healthy eating in a budget?

[missk1989]

I decided to start eating healthier as I am constantly tired and frumpy but after buying meals plus fruit and veg for just 3 days it cost me as much as a week usually would! I shopped at both aldi and sainsbury to cut costs but it still cost me £60 with a meal plan. How do you do it?!

 

[SmileyKez]

I agree, fruit and veg is soooo expensive! I need to start eating healthy but because oh wont eat anything healthy, i buy expensive salad etc and loads of it gets chucked!

How about frozen veggies instaed?

A few things ive done include making a batch of soup, using those £1 casserole packs, its yummy and does me 4/5 lunches and is easy to heat up while lo naps. I also make batches of chilli con carne with extra peppers and onion chucked in and freeze them individually, same with lasagnes.

I am starting following slimming world from Monday (not the classes, just at home) and its not cost me too much to stock up because i am going to make in bulk and freeze.

 

[missk1989]

Yeah some of the meals I have made I have frozen extra portions and will probably end up having them as lunch. We do eat frozen veg but there isn't much variety and most recipe require something extra. Tbh I think its fruit that costs us the most and it goes off in a couple if days!

 

[6lilpigs]

Have you tried shopping at the end of the day? This is what I do twice a week, 7pm-ish in Tesco they will start to drop the fruit and veg to 10p so you never know what you might find, same with the bread buy at 10p and freeze, just avoid the cookie aisle lol!!!!!

 

[Zephram]

Do you have any farmers markets near you? At least where I live you can usually get cheaper fruit and veg at a farmers market. Also I tend to find that meat is the most expensive thing, rather than the fruit and veg. But maybe that is just NZ?

 

[KayBea]

i tend to get my fruit & veg from the market, its alot cheaper & stays fresher for longer.
some of it i freeze. i got 2kg of Strawberries the other week for £1.50. i kept out about 500g worth & froze the rest. they defrost fine & LO likes them frozen too, or i blend them into a smoothie.

i tend to also buy loose apples & bananas etc, instead of spending £1 on 6 bananas pre wrapped when chances are 4 of them will get slung away. xx

 

[Jaysmummy]

I also get fruit and veg from the market, sooooooo much cheaper and you get more for your money.

I agree with the frozen veg too, we throw so much fresh veg away as we don't eat all that much so I buy mainly frozen/tinned now. And I buy basics.

 

[naturelady]

We have belonged to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group & a food co-op/ buying club for several years.
If you don't know, a CSA is where you buy a "share" of what a local farm or far group produces. You put the money up at the beginning of the season, and pick up a weekly box of veggies/ fruits (we even get herbal remedies & locally produced things like eggs, cheese, yogurt, bread & jam included in ours). It brings the value down for healthy local (ours is also organic & non GMO) fresh in season food.
The Co-op & buying club is basically a bunch of us buying high volume from a local group of cooperative farmers (and, since we eat meat, we also will "split" a pig or cow, etc with others- the farmers process it & we pick it up all packages & ready to go- just like at the store, except far better quality at less than half the price)
I also garden (though I am in a large city & only have a small patio space, I have gone vertical with converted shipping pallets to grow things like herbs & lettuce for pennies per plant), and learned how to can produce so that we don't have to buy canned things like tomatoes, corn, beans, etc during the winter- the combination of these things in the past 7 years has made our grocery budget about 1/3 of what it used to be & the quality has improved 100%- and it is organic, etc.
It can be done

 

[hshucksmith]

Try shopping at your local market stalls? I used to live a 100% raw vegan diet and could get my entire weeks shop for £15.00 or under from market.

 

[summer rain]

Unfortunately we don't have CSAs in the UK. However there are farmers markets and some housing estates have their own veg growing cooperative where they then sell very cheap fruit and veg boxes/bags from what they have grown. I have five kids and our weekly shop averages at £65 a week usually from Sainsbury's. There is a lot of variety of frozen veg these days. Tinned veg is also fine but I try to avoid having it every day as some cans are lined with BPA. We try to avoid eating too much fruit, not only is it expensive but many fruits have a high glycaemic load meaning they give you a sugar rush then you crash afterwards. This is what I buy every week in terms of fruit and veg

18 loose bananas, 2 bags of apples, 2 bags of oranges or satsumas, 1 bag of kiwi fruits, 1 bag of potatoes, 1 bag of sweet potatoes, 1 bag of onions (though this lasts several weeks usually), 1 bag of mixed peppers, 2 bags of avocados, 2 packs of cherry tomatoes, 2 bags of salad, 2 cucumbers, some chillies, moxed bag of lemon and limes. Where possible they are from the Basics range.

Also every couple of weeks we buy a bag of frozen veg, the type of which we rotate. For example one time I but the basics frozen mixed veg, the next time Brocolli and Cauliflower mix, the next time spinach etc etc. Our freezer is now nice and full of a good variety of veg. I also buy tinned tomatoes, sweet corn, chickpeas and kidney beans. Lentils I buy dried and cook from scratch. Xx

ETA: we used to spend £120 a week 10 years ago when it was just us and food prices were a lot less. I don't even need to strictly meal plan anymore as we have a good store cupboard 'stash' of food to base meals on so even if I don't plan and then forget to buy something I really needed this week then I find something to sub it with and wait until next week