Is it possible to eat ~healthy~ on the cheap?

[Eli]

Is it possible? How do you guys do it, if you do?

What do you think the minimum budget per person per week is?

Our budget is only 20$/week/person, or $2.85/person/day. :Q It could probably be bumped to 25$/person/week if necessary.

It's pretty easy to do when you buy ultra dirt cheap garbage like pot pies, Totinos pizzas, corndogs, burritos, ramens, TV dinners, and cheap bulk foods... we do manage to throw some fruits and veggies in there, but they are gone the first week.

That's fscking disgusting, and we can't stand it anymore. Is there any hope?

I think one of the problems is that we don't know how to cook with raw ingredients, at least not passed the basics. We could buy big 10lb bags of u-cut chicken for 5$, but what the hell do you do with it besides just bake it and eat it?

I only know how to cook very simple - bake chicken, maybe a simple seasoning or marinade.. and then we usually have corn and potatos as a side. Better than pre-made garbage, but still not the best.

We made biscuits and gravy the other night. That was pretty cheap.. but it's not very healthy when it's the only thing you have. Need to learn to make other sides...

 

[Chaotic42]

Canned veggies can be your friend, especially when you buy in bulk. The biggest problem comes in buying meat, and I don't have an answer for you that fits your budget.

Eating healthy is way too expensive, in my opinion.

 

[Anubis]

yes buy in bulk and freez stuff till you need it

i can ramble off prob about 25 ways to cook chicken off the top of my head, but im not typeing all that much, if you can read you can cook, just use google
potatos come in big bags and are cheap, good for you and filling, same with rice and veggies
buy frozen veggies, they are cheaper then fresh and taste 90% as good

dont buy "natural" or "organic" crap because it costs even more, and ALL food is natural and organic

 

[ironcrotch]

Here in Portland, I shop at Winco for groceries, and you can eat on the super cheap.

 

[bockchow]

tortillas beans rice and cheese, cheap healthy cereal and skim milk, drink water instead of soda, beer and juice with high suger. bread for samwiches and toast. lots of chicken and vegis. you can eat cheap as long as you make everything yourself and don't eat junkfood.

 

[cchen]

Seriously, chicken is really cheap. Even if you don't get the cheap kind, its still really cheap. Chicken is low in fat and a very good source of protein. I'd go with chicken, and maybe some fresh veggies. Actually that's pretty much what I eat at school (if I don't go out to eat)

 

[CarlKillerMiller]

yeah, seriously. just ask and I'll be able to tell you several ways to cook lowfat chicken on the cheap

 

[Cyberian]

We eat a lot of "Boca Burgers", aka veggie burgers.

They are actually pretty good, I think, but I'm also dealing with some health issues that kind of preclude a lot of foods, including big juicy steaks.

Stay healthy while you are still young!

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: cchen
Seriously, chicken is really cheap. Even if you don't get the cheap kind, its still really cheap. Chicken is low in fat and a very good source of protein. I'd go with chicken, and maybe some fresh veggies. Actually that's pretty much what I eat at school (if I don't go out to eat)

Chicken is a good choice. The body is insanely effcient with glycogen (carbs), low sugar cereal like Wheates and the like is a great choice. With carbs all you'd need is a good bulk multi vitamin and you go can for a LONG time without needing to mix macronutrients.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I'd reccomend some sort of plan that can include variety

Salad - Tons of different ways to make it and things to put in
Chicken - tons of ways to make this
Milk and cereal - many cereals out there so you won't get bored

Those three things are pretty healthy IMO, just buy right ones of each at the right price

 

[sonambulo]

yogurt and granola. once you get a culture of yogurt (usually free, or like five bucks at an indian/arabic restaurant) all you need is milk to make more. granola's cheap to make and you can buy it in bulk. rice, potatoes, couscous, pasta all make good fillers. canned/frozen veggies are pretty cheap.

meat? go for chicken and/or hamburger and/or canned tuna. it's all i eat. you can make rice with beef or chicken, hamburgers, meatballs, stuffed shells, spaghetti with meatsauce, tacos, breakfast omeletes, homemade sausage if you're willing, etc. cheese is a luxury. so are eggs.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Anubis
dont buy "natural" or "organic" crap because it costs even more, and ALL food is natural and organic

You really don't know what "organic" means, do you?

Pasta is a pretty cheap thing to make. Just get some spaghetti noodles, pasta sauce in a jar, onion, garlic, and spices, and you can make some pretty good pasta.

BTW, all that prepackaged stuff--pot pies, pizza, burritos---end up being MORE expensive than cooking.

$90 a month is enough of a grocery budget to eat healthy in Seattle, so I'm SURE it will be enough in Oregon.

 

[phreakah]

steamed rice is good to have with baked chicken and some broccoli, carrots, etc.. it's pretty easy and cheap.. just go to an asian store for a big bag of rice, steam it and some veggies, and bake your chicken

if you have a george foreman grill, it makes a pretty good chicken

salad is also pretty cheap too.. either get the bag that has all the stuff mixed into it or a head of lettuce and some fat free dressing, and since the chicken is not that expensive, you can grill and and throw it in there too

do you clip coupons? cause grocery coupons can be pretty awesome sometimes.. check out www.cutouthunger.org and they'll give you the weekly deals w/ the current coupons that are out there, also categorized by store in your area

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: ironcrotch
Here in Portland, I shop at Winco for groceries, and you can eat on the super cheap.

We shop at WinCo, too.. It doesen't really change anything overall though. If I shopped anywhere else, it would be even more impossible.

Originally posted by: Anubis

dont buy "natural" or "organic" crap because it costs even more, and ALL food is natural and organic

:roll::roll:

That's a load of crap.

