View Full Version : Cheapest Healthy Diet
Often, our food budget has a huge entertainment/creative fudge factor in it. That is, while I routinely spend less than a family of four on food stamps for our meals, I know we could eat more healthily on less dollars if that was my only purpose.
So...starting August 1 through August 31...my goal is to eat well on the fewest dollars possible. I will post meals and dollars spent here.
Join me?
What kind of meals did you have in mind?
I have a picky family with two pre-teens in it, so my flexibility to make the kind of inexpensive food I love is limited. Left to my own devices, however, I like to eat a lot of Indian food -- brown rice, (though when I visited India, almost all the meals used white), dal made from yellow split peas, and some kind of green thrown in the pressure cooker with it at the end of cooking. We do eat a lot of burritos made with pinto beans cooked in our solar cooker and brown rice. According to my kids, putting brown rice in burritos is my own personal quirk not shared by the parents of their Northern New Mexican friends from school.
I get a lot of mileage out of the rice cooker and the solar oven.
Good luck! I'd be up for a challenge like this, but to be honest, I think I'd have better luck in the colder months. Our grocery bills always seem a little higher in the warmer months. We don't eat any chili, hot cereal, soup or economical hot dishes in the summer. It's just too hot to turn the oven on and we try to keep the A/C off as much as possible.
Plus, I can't resist buying all the summer fruit available- raspberries, blueberries, cherries, melons, peaches, plums, etc. We seem to go through a lot of fruit!
Good luck! I'd be up for a challenge like this, but to be honest, I think I'd have better luck in the colder months. Our grocery bills always seem a little higher in the warmer months. We don't eat any chili, hot cereal, soup or economical hot dishes in the summer. It's just too hot to turn the oven on and we try to keep the A/C off as much as possible.
Plus, I can't resist buying all the summer fruit available- raspberries, blueberries, cherries, melons, peaches, plums, etc. We seem to go through a lot of fruit!
PS- I reread my post and I sound like such a whiner (i.e. here are the reasons why eating cheaply just. isn't. possible). :) I think my grocery bill could stand a trimming, even in the summer. I'm curious to see your menus!
I'm not sure what to add to this at the moment but I certainly will be following along looking for ideas!
try2bfrugal
8-1-12, 12:43pm
I actually did this a couple of years ago as my own pet project. I calculated how much most of the healthy foods I could buy cost per calorie, then I entered different menus into a nutrition software program to see how low I could get a total cost of a days worth of food for 2000 calories and get all of the protein, vitamins, minerals, not go over the fat and salt, etc. If I really watched the sales and stockpiled, a couple of years ago I could do it for a $1 a day or a little over. But prices in my area have gone up since then so I think if I did it this month I would have to go to $1.50 - $2.00 a day. This requires a freezer, and room to stockpile sale foods including 50 pound bags of bulk food from Costco. It doesn't require any coupons except the store coupons that you can get from the weekly ads which are usually available at the front of the store.
I guess I could call this my version of extreme whole food shopping. :) I would like to see some of the extreme coupon TV show people eat this cheap and stay within the healthy diet guidelines for salt, fat, fiber, protein, magnesium, calcium, etc. I don't think they could do it since the coupons are usually for processed foods like Gatorade and canned soup.
Just curious before I post any specifics, but what is the definition of healthy diet? Does it have to meet all of the nutrition guidelines in the U.S.? That gets a bit tough because I think the U.S. guidelines tend to favor the dairy industry and calcium is set artificially high. Or by healthy would that mean whole foods, low salt, high fiber, sufficient protein, and 7 or so servings of fruits and vegetables be good enough? I eat very little dairy, get regular bone density tests and they always come out better than average, if anything.
For $16.50/2weeks Bountiful Baskets gives me(one person) all of the fruits and veggies I can eat.
try2bfrugal
8-1-12, 2:46pm
Correction: I looked ay my spreadsheet from a year or so ago, and it was $2 a day minimum to get a perfect score on the nutrition software. So this year it would probably be $2.50 - $3.00 for the best I could do since many of my local prices have gone up.
Great idea for a challenge, Fawn! How low do you think it might be possible to average per person, per day?
Would love to hear more about cooking with the solar oven, Paul. Seems like that would save a lot on cooking costs too.
