More expensive to buy healthy food?

big bear

big bear

A bear on a mission!
Someone said to me it's more expensive to eat healthily, what r ur thoughts?
I don't think so as I went to the fruit /veg market on sat got loads to last all week for £10. I told them they were talking rubbish
 
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! :D
 
I always seem to spend the same each week - alhough when I am buying meat it does hike it up a bit! I have to say thouh that when we areoff plan I spend more because I buy more bread, cheese, crisps, biscuits... and we seemed to go through a tub of butter every couple of weeks!!

I agree with you - you can still do a shop on a budget and be healthy!
 
In certin way's it is. but it all depends on where you shop, I make a list and just shop around, I get a few things at Tesco and some at sainsburys, then all my tined stuff is far cheaper at B&M...Tomatos,Tuna,Beans...ect!

It's well worth taking the time to shop around, you can save yourself a good 20 quid...;)
 
I don't think it has to be that much more expensive, especially if you're doing lots of cooking yourself and as you rightly say, finding cheaper sources for things like fruit & veg, and some cuts of meat and fish are cheaper than others too! It's about wise choices! I know lots of people who spend an absolute fortune on expensive brands of pre-packaged food and lots of takeaways!! My hubbie and I used to eat out an awful lot and because we've had to curb our spending of late we've been staying in more and cooking, and since I started SW 3 months ago we've been doing even more of that and using cheap enough ingredients such as pasta, rice, grains, veg as the bases for all sorts of yummy meals!X
 
i think it's cheaper. before SW i could go to asda and spend anywhere between £15 and £30 on an evenings food. i just went to asda and spent £40 on food that will last all week.

it's funny how we think a melon for £2 or a punnet of strawberries for £3 is expensive but we don't think twice about spend £5 on chocolate!
 
To me it is. I really struggle buying things for SW because I'm on such a limited budget. But I've had the same food budget for at least a couple of years now. I have to make do on £10-£20 a week for anything that isn't bill related, so not being able to stock up on convenience foods is very hard to do. It's the price of fresh fruit and veg that gets me, so I buy most veg frozen and just buy the basics of fresh fruit. I'm sharing the fruit I buy for the animals now, lol.

So for me it feels more expensive, but I guess if I had a bigger budget then maybe it would even out because I'd be buying less bad things so more money for good things.

Just a thought :)
 
I agree it can certainly seem more expensive for one person, although often it does even out. Like if I wanted lasagne, I think I could buy a frozen meal for one for £1 somewhere. If I wanted to make one for myself, it would cost a lot more than that. But if you're making things again and again, that helps. And it is definitely cheaper for families to buy healthy. (but might seem time-consuming)
Anyway, I'm loving the way SW has got me cooking from scratch and eating healthier!
 
I'm spending a lot less on cheese and wine now, that's for sure! In general I think it can be cheaper though because the local green grocer (if you're lucky enough to have one) is so much cheaper than the supermarket. The problem I find is that with buying fresh food I have to shop more often as it doesn't always last all week. Therefore I'm shopping more often, which makes me think I'm spending more money, even though I'm buying food in smaller quantities. Where I find it does cost more is that I like to spice things up a bit and buy fruit that is a bit more exciting, for example a pummet of blueberries rather than an apple - there's a big price difference there.

Shopping regularly can be a hazard though as all it takes is a bad day, dull weather, and a stop at the supermarket on the way home can be disastrous if you don't have the motivation to buy healthy food. I have a lot of admiration for the people who are able to plan their week in advance and shop in one go.
 
i think its exspensive, i spend about £30 a week just on fresh fruit and veg, and by midweek im popping back to tesco to buy more. meat is very exspensive specialy lamb, beef and mince. i could go to farm foods spend 50 quid fill up the freezer and thats a months shopping, but its all processed fast food. plus no one else wants to eat rabbit food as they put it so my shopping bill weekly is between £100-£140
 
