Eating Well without the High Expense

I don't necessarily agree that it's cheaper to buy junk food in all cases.  It's definitely easier, though.  I think the key is planning ahead and smart shopping (stocking up when things go on sale).

Here's a meal off of the top of my head that is really cheap and filling.  It's also not nutritionally void even though it may not taste as good as a candy bar.  I got the prices from Peapod, which is my local grocer's (Stop & Shop) online delivery service. 

Pasta with Turkey Meat Sauce
1 pound perdue 93% lean ground turkey $1.99
5 roma tomatoes $0.39 each for a total of $1.95
1 bell pepper     $0.59
1 head garlic (you'd only use 2 cloves or so) $0.69
1 onion     $0.59                                                   
6 oz. tomato paste (you'd barely use any of this too) $0.80
1 box Barilla Plus Pasta $2.50

This would probably get you about four servings, and you could stretch it even further by adding a can of tomato sauce (not jar) for another buck.  That Barilla Plus Pasta goes on sale too, so if you stock up then you're golden.  Time to cook this is maybe 40 minutes at most?

Grand total for four meals: $9.11
Price per serving: $2.28
I would say that's pretty darn cheap.


Edited by DMW 2009-08-14 5:27 PM

Here's a breakfast for you:

Banana Nut Muesli:
6 oz Dannon Nonfat Plan Yogurt $0.40 (it's usually cheaper in a big tub though)
1/4 cup rolled oats $0.16 (per serving if you get the large can - 30 servings)
banana $0.30 (or $0.15 if you use half and freeze the other half for a smoothie like I do)
1/2 ounce raw walnut pieces $0.17 (1 pound is $5.69 will last forever)
scoop of Optimum Nutrition Vanilla protein powder $0.50 ($39.99 for 80 scoops)

Mix the yogurt, the oatmeal, and the protein powder before you go to bed.  When you wake up in the morning, chop up the banana and the walnuts and add to the mix.  This recipe is basically infinitely customizable, you can pretty much add whatever you want.  P.S.  Your banana does not need to be organic.  If you're concerned about pesticides, consider the skin thickness that's protecting the fruit.  Organic does not equal healthy.  Organic potato chips are still potato chips!


Most people don't do the protein but I am protein crazy and I wanted to prove that you can even eat high protein for not a lot of money.  This is going to be about 560 calories so you can't tell me it's not enough food!
Total cost for this meal:  $1.53


Edited by DMW 2009-08-14 5:50 PM

First, if you shop at Whole Foods, yes, it's expensive. Really expensive sometimes. But just shopping at Whole Foods isn't necessarily mean you're eating healthy food. WF sells plenty of good, nutritionally bad food.

I think you're actually combining topics/questions. Is it more expensive to eat all natural, organic food. Generally, yes. Is it more expensive to eat healthy food. Not necessarily. Choosing a fat free store brand yogurt is no more expensive (and possibly cheaper) than going with that candy bar.

The problem that my wife and I experienced is that as we started eating healthy food, we also started trending towards more natural, organic food. I think that shift does result in a more expensive grocery bill. But we made a conscious choice to stop consuming high fructose corn syrup. That in itself resulted in more expensive groceries.

Now, the other thing to factor into the equation is time. You pay for convenience, regardless of whether you eat healthy or not. You can actually make a very healthy meal with good ingredients for about the same money as BK or McD's. However, that takes time. And if time is short (or time=money), then yes, it is more expensive.

In closing, I fear from reading your post that you are partially looking at cost as an excuse to eat that candy bar instead of an expensive organic banana from Whole Foods. I would suggest buying the non-organic banana from a regular grocery store instead. They're cheap and far better for you than that candy bar.

Edited by daleskibum 2009-08-14 8:05 PM

i shop at king soopers, kroger, etc.

eating healthy is CHEAP.

normal foods for me include, rice, chicken, sometimes fish, veggies, bananas, potatoes,

i can buy enough food for a week of solid training on 20-30 dollars no problem, and i eat a lot.

frankly buying things like a candy bar for a snack is going to end up a lot more expensive because you still need to buy food for meals.


if you want a lot of quick and easy food ideas let me know, i have worked as a chef and both parents are chefs so i have grown up cooking everything under the sun.

Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store....

bananas are 49 cents a pound..   so getting a bunch of bananas is usually only a few dollars.  Not exactly a great excuse. 

Quit buying organic.  Organic IS expensive.  Healthy is not.

Quit shopping at the Whole Foods Store.  Most of them are trendy places the rich people go shop at.  You can get the same basic good old fashioned fruits and vegetables at your local grocery store for a very reasonable price.

I'd disagree that a candy bar tastes better.  You've simply trained your body to crave processed sugar treats that have little to no nutritional value for you.  It won't take long before you'll crave a banana or an apple over that candy bar.



Edited by JC5066 2009-08-21 11:28 AM

I put together a "Eating Healthy on the Cheap" list for patients at the Bariatric clinic where I work....let's see if I can figure out how to attach it.





Attachments
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Eating Healthy on the Cheap.doc (25KB - 41 downloads)

+1 I am not a crazy-healthy eater but I have 99% of my shopping done before I have to go down any isles. And even then its only for like cream of chicken or tomato sauce etc... Stick to lean meats and fruits/veggies and it is cheap for sure.

I hate Whole Foods. It's trendy, it's expensive, and it's pretentious (at least in my area). It's a place you go to be seen buying your uber organic vegetables.

Farmers market. The best thing to happen to us city livers since the omnibus. Cheap too! I got a whole head of cauliflower for $1. It usualy costs anywhere from $2.50-4 in the store. Get some potatoes in a basket for $2.50. Add some spices and some rice and POOF, aloo gobi.

Peaches are usually sold by the basket rather than buy the pound, which saves you cash as well. I spent $4 on a basket of peaches that would have cost me probably $6 in the store. And I got to meet the lady who picked them and see the rest of the crop laid out before me.

You can stock up on the stuff for the "base" of the dish...stuff like rice, couscous, pasta (in all its glorious forms), oatmeal, potatoes etc and then just add to it for variety. Chicken and veg stir fry (let whatever comes out of the cupboard fall on in there, little soy sauce, and bam, dinner). If you've got fruit and you've got oatmeal, you've got a tasty breakfast (or lunch...). Eggs are incredibly cheap at places like Trader Joes.

Also, if you splurge for things like a whole chicken...Pat and I bought a whole grass-fed pasture-raised chicken from a guy in the next county at a farmers market, and stuffed the little bugger with all sorts of nice things and roasted him for dinner. Then I picked the meat off the bones and used that for sandwiches (w/ hummus and some carrot shavings), and then I put the carcass in a big pot and made stock from it that I used to make beans and greens later in the week. So for spending a bit more money (it cost us around $11 for the chicken), we got 2.5 meals out of it for 2 people.

Investing in spices is a great way to make your food go further too. Try your nearest Indian or Pakistani market...the prices are super cheap and the spices are delicious.

Man, now I want curry.

First of all, it might be easier to buy junk food, but it is not less expensive when you consider the cost to your health of eating lots of preservatives and refined carbs.  Secondly, junk food tastes better to you than an apple BECAUSE you eat junk food.  You have trained your brain and body to respond best to food that is made of industrial chemicals instead of natural foodstuffs.  I used to be the same way, and I weighed almost 200 pounds, ate a diet primarily of fast-food burgers and fries, and had borderline-high cholesterol AT THE AGE OF 23!!!  Now I weigh 145 pounds, eat a diet primarily of vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy, and whole grains, and I'm WAY healthier.  It was hard to change my diet for the reasons that you mentioned (I'm far from wealthy myself, and the junk food tasted good to me), but after a few months of eating mostly healthy despite my brain's craving for McGarbage, the junk food started to become less and less appealing.  Now it just smells and tastes disgusting to me, and makes me ill if I eat more than a couple bites of it.  I would also suggest letting yourself, one meal a week, have a cheat meal.  Pig out on a Big Mac, or a pizza, or whatever.  Just follow your plan 20 meals a week, and the 21st doesn't really matter  

But if you keep making excuses "It costs too much and it tastes gross!," the weight will NOT come off.  You cannot lose weight and stay healthy on a McDiet.  Even if you eat few enough calories to lose the weight, you will be grossly malnourished if the 1500 or however many calories you do take in come from junk food.

