To think it is so much more expensive to eat healthily?

[SharkiraSharkira]

So I've been trying to eat healthily and generally portion control/calorie count for about 3 weeks. Lost about 9lb so far so it does seem to be working a bit.

However, I have noticed that my food bill has increased SO much since I've been doing it! I'm not buying anything super expensive, just increased my fruit and veg intake a lot and eating less stuff that is cheap but filling such as bread and pasta.

Aibu to find it quite disheartening that it is so much more expensive to eat healthy? I'm just about to start a new job and am going to be very broke until I get paid (in March) so I'm going to have to live very frugally and I really don't want to put back all the weight I've lost back on, ideally I want to lose more! I already batch cook, buy frozen veg (cheaper), shop at Aldi for cheap fruit & veg etc but it is still so expensive

' an apple is the same price as a packet of biscuits'!! Nonsense

to save buying several times a week batch cook and then freeze portions

No, I think YABU. what are you NOT buying now. Take aways? Sandwiches? Sweet coffees?

Your supermarket bills may have gone up, but can you see nothing else has gone down?

When I diet properly (I'm failing at the moment), it saves me a fortune in fewer expensive fatty foods.

And yes, Lidl for veg is worth it.

You can easily make some cheap meals like pasta sauce (ie. a tin of tomatoes, an onion, a pepper) on some pasta

Pasta is not good if you want to lose weight.

No, not necessarily. I'm shit hot at this from growing up very poor. And I hate lentils.

Veg is cheap. Fruit usually isn't, but then I've seen posts on here from people claiming healthy = expensive, and they're buying eg blueberries, FFS.

Buy veg. Pad everything like fuck. Don't buy ready made.

It is worth looking in Iceland for frozen fish and meat too. The frozen lean mince is very good.
I love those fish in sauce you get four in either butter sauce or parsley sauce. Both are low fat (even in butter sauce) Inc you could make your own sauce but these bad boys are delicious :o

I know fruit and veg is important but is it really necessary for it to be fresh? Frozen fruit and veg is just as healthy.

An apple is the same price as a whole packet of biscuits
You can buy a bag of apples for about £1.20 - you couldn't get half a dozen packets of biscuits for that! Out-of-season fruit is always going to be expensive, so try to get what's on offer. Fill up on loads of homegrown veg rather than things like mange tout or baby corn - they have been flown all the way from Guatemala or Egypt or wherever so cost a lot more per kilo.
A week's worth of cheap veg should only cost a couple of quid for one person. A sack of spuds works out really cheap - we can get them for about £7 and they last two of us at least 2 months.

I don't think eating healthy is expensive. However eating a variety is expensive and I think when you are purposely trying to lose weight then you are more likely to want to have more variety to stop you reaching for the unhealthy stuff.

To be fair kulmuir I checked on tescos - a pack of tesco value biscuits is 25p. A single apple is 35p

An apple is 50p in the greengrocers near me. And Poundland next door has 4 packets of biscuits for £1.

I agree with Vivienne - it really depends on what your 'normal' buying habits are - when I buy sensibly and healthily I save loads of money because I am not buying treats, cheese, cream, crisps, alcohol etc etc.
I never buy berries or 'expensive' fruit and basic veg can be very reasonable.

a weeks worth of cheap veg should only cost a couple of quid

A head of broccoli in my local shop is £1.19. A head of fucking very small cauliflower is £1.36!

I think perhaps we ought to consider that prices vary

Bollocks is it!

I'm currently around 8st over weight, after losing quite a bit of weight since August this year.

My food bill has halved because I'm not spending anything on takeaways, I'm not buying coffees and stuff at work, I'm not snacking on shit all the time etc etc because I'm eating good quality food that's filling me up and stopping cravings!

I have a smoothie for breakfast: 1 500g bag of mixed frozen fruit is £2. 1 portion is 80g and I top it up with a huge bag of Kale and Skyr (natural high protein yogurt), a teaspoon of coconut oil from a jar that lasts me about 3 months and chia seed gel, which lasts me about 4 weeks and costs £4 for the seeds to make it and water from the tap... My smoothie costs me about £0.70 a portion. Alternatively, sugar and palm oil free peanut butter is protein dense and at 10g per portion, you get 50 portions out of a 500g tub.

