To wish that healthy eating was a bit cheaper to do.

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I'm spending at least 20 quid a week extra on food now

We shop locally at the butchers and fruit store, but it's still working out expensive. We're not buying poncey stuff, just bog standard fruit, veg and fish/chicken.

Dh has ordered a juicer as well. We're gonna be skint by the end of the month

Cherries?! In January?!

I think you need to buy fruit and veg that are seasonal, and where possible local.

Or shop at Aldi for their super 6...

Did I mention that I love Aldi?

I suppose it depends on what you started from. it is definitely more expensive to buy wholegrain rice or pasta. it iss chepoer to substitute some meat for beans or lentils. frozen veggies are fairly cheap if you can get them. to eat a wide variety though gets expensive.

Farmfoods definitely good for frozen stuff, including veggies which are just as healthy as fresh veggies, if not more so because they get frozen immediately. Frozen broccoli is rank though - goes all mushy.

Don't get the more expensive mince - mince is never going to be 'healthy' as such because whichever type you buy it is just fat and connective tissue. The cheaper stuff has slightly more fat but you can combat that by just spooning it off once it has browned. At our local butcher the normal mince is half the price of steak mince, so even by accounting for the fat you get rid of in this way it still works out way cheaper.

It depends on whether you want interesting healthy eating or are prepared to put up with a certain amount of boring eating. Liver and kidney are good for you (in moderation) and very cheap. Boiled spuds will provide you with vitamin C if you eat enough of them. Tinned pilchard is both cheap and healthy: cooked in the oven and served with boil spuds it's a nutritious meal. You don't need a juicer: eating apples and carrots in their natural state will provide you with exactly the same health benefits.

Looking back at my childhood, we ate a far healthier diet than most people do these days and very cheaply. We just accepted that food was a bit dull except on special occasions. I don't think it meant we didn't moan (distinctly remember little brother moaning). Just that moaning didn't seem to make much difference.

But yes I do agree in general that it costs more to eat healthily, even if you do shop around and avoid supermarkets (apart from Aldi). Put it this way, if you had £1.25 to spend on dinner for two of you tonight, what would you go for - a portion of broccoli and an apple? Or a value pizza? Which of those is going to satisfy your hunger?

Eat more veggie food. My corpse-eating DP costs three times to feed what I do.

OP, Tesco sell delicious frozen cherries for £2 a 'punnet'. I must confess I haven't checked, but I think they might be from last summer's bumper crop in the UK. I have them with plain yoghurt or in my breakfast porridge. Often frozen berries are cheaper than fresh. Also there is nothing wrong with frozen vegetables.

Another thing to do is to bump up the quantity of carrots and onions in stews and casseroles. Cheap, nourishing and, above all, tasty.

A frittata made with bits and bobs of vegetables (leftover potato, half an onion, some red pepper and tomato) is filling and delicious.

check out the 'A Girl Called Jack' blog for cheap, vegetable heavy meals. She has some good lentil recipes.

It's hard, isn't it?

What is your idea of healthy eating btw?

I agree, it's much easier to eat lean complete protein if you have more money.

That sort of protein is more expensive to buy, but cheaper to cook and quicker and easier to store.

When people talk about batch cooking they often don't take into account the energy costs of cooking and freezing.

I got a blood test back today saying I was great on everything but I'm deficient in Vitamin D. Not good from an osteoporosis front seeing as I'm a woman of a certain age.

I do eat oily fish but I've still failed. It turns out it's quite difficult to get Vit D from diet.

So I've been prescribed a supplement. It's a bit of a worry, isn't it?

Lentils, chickpeas and other pulses. All cheap and healthy protein.

fish

Hideously expensive, we live on an island!

If fish was cheapr...eating more healthily would be a brees...breeze

We grew up on pony carrots - nothing wrong with them :). Also, enormous farm bags of potatos and onions. We ate a lot of soup and chickpea stew. I hate chickpeas. My mother even made us eat nettle soup - it's disgusting by the way.

Cheap healthy eats tend to be things like dahl, vegetarian bean based chilli, cottage pie, stews, soups. All home made. Also eating seasonally or growing a bit of veg yourself

Also, being able to fillet a fish came in handy after Christmas when two salmon fillets were £5 and a whole salmon was £10 from which I got a huge amount more. Always better to buy a whole chicken and joint rather than chicken bits, buying unpopular bits of meat also brings the bill down.

Sorry, I see you nixed frozen berries for lack of freezer space. You could make them into a compote that would keep in the fridge for a few days. A spoonful in yoghurt makes a fast pudding, or you could make a crumble.

It does cost more to eat a fresh diet with good quality meats and fish. The only thing thats really cheap and healthy is lentils. One 99 p pack makes two weeks worth of soup for my lunches/ suppers.

It's not healthy to drink lots of juice or even eat a lot of fruit (due to the sugars). Two to three pieces of whole fruit a day is sufficient. Alternate meat days.

I can't get on board with the idea of juicing tbh. Everything I have read suggests that is not a healthy way to get fruit and veg into your diet. Too much natural sugars in one go that the body isn't designed to process all at once. I mean you would sit and eat 8 oranges in one go so I've never understood why 8 pieces of fruit blended into a drink is supposed to be good for the digestive system

Wouldn't not would

please can someone explain the difference between 'juicing' and 'mushing up'?

serious question.

oh, and re batch cooking - not much more energy to cook twice as much once you've heated ring and pan. Freezing does use energy but full freezers use less.

transporting food uses energy.

Don't bother with juicing. It's a gimmick and very bad for your teeth

We get a veg bag from a local farm cooperative - it's £11 and is more than enough for three of us for a week - a huge bag.

Maybe look and see if there's one similar near you? The veg we get is varied enough to keep us going. So this week we got potatoes, onion, carrot, portobello mushrooms, salad bag, leeks and a squash.

We eat stuff like lentil curry, casseroles, risotto, beetroot and feta salad and homemade felafels with pitta.

We do cook everything from scratch but we eat a lot of frozen and tinned fruit and veg because it is so bloody expensive otherwise! I am also vegetarian which keeps bills down but my DH eats meat.

Enb, nettle soup is fine. Small amount of cheap cheese grated into it and it's lovely!

Tuna is relatively cheap if served in stew or sauce to make it go further.