If I could afford it, I would buy all my food at Trader Joes.

Originally posted by: sonambulo
yogurt and granola. once you get a culture of yogurt (usually free, or like five bucks at an indian/arabic restaurant) all you need is milk to make more. granola's cheap to make and you can buy it in bulk. rice, potatoes, couscous, pasta all make good fillers. canned/frozen veggies are pretty cheap.

meat? go for chicken and/or hamburger and/or canned tuna. it's all i eat. you can make rice with beef or chicken, hamburgers, meatballs, stuffed shells, spaghetti with meatsauce, tacos, breakfast omeletes, homemade sausage if you're willing, etc. cheese is a luxury. so are eggs.

We eat lots of granola and trail mix. Those are the cheap bulk foods I was speaking of. That and cereal is probably the healthiest things we eat. We don't usually buy "dinner" vegetables, usually fruits.. peaches, kiwis, grapes, bananas..

Also been heavy on picking blackberries from the yard..

Originally posted by: phreakah
steamed rice is good to have with baked chicken and some broccoli, carrots, etc.. it's pretty easy and cheap.. just go to an asian store for a big bag of rice, steam it and some veggies, and bake your chicken

if you have a george foreman grill, it makes a pretty good chicken

salad is also pretty cheap too.. either get the bag that has all the stuff mixed into it or a head of lettuce and some fat free dressing, and since the chicken is not that expensive, you can grill and and throw it in there too

do you clip coupons? cause grocery coupons can be pretty awesome sometimes.. check out www.cutouthunger.org and they'll give you the weekly deals w/ the current coupons that are out there, also categorized by store in your area

Yeah, we do have a small foreman grill.

We have plenty of rice, we don't ever make it though.. perhaps we should. No rice cooker, though.

We don't ever clip coupons because the grocery store we shop at is ultra cheap, all the time. They don't have coupons, their prices are closer to the sale prices that places like Albertsons, Safeway, etc have.. Although, I do realize that those type of places have super deals that surpass even WinCo's prices, sometimes.

 

[wfbberzerker]

save up and buy a recipe book (there was a good one my ma just bought thats full of 4 ingredient recipes). you can cut out all the extraneous spices and whatnot, and itll give a lot of stuff you can do with meats, poulty, etc.

 

[Rkonster]

Costco is your friend.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Rkonster
Costco is your friend.

Not really.

We don't have the freezer space, nor do we have a FoodSaver. Too much food would end up being thrown out.

Sometime, we do want to get a big chest freezer and a foodsaver and start shopping at Costco. Doesen't it cost like 35$/year for membership?

 

[Rkonster]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Rkonster
Costco is your friend.

Not really.

We don't have the freezer space, nor do we have a FoodSaver. Too much food would end up being thrown out.

Sometime, we do want to get a big chest freezer and a foodsaver and start shopping at Costco. Doesen't it cost like 35$/year for membership?

I think its 40 bucks or something. Yeah, if you do not have freezer space then it becomes a problem. I buy lots of food from there, and it ends up saving me lots of money.

 

[konakona]

my typical meal consists of :
1) steamed rice+beans+barley with various pickles, veggie stir fry when i feel like it
2) pasta
3) mixed veggie soup (chicken boulion works well here) + multigrain/wheat bread
on top of that i drink soy milk and eat apples every day if possible.
this should be well under your projected budget of $20 per week. another upside is all this stuff is astonishingly easy to cook - i never spend more than 20 minutes on cooking a meal.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Go to Sams Club or Aldis ... they usually have great prices on bulk stuff

Drink Water from the tap with home made ice cubes
Rice is like $5 for 20+ pounds. Eat lots of rice
Canned veggies are often less than 50 cents per can
Buy meat when its on sale, sometimes chicken's can be had for under a Buck per pound
When you feel like burgers, buy the cheap ground beef and make your own ...
Potatoes are cheap and can be prepared many ways, mash em, boil em, bake em, fry em ... etc
Beans are cheap, and though I don't usually care for them, you can make a pretty big quantity of Chilli for pretty cheap.
Sometimes you can find pork country ribs for like a buck to a buck fifty per pound ... I'd recommend pre-boiling them a bit before sticking them on the grill ... they are fantastic, just as good as pork chops but half the price

 

[nageov3t]

rice is your friend. it's pretty easy to cook, even without a rice cooker (I just got my first rice cooker last week, and actually prefer the way is came out when cooked in a pot).

pasta and potatos are also cheap, and there's a million things you can do with them.

since moving out of my parents' house, I've practically become a vegitarian; at the start of every week, I'll cook a big pot of rice or pasta and just work off that all week.

 

[Pocatello]

Winco for me.

 

[gunblade]

Very useful thread for people like me who is poor and cheap.

I like rice with chicken and some veggies. Sometimes, I eat egg too.

 

[cheapgoose]

well, first of all, you gotta stop shopping at safeway or albertsons.

go find some asian stores like ranch 99 and you'll save some money.

 

[Rickten]

bread can usually get two loafs buy one get one free from safeway
peanut butter cheap store brand
milk
cereal
lettuce
pasta
pasta sauce usually can get two bottles for 5 bucks
tons of tuna can usually get a can for 50cents
ramen (of course)
potatos (definetly a must so cheap and really good)
lots of canned veggies or big bags of veggies
carrot sticks
canned soups from costco


things to do without

butter
soda
beer
juice
dressing
chips, cookies, ice cream, etc etc etc
mayo


first step to making it work realize its not going to taste as good as a number 2 from in and out but you will live and probably won't get sick
drink tons of water and excerise

this is how I eat lately since money is really tight for me.