It's so EXPENSIVE to eat healthy. Mac n cheese - $0.99, blueberries - $5.99

I have a huge issue with this whole weight loss thing.  The prices to eat healthy!  Before my diet consisted of what the kids ate (pizza, turkey burgers, chicken and potatoes ,etc), now on my new way of life, I've ditched the pizza, chips and soda and replaced it all with blueberries, high fiber cereals, oranges, etc.

You know what, I thought my grocery bill was going to be cut in half on this diet as I wouldn't be buying Oreos and Lays chips, you know what happened, my grocery bill is triple in cost! 

I spent over $2.50 for 3 small oranges at the normal grocery store (not the Organic/Whole Foods place).  I spent $5.99 for a small package of raspberries (same for blueberries).  My organic whole grain bread was $5.99 (the loaf is half the size of say Wonder Bread).  My husband said I need to replace all my steaks and pork chops with seafood.... well shrimp, flounder, mahi mahi, etc. is very expensive.

I can now understand why the families who make less than $50,000 can not afford to feed their children healthy options and why there is major obesity.  It's a lot easier to pay for Mac and Cheese for a family of 4, than to make a healthy fruit salad loaded with watermelon, strawberries and pineapple. 

Anyway, wanted to complain about this.  Thoughts?

In our household there are three people.  We are all eating much better now.  We find that with a little planning and smart shopping you can cut the higher costs somewhat.  The end result is we do spend much more at the grocery store. 

When we look at our overall monthly expenses however, we find we spend allotless on fast food, takeout, and stuff bought at work for lunches.  (All those other food related purchases not at the grocery store).  Factoring in all the monthly expenses it is not as bad as we first thought. 

 

 

There are some excellent suggestions in this thread!

I would also suggest to ditch the organic items.  I don't know if anyone mentioned that yet or not.  I'm not sure if that's important to you or not, but if it's not then don't bother spending the exhorbitant amounts they charge.

Also, don't discount things like Ramen, they make a great stirfry!  Toss in a load of veggies and you can extend that sucker for 3 or even four meals!  The key is to not use the seasoning packet and use your own stirfry sauce, that cuts down the sodium.  And Nissin has a lowfat variety that has only 1 gram of fat, 2 grams of fiber, and 70 calories per serving (2 servings/package).  Stirfry that baby up with tons of veggies and get a couple cheap meals! 

Also, if you aren't brand loyal, you give yourself a lot more options and are free to buy whatever is on sale. 

I don't know where you live, but I live in MOntreal, Canada and the prices here are excellent. My dad lives in L.A. and whenever I visit and do some groceries I am always SHOCKED at the price of fresh fruits and veggies. It is ridiculous! 5.99 for a small carton of mushrooms, 99 cents a lb for bananas?!?! It's madness! Even canned tomatoes are triple the price here. This was at Albertsons, Vons, and Ralphs ( I don't know if there these chains elsewhere) Anyway, now instead of chain grocery stores we go to ethnic markets (like middle eastern, armenian, and asian) Some are as big as the chains and the prices are "normal".

However, no matter the price, I still think it's cheaper to make things from scratch...like a pizza. The initial cost may be higher but you can make a dozen pizzas with that. So I do believe that making homemade meals is cheaper.

Also, remember to buy in season as best you can.

Not too sure where you are, but there's probably a farmer's market around. They often have much less expensive pricing and/or you can haggle with the farming vendors.

When I moved back home, I walked up to the woman who runs our (independent but fully certified) Farmer's Market, and told her I wanted to volunteer for her at the market. It means that I get up every Saturday morning and walk across town to the market site, spend 2 hours setting up and tearing down tents, tables, etc., and 4-5 more hours running around the market making sure vendors get to go potty, are paying their weekly stall fees, etc. In return for my assistance, the vendors are so full of gratitude that I usually walk home loaded down with about $60+ of fresh, wonderful, usually organic veggies, fruit, berries, and breads ... free. Combined with the 1,000+ kcal burn I get from manual labor, this is the most rewarding part of my week, and I don't feel bad at all about making Sunday a true lazy day.

