My personal viewpoint is that food can generally be any two of the following three at once, but not all three at once:
Cheap
Healthy
Fast
You can get healthy, fast food - but it isn't cheap.
You can get cheap, fast food - but it isn't healthy
Or you can get cheap, healthy food - but it isn't fast.
Don't forget you don't always need the exact thing the recipe requires -- sometimes you can substitute something cheaper, stretch it, or even leave it out. When you are going to buy something more expensive, think about how you can use it in other things to get the full value. Or freeze leftovers for another meal.
Also don't forget fruit and vegetables have a natural season -- when they're out of season they're usually much more expensive because they have to be imported from far away (often from other other side of the equator where the seasons are opposite). And they often don't taste as good! (This is something my stepdad has never understood, he persists in buying rock-like plums from Sam's Club in January and then wonders why no one wants them.)
Look at the store circulars when you are planning menus, the fruit and veggies on sale will clue you in as to which are in season and the best deal.
My husband did not start watching his weight and more or less eats what I used to eat. These days, my groceries are completely separate: about all we share is coffee. We are tracking our budgets very, very carefully right now,and I have noticed that we spend the exact same on food: I spend a bit more at the store, but he gets fast food and that goes under his grocery budget. So really, dieting hasn't changed anything.
That said, I don't eat fancy dishes-pretty basic baked meat, frozen vegetables, cottage cheese and oatmeal. The most exotic I get is ginger in the oatmeal.
I find every time we make a meal from any cookbook there is a pricey trip to the grocery store involved because we never have what they requires in our pantry.
You know...it hit me today when I was grocery shopping that it actually is a lot cheaper to eat healthily because I eat SO MUCH LESS.
For example, my pack of low-carb low-fat soft taco shells costs $4 — or $.40 per tortilla — instead of $.20 per tortilla for the regular ones I used to buy. But I eat two of them with a meal now instead of 5. So if I eat tortillas with 3 meals per week, that would be $2.40 now versus $3 for the regular ones. It's not a big difference, but it translates across most of what I eat (bread, lowfat cheese and mayo, vegetables, 100-calorie packs, low-fat single-serving ice cream). I don't even want to think about how much I used to spend on impulsive pints of ice cream or fast food beyond my weekly grocery trip.
I think if you aren't used to cooking too much, there can be a lot of start up costs for buying ingredients - esp. spices and other flavorings. But once you have a collection of those plus staple items, it gets more cost effective.
I also think that a lot of people (not saying the OP is one of them!) who underestimate their food budget - like they are comparing what they spend at the supermarket pre and during a diet, and yes, for most people, they are probably spending more at the supermarket when watching their weight and cooking healthy meals. But they don't always add in all the money that got spend at fast food restaurants and on calorie laden beverages and even at the vending machine.
I'm actually cooking more, and am a vegetarian (not for weight loss reasons) and find I'm spending less than ever! I refuse to purchase my snacks/sweets full price and buy them at discount stores for an over 50% purchase. Of course, healthy convienence foods are more expensive as are quality produce, but if you play your cards right, you can do it on the cheap.
I'm also writing this as a person who cooks only for herself and doesn't have a family to feed. So it's easier for me to navigate the frugal diet waters.
I have found the best way to save money is taking the time to go to the Farmer's Market for all my fruits at veggies. I prepare them and then freeze them. This way I have meals for a couple of weeks. I work on average of 60-80 hours a week between my 2 jobs so cooking has not been a high priority for a LONG time. As someone said before my start up cost. I had to buy everything down to salt and pepper, was some what expensiev. But last month I saved almost $200 from my going out to eat 3 meals a day to spending 2 days a month ( Sunday afternoons) grocery shopping and cooking.
My mom and I are both trying to eat more healthy theses days. So what we do is take advantage of a lot of the "buy one get one free" deals at the store. We split the cost and split the product. It helps with the grocery bill and helps to use fresh products before they go bad.
Groceries here are lower now. When I was sick and gaining, I would just buy the quickest things to cook because I had little energy (pizzas, Tyson chicken wings, processed foods, PBJ, lunch meat, ice cream, candy, ground beef, sausage, breads, various fattening snacks, beef jerky/chips, etc) and I was ordering tons of Italian/Chinese delivery for us. The snacks I bought before, sadly, I wouldn't just eat a handful, I'd eat almost the whole box while watching TV. The end of the month cost was creating some serious dents in the bank account. IMO, getting fat over here was expensive.
Now I buy lots of organic and healthy things and have not ordered any fast food since my son and I started dieting in Feb. Now I'm spending less than half of what I was before.
I watched a tv special about nutrition, especially as it applies to city dwellers.
It suggested that if everyone in the nation were eating their recommended 5 a day, our farmers would not be able to produce enough fruits and vegetables for everyone. Our farmers are growing more corn, wheat, and soy beans (used to make cheap, starchy pre-packaged foods) than anything else, and not near enough of the fresh green and red veggies. My doctor backed up that fact by telling me that 75% of the American diet is corn-based, which makes things difficult for me because I am allergic to corn. (Which means no corn syrup, corn starch, corn meal, etc. Add being diabetic to this, and my diet is actually very restrictive.)
Besides this, inner city grocery stores are mostly full of chips, sodas, beer, etc, along with the ramen noodles and macaroni boxes that someone mentioned. The show was trying to make the point that there are people who don't have easy access to the healthier foods.
From personal experience, before I met and married my husband, I was in this situation: Living in government-subsidized housing, subsisting on SSI and an inadequate amount of food stamps, I usually ran out of food within the first half of the month. By the end of the month I was eating one meal a day, which would usually consist of a bowl of beans, rice and gravy, that doggone ramen, or something made with flour. I did learn to get creative with flour and water--made my own flour tortillas, bread sticks, etc. As long as I have flour and water in the house, I know I will never starve, not that I'm worried about that now. What's interesting is, now that I have access to a variety of healthy food, and proper medical care, I'm losing weight. Back then, although obviously I was not getting *enough* to eat, that fat wasn't going anywhere.
It is true that buying a chicken and preparing it yourself is cheaper than buying a box of Tyson and popping it in your oven. But for those who cannot even afford that much, it's the starchy store-brand macaroni dinners (often on sale for 25 cents or less a box), the hot dogs full of God-only-knows-what, the generic white bread, and the flour-based food that cost the least and stretch the farthest.
As for me, I never want to eat ramen again.
Oh, and thanks for that tip about cooking the fresh veggies and then freezing it. I had been wondering how to keep veggies fresh. I'll do that.
Last edited by LovebirdsFlying; 05-21-2010 at 06:18 AM.
My personal viewpoint is that food can generally be any two of the following three at once, but not all three at once:
Cheap
Healthy
Fast
You can get healthy, fast food - but it isn't cheap.
You can get cheap, fast food - but it isn't healthy
Or you can get cheap, healthy food - but it isn't fast.
Reminds me of an observation I once made about shopping for clothes.
Looks pretty.
Reasonably priced.
Comes in my size.
Any two of those, yes, but never all three.
Last edited by LovebirdsFlying; 05-21-2010 at 06:34 AM.
Groceries are more here for fresh veggies and whole foods vs the cheap junk bread, $.75 mac n chz boxes, ramen, etc. We are a family of 6 on top of that and 3 of my kids are boys who have hollow legs. I prefer organic too especially when it comes to my kids.
