Lindsey - I totally know what you mean. It is difficult to eat healthy on a budget. Our grocery bill seemed to get higher & higher each time we go to the store. I used to be able to feed a family of 6 on $300 per month. Now, a family of 3 (older kids have moved out/gone to college) the grocery bill is double the amount! It isn't out of the norm for us to have spent $150 per week for the 3 of us.
IF I DON"T PLAN....You are home during the day, not sure what your schedule is, but you would have a couple of hours each week to plan meals/snacks for the week?
Pre-packaged foods are quick and easy, but they are expensive. For example - those bags of salad mix in the stores? I love them because they are convenient, but they are expensive!!!! I can buy a head of iceberg lettuce for 1/4 of the cost of the prepackaged kind. I buy different varieties, tear them apart and put them in a large veggie zip lock type bag and stick it in the fridge. Carrots - yeah, those baby ones in the bag are convenient, but I buy the ones I have to 'peel' and cut up. The same goes for any other fresh veggie. Make sure you only purchase what you will eat for the week. It is expensive if you over purchase and end up throwing stuff away because it has gone bad.
Other veggies out of season - I do buy canned occasionally (high in sodium), but the fresh frozen variety I can get for $1.00 a bag and that will get us through two dinners.
Beans - I buy the dried beans rather than the canned. It is much healthier for you, and a lot cheaper!
Soups - the Progresso soups are $1.50 per can at our local Wal-Mart. I eat the whole can for lunch for 2 points. Or - you can eat 1/2 the can (working it into 2 meals for 0 points)
Bread - This is where I do splurge. I like the village heart brand (2 slices for 1 point) and that is $3.00 per loaf. 1 loaf lasts us a week.
Meats - I buy the boneless skinless chicken breasts in the large economy size and then portion them out for how many servings for meals and freeze them. You can buy the bone in or boneless with skin on and remove the skin and freeze portions for meals pretty cheaply. Hamburger and pork I do the same. I stay away from the pre-made patties or other meat products.
Potatoes - a small potato is 2 points - you can buy them in the large bag rather than pre-pared
Snacks - you can make your own muffins/cakes with cake mix using 1 can of diet soda/applesauce or pumpkin mix in muffin tins and freeze them taking out what you want to thaw as you go along. Cake mix here is 80 cents to 1.00 per box. Pretzels - I have small snack size ziplock bags and count out portion sizes and store them in the bag for a grab and go. Those sit on my counter in a container - DH and DD love that.
Other than a few items (WW frozen fudge bars, Smart Ones, Bread, the I can't believe its butter spray, FF creamer, FF Ranch dressing or LF salad dressing and diet soda) most of what I buy is for the whole family. I stopped having the my food / their food cabinets as I incorporated healthy eating into my diet. My family eats the same things I do, but I portion control and they don't. This has cut down the grocery bill tremendously.
I don't buy regular pasta, I buy the whole wheat. Spag sauce is the LF variety or I make my own from a recipe I found on here for 0 points. When I do that, I freeze out portion sizes for the whole family.
I do purchase other foods that I don't eat that the rest of my family does eat. Chips, full fat peanut butter (although that has been a lifesaver when I need to make up points in a healthy way at the end of the day and is especially good wrapped in a tortilla with a banana for breakfast)
This can be done, but you need to really plan and go to the store with a list and stick to the list. Coupons found in the paper are also a life saver on occasion. Lots of the local stores will have coupons too. I often go online to coupon sites and print my own also.
Eating healthy and cheaply can be done, but it does require an investment in time and planning.
LOL.. going to the gym. I don't have the funds to do that, but I walk ALOT and I do housework in strange ways. When I vaccuum, I do my lunges. When I dust, I dust a shelf on top and then dust a shelf on the bottom. Laundry - I take out the wet clothes from the washer, do a squat and put them in the dryer.. etc. You can incorporate exercise into everyday activities without even knowing it. Don't discount any activity that you do, just pay attention to what you do on a routine basis and incorporate additional movement into that. It looks funny, but who cares??? LOL - I am a constant source of entertainment for my daughter and husband when I do housework.
You don't need all that fancy equipment or a gym membership to exercise and get your body moving!
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