Cheapest Healthy Foods?

Hey Guys,

 Out of curiousity and hopefully out of experience I wanted to know what are some of the cheapest healthiest foods you can buy at the grocery store? Money is pretty tight right now and I'm trying to look for less pricer items, but things I can still eat and lose weight on while keeping it healthy.

Thanks in advance. :)

beans.

thats the first thing i thought of...

and sadly the only that i know for sure.

You can get tofu pretty cheap.

I just went to the store- big bunch of kale $1; bag of lentils $1, I noticed all the other dry beans were really cheap as international said.

rice is cheap, as well as vegetables on sale, butternut squash was 88 cents per pound, grapefruit, $3 for a bag of 6, bag of apples, turnips/rutabaga.  I think the vegetables in bags are cheaper though they may be bruised or not look as good.

turkey chili or homemade chili is cheap, so are PB&J and bananas if you are bringing lunch to work.  Canned tuna, eggs, and milk are usually inexpensive.

Prepackaged and convenience foods cost the most I think.

oats are cheap and great for breakfast, so are eggs and frozen fruits and veggies. bulk pasta and beans are great for dinners. canned soups are so cheap and potatoes for baked potatoes with veggies is a good affordable dinner. bags of baby carrots are not very expensive and apples are a less expensive fruit.

its also really important to keep in mind that when cutting back financially, healthy food shouldn't be the first place. you will spend more money on medical bills eventually! 

lentils, oatmeal

eggs

oatmeal

beans

salad

Beans, lentils, rice, oatmeal, frozen vegetables, yoghurt, sometimes breads and peanut butters, fruits that're in season, vegetables that're in season, potatoes usually, chicken thighs, frozen dinners unless you're one that believes salted cardboard is disgusting, Hot Pockets are on sale right now, too. 

Waffles, generic cereals, cottage cheese, Ramen, a box of pasta noodles and a jar of sauce, and actually cheese has been running on the cheap side lately.

I totally understand when money is tight and you're trying to eat your best, and sometimes your best is a whole grain Hot Pocket, but this is when your creativity will come into play.  Stocking up on a few cheap basics, like lentils and potatoes, you can come up with a variety of meals to make out of them, and at most you'll have to run back to the store every few days to pick up one or two little things, still within budget, to supplement it.  Like a lentil soup, or using it to bulk up a meatloaf.

Sweet potatoes, popcorn, cottage cheese, brown rice, hot peppers, fruit and veggies on sale, meat and fish on sale. I stock up and freeze it.

Green tea, water is free, beans. Look at the weekly ad's and stock up on what you can. Many times my local grocery store has buy one get one free or 5 for $ that kind of thing. Clip coupons. Buy a Turkey breast and roast it. Freeze some and eat the rest.

For low cost stick to seasonal fruit and vegetables as far as you can.... imported things are always more expensive.   I'm in North Europe so I'm going with all the lovely brassicas, root vegetables, spuds and apples at the moment... practically giving them away. 

Slow-cooking cuts of meat are always economical. Stewing/braising beef and lamb needs a few hours in the oven but is deliciously melting by the end.  Turkey is a little dry and boring but very cheap.  Beans, lentils and other pulses (or legumes) are inexpensive, highly nutritious and very versatile.  Eggs are good value. 

Staples like pasta, rice, noodles and bread provide cheap bulk.  If you're trying to lose weight, you'll only be eating them in relatively small amounts anyway.  Swap fancy breakfast cereals for simpler/cheaper oatmeal.  Avoid ready-made, convenience or processed foods as much as you can.  You always pay more to have things made for you in a factory than you do if you make them yourself.  Plus, home-made foods are healthier.

Trade down a brand if you're saving money - why should your money pay for their advertising?  If you buy named brands go for supermarket own label.  If you buy own label trade down to their basic/value label.  Often the difference in taste isn't that noticeable but the savings can be huge.

I always buy fruit and veg from a greengrocer/market than from a supermarket - it is so much cheaper (and less wasteful on excess plastic packaging!) Often they will do deals on produce that is very ripe and they might not be able to sell the next day.