Next, I'm seconding phoenix_azul on the farmers' market.

Also, there are a lot of EXTREMELY inexpensive but very healthful fruits and veggies to be had, as long as you aren't paying through the nose for organic (which is nice but DEFINITELY optional).  Bananas, for example, are usually around 50 cents a pound at the regular grocery store.  Greens like collards or kale are also usually less than a dollar per pound, so is cabbage.  Egg whites are a cheap and good source of protein, so is cottage cheese.  Oats and rice are cheap.  So is whole-grain flour, if you want to eat bread.  Frozen berries aren't exactly cheap, but you can get a big bag that lasts a long, long time from Target for $10.

Buying meat in bulk, then storing it in a freezer, can also be a really cost-effective solution.  I bought a quarter-side of grass-fed beef last winter.  The meat was like $3/pound, not bad for beef, and I still have a lot of it.  Similarly, when chicken breasts are on sale, I buy a lot of them and chuck them in the chest freezer.


For breakfast, oatmeal is very cost-effective.  Scrambled eggs are also good, especially if you put in some herbs or a little bit of chopped ham or turkey.  Yogurt and fruit is good too, and yogurt is cheap if you purchase large containers of plain yogurt.  

For lunch, I usually eat leftovers of what I had for dinner.  I bring plenty of snacks with me: fruit like bananas, or a little Tupperware with cottage cheese in it and a baggie of carrot sticks, or a few almonds (NOT cheap, but still worth buying -- a little go a long way, and they're a great source of healthy fat).  You just have to plan ahead.  That way you won't run out of food and have to go to the store for a candy bar.

Here are a couple dinner recipes that are very inexpensive and quick to make which I use regularly:

1) Sauteed Chinese vegetables with lean beef -- 15 min. including prep time, less than $10 for four servings
2-3 pounds mixed Chinese vegetables (bok choy, sum choy, etc. Broccoli rabe or other greens also work well here.  If you use all bok choy, put a little dry mustard into the mix for added flavor).
1 lb. lean beef, thinly sliced.
Sherry to taste
Soy sauce to taste
Hot pepper to taste
Black pepper to taste
Ginger and garlic to taste

Mix the beef with sherry and soy sauce.  Grind black pepper and hot pepper into the mix, and leave the whole thing to sit for a few minutes.  Wash and trim the vegetables, then chop them roughly.  Stir-fry the stems first with the ginger and garlic; when they have started to lose a bit of their crispness, add the beef.  The beef will cook through very quickly -- when the top side is still showing some pink, add the leaves of the greens.  When the greens are wilted, the stems are crisp-tender, and the beef is done, remove from the heat and eat your dinner.  This is good with rice, if you like rice.  It would also be good with bread, though.

2) BBQ broiled chicken and vinegar greens/tomatoes -- less than 1 hour, including prep time.  Around $10 for four servings.
1 pound of chicken legs (cheaper) or breasts (leaner)
BBQ sauce (store-bought or make-your-own -- this isn't very healthy b/c of the sugar, but I figure it's OK to have a little bit of an unhealthy condiment )
2-3 lbs. kale or other tough greens
Garlic to taste
Apple cider or sherry vinegar to taste (can use any vinegar, but these 2 taste best with the BBQ chicken)
Red pepper to taste
1 14-oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained OR 3-4 tomatoes, washed, seeded, and diced
1 medium onion, chopped

Preheat broiler.  You have the choice here of removing the skin and fat from the chicken NOW or later.  The chicken tends to cook up nicer if you leave the skin on (because of all the fat), but it will also have way more saturated fat than if you take it off.  If you take the skin off, brush the chicken with some olive oil (a healthier fat).  At any road, sprinkle the chicken with some salt and pepper.  Broil the chicken until it's done (usually takes about 10 min/side for bone-in leg quarters, and a bit longer for breasts).