On the brown vs white rice, it’s somewhat of a toss up. Brown rice has the advantage of more fiber and micronutrients and sometimes a fuller flavor. On the other hand, white rice is usually enriched to a higher level of iron—usually double that of brown rice, is less apt to go rancid, can be flavored in more diverse ways, and is usually cheaper. Usually we eat brown rice though mostly for the benefit of the micronutrients.
Cattledog, I’d be interested in how low you *could* go even if you don’t actually do it or do all of it. A few things that I can think of that might help with the heat related issues would be to make
1) Rice and bean salads that are good cold—usually with a vinegary dressing
2) Sushi like wraps with lettuce instead of seaweed, and with cooked meat if used.
3) Roast something like a chicken in the evening say from 7 to 8:30 pm or early in the morning if you are getting up early and serve it cold the next night/that night.
For the long term if you could get a lot of nut and fruit plants into the landscaping of your yard, eating fruit/nuts would be a lot more frugal. Or if you have access to free fruit in wild areas or at neighbors who are not interested in it, that could help too.
Also if anyone puts a bit of money into garden seeds, you can have a lot of cool salads for very low cost.
Try2bfrugal, your definition of a healthy diet sounds good to me. I’d be interested in however people define their healthy diet. It might be vegan, wholefoods oriented, scratch cooking oriented, mostly raw, fresh/seasonal, natural foods oriented, include lower fat meats and fish, etc. Calcium requirements are set pretty high in the US. From what I have read if you have a high meat, high dairy diet, you actually need more calcium than you would if you ate a diet that that was higher in plant foods. There is a lot of good info in the book One Circle: How to Grow a Complete Diet in Less than 1000 Square Feet
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BEA-0370
on nutritional needs. In the book they noted that international nutrition oriented groups tend to set the calcium requirements much lower than the US, though many of the other nutrients were the same.
Here’s an example of a person, Bob Waldrop, who did a challenge for healthy food using good shopping, scratch cooking, and gardening techniques. They were going for the food stamp level of about US$31 per week per person as their goal. The first link explains strategy and the second shows what they ate.
http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/foodchallenge.htm
http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/challengetable.htm
As a side note, Bob has turned his yard into a permaculture food garden landscape over the last several years.
The 2000 calorie target goal would be a good one to use for our calculations so our equivalents would be the same. In our actual meals we might be feeding a person who is small with a sedentary job and needs only 1200 calories a day or at the other end of the spectrum someone training for a triathlon eating 5000 calories a day.
Try2bfrugal, would you tell us some about how you juggled the various foods as you worked out what combination would give you the nutrients needed? I’d be interested in reading about your original diet as to what foods were the best and what things cost, and the recalculation of what they would cost today. Also were there any nutrients that were especially hard to get in a frugal way?
And having you on a food shopping show would be a really big eye opener I think. My usual response to the usual coupon shopping spree is “Wow, they have a bunch of calories, but not much that’s particularly worth eating.” And then the second important component following an extreme whole foods shopping expedition would be showing what you cooked for meals throughout the week. And in addition to some healthy food shoppers like you, I would love to see a whole new series that combines gardening, whole food shopping, and cooking.
Aqua Blue is that a sort of CSA or more like a co-op? Sounds like a really frugal way to get the fruits and vegetables. What's in this week's basket?
It is a coop found in I think about 15 states mostly in the midwest(where prices and selection tend to be poor in stores). Last time we got 2 clamshells of cherry tomatoes, about 2# of grapes, a musk melon, clamshell of blueberries, 5 plums, 3 mangos, 6 peaches, 1# baby carrots, 2 red peppers, head of romaine lettuce, eng Cucumber and 9 red potatoes. It is every 2 weeks, altho I think I could get it at another site locally on the opposite week.
My arthritis stops me from having a garden. I have tried several times and it is just not worth the pain.
I am not interested is seeing how low I can go, or following the FDA nutrition guidelines, just taking the waste of of my grocery shopping.
The kids are gone this week, so for today, that meant eating what is in the house, not making a meal plan.
Breakfast: cup of yogurt, biscuit (left over from last week) scrambled egg
Lunch: hummus and celery, orange juice, left over grilled chicken breast
Dinner: 2 glasses Merlot, 2 cheese sticks and an apple
Tussiemussies
8-1-12, 11:14pm
It is a coop found in I think about 15 states mostly in the midwest(where prices and selection tend to be poor in stores). Last time we got 2 clamshells of cherry tomatoes, about 2# of grapes, a musk melon, clamshell of blueberries, 5 plums, 3 mangos, 6 peaches, 1# baby carrots, 2 red peppers, head of romaine lettuce, eng Cucumber and 9 red potatoes. It is every 2 weeks, altho I think I could get it at another site locally on the opposite week.