Once I walked past and got 3 boxes of grapes for free, as they were very ripe and wouldn't last in storage over the weekend. Other times I have been given avocadoes that were very soft for free (I like them the best when they are like that, so hurrah!) and generally they are a lot more friendly and if you get chatting to the owner and build up a friendship it is amazing what deals can be swung your way.... :D

Look in your bulk foods section! There are a lot of grains and unsweetened dried fruit in there that you can get for way cheaper than the packaged stuff.

Hot Pockets?

I have to say, one hot pocket having 27% of your daily fat (and that is if you are not on a low fat diet, for me it is most of my daily fat content, read the 10% Solution but that is a different matter) is not anything I would call healthy.

I mean if you only ate one a day you would run out of calories pretty quickly so you wouldn't need to spend much for the rest of the day!

I do think that whole wheat pasta and plain tomato sauce is filling, you can have a ton of pasta for only 6-700 calories with very little fat content, high fibre and most of all to me, filling.

We have a discount grocery store near us(actually three of them).  They have dented cans, crushed cases, and just expired of near expired food.  It takes a little longer to shop...checking dates.  I get all my cereal, canned, and boxed stuff there.  Last time I went we left with 8 bags of groceries for only $27.00 and I even got some frozen salmon portions. 

Doing this allows me to go to the regular grocery store for the produce.  There for I get to still have my fresh veggies.

My husband is Dutch, and what they say about the Dutch seems to be true.  We couldn't be any cheaper if we tried.

If you like cabbage, it goes a MILE.  You can have it a million ways, from boiled, to pickled, make coleslaw from it... A salad with it... You can make your own dressings at home for a salad with mustard, vinegar, sugar and pepper.  It's not Kraft, but I love the taste, and it's fat free.  You can also use the cabbage leafs to wrap all sorts of stuff in for cabbage rolls... I eat canned tomatoes like they're going out of style.  A little skim milk and it's like having cream of tomato soup.  You can add an onion and spices to the tomato soup and it gets even better.  We also tend to shop off the "questionable looking fruit and veggie" rack.  I don't mind day old bread, cause I always toast it anyway and it lasts forever in the freezer.  Rice lasts forever too, and if you mix rice with a can of beans, you have a total meal right there.  We look around for the meat sales, and stock up when it's cheap, loading up the freezer.  We're always finding chicken quarters and pork loin on sale around here.  If you like polenta, cornmeal is a cheap option... and can be used in so many different ways.  If you can make your way to a bulk store, most grains are cheaper there, and you can take as much as you can afford and not have to worry that you're buying too much.  Bulk popcorn makes for a great and cheap snack if you buy plain paper sacks to pop it in (same taste as microwave popcorn, and pops in the same time in the microwave, but you save the salt and the fat).  Sometimes, things like milk can be VERY expensive, so when I do need milk, I get the canned evaporated.  It doesn't spoil as quickly and it works the same in most recipes.  I also cook for an army when I do cook and freeze things in so that there's always something in the freezer to eat that I know is healthy.  That way, things don't go to waste either.  BTW, rice freezes like a champ, raw carrots and cooked potatoes - not so much. :o))  And of course, we keep the oil and butter out of everything.  A tub of margarine might be a cheap way to add a lot of flavour to foods, but it'll add inches to your waistline, which means having to get new clothes that fit - saving you no money at all!

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/10 -healthy-foods-under-1-dollar

and

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22145/5 2070-20-healthiest-foods--1/

I'm actually getting ready to go shopping right now: this is the cheap stuff on my list. I also buy chicken (I buy breasts, but when I was broke, I bought frozen thighs or leg quarters and just cut the skin off) and salmon (a little pricier, I know, but so easy to cook)

canned/frozen spinach,

eggs,

canned tomatoes,

other canned/frozen veggies that you like (i've been freezing veggies from farmer's market all summer)

and yes, SQUASH and sweet potatoes, two very cheap options!!

whole wheat pasta (i buy this in bulk for cheap, i'm not sure how cheap this is at the market)

brown rice,

popcorn,

generic cheerios

quick cooking oatmeal,

low-cal whole wheat bread (I like Healthy Life, i find it at wal-mart for cheap and it's like 35 calories per slice),

APPLES, i swear by apples and peanut butter,

celery (I eat celery in nearly everything)

and onions,

Lemon juice (i add it to stuff)

I usually keep carrots around, too, but I'm not as attached to carrots

egg white

And BEANS!! I keep chickpeas, lentils, black beans and kidney beans around!

