Healthy Eating on a Budget

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I follow a specialized diet for medical reasons (anti-inflammatory and gluten-free). I also try to eat organic when I can, too. I feel better when I eat better, so it's important to me, but lately it's been getting to be expensive and I'm on a tight budget.

Does anyone have tips or recipes they can share that are healthy and affordable?

Personally, I find cooking from scratch is great for keeping costs down and controlling what goes in your food, so lately I've been making a lot of soups and stews with dried beans and veggies. (I live alone, though, and eating leftovers of something for a week does get a little old sometimes). But, dried beans are an awesome, cheap protein source.

Use yoghurt as a natural sweetener for deserts and honey for things like tea.

Never drink fizzy things as well, as that bloats your body.

depending on what kind of shops there are around you, you may be able to shop around. sometimes it can be worth it but it also depends how you value your time and if you are willing to spend longer looking for cheaper stuff.

i personally find that pretty much universally protein is the most expensive type of food that you need in large quantities. I focus on getting cheap protein mostly. Peanuts are fairly cheap and one of the most proteinaceous foods but i have read that eating to many can be bad for you as they can contain toxins.

I go to a 24hr supermarket often a few hours before midnight to get reduced meat and fish that they cannot sell the next day. i dunno if that is feasible or possible for you. dumpster diving is a possibility but it can be hard work for no reward, but at the same time, if you have a freezer you can use the reduced and dumpster diving can be a good option.

If you have a garden it may be economical to grow your own vegetables. i have not done it myself but for high value items like herbs, salads especially i think it makes sense even if it is just to help with flavour and not nutrition.

in some towns there may be markets or warehouses that restaurants buy from. My dad used to get veg from a supplier and we would get great deals.

if there are specialty foods then sometimes it can be far far cheaper getting them in shops that specialise. eg. i can get coconut milk for £0.60 in an asian shop rather than £2 in tesco! lot's of things like that are cheaper in small shops. The same shop sells chicken breast for £4.99/kg where tesco and most supermarkets are far more expensive.

I personally find it near impossible to eat enough protein on a small budget as i eat a lot. it sounds like you are already doing the main cost saving things like cooking your own meals.

i tend to buy cheap fruit most of the time, i'm fairly happy with bananas and apples.

I make everything form scratch and always make out a meal plan.

I use a lot of beans and rice. Black beans are my favorite.

I make seitan (would not work well for you as it is made out of vital wheat gluten.) as well and although it costs a bit to make it lasts for a long time. So I make about 2 weeks worth and freeze it. This allows me to have a cheap easy protein source in my freezer for a couple of months.

I also cook alot with tofu. I enjoy making stir frys with them as well as baked stri fry.

Veggies and fruit are my hardest things to find cheap but I just shop the sales and try to make sure I buy vegetables that are in season. This means that they will not have travelled as far and usually cost less.

You should be able to freeze most soups and stews. If you get lots of storage containers and freeze them in single serving portions you will be able to cook a large batch and avoid eating it all in the same week.

I have tried that, but tend to have trouble with things losing their consistency when thawed and re-heated, especially when they are tomato-based. Do you have any suggestions? Is there a 'right way' to freeze stuff?

Most of the stuff I cook has already lost most of its consistency so it is not really a problem!

Oh, ok, I see. Lol. It's possible that's part of my problem, too.

Side thought, have you tried pickling vegetables? If you can get a topsy-turvey to grow tomatoes on or a bin for beans or something along those lines you could make some really fresh soups, salsas, etc. and then pickle what you don't think you'll get to.

I'm about to loose some income so I have I'm thinking about this alot:
Buy in bulk, cook in bulk and freeze. For my this is an Exec dysfunction
thing too. I work better by batch processing so doing all my cooking togeher works.
Keep and eye out for deals. Tesco have a section for stuff they are trying to get rid off.
Pasta, Frozen veg, beans of different types, tesco where I like you can buy 3 bags of
fruit for €3.
24 eggs are cheap too, flour, pouwdered milk. I make omlets, french toast, pancakes
very cheaply.
I got a ball of mozerlla for 70 cents and crackers for 29 cents with some leftover pesto
that was my supper.
Forzen veg is cheap too.

I highly recommend you check out this site. It has a lot of healthy food recipes on there, with a strong focus on cheap and easy to make. Sure helped me some, maybe it will help you.

http://thefrugalchef.com/

A lot of her recipes have video how to's as well. I am making her chicken and rice soup right now.. Has Chicken, Rice, Garlic, Onion, Celery, Bell Pepper, Carrots, spices and herbs, and I added in some potato and red pepper flakes too. Yum.

Last edited by Pondering on 25 Apr 2012, 2:22 am, edited 2 times in total.

My favorite cheap/quick/easy recipe is lemon rosemary salmon (it also works well with chicken). You put two sprigs of rosemary in a pan, place a salmon fillet on top of them, then put two more sprigs of rosemary on top. Put 2-4 fresh lemon slices on top and bake at 400 for 20min. For a side dish I usually do either couscous or microwave up a frozen vegetable. Tastes really good for such an easy and cheap recipe, and is extremely healthy. It can be hard to get decent quality salmon sometimes though, it's sometimes best just to buy frozen fillets (at least where I live they're much cheaper and better quality than the fresh fillets). Typically costs me about $3.50 to whip up this masterpiece!

Do you know anyone (or anyone who might know anyone) in the military? Ask if they shop at the commissary, and if they could call you before they go so they can take you along. Food is very cheap there.

Buy family-size packs of meat and separate them into small bags when you get home.

Look for small family owned grocery stores. They generally have vegetables and fruits much, much cheaper than regular grocery stores. For example, I bought a whole bunch of bananas for 21 cents a pound...
Another option are foreign shops, Spanish, Asian?

Don't make a shopping list. Go to the store and look around to see what's cheap.

Contrary to the advice to find vegetable protein, I find meat is a lot cheaper. Meat keeps you full longer than vegetable protein.
You could easily go through $7 worth of vegetable protein and be hungry 2 hours later, when eating $2 dollars worth of meat would keep you satisfied for 5+ hours.

If you are really, really short on cash, don't buy fruit! It will be a waste of money; prioritize meat and vegetables!

Check if there are any social clubs around you (generally for people with health problems). They generally have an afternoon meal for a ridiculous amount like 1 or 2 dollars. Google something like YourTownName social club.

Remember that while meat and vegetables are more expensive, they will keep you satisfied much longer (5+ hours) than empty calories like pasta or bread or pretzels... (1+ hour?!)