My arthritis stops me from having a garden. I have tried several times and it is just not worth the pain.
That is a shame Aqua Blue, sorry to hear that...
try2bfrugal
8-2-12, 1:54pm
Try2bfrugal, would you tell us some about how you juggled the various foods as you worked out what combination would give you the nutrients needed? I’d be interested in reading about your original diet as to what foods were the best and what things cost, and the recalculation of what they would cost today. Also were there any nutrients that were especially hard to get in a frugal way?
The most expensive nutrients to get the recommended amounts were calcium and vitamin B12. I think the dairy industry has a hand in setting the calcium requirements too high in the U.S. compared to recommended levels in other countries.
Other than that here is a shopping list -
Bulk purchases from warehouse stores - cheese, rice, powdered milk, dried beans, pasta, popcorn, flour, nuts, dried fruits, oil and vinegar.
I bought a collection of spices that will last a long time on sale for 50 cents each from Rite Aid.
Produce from the ethnic food stores - whatever is 20 - 30 cents a pound on special each week. In season items can be dried if you have a dehydrator or frozen if you have a big freezer. The ethnic stores also have ingredients like limes and ginger very cheap.
Stockpile meat and eggs when they are on sale as loss leaders from the retail grocery stores, especially 99 cent chicken breasts. I use the bones along with vegetable scraps, like onion and carrot peels, to make stock.
Add in stuff you can get free or a good deal here and there. This week my local Safeway has a coupon for free juice with no minimum spend. Last month the warehouse store we shop at had one pound packages of spaghetti for $ .25 and tuna packs for half price, so I stockpile those items.
Paper goods are replaced with cloth and cleaning supplies are all made from natural ingredients like vinegar and baking soda. Plastic bags are replaced with washable bags or containers.
From this list you can make all sorts of menus and eat pretty healthy on half of a food stamp budget. For example, you could eat 2 - 4 pounds of fresh or dried produce for $1 (depending on the specials or what you have stockpiled), a pound of chicken breasts (use the bones for stock for soup or for the rice instead of water), and 50 cents worth of some combination of rice, flour, pasta and beans for starches. There is way more than enough for most people to eat in a day and it would only cost $2.50 a person which is about half the food stamp budget per person per day in California (~$5 a day).
I agree that the calcium levels are set too high if one eats meat as a condiment and avoids soda and other foods and drinks that create a negative ion charge in the blood stream. This is where a lot of the calcium goes, neutralizing the blood pH of someone on a meat and soda diet.
I am avoiding simple carbs for myself, but still buy them for the teens who need much higher calorie intake than me and do not like whole grains so much.
8/2:
Breakfast- 1 cup yogurt and oatmeal
Lunch- black bean/corn/tomato salad
Dinner- shrimp bisque, steamed brocolli
All dishes made w/ pantry items.
That is a shame Aqua Blue, sorry to hear that...
To me the real bummer was I went to all the expense of having 2 raised beds made and still couldn't do it.
8/3
Breakfast: oatmeal, cup yogurt, banana
Lunch: apple, packet of tuna, rest of hummus and celery
Snack: 3/4 cup of fresh blueberries
Supper: rest of shrimp bisque
I'm working this weekend, and the pantry is getting low. It's a toss up if I will make it to Monday morning without needing to buy food. Kids are back Monday noonish.
.20 cents for grass fed hamburger? Is that explained?
Late breakfast:
2 slices of toasted multigrain with butter, avocado and a slice of tomato on top.
Late dinner:
banana, peanut butter and banana sandwich, grilled cheese sandwich, a bowl of split pea and ham soup, sandwich of cold ham, tomato slice and lettuce, poached eggs on toast, chocolate ice cream for an occasional treat, a bowl of blueberries or strawberries, a glass of chocolate milk, one cup of black coffee per day, no sugar or salt added.
As I am housebound, I get very little exercise, and don't need much food, but I'm very healthy at age 81, so must be doing something to keep me that way.
I have at least one glass of white wine in the evenings, sometimes two, depending on what I want.
