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Since I have started paying attention to my nutrition, I find myself at Kroger's or Publix more often. Usually, it is the bread products that I have to make a special trip for. I did have sticker shock on the "Flat-outs", sandwich thins and the healthier english muffins. Before, I just bought my bread products at Aldi's but I can buy healthier breads at the name brand store.
This is sort of my point about healthy/cheap/easy. You can make bread products from whole wheat flour in portion-controlled pieces, including "flat-out" type buns, at home, for pennies. But that means you have to learn how to make bread, plan when you'll need them, and spend some time in the kitchen. If you're willing to pay for the convenience of NOT having to do that, that's wonderful, but it doesn't mean that healthy foods are more expensive, it means that healthy, convenient foods are more expensive.
I do a lot of things to keep my grocery bill low, while still eating high volumes of delicious, nutritious foods. In additional to a smallish garden, I go to the Farmer's Market (and not the convenient one in my small town, either, the big city one where parking is a nightmare and you have a 2 hour window, 1 way a week) with the lowest prices for produce in my area (very rarely do you find anything other than specialty items like mushrooms and etc more than $1 a pound). That limits me to produce that's in season (the out of season stuff not only costs more, it doesn't taste as good...so why buy it when there's an in-season alternative?) Not convenient, but cheap and healthy. I buy my meats about a month at a time from a specialty butcher where the meats are not only butchered on-site, but are also WAY cheaper than grocery store and usually pre-marinated, meaning I save money on seasoning as well. Of course, I buy once a month and freeze because while it's cheap, it's an hour and a half away. Definitely not convenient! I sacrifice the convenience of one-stop shopping to get the best quality for my food dollar, and I don't regret it. If I shopped at standard grocery stores, I'd probably spend double.
What I do buy at stores, I sacrifice convenience by looking at ads to determine which of my local markets has the best price for the things I buy most and finding coupons if I can. It's work, but it saves me money, each and every week.
And it goes without saying that (other than the conveniently marinated meats) these foods involve a lot more prep time. My garlic is minced by hand, it doesn't come from a jar, so it's a ton cheaper, but takes time and gives you garlic-smelling fingers. I buy the brown rice that has to cook for an hour, not the instant or microwaveable kinds. Even pilafs I pretty much make myself, using cheap grains and bulk spices. All those veggies need washing, slicing, dicing, drying, and proper storage, and on top of that, proper menu planning to make sure you use them up before they go bad. all of those things take time, but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make to get healthy food at prices I can afford.