Check for any nearby markets. Even if they don't need some help, I'm sure their pricing will help.

Good luck!

Look for sales. I seen blueberries for $1.50 a small package this week. bananas 37 cents/lb. .. etc. ..  I shop very cautious. Produce is expensive. Tuna is ~60 cents a can, so i stock up. Veggie burgers are ~$3 a package..of 4..  so not too bad. I was spending more money on junk food. I have to admit, some items you add in may be greater cost. Light bread for instance is 2ce the price for 2/3 less loaf.

Sometimes it does get a bit high. I watch closely for sales on the things I use. Some weeks I must substitute or just not have it, depending on bills etc.

I tend to look at it this way:

I can pay out the money for a healthy diet now, or pay out more money later for all of the health problems I'm going to have to deal with if I do not lose the weight.

Good luck to you, hang in there.

As you're shopping for deals, cooking more from scratch and trying to put healthy eating in your budget, repeat after me: it's more expensive (in the long run) to NOT eat healthy!

tell me about it! i live at home with my mom as a college student and i never used to buy my own food at all unless i was going to make something- now that i buy my own food it is themost expensive thing i do! im broke all the time! plus- now that i'm basically addicted to the gym i am alwasy buying gym shoes and new workout clothes to keep me motivated. being healthy is expensive.

but, if it comforts us at all- at leats we all know thateating this way is goingt o save us some major hospital bills since we wont be suffering from obesity issues or as many health concerns. thats what magazines say to encourage people at least...

I can't agree with you enough! I found that it's really expensive to eat healthy and find that I'm starving myself half the time. Organic food is exceptionally high, whole grains, fruits, veggies the same. It's like you can only diet certain times a year when the 'good' foods are in season. Then you still have to make certain sacrifices because the foods are in at different times of the year. It can be very frustrating to say the least!

i agree...it really pisses me off! I am in a family of five and we've had to get saavy about how we feed our kids on a healthy budget. We do the rice and beans instead of mac n cheese, we also do lots of oatmeal (plain), which is very cheap if you buy in bulk. Low income families always are looking for ways to fill up their kids with out breaking the budget, including us. What I've found is buying in season fruits only (inbulk) and buying the 8lb bag of veggies normandy for $5.00 from costco. really helps. In fact, I spend $114.78 buying yogurt, veggies, chicken, fruit, and cheese for my kids and Hubby/Me at Costco. Then spend $95.54 at Walmart for the other items like zataranz boxes of dirty rice to mix in with the bulk rice I buy and since we don't eat the entire baked chicken for the dinner I take the left overs and mix them in with the dirty rice for dinner the next day. This lasts us two to three weeks. So eating healthy doesn't have to break the bank its all about what you choose. But I do wish the berries and certain fruits and veggies were cheaper. But from what you listed those things may be healthier to eat but you might want t o change your consumption of those items, the pricing on seafood may never go down.

Here's a thought, and it's what I do.  Buy a vacuum sealer and when things are in season and cheaper buy them in large quantities and vacuum seal and freeze them so you have them on hand for months.  Of course if you're a large family you'd probably need a large freezer for this, but it's worth it.  I reseal or vacuum seal everything!

When I first started eating healthy I thought the same thing....I have since found ways around breaking the bank, alot of which other people have mentioned. As far as blueberries, strawberries etc....frozen is the way to go. Just make sure they don't have added sugar.
Also not sure where you are, but Trader Joes is a national chain grocery type store that does a great job of keeping the prices down on healthy/organic foods. You have to watch, because their items don't go on sale, so I usually go to the regular grocery store first to get what I need there, and if items aren't on sale I can almost garantee they will be cheaper at Trader Joes. Not to mention their employees are really helpful and friendly. I have convinced quite a few of my friends to take the extra time and shop there and they have all thanked me for it. Hope this helps!

