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

Sweet potatoe fries are an excellent low-calorie simple carb substitute

I only manage to eat healthily by living off the reduced counter - all our meals are dictated by what I find on there
Tonight I bought a dozen eggs, a cucumber, clementines, bananas, cherries, Chinese leaf, 2 boxes of stir fry, cabbage, carrots, melon, potatoes, spinach and some natural yoghurt
The fun is in trying to create meals out of what you have

Our food bills actually went down since I've been eating better we do a big shop at asda weekly and include s loads of fresh fruit and vegetables and everything else healthy.

The bad weather in the Med countries has made a lot more vegetables more expensive and harder to find. I was in Morrisons yesterday and there were no tomatoes or broccoli. I haven't seen courgettes for ages and there were just three small aubergines in the aubergine box.

If your normal diet is based on cheap fillers then fruit and veg is definitely more expensive and less filling.
The reduced aisle is usually cheaper than Lidl/ Aldi, but obviously hit and miss.

I find fruit to be very expensive, keeping myself in a fresh supply of strawberries for breakfast is so expensive.
If you ever fancy fruit that isn't in season, it seems like mega bucks.

I find it a lot more expensive, I was vegan for a while & it cost me an arm & a leg in fruit alone!

Not as much as three/four takeaways per week

So it's all relative for me I guess.

Eat seasonal local stuff to keep costs down. Prices are going to increase due to a bad harvest in spain (which is why there is a courgette shortage). Aldi veg is good but goes very quickly and if you are anything like me when you shop twice a week its the extras that add up. Looking ahead would you consider growing veg. Even if its only tomatoes in a plant pot. We are still eating leeks and beetroot from our veg plot.

But yes i agree eating healhy is expensive.

It shouldnt be this way chocolate should be more expensive than fruit!

Well, obviously not a £1 frozen pizza.... can't imagine a £1 frozen pizza would be any good anyway.
A half decent one in Asda is £2.50
Broccoli is 40p, green beans are 50p, carrots are 25p etc. My healthy shops, including house stuff comes to about 45 quid. A normal shop with all the shit comes to anywhere between 70-100.

Its not that fresh costs more, its because it goes off quicker and you need to constantly replenish. Whereas processed foods can be kept longer and bought less often. I too have lost 9lbs doing a combination of Davina sugar free and Xand van tulleken. Same idea, but prefer Davinas recipes.
My food bill is almost £50 a week more.

I find fresh so much cheaper! Stay with food of the season (loads of carrots, parsnips, cabbage and potatoes in the moment for us). A big pot of soup feeding 3 for 2 meals comes up about £1 (carrots, potatoes, parsnip, stock cube). Some bread (brown, not white) and butter, and dinner is sorted. Alternate with different pulses, and bits of gammon etc if you want meat. Canned tomatoes are cheap as well, so is frozen spinach or peas. Together with brown pasta these makes filling meals.
Fruit is mainly apples in the moments, some bananas, some oranges (whatever is cheap). Porridge oats with bits of chopped apple and some raisins is lovely and healthy (with semi skimmed milk), and costs hardly anything.

I think fruit is overrated when we are trying to be healthy / lose weight, 1-2 fruits a day is fine. What's wrong with the basic apple.
We've all been sucked into thinking that berries, quinoa etc are superfoods which will help with weight loss, they do, however a couple of boiled eggs and a salad homemade from the basics like lettuce, toms, cucumber etc is a fraction of the cost.
Breakfast now must be superfood smoothies with kale and berries, a bowl of porridge with a banana or raisins is just as good.
There is so much marketing aimed at eating healthy but as a nation we are fatter than ever myself included

I eat a lot of frozen and tinned veg, and tinned fish. For breakfast I have Sainsburys value oats with hot water to make them into porridge, and a mushed up banana to make them not taste like crap. I have heinz soup for lunch. This way and this way alone is the only way I have found to be able to eat healthily without spending silly amounts of money. If I'm careful I can keep my food bill down to £30 a week, which is around £4 a day for all three meals.

I don't know if this is relevant but I was doing it to lose weight too so I thought I'd weigh in (haha) with how I've managed to do it cheaply.

Yura that just isn't true - there is no way you could make a soup with those ingredients for a pound to feed that many people for that amount of meals. Unless it was mostly just water.

Go to Lidl. Chicken and veg. Easy

I think it can be cheap to eat healthily, if you are prepared to not have much variety. It's the 'exciting' healthy things that are expensive imo like fresh berries or tropical fruit.

I've found frozen berries are quite good, I wouldn't eat them by themselves because they can be quite watery but they are fine for putting on porridge.

Poor lentils, they get such a bad rep but I think they are really nice as a side for sausages

Lentils are delicious as Dahl.

I really like frozen fruit, I get the mixed summer fruits and put them into portion bags, then I can defrost one portion at a time. I use them for yogurt, porridge, smoothies etc. I never buy fresh berries as they are too expensive!

I love dhal purple, but what can I have it with that doesn't make it too calorific? I'm trying to make most of my meals under 400 calories, which is pretty hard to do if you're eating pasta/rice/bread with a meal.

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I like it with pitta bread, but I'll happily eat it on its own with extra roasted veg, paneer, quorn pieces, chicken or prawns for a different texture.

In your situation I'd eat a 200 cal lunch (soup or similar) and have it with a small portion of rice or a pitta. 400c for every meal seems very low.

Some are a bit more than 400, I've had a chicken wrap and chicken curry that have both been over, but under 500. I'm trying to stay between 900-1300 depending on how much exercise I've done that day.

It depends what you mean by eating healthily really.
I eat beans, chick peas, lentils, bread, pasta, eggs, cheese and as much vegetables as I can afford (frozen veg along with cheap veg like broccoli, carrots, etc)and I'm pretty healthy.
I save money by not buying things like ready meals, fruit juice, wine that a lot of other people seem to include as normal.
Would like to eat more fruit though. I do find that is quite expensive.
A lot of people think eating healthily means cutting out bread, pasta, etc and having more meat, fish, etc. That probably is quite a lot more expensive.

It's not just the cost of the food, it's the cost of preparing it.

Fresh ingredients need refrigeration, freezing, boiling, frying and baking whereas something from a packet or a tin may need a few minutes in a microwave or warming in a pan.

I think it's very do-able to eat well on a low budget. We eat really well, and I've been doing Slimming World for the past year, and we never really spend more than £75.

I haven't read the whole thread yet so not sure if these have been mentioned but my tips would be:

Buy frozen veg! It's as healthy, if not healthier than, fresh veg and can be bought really cheaply. Farmfoods do offers on their frozen veg, most recently it was 5 packs for £4.

Eat simple meals regularly. We will often have baked potatoes with cheese, beans and salad, or homemade pasta bakes, or omelette with homemade chips and veg. My kids prefer more simple meals anyway, and they are super cheap to make.

Eat meat free a couple of times a week. I'll usually make a vegetable soup once a week (we use Aldi's ready chopped soup veg pack, 99p and makes loads), and then on the other meat free night we'll have something pasta based. I often make a cheese and spinach lasagne that's super cheap to make but really nice.

Buy value fruit as much as possible, or buy fruit when it's on offer. Tesco often do packs of easy peeler oranges on offer for 2 packs for £2. You get loads of oranges in each pack and they last ages. I buy value/smartprice apples and bananas.

Well, obviously not a £1 frozen pizza.... can't imagine a £1 frozen pizza would be any good anyway.

La-di-da dontcha know