Eating right = very expensive

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Prakas87

New member
I been on my diet for almost 4 weeks, and noticing a huge increase in how much I'm spending at the grocery store. I try and get a fair amount of protein/fiber/calcium etc in my diet, but everything adds up quick.

I went shopping today and I racked up a whopping $172.00, and I didn't even get paper towels, toilet paper, and some other common household items. I'll need to get more milk in a few days too, and I'll be back shopping I'm sure in less then 2 weeks.

Also for breakfast I generally eat a bowl of go lean strawberry cereal (very nutrious) with milk. The boxes of cereal though are small and $3.99 a box!!!!

Help me save, please :eek:
 
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Oatmeal instead of cereal? Where I come from oatmeal porridge is the most common breakfast dish. Or take oatmeal, raisins (or half a banana), linx seeds and mix with low-fat yoghurt? No added sodium, lots of fibre, complex carbs and calcium. If you want to add more protein, add some cottage cheese to the mix.
Just my suggestion... :)
And it's definitely healthier to buy as many fresh and unprocessed foods as possible and prepare them yourself.
Juliette
 
the cereal i eat has like 13g fiber, 9g of protein and low in calories+sodium. Its perfect to start the day, but its just expensive.

I'll take a look into the oatmeal porridge, that sounds like a excellent idea. Banana+Yogurt sounds good too, but about the same price as cereal and milk?
 
The oatmeal flake package in my kitchen cupboard says (grams/100 g)
10 fibre
14 protein
56 carb (sugars 1,1)
7,5 fat (saturated 1,1)
sodium 0,002
Ingredients: whole grain oat

1 kg (2,2 pounds) costs about 0,8 € (1.08$, 0.54£) here.

If you want to add some more fibre to the porridge, I recommend to add some wheat bran:
48 fibre
14 protein
14 carb (sugars 1,8)
3,4 fat (saturated 0,6)
sodium 0,003

I choose the oatmeal&banana&linx&yoghurt combination when I want variation.. Cereal is too processed to my liking. ;)
 
How much packaged stuff do you buy?

I find if you concentrate on the basic fruit/veges/grains it is extremely cheap. If you are buying a lot of packaged 'healthy alternatives' then it adds up very quickly
 
a lot of it dependson location and availability of fresh things..

I rarely buy processed food, I can't handle the sodium...

I live in chicago and there are three grocery stores in my general area - none of them are cheap - today I spent 6 dollars to buy 6 apples (the apples I like were 2.49 an lb - i don't like macintosh apples.. ) .. and 8 dollars for 5 tomatoes... 6 dollars for a 1 1/2 lb bag of cherries and 3 dollars for a lb of strawberries.. prices like that healthy eating adds up... and the grocery stores are competive for the area -

I could go to a cheaper area to shop, but then it'd be time spent going there not to mention transportation costs getting there... so it really doesn't save all that much...

the farmer's market nearby me had a pint of grape tomatoes for 4 dollars (the grocery store had them for 3.00) I'm sure once summer gets into full swing the farmer's markets prices will come down BUT when gas is over 4.00 a gallon right now, i don't expect their prices to come down much.
 
the other day i stopped at a health food store jsut to see what they had and one thing i noticed was that alot of the things were very pricy
 
For some foods, frozen is cheaper. Frozen strawberries, blueberries, rasperries... you get the idea. And since if I bought them in the same quantity fresh, they'd be bad before I ate them all. This way, it's cheaper in the beginning and it's cheaper because I'm not throwing half of it away.

I also freeze my banana's when I get them home. Better than a popsicle but hard to peel. I slice one side open with a knife and then peel it that way.

And definitely keep checking out the non name brand stuff. Kellogs miniwheats are expensive, but the Roundy's brand is cheaper and is the same thing. Not a ton cheaper, but a box a week, it adds up.
 
Hey, plant your own garden! I have grape tomatoes, plum tomatoes, and beefsteak tomotoes, and cucumbers planted right now. It is the perfect time to get some of your own produce going! I have my tomotoes in pots, not in the ground, just a tip for those apartment dwellers. I LOVE fresh veggies. Bag of seeds really cheap, just takes a longer. But the plants are pretty reasonable too, tomotoes were 2.50 a pot at walmart. And just think of all of the fresh organic veggies I am going to have this summer!
 
Eating healthy can be very expensive, my father would rather buy a bag of chips and some tv dinners instead of veggies and fruits as well as other healthy food! it can be frustrating sometimes but I think he's coming around, YAY!
 
One of the biggest expenses in food is what goes to waste. When I shopped once a week, about 30% would end up in the trash from spoilage. Now I go to the store every afternoon, buy what is fresh, and only enough for that one meal. We're spending less than what we did when we ate a lot of junk food, and eating much better food at the same time.
 
maleficent said:
a lot of it dependson location and availability of fresh things..

I rarely buy processed food, I can't handle the sodium...

