More expensive to buy healthy food?

[ShweetThang]

I don't believe it's anymore expensive to eat healthier if you make the right choices. Bottom line is though what's more important your health or money? If I was struggling with money I would cut back elsewhere. I never skimp on buying food as everyone has to eat and if it came to it I'd rather spend a bit more on healthy food than something unhealthy. So in a nutshell I also think they are talking rubbish!

I completely agree with you. It makes no sense to me to buy unhealthy food just because you think it might be cheaper. Its the most important thing you'll buy. You wouldn't buy a pair of shoes with holes in the bottom just because they were cheaper than a perfect pair (does that make sense? lol)

 

[Pudgy Panda]

I agree that you do seem to spend more really when doing SW properly, our food bill is easily £110 a week for 3 of us.

However one week we added up what we had spent on snacks, take aways, cinema treats, afternoon snacks etc and it nearly came to £80 odd so now only buying food we r actually gonna eat we make sure we eat every morsel of food and not waste.if we have anything left over or about to go off i mix it all together and blitz it to make a sauce.

If we need to save money i would not try to scrimp on food, i would save on petrol or not go out that week.

 

[Princess Sausage]

If you are near an Aldi you can really stock up on the fruit and veg - I had a hug bag for life full of fruit and veg on the super 6 offer for less than £3- melon 69p, 3 huge spanish onions 39p 600g sweet potatoes 39p, big bag potatoes 69p 6 tomatoes 39p.

 

[cheekychinchilla]

I wish we had a local green grocers or market! I can imagine that would be MUCH cheaper for fruit & veggies. But we don't We don't have a car either and my Mum is partially disabled, so there's no chance we can get to anywhere further away than our local shop. Mum works right by our local supermarket and her work pays for her taxi's to and from work, so if we do a big shop then we use Mum's going home taxi.
I really do wish we had access to a market

 

[KayMarie]

I agree with Theresa. It is more expensive and cooking new meals and fish meals etc... can get quite expensive. I know people say go to fruit and veg stalls but I don't think the fruit and veg lasts as long as it does from a supermarket.

 

[jaylou]

I think you can eat cheaply and healthily. Pasta, rice and potatoes are all cheap and these can be the staples of any meal. Tinned beans and chick peas are around 50p a tin, cheaper in Aldi and Lidls if you have them.

When it comes to veg, eat seasonally - green beans are expensive because they come from Kenya at this time of the year (normally!), have carrots, parsnips or swede or good old frozen peas which never seem to change in price! They don't always go with the things in the SW mag but I just adapt menus accordingly.

I no longer buy "exotic" fruit, I stick to apples, bananas and pears. I'll buy pineapple and melon if they are on a really good offer!

I made lasagne the other day - mince £2.50 lasagne sheets (value) 30p yoghurt 50p 2 eggs 35p tinned toms 35p (value) passata (40p) onion & carrot (pence!). Just over £4 and it made 6 portions!!! cheaper and better for you than a ready meal.

Use markets and value brands and eat seasonal food and you can do it on a budget. I'm lucky, I don't need to budget but I do choose wisely and don't buy things because I can!

 

[Circes]

A great post Jaylou! I do think that when some people complain about SW being expensive, it because lack of planning and their shopping habits rather than the SW plan. We have discussed this several times in the past and in detail about how much people spend each week. When one person can quite successfully feed a family of five adults on £70 a week but others are spending a lot more then it's clearly down to individual habits. I'm not saying it's easy but with a bit of effort and forethought it is possible. I think we can learn a lot from older generations who had to cope with running a household and feeding a family during rationing.

http://www.minimins.com/slimming-world/129775-budgeting-sw-help-please.html

http://www.minimins.com/slimming-world/123189-sw-low-budget.html

 

[icklerockchick]

agree with everything said above and before it doesn't NEED to be expensive.

rice, potatoes and pasta are really cheap, filling and versatile. i also go through loads of tinned tomatoes and passata and now always use asda value range ones and they are perfectly fine when used in sauces or meals.

fresh fruit and veg can be very expensive especially when out of season but places like aldi and even recently morissons have really great offers on the veg i use the most i buy frozen now - a big bag of frozen sweetcorn is much cheaper than even tinned and you can use exactly what you want. Diced onion is great already all chopped up 4 you so really easy to add into all sorts of sauces to increase your veg intake or even fry a little bit in frylight to top you sausage sandwich yum oh and one fresh pepper costs me about 80p or i can get a whole big bag of frozen for a pound again great for adding to anything to bulk up veg intake.

meat is also expensive but nowadays i use quorn a lot and find its so easy (use straight from freezer and cooks very quickly) and saves me a fortune compared to buying meat!

happy money saving! and good luck

X

 

[Purple_Star]

I personally do think it can be more expensive, but really it depends on what you bought before.
For example, Extra lean mince is much more expensive than standard mince. 7 banannas are much more expensive than 7 bags of crisps. etc. You could pick up a ready made lasagne for £1, to make a lovely fresh one with loads of yummy fresh veg would def cost more. However, the quality of the ready made one but dubious lol. Tesco healthy living burgers are much dearer than tesco standard burgers. So if you previously bought standard brands, or value brands in these sort of foods, then to just swap to healthy living brand would def cost more. However if you previously bought the upper range in convenience foods, then it would be cheaper to buy basic ingredients.

So really as others have said, if you stick to basics, only buy what you need and shop around, then you CAN save money. I find that by shopping 'in season' I can save a fortune.

For me personally, I spend less eating healthily, but I can see how people may spend more.

 

[darkcookie]

Hi Guys,

If any of you are lucky enough to have a Lidl or an Aldi store close by you can pick up cheaper fruit/veg as both these stores do have offers on all the time.

Hope that helps.

Lyn

 

[fitz]

Personally, as a single person on a tight budget, I do find it more expensive to eat healthily & stay feel full. Even though I would make lots of meals in bulk & freeze for future, I do find I spend more on fruit & vegetables wether it is frozen or fresh. I think it does depend on your tastes really. If you can eat the same thing day in day out & ready meals etc (as some people do - their own choice) then thats fine, but to have a nutritionally balanced, varied & interesting diet which can be maintained over a long period, in fact Life, then I think it can be more costly.