Meanwhile, wash the greens and chop them up.  Heat a BIG skillet or wok to medium or medium-high, then add some olive oil.  Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds-1 min., then throw in a chopped onion and cook until it softens and becomes transparent.  Add all the greens and the vinegar.  Saute, stirring, until they reduce in volume and turn bright green.  Add the tomatoes and red pepper, along with salt to taste and any other spices that stir your fancy.  If the veggies seem to be drying out, you can add in more vinegar and/or olive oil, but be careful not to add too much of either one.  The veggies are done when the greens are tender.  They should be a little bit tart from the vinegar, and a little bit garlicky.

By now, the chicken should be done.  Take it out of the broiler and brush a small amount of BBQ sauce on it.  It shouldn't be dripping with BBQ sauce, just glazed for flavoring purposes.  Using a brush to spread the BBQ around will save a lot of empty BBQ sauce calories, not to mention that you'll run out of BBQ sauce much slower.

I don't know about anybody else, but in my area...the local Farmer's Market are actually quite expensive.  I don't let that stop me from buying there, but I just wanted to point out that not all Farmer's Markets are cheap.   I compared every fruit & vegetable offered at a local Farmer's Market last weekend, and everything was much higher than what I could find in the grocery store.  To be fair though, the produce just simply tastes better at most of the Farmer's Markets I've been to.  An example...last weekend I purchased a 1/2 pint of Michigan blueberries at the Farmer's Market for $3.  A big-chain grocery store, had a full pint of Michigan blueberries advertised for $2.  The blueberries from the grocery store tasted flat, unflavorful, with a faint chemical-like taste.  The ones from the farmer's market, on the other hand, were juicy and exploded with flavor.  I nearly ate the entire carton out of hand...which is something I normally don't do with blueberries.  

So yeah, I think depending on where you live...it can be expensive to eat a healthier diet.   BTW...I'm going back to get more blueberries at the FM this weekend. 

unfortunately around here, the farmer's market is like $3-4/lb, which is more than the grocery store.. of course it tastes better, but I can remember buying some peaches for a cobbler and spending $12.

But I will add some further comments that buying items on the perimiter (although I buy the frozen chicken for like $2.50/lb) is cheap.  Potatoes are $1/lb, rice can be cheaper.  Apples aren't expensive and as I already said, bananas are dirt cheap these days.  Ever eat greens?  Kale/collards are usually less than $1/lb and are some of the healthiest veggies on the planet, but I understand that not everyone wants to eat greens. 

I didn't read through most of the posts here - mostly because I live in a different country and on an island in the Pacific no less, so our experiences will be very different, and forgive me if I'm echoeing what's already been said ... but no matter where you live it is *bullshite* that eating healthy is more expensive than eating crap.

Shop locally - take the time to find a local farmer's market, a co-op, a LOCAL place - avoid the big food chains and supermarkets - and shop IN SEASON.

Then - learn how to PREPARE food ... if you know how to use what's in season - you're golden.

Those are the big 3 - local, in season, and know what to do with it.

That said - you don't need organic. It's nice, knowing your foods aren't sprayed with chemicals and are grown in a healthy manner ... but it's no reason for retailers to be jacking the prices. I'd worry more about where a food is grown, when it was harvested, and how long it was on a truck/in a warehouse, than I would about is it certified organic.

ETA: I did my weekly shopping on my way home today ... because I know the good stores to stop at, I got enough fruits, veggies, grains, yogourt, and meat, to last me till maybe Wednesday, and it cost me $48. It's all local. At my neighbour WholeFoods-equivalent it would have cost me $90.

Edited by SpiritFire 2009-08-21 6:18 PM

Man, I guess we're really spoiled here in my part of PA...we get a really wide variety of crops that do well here, and therefore are pretty cheap at the market. The city also runs community farmers markets in the parks in various parts of the city, so that brings in a lot of vendors (I'm assuming if its cheap for farmers to come, the prices don't get passed on to the consumer...if this is true or not is beyond me). The community food bank runs a farm stand in my municipality as well, and they even accept food stamps and WIC vouchers (as well as plain old cash). I guess it really depends on where you are and what you can get cheap. Some Syracuse friends of mine have had a lot of fun with a Crop Share basket...that thing where for x dollars a month you get a basket of veg/fruit of whatever is in season?