[#1]

Hi all,

Just wondered what your thoughts are on trying to diet - buying the good stuff? I'm not going mad at it, but trying to buy fresh fruit an veg for the week is busting my weekly budget! I've never been one for frozen food anyway, but I've upped my intake of fruit and veg recently. I don't eat crisps or drink fizzy drinks, so it can only be the fruit and veg that's costing a bomb.

Is it too expensive to eat healthily? What are your thoughts?

[#2]

Hi all,

Just wondered what your thoughts are on trying to diet - buying the good stuff? I'm not going mad at it, but trying to buy fresh fruit an veg for the week is busting my weekly budget! I've never been one for frozen food anyway, but I've upped my intake of fruit and veg recently. I don't eat crisps or drink fizzy drinks, so it can only be the fruit and veg that's costing a bomb.

Is it too expensive to eat healthily? What are your thoughts?

[#3]

I don't think it's just eating healthy that's expensive I think the price of all food has gone so high. I find Lidl is cheaper than the other supermarkets for fruit and veg so might be worth shopping around a bit.

[#4]

I'm with you on this one. Fruit  seems to be worse than the veg. I've a 10 y/o who likes peas & sweetcorn, thought he will eat most homemade soups and has no trouble eating carrots etc that way.

I bought a 500g pack of grapes for £2, we can eat a pack a night  v an18 pack of  whatever crisps are on offer for £2..

Nothing is banned but it's a case of watching what we are eating & limiting the "red" intake.

I've swapped 10 y/o type of crisps to quavers, skips etc as I feel it is unrealistic to ban them all together as I know someone who never got crisps/sweets etc when she was young and when she started earning a wage she went mad.

[#5]

I think fruit can be expensive but on the whole I think it's far less expensive to eat healthily than not.

On the rare occasion we think we'd like some oven chips or something like that we see the price and change our mind - we don't buy the cheapest spuds but we get 7.5kg for about £5 from the supermarket, compare that to a bag of oven chips that's about £2 it's insane to buy the processed stuff.

I guess it depends on where you shop and what you cook though. We save money by cooking most of our meals from scratch, buying veg that's in season, menu planning and things like that. We shop in the evening most of the time so rely on the supermarket but when we can get to the greengrocer at the weekend we walk away with some real bargains - 8 peppers for £1, 7 big satsumas for £1, a tray of mushrooms for £1.50, half a melon for 40p, cauli for 90p (£1.30 at the supermarket). We don't shop at Aldi or Lidl but they have some bargains, the Aldi super 6 can be great value, 6 veg at 59p each and changes each week. 

Dried beans and lentils are inexpensive, some frozen fruit and veg are good value and have more vitamins than their fresh counterparts. Making a slaw or grated carrot, red cabbage and beetroot (with or without mayo or dressing) is great for on a sandwich or in a pitta and are cheap and available at this time of year. 

[#6]

I think it depends where you shop.

I do as much shopping as possible from local greengrocers, butchers etc and it actually works out cheaper.

I find I have to do more frequent, smaller shops throughout the week where we buy so much fresh food, but I spend less on food now we all eat much more healthily than when I've been specifically trying to 'diet' before.

Also means we're producing much less food waste as all fresh food gets bought in smaller quantities and consumed before it goes off!

Lisa xx

[#7]

I agree that eating healthily is often cheaper, especially if you buy in smaller shops or take advantage of offers. I think planning is the most important thing, so you can only buy what you need. I try to eat what's in season because that's usually cheaper. I'll probably only eat about 5 types of vegetable and 1 or 2 types of fruit a week, and I'll have them everyday, so I can make the most of the 2 for £4 stuff supermarkets do. I also eat less meat, and eat more things like chickpeas and lentils.

I think healthy eating is much more time consuming than expensive, which is why people don't feel able to do it. Making a soup from stratch, for example, is actually really cheap, especially if you're using all your leftovers, but it takes about 2 hours. A tinned soup takes 10 minutes. In my case, being unemployed means I have to make most things myself because it's cheaper, but I also have time to do it. If I had kids to feed and get ready for bed, or I'd got in at 8 or 9 pm, there's no way I could spend and hour and a half making a lasange from stratch. I can see why so many people struggle to eat healthily.

That's why I think having a lot of space in the freezer is also important. I usually make twice as much as I need so I don't need to make something everyday.

[#8]

Hi,

I find it is usually cheaper but you do need to shop around and buy things more on a daily basis.

Hugs

Jillxx

[#9]

I like to cook all my own stuff from fresh ingredients and make sure I have at least my five a day of fruit and veg. I find it is cheaper but it does depend on what you buy. With fruit for example apples and oranges are fairly cheap. Seasonal veg is normally cheaper. I do love to have things like grapes and blueberries but they are more of a treat.

Fish, meat and poultry can be more expensive but it is easier to cut back on portion sizes there - which makes for healthier eating anyway.