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

I shop at Asda as it's cheap and local. It grates me how their New Year price cuts piled high in the foyer were mainly just Supernoodles and Jammy Dodgers. Never any price cuts on fruit and veg.

Also problematic that most of the "interesting" foods are shipped in from miles away. Including spices in that. Sweet potatoes, chickpeas, creamed coconut, chili's. Sometimes feels like I never eat anything homegrown.
Even Puy lentils from France are really expensive.

Sorry but it is utter crap that eating healthy foods is more expensive than not. A bag of frozen broccoli is like a £1 for example, a big tin of pilchards £1.30.

But I do think it's worth shelling out at the beginning if you can afford it on some flavoured oils as well as a decent array of herbs and spices.

I also think that many people are eating food in huge portions because of habit which obviously affect household budgets.

Tinned fish is nice. We like mackerel. I don't eat pilchards or sardines as they're a bit strong.

We make all meals from scratch and have traditional stuff like shepherds pie and spag bol.

We like chicken and buy lean mince.

I eat oats, goats milk yoghurt, some nuts, dried fruits, vegetables (fresh and frozen) and a bit of fresh fruit. We also eat cheddar cheese. The kids eat rice and pasta, but I don't.

I do buy bagged salads which are probably bad. You can get a bag for about 1 quid though and none of it is wasted.

lentils, grow your own veges, and don't buy berries in winter, out of season and expensive, buy what's in season. Bulk cook. Eating sensibly is very very cheap.

Frozen veg, lentils, beans, pulses, some eggs and cheese, with small amounts of pasta, rice and bread. That's mainly what I eat and I'm pretty healthy. It doesn't cost much at all.
I agree with the poster who recommended Jack Monroes blog. I tried a new recipe from her blog yesterday - split pea and yoghurt soup. Split peas are even cheaper than lentils, it was the 1st time I've ever cooked or eaten them and they were fine.

Eating 'sensibly' might be cheap if you can afford to do a big shop and stock up on the basics like lentils, rice etc. But people on limited budgets find this very difficult if not impossible to do. And so my example still stands: you have £1.25 to feed two people. There is no other food in the house. Yes ok you could buy a bag of frozen broccoli, but what do you have with it? Remember, you only have £1.25. Are you really going to cook a bag of frozen broccoli and split it between you? Or a bag of lentils and just boil them up in water, with no chilli, no garlic, no stock cube, no nothing? Or a tin of pilchards, put straight onto the plate with no toast to go with it? (Ok you'd have 25p left over but that is not enough for a loaf of bread.) Or are you going to get that pizza?

And for fresh fruit and vegetables I find Sainsbury's basic range quite good value (I haven't got an Aldi so can't compare).

Rommel yes you have to meal plan when you're on a small budget. Why would you shop for each meal seperately?

How can you say "grow your own vegetables" to someone as general advice. I try every year and it's bollocks.
My tiny garden (use buckets and a small raised beds) does enough veg for about 2 weeks tops.
Probably a half would be crap because it get filled with flies,maggots or other larve or eaten by something. Potatoes, carrots,cabbage, radishes, strawberries and lettuce in particular
The stuff that's OK is in season anyway and therefore cheap as chips in the shops.

Maybe not for each meal, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who has got to the end of the week and found myself with very little money, fuck all food in the house and kids to feed. It happens. It happens a lot if you're on a low income. And in that scenario, in order to get everyone fed and into beds with full tummies, I do not buy a bag of broccoli - I get the cheap pizza. And maybe a pack of value biscuits (one pack the same price as one apple). Or the pack of four pies (made with lips and arseholes) for £1. Or the 99p lasange.

I also agree that eating healthily costs more.

You can buy processed chicken escalopes/kievs or similar, usually 4 for £3. 4 chicken breasts cost £4, and that's standard not organic or anything like that.

Same for lasagne- Lidl do a family sized one for less than £3, you would struggle to buy enough mince for that, never mind pasta and tomatoes and cheese and milk for the sauces.