8/4
Breakfast: 1 cup yogurt, banana, 3/4 cup blueberries
Lunch: rest of the Black bean/corn/tomato salad, apple, 1/2 cup grape tomatoes
Snack: 1/2 cup raw almonds
Dinner: leftover steamed broccoli, 2 hard boiled eggs
awakenedsoul
8-5-12, 12:00am
Interesting thread. I'm doing a lot of these things, too. Right now my garden is really producing, so I haven't had to use our organic co op. For breakfast I had some dried cherries, macadamia nuts, (bought in bulk at Costco,) and a cup of coffee with raw half and half and sugar. Today for lunch I had leftover tacos made with grass fed beef, spices and cheese bought in bulk at Costco, tomatoes, chili peppers, and lettuce from the garden, and some sliced avocado. Drank my second cup of coffee that I kept warm in a thermos that I bought at the Salvation Army. Enjoyed it on the porch in the cottage garden. For a treat I had a Haagen Daz eskimo pie that I bought with a coupon at Costco. (I normally bake all my desserts, but in this heat I decided to splurge on a box of ice cream pops!) Had more tacos later on, a glass of raw skim milk, and some homemade lemonade with organic meyer lemons from my tree. I freeze the juice every winter and use it instead of buying juice. Had some homegrown stewed organic rhubarb as a snack.
awakenedsoul
8-5-12, 12:16am
Oh, I forgot that I had a couple of small zucchini from the garden, too. With a little butter, salt, and pepper. I eat zucchini every day in the summer. It's so easy to grow...
Hmmm breakfast was coffee with cream and sugar and a biscotti. Then a high fiber energy bar. Then a blt and a beer paid for by a friend.. Dinner a green salad. Dessert half of an ice cream bar that I cut up into bite size pieces and put on a plate.
This is a great blog that I may have seen first on this site, but I love the way they've provided interesting recipes and then calculated the nutrition AND cost per serving. Very helpful! This is the link to the recipe section, but the blog posts are great, too.
http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2004/02/master-recipe-list.html
Oooo, catherine! Thanks for a reminder about that site. I found some good stuff on there before.
8/5
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, banana
Lunch: Apple, 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, 3/4 blueberries, 1/2 cup raw almonds
Dinner: 4 link sausages, celery and carrot sticks
Tomorrrow the kiddos return and I will do a big grocery shop (my first of the month) as things are getting thin here, which you could tell from my dinner, if you were paying attention.
Fawn, are you eating enough? I have tracking my diet and you seem to be eating so much less or is this part of the cleanup of the pantry?
Fawn, are you eating enough? I have tracking my diet and you seem to be eating so much less or is this part of the cleanup of the pantry?
It's a combination of cleaning out the pantry and trying to keep it around 1200-1500 calories. I'm trying to lose some weight. I have manged to stay out of the cookies while they were gone.
ApatheticNoMore
8-6-12, 12:28pm
Fawn, are you eating enough? I have tracking my diet and you seem to be eating so much less or is this part of the cleanup of the pantry?
I had the same thought. As in Fawn: your diet makes me hungry: "as in food getting scarce, must gorge self for coming scarcity!" Honestly that doesn't even seem 1200 calories.
ok, fair play then, this is what I ate yesterday:
breakfast: mango (was given as a gift), 10 or so olives
late day: lots of cream in decaf tea
dinner: 1 1/2 small homemade burgers on large slice of toast (open face) with tomatoes and onions (I ate with my birth family, I brought the beef - picked up when on sale)
several cherries
1/2 very large zuchini cooked in *lots* of olive oil and lots of homemade cheeseless pesto
1 square of dark chocolate for dessert I guess
ok not ideal from a cost or health standpoint, but I was sated :) (not overstuffed, sated)
ApatheticNoMore--how many calories would you estimate in your intake from yesterday? Of course portions are everything.
For 8/5, for me--calories were 1180. (I forgot to mention the huge amounts of cream that goes into my coffee each AM.) Not even half and half, since I ran out a week ago. I have been using whipping cream, 50 calories per tablespoon.
