Any tips for cheap healthy food shopping?

marco21st

I was my life long overweight and my better half cought up fast...:D ...now we both managed by sticking to a low GL diet to lose 3st and to stay at a healthy weight.

Unfortunately healthy food doesn't come easy and so we end up paying mostly between £120-150 a week for food shopping. This is obviously way to much and I wonder if there are any tips out there

rachbc

. What do you buy and where do you shop then we might be able to make suggestions. Is low GL low in sugar and high in wholegrains/ slow release carbs or have I got that wrong?

starchops

Hello

I was in the same boat as you, but I totally cut down my shopping and saved money and lost weight, I'm very pleased. Here is what I always buy, hope it helps;

Tuna (high in protein)
Eggs (again, high in protein)
Chicken/Turkey breast (guess what, high protein!)
Wholemeal pasta or rice
Variety of vegetables fresh and frozen
Sweet potatoes (much better for you than ordinary)

I usually buy a bottle/jar of a spicy sauce I can put on chicken or turkey, to liven up the meal and I always enjoy it.

Have fun!

oldvicar

It can be that healthy food is amongst the cheapest (OK not the very cheapest but affordable for less than your current weekly spend)

Generally: avoiding 'ready meals' and processed food is healthier and cheaper.

Some cheap foods are healthy and Lo GI for example:

• Baked potato;
• Baked beans (opt for low sugar/salt varieties if you wish - the beans are 'good', the sauce less so)
• Wholegrain rice

Vegetables, rather than fruit, are better for your 5+ per day. Nothing wrong with enjoying some fruit but some can be sugary etc.. Avoid fruit juices except as a treat - mostly pure sugar/calories.

Salads - these may look expensive but I bet your weekly food spend would come down if you eat them a lot. Takes a lot of effort to munch through £120 of leaves, even for a couple of rabbits!

Finally, and I think this appeared as official advice a while back: Think of meat as a garnish, not as a major part of your plate. In other words cut back on the size of meat portions - enjoy a little for variety of flavour and nutrients but cut back on portion sizes for healthier and cheaper meals. Fill the gap on the plate with extra vegetables.

marco21st

Ok just realized I forgot to mention that we are a family of 4 (incl 2 teenagers), which makes spending of £120-150 perhaps more reasonable.

We go a lot to Lidl as we find the products are a lot cheaper there. We go through about 6-10 Iceberg Salad a week, which we have for lunch nearly every day. We then tend to add tomato and some protein like feta, mozzarella, tuna, egg or chicken.
Chicken we tent to by from Farmfoods 2x1kg chicken breast for £8.

We buy a lot of frozen vegetables again from Farmfoods, Lidl or Aldi.

I think we are particular bad with frozen berries, we currently go through £10 worth of blueberries and raspberries.

But apart from that I don't get what we do wrong. We don't drink or smoke either.

Thanks for your tips so far :T

mirry

how about buying some blueberry bushes for the garden ?
Go blackberry picking in august and stock up the freezer.
Grow your own lettuce.
Concentrate on buying whoopsied vegetables and meat.
Start a new hobby "fishing" for free meat .
Keep chickens for eggs.

Sambucus_Nigra

marco21st wrote: »

Ok just realized I forgot to mention that we are a family of 4 (incl 2 teenagers), which makes spending of £120-150 perhaps more reasonable.

We go a lot to Lidl as we find the products are a lot cheaper there. We go through about 6-10 Iceberg Salad a week, which we have for lunch nearly every day. We then tend to add tomato and some protein like feta, mozzarella, tuna, egg or chicken.
Chicken we tent to by from Farmfoods 2x1kg chicken breast for £8.

We buy a lot of frozen vegetables again from Farmfoods, Lidl or Aldi.

I think we are particular bad with frozen berries, we currently go through £10 worth of blueberries and raspberries.

But apart from that I don't get what we do wrong. We don't drink or smoke either.

Thanks for your tips so far :T

Why not post a week or two's worth of eats from your receipts and people may point out where you are indeed spending where you needn't be.

Mrs_Arcanum

Now is the season for soft fruit so the cost should come down if you buy fresh. The Lidl frozen ones are pretty good at £2 a bag, but would make the most of the weekend fruit & veg specials.

rachbc

Even for a family of 4 £10 worth of frozen soft fruit and 10 iceberg lettuces seems like a lot. How about eating more seasonal veg so you can take advantage of the best prices? Veg is generally cheaper than fruit - and less sugars so better GI wise...

hungrynurse_2

dont bother with lettice, it serves no nutritional value, doesnt fill you up and costs proportionately high. Agree with upping veg content, and buying seasonally too, but frozen is good. You arnt eating whicte bread are you? Fish is generally cheaper than meats, but Id watch your salt intake if youre eating alot of frozen chicken breasts as these tend to be soaked in a salt water bath to plump them up before being frozen. Excess salt is as bad for your health as being over weight

Edwardia

oldvicar wrote: »

Some cheap foods are healthy and Lo GI for example:

• Baked potato;
• Baked beans (opt for low sugar/salt varieties if you wish - the beans are 'good', the sauce less so)
• Wholegrain rice

Baked potatoes, baked beans and rice are NOT low GI !!!!

To check whether a food is low GI or not please check the official University of Sydney website https://www.glycemicindex.com

There's a difference between glycemic LOAD and glycemic INDEX. Glycemic Load is grams of available carbohydrate in a set amount of the food x the food's GI/100. It's much more complicated to work out than GI but you'll find it's done for you on a lot of foods if you keep strictly to the serving size and method of cooking used.

With GI anything under 55 on the index is low.

If you like salad, I'd suggest looking in library, charity shops and boot fairs for salad 'cook' books. A great many healthy salads can be made without resorting to lettuce which is mostly water. However, the principle of buying the lettuces rather than the more expensive bagged salads was a good money-saving idea.

I'd suggest going to a pick your own place in the country and freezing fruit like plums, greengages and gooseberries rather than buying frozen. Blackberries you should be able to forage. It's worth picking up frozen fruit on special offer though and if you freeze strawberries yourself they do tend to be mushy when defrosted.

Blueberries don't like frost (speaking from several goes myself) so if you live in a frosty area and don't have a greenhouse I wouldn't bother. You could be growing tomatoes, salad leaves, bean sprouts and herbs though even if you don't have much garden. Herbs will grow on windowsills indoors or outdoors in grow bags. Basil grown with tomatoes helps keep bugs off them.

With four teenagers and feeding them healthy food not processed junk I don't think there's a huge amount more that you can save since you're going to the cheaper shops anyway.