25 - .30 cents instead of 2.99 for a whole bag; a few spoonfuls of chopped celery to add to your tuna salad will cost pennies instead of 1.29 for a bag)

-check out the prices at local farmer's markets

-try growing an easy vegetable at home, even if you have to do it in a container. Seeds are real cheap right now!! (Beans are easy and grow fast).

-eggs, beans, and peanut butter (I like the store brand 'natural' style--no sugar) are healthy/cheap protein sources

-chicken prices here are out of control--our grocery stores just started carrying turkey breasts and they are much cheaper than boneless chic breasts (under $4 for 4 breasts).

-frozen berries (without sugar added) are cheap and keep well. Great for baking (roll in flour before adding to your recipe), smoothies, etc.

-buy a large container of plain yogurt; mix with some froz berries and fill small recycled plastic or GladWare type containers to take for lunch...much cheaper than those kiddie 4-packs you see

-keep powdered milk on hand for emergencies (we don't drink milk but I know it's expensive)

-nuts in the shell can be cheap and are more nutritious than popcorn

-if you are stuck with a ramen type meal, see if you have some canned or froz vegetables on hand you can add to it

-and always, always compare the unit prices (price per lb or count) on the shelf labels to know which product/size is the most economical...it's not always the store brand or largest size!

hope this helps
BK




iVillage Member
Registered: 08-08-2003
Mon, 06-27-2005 - 11:24am

I pretty much only eat healthy foods. I shop once a week at the food co-op. ($25) I get one serving of salmon or halibut, a block of tofu (2 dinners), three or four apples, oatmeal, rice noodles, half dozen eggs, two cartons of soy milk, and a LOT of veggies of the cheaper variety (carrots, onions) I adjust to restock my supplies of brown rice, coffee, soy sauce, quinoa, etc. Sometimes I spend up to $30. About four times a year I go to Costco and spend around $30 on maple syrup, canned tomatoes, peanut butter, soy sausages, bisquick, and other bulk things. I also stop by the asian grocery around 4 times a year for various little things. I will run across the street to the regular grocery for things like limes and wine. I also shop at the farmers market for fruits and veggies. Not every week though. Finally I have a garden that I grow easy things like salad greens, peas, kale, beets, and tomatos.

I never, ever shop for food at Walmart or other big chain stores. For one thing, it's not healthy. What I save on medical bills more than makes up for what I spend on healthy food. Also, keeping your money in your community is just as important as being frugal. It's collective frugality ... The profits from places like Walmart leave town. Profits from local stores and co-ops recirculate in your own neighborhood, which helps everyone. So even if health isn't your priority, try to shop local! :)