I had the same thought. As in Fawn: your diet makes me hungry: "as in food getting scarce, must gorge self for coming scarcity!" Honestly that doesn't even seem 1200 calories.
ok, fair play then, this is what I ate yesterday:
breakfast: mango (was given as a gift), 10 or so olives
late day: lots of cream in decaf tea
dinner: 1 1/2 small homemade burgers on large slice of toast (open face) with tomatoes and onions (I ate with my birth family, I brought the beef - picked up when on sale)
several cherries
1/2 very large zuchini cooked in *lots* of olive oil and lots of homemade cheeseless pesto
1 square of dark chocolate for dessert I guess
ok not ideal from a cost or health standpoint, but I was sated :) (not overstuffed, sated)
OK, this seems low on calories too. I guess I'm used to feeding hungry people. Maybe I need to start a similar thread where people consume 2000+ calories/day. :)
ApatheticNoMore
8-6-12, 3:03pm
OK, this seems low on calories too. I guess I'm used to feeding hungry people. Maybe I need to start a similar thread where people consume 2000+ calories/day. :)
I wasn't very hungry much of the day because I had eaten a lot (read too much) the day before. By dinner I was hungry though! I didn't (and really don't) count calories, if anything brings up the count yesterday, it's the quite generous use of fat, olive oil and pesto in the zuchs, whipping cream in the tea. Yea not half and half either, cream top whipping cream. I've heard that cream can be much easier to digest (for those who have problems with dairy) than say half and half. It has very little lactose, very little milk protein, it's mostly fat. I think that those who have cautioned against dairy whose concern isn't saturated fat - Walter Willet cited dairy as such being linked to ovarian cancer for instance - that the problem was probably the protein, although possibly the lactose. Anyway I don't worry about it too much regardless, but do find cream seems to be more digestable. But I admit going crazy on the cream could be fattening just from the calories :).
decemberlov
8-6-12, 3:07pm
OK, this seems low on calories too. I guess I'm used to feeding hungry people. Maybe I need to start a similar thread where people consume 2000+ calories/day. :)
:laff: I'll join ya....My typical breakfast is usually: 2 links of sausage, an egg, a cup of black beans and broccoli....I won't even get into what i eat the rest of the day.
Well, I just want to point out....context is everything. I am 53 year old menopausal woman who exercises 3-4x/week. And I am 20# overweight.
Just wait till my cross county running 16 year old boy gets back. He goes through 700-1000 calories per day in orange juice alone. They run 5-10 miles per day, six days per week.
:laff: I'll join ya....My typical breakfast is usually: 2 links of sausage, an egg, a cup of black beans and broccoli....I won't even get into what i eat the rest of the day.
Broccoli for breakfast. Hmmmm, new one for me.
Broccoli for breakfast. Hmmmm, new one for me.
I have broccoli and kale for breakfast on a regular basis. It's really tasty and I get good energy throughout the day. Try it! :)
Decemberlov - your breakfast sounds great!
decemberlov
8-6-12, 5:08pm
I have broccoli and kale for breakfast on a regular basis. It's really tasty and I get good energy throughout the day. Try it! :)
Decemberlov - your breakfast sounds great!
I started the 4 hour body diet last year and lost almost 15 lbs in 3 weeks. If you're not familiar, it's a slow carb, no sugar diet with a goal of 30 grams of protein with each meal. Although I haven't totally stuck to the diet I continue to eat the recommended breakfast. It really does give me tons of energy. I too thought broccoli for breakfast sounded kind of strange but it really is delicious!!
8/6
Breakfast: coffee & cream, cup yogurt, banana, 1/2 cup almonds (400 calories for the almonds)
Lunch: value burger at fast food place, water
Dinner: chicken salad and crackers, dreamcycle, glass of Merlot
Grocery shopped and spent $67.81
8/7
Breakfast: coffee w/ cream, banana, sausage-egg biscuit
Lunch: missed it, busy day
Snack: banana, granola bar
Dinner: Meatball sandwich, glass Merlot
Kids:
Breakfast: each ate one or more of following--boxed cereal, yogurt, banana, peanut butter, OJ
Lunch: canned ravioli, apples
Snack: granola bars
Dinner: Meatball sandwhiches, OJ and boxed cookies.
I had an extra 16 year old boy for dinner, and enough leftovers for sandwhich for lunch.
8/8
Breakfast: coffee and cream, banana
Lunch: large portion of potato and carrot soup
Dinner: baked chicken legs, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli, glass Merlot
Kids:
Breakfast: DD-nothing, DS#3-nothing, slept til after noon, DS#2-slept over at friend's house ate breakfast and lunch there
Lunch: DD-potato and carrot soup, cherries, DS#3-cherries, peanut butter,dreamcycle
Dinner: all three kids had the same as me, minus the Merlot, plus ice cream
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