I'm spending a lot more on groceries now. I thought I'd spend less as I buy hardly any ready prepared food. However, I seem to shop more often and have much bigger trolley fulls. I'm now buying a huge variety of foods and lots of different ingredients. Cooking from scratch seems to work out pretty expensive for me. I cooked a cod mornay last night. The cod was about £4, cherry tomatoes 75p, spinach £1, quark 80p, fromage frais 50p which is a total of £7.05 for 4 people. Then there's £1 for green beans and a bit more for potatoes. I don't see how I could do it much cheaper. I do go to my local farm shops sometimes but often the fruit and veg looks very poor and there's not much selection. On average I spend about £100 more each month for a family of four.

However, my family is now eating very good, tasty, healthy meals. My husband and I have lost a lot of weight and so it's worth every penny. I'm really into cooking now and I've love looking through my recipe books, here and the SW site for new things to try. I used to hate cooking but now I get big feeling of satisfaction that I've cooked something myself that is healthy and makes me lose weight. SW has been a really big lifestyle change.
 
i spend more in asda on my weekly shop i only do one shop now instead of the daliy shops plus the regular chocolate i brought from work plus the takeaways we had aleast once a week.
so when u add it up i spend less
plus can u put a price on being slim and happy u deserve the best food for your body.
 
There are several threads on how to do SW on a budget so well worth doing a search to find them. But planning your meals in advance so that you maximise the use of your ingredients and any leftovers, putting together a list of only what you need for these meals, doing a single shop, shopping around to take advantage of offers, and batch booking all contribute. It's not really that SW is expensive to follow, it's the choices you make that can make it so
 
I do find I waste a lot less food now. As I'm more confident cooking, I can usually use up left overs. Quiches are a very good way of using up left over veg.

I agree that with careful planning you should be able to cut your costs down. We eat a lot of meat and fish which is very expensive, but I do try to do some non meat meals as well.
 
i think that food that is packaged as healthy can be expensive, but you can buy fruit,veg,meat etc reasonably priced and live quite well.

its an advertisers dream !!
 
I think we are saving a fortune on Lighter Life! So far our weekly shops for 2 of us have averaged £80, and that is for breakfast, lunch and dinner! And I know we could do it all a lot cheaper if we wanted!

Before SW we would both probably spend more than that on just lunch at work, plus and extra £30 on takeaway over the weekend, then another £100 on crap food down the supermarket and another £100 on going out on a Friday night on beer!

Saving a foryune, as well as feeling better and losing weight :D
 
I find my shopping bill each week is more if i'm not on plan as i fill my trolly with lots of crisps and chocolate and jelly sweets and cakes and biscuits etc and it adds up, not to mention my wine for the weekend. If i'm on plan, i replace all of the above with fruit and i don't find it to be any more expensive. I buy frozen sprouts brocolli and cauliflour too, as i find it cheaper for more, but i buy fresh carrots turnips and onions. With meat i normally get it from my local butchers, i thought it would be a lot more expensive to start with but it isn't. You get much more for your money i find so it lasts longer. when i get paid i buy mince, chicken breasts, some bacon and a big chicken and i stick them in the freezer when i get home and just use as and when i want. The large chicken does my family of 4 for 2 days, i would have a roast dinner, then with the chicken that's left i would do a curry. Sometimes i would use the stock for a pot of soup. So two main meals for a family of 4 plus a big pot of soup with the stock that can be frozen and last a while. I can normally get my shopping for between 60 and 70 per week for the four of us, but that includes the non food stuff too.

Also if i buy bananas from morrisons i used to get the ones that were in the packaging for about £1.20 for about 6 or 7, i have just discovered that if you get them with no packeging they are a lot cheaper, i got 6 big bananas for about 64p at the weekend
 
I found that when we had the snow, and I couldn't get the car out, I spent a lot less. I could get to the shops, but could only bring back what I could carry myself, so had to limit what I bought to what was really essential. It was amazing what I decided I didn't really need when I couldn't drive it home!
 
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