It's basically impossible to cook a meal from scratch cheaper than buying an equivalent ready meal.

Well if I only had £1.25 I'd rather do beans on toast for everyone than the things you mentioned, TBH.

Ok, that would work - just about. Beans in our local Sainsburys (a Sainsbury's Local, no less, so expensive but if I only have £1.25 I have no bus fare to get anywhere that sells things cheaper) costs 70p. A loaf of basics bread costs 50p. So it's doable for the two people I originally asked about.

revealall - good point. Not everyone has a garden. And allotment waiting lists are years long and also require a lot of dedication, especially in the early years. Not always possible if you're working.

What if you don't have that much money. I've often only had 2pound left until Payday and had to organise a meal around that and what is left in the freezer.

Rommell You're talking about people on extreme low-budgets so of course a bag of frozen broccoli for a quid is no use to them, for your example anyway.

Absolutely agree about being on the breadline, Rommell; there are situations where you don't have much choice about eating crap.

But the OP's situation is more about being on a level where you could afford ordinary meals but would like to do them healthier if you could find an economical way of doing it. (If you are in a position to order a juicer you are probably not down to your last 1.25.) My advice about pilchards etc were more aimed at that kind of level- where you have to watch the pennies, but have a certain amount of manouevring room.

(and I'd eat boiled spuds rather than broccoli btw- far more filling and is what my poorer ancestors used to eat a lot)

Rommell You mentioned value biscuits, doesn't the same shop sell value baked beans?.21p a tin in my sainsburys (not a little one though).

I also think that even these days some people on limited budgets are almost obsessed with having meat often...meat is expensive wherever you get it, one reason I gave it up.

Well if I only had £1.25 I'd rather do beans on toast for everyone than the things you mentioned, TBH

Agreed. Beans on toast or eggs on toast if I actually only had £1.25 and absolutely nothing in the house.

We did this to death over the summer.

Yes, it's cheaper to eat absolute fuckimg crap than to eat well. You can buy a shit Iceland lasangna for less than you can make it.

HOWEVER it is possible to eat reasonably healthy on a low income, with some planning and a big tesco or an online shop.

There is no need to be buying out of season fruit or veg. Buy in season, and things like frozen peas, beans etc are cheap.

Yes to eat healthily and cheaply you do need to meal plan but obviously that requires a larger outlay at one point in time.

You also need the ingredients to make the next 3 meals out of the stuff you have.
This week we have a pork joint on offer at £3.50 and cabbage 50p. I can stretch this to 3 or 4 meals easily (yes a £1 a meal for 2!) but...
I need more veg and potatoes for the roast.
Bread (or ingredients) to make healthy rolls for lunch next day.
Spices to make cabbage dim sum for supper (and rice).
Beans to make pork chili type dish for next day
So actually my healthy economy 4 meals requires a proper shop really.

fatlazymummy, unforch no value beans in our local shop. And in fact, even the value bread is a recent addition - 6 months ago, it wouldn't have been possible to do the beans on toast thing from there - the next cheapest loaf is £1.50 which would take you over budget straightaway even without any beans. Not to mention butter.

We used to grow some strawberries, but had to wrestle them off the blackbird. The woodlice also made little homes in them and I didn't have the heart to evict them

We're not down to our last penny, but do have to watch how much we spend. I try not to spend more than about 80 quid a week for the four of us and two cats.

I agree that eating healthily is more expensive.

To cut costs you could introduce a few vegetarian days a week using dry pulses soaked overnight (maybe a few bags) so you boil them the next day and then freeze in portions. You can use them in stews, ministrone, tacos, etc.

Also, frozen veg and some fruit are often cheaper and as healthy.

Oat porridge for breakfast is also good, very filling and healthy and sandwiches with cucumber/tomato/cress for lunch with a piece of fruit.

I would be careful with orange juice on a daily basis as it is very high in natural sugars.