I live in chicago and there are three grocery stores in my general area - none of them are cheap - today I spent 6 dollars to buy 6 apples (the apples I like were 2.49 an lb - i don't like macintosh apples.. ) .. and 8 dollars for 5 tomatoes... 6 dollars for a 1 1/2 lb bag of cherries and 3 dollars for a lb of strawberries.. prices like that healthy eating adds up... and the grocery stores are competive for the area -
Click to expand...

My god, those prices make me want to faint!
A kilo bag of apples here is a about 2.50. nz dollars so maybe 1.70 US?
 
I think if you really learn how to cook healthy and keep an eye out for stuff that doesn't cost a fortune, it doesn't have to be that much more costly. It's actually cheaper and healthier for me to make a one skillet meal (like a hambuger helper) from scratch than it is to buy the box because I make more and I freeze it. Also, if you know where to shop and look for sales, you'd be surprised at how much you can save. I recently got 10 packages of whole wheat pasta for 10 dollars, (that's cheaper than the regular pasta) because it was on sale. Also, stocks such as chicken or veggie stock make great dishes and they are very low in calories. Fresh vegatables can be a bit pricey but to me, they are well worth it. Also, you don't have to buy fancy schmancy stuff to lose weight and eat healthy, you just have to read the lables and find something inexpensive that suits your needs. :)
 
Prakas87 said:
I been on my diet for almost 4 weeks, and noticing a huge increase in how much I'm spending at the grocery store. I went shopping today and I racked up a whopping $172.00, and I didn't even get paper towels, toilet paper, and some other common household items.
Click to expand...

I buy for a family of 5 and spend less per week! We don't buy cereal unless its on sale, because my kids will eat shredded wheat or raisin bran, yes there's sugar, but super high fiber and thats the one thing I'll give them thats about so so (I got shredded wheat for $1 a box this week). The rest of what we buy is your basic staples (milk, eggs, cottage cheese, cheese, beans, peanut butter, oats and grains) a LOT of fresh produce (we are lucky in NM its very cheap to buy produce), chicken breast and lean beef (usually around 1.99 lb), and 100% whole wheat for bread. Never anything in a box, with the exception of the cereal for the boys.
 
i really thought that my grocery bill would be vastly reduced once i stopped buying the large quantities of junk food. sadly it hasnt, the increased cost of all the healthier products - fruit, veg, etc is almost as expensive. but there are ways in which i cut costs.
go shopping just before the shop shuts. many perishible goods are reduced - fruit, veg and meat
as someone has previously mentioned buy oatmeal. its cheap and filling. i buy a biggish size bag for about 40p (uk) which lasts for a few weeks. if im really skint i can eat it for other meals as well!
buy shops own brand/ nofrills were possible. i do this especially for cleaning products, loo roll, the occasional packet of biscuits, cereal etc. what you save doing this you will have a little money left over for other things if you want.
shop around, find out whats on special that week and stock up (but only if its something you need). slim
 
Processed food (anything in a can/box/bag etc.) probably makes up less than 10% of my food purchases but my weekly grocery bill is at least double what it was when I ate 90% junk. And I take as many cost cutting measures as possible, including bargain hunting, buying and cooking in bulk, utilizing a local farmer's market and a friend's garden but still.... a pound of 97% lean ground turkey is nearly twice the cost as regular ground beef, wild salmon is far more expensive than farm raised salmon, cold pressed EVOO generally runs about seven bucks compared to two dollars for the same amount of corn oil and the price of almonds and walnuts are insane, especially compared to something like "two bags for two bucks" chips.

I don't regret the money I spend on food because it's just an investment in my health, but I have to admit that I do experience "sticker shock" more often than not in the check-out lane.
 
I like to think of it this way---the money I'm spending on healthy food now will decrease my chances of having to pay for hospital bills, cholestorol medication, etc. in the long run. It is expensive to eat healthy though.
 
Casey, you've opened my eyes! I had never thought about the long term cost benefits in that way before. I'll have to mention that to my husband (the purchaser of food here) when he sighes at me for wanting fresh pineapple.
 
If only the food industry would see it....

Wouldn't it be nice if it were the shit food that was expensive and the truly healthy food cheap? Wouldn't that just make sense really? In the long run we all pay for the bad choices everyone is making now. By 90% of the population buying the crap food we are guaranteeing higher medicals cost and taxes in the future, not even just for ourselves. Thats the truly criminal part of making healthy eating more expensive than not is that we ALL pay one way or another for those bad choices, even if we don't make them.

Similar to how smokers always go on about how they are only affecting their own lives by dying of cancer later, yet our bills and taxes go up to cover the increasing costs of treating their stupidity.

My question is where does it all end? When will society begin to reward the health conscious and punish the health stupid?

I am thinking about the same time skating becomes a popular pastime in hell...

But Casey is right, spending the money to eat better now will at very least mean you can enjoy your life more than the burger eaters who can't get off their couches later in life.

sirant
 
Wow, this is weird. I basically halved my food bill. Eating less, not buying pre-packed. I reckon I could eat for $40.00 for a week if I pushed it, and I mean eating healthily.
 
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