If you buy a thing of tahini and some olive oil, you can make so much hummus in your blender and its Waaaaay cheaper than buying it at the store.

If you need recipe idea, message me, I have tons.

I was out of work all summer when i first started dieting and I came up with some good tricks.

• dried beans
• some pre-packaged turkey/chicken tenders. Like tyson or swanson 
• rice/noodles/potatoes
• canned/dried veggies. ( They have small 6 oz cans so you can get a variety for not alot of $)
• You can freeze milk for about 3-6 weeks, so buy one or two more containers than you normally would, and then thaw it about 2 days before you need it.
• try to find a discount/wholesale store. You can buy dented/discontinued items for about 40% less. Like Food 4 Less and Foodworld. There could be local stores too.
• large bags of frozen veggies/fruits
• its a little pricey, but tofu from an asian market is usually cheaper than in the supermarkets. You can make about 1 full meal for 4 from one package of tofu.
• I don't know if these applies, but see about WIC. Women, infants and children. It is NOT food stamps! It is a program for women who have children under the age of 5. It helps with milk, cheese, bread, cereal, things like that. There are regulations, like only 21 oz of cereal a week, stuff like that, but it can lower your food bill alot.

Another tip for stretching the food $ is to plan your meals in advance, and only buy the ingredants for the meals. If your meal doesn't include something, then don't buy it. It sucks a little, especially if you usually buy snacks and treats, but things can get tight sometimes. My family had 6 people in it and a dog, and we would spend 100-200 a week on food. We had left overs ( or as we called them "right unders") about 2 times a week.

Original Post by awarnica:

Hot Pockets?

I have to say, one hot pocket having 27% of your daily fat (and that is if you are not on a low fat diet, for me it is most of my daily fat content, read the 10% Solution but that is a different matter) is not anything I would call healthy.

I mean if you only ate one a day you would run out of calories pretty quickly so you wouldn't need to spend much for the rest of the day!

I do think that whole wheat pasta and plain tomato sauce is filling, you can have a ton of pasta for only 6-700 calories with very little fat content, high fibre and most of all to me, filling.

Pretty sure the Hot Pockets OP was being facetious.

I agree with buying generic brands. A lot of times the ingredients are the same. You save money because you're not paying for a brand name. We buy a lot of stuff that way, from food to things like aspirin and Benadryl. In general I don't find the quality of the food to be inferior, at all.

Original Post by allnaturalgirl02:

I agree with buying generic brands. A lot of times the ingredients are the same. You save money because you're not paying for a brand name. We buy a lot of stuff that way, from food to things like aspirin and Benadryl. In general I don't find the quality of the food to be inferior, at all.

 Make sure to compare the ingredients in the generic against the brand-name if you're buying OTC meds...I've had a couple instances where the generic was very subpar (Walgreens brand Chloraseptic lozenges, for example).

One of the easiest things to make is crock pot stew, and I have made plenty with just vegetables, then at the last 30 minutes, throw in a handful of rice to thicken it. Filling and good, and a few days of lunch or dinner.  A super great seasoning for ANY stew in called Kitchen Bouquet.  It is a little brown bottle with a yellow label in the spice section.  One tsp/tbs depending on your taste, gives a savory flavor that people will love!!  It is great for all kinds of cooking, and I think you will find it helps make meats taste more flavorful as well, since the trend is low fat.  We all know fat was giving the flavor...! 

Also popcorn in the bag, not the ready to pop.  Super easy to pop on the stove with a pot with a lid, a tsp of oil, and you being ready to pull the pot off before the pops get down to only a few.  Super cheap for a snack and so low fat, it does not register. 

I also take the time to cut my apple into slices then in a container for lunch.  I am WAY more likely to eat slices, even snack on them outside of lunch, than a whole apple.  Oranges as well.  Already to go in the lunch is 5 minutes well spent in the morning making my lunch.

And don't bother with the little pre-measured bags of stuff, single serve, 100-calorie stuff.  With a few minutes and you doing the bagging yourself (or tupperware continers), you can buy bigger, save $$ and still stay withing the package recommendation of a serving.  I do this with crackers and such in my lunch.  That way, I am reading the label, and taking the time to package up just what I should take, so no over-splurge!