Really healthy eating on a budget

JennyP · 7 February 2018 at 9:59AM

I am simultaneously trying to spend less on groceries whilst eating more healthily. Not to lose weight (though would be nice) but because I get migraines and have quite a serious autoimmune problem.

Eating healthily is expensive. For example, I can't eat normal stock cubes so have to buy kallo organic which are £1.60. I do have a mysupermarket alert set to make this cheaper.

I've been told going gluten free would help but that makes everything more expensive. Trying specialist flours works out a lot more.

Hubby is veggie though eating two portions of oily fish a week at my request.

I have started meal planning recently and our food bills have gone up not down. Though admittedly we are having a bigger variety of foods and my cooking repertoire has got bigger.

Take breakfast for example. I like toast and marmalade which is cheap but to be healthy make overnight oats with yoghurt and blueberries which works out a lot more.

Eating veg or a salad lunchtime also works out more than having something on toast.

Any ideas?

kathrynha · 7 February 2018 at 10:15AM

For your overnight oats use frozen fruit. It is cheaper than fresh.
Veg is also cheaper frozen than fresh.

Gluten free is expensive if you just replace gluten foods with gluten free versions. Changing what you actually eat is cheaper. Remove bread from your diet and replace with potatoes or rice

JennyP · 7 February 2018 at 10:16AM

Already using frozen fruit!

moneyistooshorttomention · 7 February 2018 at 10:24AM

Good luck with getting suitable replies on here - I've seen quite a few examples of a poster asking for "healthy" ways to eat - and then lots of posts come up advocating unhealthy foods.

I'd second the suggestion of looking for things other than "alternatives for gluten products".

For a start - I just tried a very quick google for "Pinterest - alternative breads" and there are several Pinterest boards for breads made from something other than wheat.

Ginmonster · 7 February 2018 at 10:27AM

How about having porridge with a handful of raisins in for breakfast? And for lunch a homemade soup can be made from really cheap veg and if you chuck some red lentils in too it makes it really filling.

JennyP · 7 February 2018 at 10:35AM

Ginmonster wrote: »

How about having porridge with a handful of raisins in for breakfast? And for lunch a homemade soup can be made from really cheap veg and if you chuck some red lentils in too it makes it really filling.

I hate porridge but I could substitute frozen blueberries on my overnight oats for cheaper alternatives eg grated apples, raisins etc.

I don't enjoy soup. Hardly ever. I like the idea. And it's cheap and healthy. Need to get into it.

I love stew so not sure why soup is any different.

Mrs_Cheshire · 7 February 2018 at 10:37AM

Do you know what your current weekly or monthly spend on groceries is? How much would you like to get it down too?
Does your hubby eat the same meals as you or are you making 2 of everything for example spaghetti bolagnese, do you make a veggie version and a meat?
Do you batch cook?

caronc · 7 February 2018 at 10:42AM

Do you like pulses and beans? These can be a cheap way to eat well and easy to ring the changes with different spices/flavours.

suki1964 · 7 February 2018 at 11:01AM

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Good luck with getting suitable replies on here - I've seen quite a few examples of a poster asking for "healthy" ways to eat - and then lots of posts come up advocating unhealthy foods.

I'd second the suggestion of looking for things other than "alternatives for gluten products".

For a start - I just tried a very quick google for "Pinterest - alternative breads" and there are several Pinterest boards for breads made from something other than wheat.

What's the definition of healthy though ?

Mine is a balanced diet that incorporates all food groups

I'm also more then happy to ear butter, use lard, drink full fat milk, full fat yoghurt and would quite happily eat my own body weight in cheese if I could get away with it not landing on my bum :rotfl:

Some would recoil in horror about the above due to the fat content, I recoil in horror at the added ingredients of a so called healthier alternative

Eating healthily is very subjective

rach_k · 7 February 2018 at 11:12AM

You could easily make your own stock from odds and ends of veg or meat, then freeze it. That would be cheap as it's using up scraps and you can tailor it to your needs.

Buying bigger packs is an easy way to reduce costs. Things like oats and rice can be bought very cheaply in big bags.

As well as frozen fruit and veg, meat can be good frozen too. I don't eat meat but we get packs of frozen chicken thighs or breasts from Tesco which work out much cheaper than buying fresh and we never waste them by forgetting to eat them on time. We normally cook them from frozen with no problems but if you're meal planning it's easy to defrost stuff in time if you prefer to do it that way. Frozen fish can be good too.

Some things will always have a cost that's higher than we'd like but I prefer to think that eating healthily is the standard cost and eating rubbish is sometimes cheaper.

suki1964 · 7 February 2018 at 11:18AM

JennyP wrote: »

I hate porridge but I could substitute frozen blueberries on my overnight oats for cheaper alternatives eg grated apples, raisins etc.

I don't enjoy soup. Hardly ever. I like the idea. And it's cheap and healthy. Need to get into it.

I love stew so not sure why soup is any different.

Aren't overnight oats just porridge?

If you like stews, chunky soup is an idea perhaps?

I also eat a lot of oily fish, the cheapest is sardines. 35 p a can. I also like mackerel, salmon and kippers, all dead cheap

Jacket spuds make great lunches for work if you have a microwave. I never buy special expensive spuds, just always buy my bag of spuds for the week that have big ones in. Sweet potatoes are even healthier and often on special in Lidl and other supermarkets

Bean salads are also lovely. Very filling, full of protein and once again cheap

Cut the meat portions down when (if) batch cooking and pad out with lentils and beans.

Eat fresh fruit and veg in season. No point in paying £3 for fresh strawberries in winter, they have no flavour, you may as well be munching raw turnip. There is nothing wrong in frozen or tinned ( buy tinned in juice not syrup)

And look at portion sizes. Most of us are guilty of eating too much because we are not aware what a portion size is.

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Really healthy eating on a budget

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