cost of healthy meals

I didn't want to hijack the other thread, but several people have said that making healthful meals with fresh raw ingredients is cheaper than buying convenient but unhealthy food.

Can someone please tell me how? I'd love to serve my kids (and myself) more healthful meals. I just don't see how buying the fresh meat, vegetables, and sides could be less expensive?

I am sincerley curious, so please do not think that I am using sarcasm to call anyone out.
Depends where you shop. Are you buying in bulk? This also saves money. Buy frozen vegetables instead of fresh, which tend to go bad quick. Frozen vegetables are cheaper and the nutritional value is the same. I make meals in batches and freeze them. This can save time and money. Make your own pasta sauce using either fresh or canned tomatoes. Cheaper and healthier than many of the ready made pasta sauces. Chick peas and kidney beans are cheap, full of protein and fibre. Add them to soups, sauces, eat with rice.These are a few healthy ideas that are inexpensive.

Costco..starting with whole chickens to roast and inexpensive cuts of meat to braise or crockpot. Add bulk vegetables to both. You can do all kinds of meals from those. My son goes to school with shredded chicken, shredded cheese and a Tupperware of chopped greens to make a salad, apparently some of the athletes are eating like this. Avoid anything already prepared and packaged.

Where i work, we have a salad bar, a really nice one. Average salad (sold by weight-oil based dressing weighs less) $8; grilled cheese and french fries <$5. We try to eat healthy but it does cost more to buy fresh fruit and veggies and a little meat is definitely more expensive than crap food. We family packs of meat and frozen veggies, it helps but it does take time, which is what people don't want to do.

It can be done.....my hubby and I are on food stamps now and we eat decently through the entire month. We just have to be careful to shop the sales and wait to buy until fruits and veggies are in season. We also buy frozen veggies and have salad makings around most of the time. Yes, we do buy some processed foods but not as much as we used to. And our food stamps last throughout the month, seldom do we run out before we get the next benefits.

Do you have an Aldi in your area? I do pretty much all my shopping there. I only buy whole foods most of the time.....when you aren't buying junk food or prepackaged food at all, you use that extra money for healthy food. Aldi's produce is usually half the price of regular grocery stores. I've noticed it goes bad more quickly because it's not quite as fresh, but if you plan accordingly, it's fine. You just have to plan on using it within 1-3 days or so depending on what it is. Whole chicken is cheap, you can shred it all up and use if for lots of differement meals. I buy pork shoulder roasts, which is a cheap cut of meat, and cook it in my crock pot to make pulled pork. Chuck roast and round steak are cheaper cuts of meat as well, that are wonderfully tender when slow cooked in a crockpot. I look for weekly produce specials, and use them to make veggie medley's to eat with whatever protein I have on hand. You can combine ground beef with sauteed veggies for all kinds of combinations of dishes. We did ground beef, saurkraut, diced tomatoes, and seasonings one night and it was really good! Ground beef is cheap and versatile, and it's better than something out of a box. Boxed food has additives that make you crave more food so you actually tend to eat more food and consume more calories than if you eat healtier, more nutritious foods. Healthy food might cost more at face value, but in the long run it doesn't when you consider future health problems and the tendency to buy more food when you eat mostly pre-packaged, processed foods.

Healthy food can be more expensive, but I still spend less when I eat for sustenance because I eat so little. I can eat frozen pizzas and frosted cookies all day long- whether I'm hungry, or not. It's pricy to eat all day all the time.

Quote from Pangea ReunitedHealthy food can be more expensive, but I still spend less when I eat for sustenance because I eat so little. I can eat frozen pizzas and frosted cookies all day long- whether I'm hungry, or not. It's pricy to eat all day all the time.

I definitely shop ALDI! I try to make healthful meals for the most part, but once or twice a week it's a huge money saver to make a box of mac and cheese and call it a day. Less than $2 to feed my kids for that meal helps when my grocery budget is sometime <$60/week for 4 people.

Quote from kidzcareI definitely shop ALDI! I try to make healthful meals for the most part, but once or twice a week it's a huge money saver to make a box of mac and cheese and call it a day. Less than $2 to feed my kids for that meal helps when my grocery budget is sometime <$60/week for 4 people.

For real mac n cheese I like marble cheese and sometimes I use vegetable pasta. Tastes much better, healthier and still cheap. You can make a whole batch of it at a time.

Pinterest is your friend when it comes to healthy, cost-effective recipes and tips on preparing food in advance.

This may insult many peoples' thoughts, but I am going to state facts. Fresh vegetables are cheap and the healthiest choice for anyone. And even then it depends greatly on the supplier or how they are grown. Any food that lasts longer due to being frozen with chemicals put into them is a less healthy choice. Sodium and other preservatives that are added are not of any sort of health benefit."Healthy" has been used so freely that people use it in a misplaced manner. But it is very easy to eat cheap and healthy. One small example would be 1 pound of sweet potatoes is approx. $0.99 to $1.50 a pound (fresh) and most people eat 4-6 oz. a serving….and struggle to eat that (I know, because as a bodybuilder I weighed all food on scales). Meat can be a struggle to find cheaper without sacrificing quality (cheaper cuts=less health benefits and more filler to add weight) But eating healthy is cheaper, you just cannot let the masses trick you into the accepted ignorance.And the last thing people seem to blindly ignore, the condiments. Adding any additional flavor, with the exception of fresh food, definitely decreases how healthy meals are. So to start out with an actual healthy meal and then add several condiments full of empty calories (no beneficial nutrients) completely defeats the purpose. There is simply no money in teaching people what healthy really is, and we live in a culture that thinks less taste = disgusting and cannot be eaten.