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2008/02/27, 11:55 PM
My family is on a very tight budget. I have about $250 to shop for a family of 4 for 2 weeks. It's not much, but I make it work. Unfortunately, it just seems cheaper to be fat and unhealthy. All the foods that are good for you are so expensive. We try to eat healthy, choosing fat-free or low-fat products whenever possible and we don't use salt at all, vegetable oil spread instead of butter, wheat bread instead of white, etc. We are always willing to try new foods and honestly most days all of us, my kids included, would rather have a salad for dinner than say pasta. But with prices of dairy and produce so high I can't figure any way to eat healthier than we do. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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2008/02/28, 01:07 AM
Actually your wrong!
I have feed a Family of 3, me and 2 kids for years on way less the 250 for 2 weeks!
I you want to make it work you can make it work but you have to do the work on it!
Start looking for new places to shop!
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Knock-Um Down & Keep-Um Down!
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2008/02/28, 09:27 AM
You can usually find a 3lb bag of chicken for $6 (at least around me), there are limitless possibilities with that. A big bag of brown rice is pretty cheap. Frozen vegetables can usually be found on sale and for the most part are just as healthy as the fresh ones and allow you a lot of cooking options.
Like SFGiants said, you have to put in the effort to make it work.
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2008/02/28, 10:17 AM
Hi Orchid - I just bumped up a post to the sticky area here called
"overpriced nutrition"
It is full of suggestions on how to eat healthy for less :)
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Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they\'re yours.
Richard Bach
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2008/02/28, 05:09 PM
Absolutely. I shop for a family of 4 (3 BOYS and me) and spend less than $250 every two weeks. That includes dog food for two big dogs, paper products, toiletries, and my protein supplements and vitamins.
I go through the weekly shopper ads and find the sales. I'll go to Wild Oats or World Market just for the stuff that I have to have organic (by choice), and will shop at Walmart for everything else (except meat that I get somewhere else. Walmart meat is nasty). It sucks to shop at Walmart but they will price match everything in the weekly shopper. You don't even have to have it with you, you can just tell them "Those carrots are 88cents, that milk is $1.98" and so on. I also have enough left over to go back every few days to stock up on fresh produce so that it's always fresh.
I go to oriental food stores and buy rice in bulk. It's much cheaper that way. I plan my menu around sales, one week we may eat fish 4 nights, one week we may eat chicken 4 nights. It depends on the best prices for the week. Granted it takes me about 3 hours to plan my menu and grocery list, but it's so worth it. Another trick I learned is to put specific snacks and extras on the list. If you don't, you will over indulge and not only over spend, but also fill your house with unnecessary icky stuff.
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