Another random thought - it also could be food price inflation that is causing the prices to be so high if you compare grocery bills.  It may not have fully contributed to the triple-in-price change, but it definitely I think had an impact somewhere.

Try sprouting your own alfafa sprout or bean sprout. It's so much cheaper and fresh. It's so easy to do. You can use it fresh or cook stir fry with it.

Tlo cut healthy food bills it's knowing how to cut them:)

 

Like the others have said:  buy in season fruit and veg

If you eat healthy at home, you won't be eating out as much :)

Do things from scratch! When I first started cooking, it was hard to get used to it..

But now I can get a 3 course meal done in about 20 minutes with good planning, and it lasts 3-4 servings!

 

There is no harm going for ground beef as long as it is good quality! And rather than going for turkey which is expensive, what about good clean lean chicken?

Home made sauces fill people up more than the artificial stuff, and yes buying the stuff to make your ingredients may hit your pocket hard at first!

But you wont need to buy those condiments and spices again for a long while!

Also asian shops stock a lot of stuff cheaply.

Buying in bulk helps.

I live on my own for the most part, but I can still treat myself to roast fish or  sushi or something extravagent once a week without having to limit my budget.

In fact I find buying ready made stuff is more expensive.

white-sakura, you are on to something. Food prices have been increasing significantly along with the price of fuel.

Fifty years ago, people spent as much on food as on housing - can you imagine? Then, food got relatively cheaper and housing got much more expensive. The thing is, the cheapness of food was pretty much an artifact - caused by government subsidies of things like corn which flooded the market with cheap sweetened products. People were spending I think 10-15% of their income on food, compared to 40% on housing, until the recent food crisis? I personally think that food should be even higher in price, and housing less (to compensate) - maybe 25% and 25% of income, respectively - because that would restore priorities a bit. People would buy local more often (it's much cheaper), think about what they are buying (less waste) and eat less food (good for our collective obesity). Interestingly, the market correction we are currently seeing (real estate dropping, food rising) seems to be bringing about that correction.

Where do you live that blueberries/raspberries cost that much?  It's the tail end of their season in north america, all of my local grocery stores have them for 2/5$ (unless you buy the organic kind, which are very expensive).  If you're worried about prices, avoid organic - there's really not much difference between organic whole wheat bread and non-organic whole wheat bread.  Not everything is worth buying organic.

Or maybe you should try a different grocery store?  If you have a Trader Joe's, fruit is usually cheap there.  Or go to a produce stand or farmer's market for produce. 

Frozen berries are usually decent and cheaper than fresh, as are veggies.  If you want fresh, you should try to buy what is in season because it will be cheaper and taste better.

Even though some healthy things are more expensive, many are not.  You can buy a box of mac& cheese for $1 or a can of three-bean salad for $1.  You can buy a bag or chips or a bag of carrots for about the same price, or a package of fatty breakfast meat versus a big tub of Greek yogurt. 

Thanks again for all the help.  Went to an ethnic foodmart and scores 2 packages of berries for $5.00 (versus one for $5.99). 

I also did the Subway footlong turkey sub ($5) today and ate 1/2 for lunch and will eat 1/2 for lunch tomorrow.  It seems pretty low cal (no cheese or mayo, just lots of veggies and o/v).  But what's the deal with the bread on a subway sub?  It's wheat, but it's not the heavy duty whole wheat variety.  Am I cheating when I eat there? as the bread has the consistancy of white bread. 

Has anyone done the Jared diet at Subway?  I felt like it was a better choice than Wendy's when out and about for a quick lunch, but wanting to know if I'm just fooling myself with eating at that restaurant.

You guys are right, its definetaly expensive...but I tell myself if I dont eat healthy then I am doing harm to my body which will cost me far more in health and doctor bills. I too am going to start gardening once my husband gets stationed somewhere cause eating healthy is forcing me to cut back on other things

Try being a Vegetarian.

Regular packaged bacon. 2 dollars for 12 strips at the local grocery.

Veggie Bacon 6.99 for 16 or so strips.

>_<