Lunches: Usually a salad or soup, all fresh made. If it's soup it's made from a tin of tomatoes and any veggies we've cooked for dinner that were left over and blitzed in. If it's salad it's slightly more expensive but we get iceberg lettuce not the farty little bags, grow our own herbs on a windowsill and then either add roasted veggies or a bit of goats cheese or tuna or something. If I'm generous it's about £1 a portion max.

Dinner: All sorts but usually a meat and veg combo. Pork chops, roasted veggies and gravy is a regular or a roast chicken dinner, then we boil the carcass and use the stock for soup. We cook from scratch every night, usually together or 1 of us walks the dogs while the other cooks etc.

For 2 people, we spend £40 a week on food, both losing weight steadily at about 2lbs a week and have an insanely healthy diet packed with nutrient dense food!

I find it much cheaper. I plan and buy in the plan but it's much cheaper for sure.

Mainly because I am no longer wasting as much money on crisps and sweets and things!

FormerlyFrikadela01 has hit the nail on the head.

All you lentil haters - are you eating green lentils? Those taste pretty earthy. The black lentils (sold in packets) are much nicer and have a better texture.

Pasta is not good if you want to lose weight.
Pasta can absolutely be part of a successful diet for weight loss.

Op it depends what you're buying. We eat a lot of pulses, root vegetables, tinned tomatoes and frozen veg. It's not expensive compared to buying takeaways and/or meat. It depends what you were buying before. You also might need a store cupboard of herbs and spices which is a fairly big outlay but once you've got them then last for ages.

Where are you shopping?

For the cost of a frozen pizza, I can buy almost a weeks worth of veg.
but the OP didn't mention frozen pizza, she mentioned bread and pasta

kilmuir I've been having this convo on another thread.

My only food shop for 14 miles is a Co-op.
Today I was in there
a bag of pears was £1.75 (5 pears)
a packet of 6 apples (pink lady, only choice) was £3.50

I had to buy ingredients for ds cookery at school
he made cinnamon loaf.
it cost £9.20
I was disbelieved.

Yet the £5 freezer meal offer provided lasagne, garlic bread, chips, icecream and a tiny bag of frozen peas - all for £5 - the cost of the apples and pears

value choc chip biccies were 35p a pack

I find veg really cheap (fruit varies IME). Then again, I live near lots of cheap Mediterranean/Indian shops and a great street market; supermarket fruit and veg is more expensive than those, I realise.

And, I know there's a lot of hostility here towards pulses, but they're filling, nutritious, versatile and cheap. I tend to buy tins for convenience, but if you can get more organised than me and want to really keep the cost down, the dried ones that you need to soak overnight or cook for ages cost buttons.

Again, I do realise I have easy access to the kind of shops and stalls that sell these and not everyone does. I don't really know what this stuff costs in supermarkets but would think that it's quite cheap, especially if you look in the 'foods of the world' section or whatever slightly uncomfortable term the shop is using.

I can beat your £9.20 cinnamon loaf.

Many moons ago dd had to contribute exotic fruits to a communal fruit salad in her food tech lesson.

£12.60 is what her part cost. The pineapple alone was £4.99.

I won't bore you with the details again but we had no choice before anyone accuses me of insanity.

@feartheliving for the cost of a single frozen pizza (£1ish) you can buy a week's worth (i.e. 3+ portions per day for 7 days) of veg?!?!

I mainly shop at Aldi and Asda as they are the ones closest to me, I don't drive a car and can't carry a lot of stuff in one go so I am somewhat limited. I do find Aldi cheaper for fruit and veg but the last time I went in there was hardly anything there! Everyone else obviously got the memo too

I don't buy takeaways (before or now) because I can't afford them. I don't like (and therefore don't buy) pastries, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, sweets or coffee. I used to buy a fair bit of fizzy drink but I haven't had any in three weeks so now only drinks water or herbal tea - occasionally fruit juice watered down.

Pasta and rice I like and eat a lot, but they are very calorific and so I'm not eating very much at the moment. These probably made up a large % of my diet before so now I'm trying to replace them with veg and having meat/fish with veg for my evening meal. I buy frozen fish mainly and cheaper cuts of meat.

I would recommend getting some whole grains and pulses in your diet rather than cuts of meat. Cheaper and more nutritious.