Healthy food shopping on a budget?

perri winkles

Hi all,

Joined the gym about 2 weeks ago and one of the trainers there has set me up with a good programme so I'm keen to start changing my diet.

Problem is I live at home and am not in charge of food shopping.
I would like to start eating healthier, but I do find that the healthy food is more expensive. I LOVE berries and fruit of all kinds, but the berries in particular can be pricey.
Love fish also but again the price holds me back. I often find its so much easier to just eat what is in the house, which is definitely not the healthiest.

Can anyone give me some tips for shopping smart on a budget?
I also rely alot on carbs as they are always the closest to hand (bread in particular) so any tips on how to replace this with something equally as filling would be great too

Gummy Panda

Buy meat in bulk from a butcher and freeze for the week. Most do deals like 5 chicken fillets for €5 and such. Also some do deals on eggs which you could use for omelettes in the morning.

Buy veg frozen and just nuke in the microwave when your meat is nearly cooked. Its pretty cheap for frozen veg. I think a mix bag is like 1-1.20 in ALDL. You can also buy bags of frozen berries as well. Helps if you are an irregular eater of them.

Not sure about fish. Only really eat tuna (something I need to change) so can't advise cheapest way for that.

Spunge

Ate some absolutely lovely mackerel yesterday, apparently only costs 80c each.

deadlybuzzman

For protein scources anything under €10/kg is good value-Theres always deals around the place in the big chains if you keep an eye out.
Supervalu had a great one on lamb last week-also lidl do very cheap alaskan pollock, much the same as cod.
At the end of the day the less processing done to it the cheaper it will be, if its not its because its bulked up with flour or the like so 100g of meat in a box might really only have 70g of actual meat

Dinkie

Check out the aldi super 6 for cheap fruit and veg. If your into smoothies, frozen berries can work out fairly cheap.

Not all fish is expensive. Mackerel is cheap and you can regularly get cheap fish in the clearance section of Tesco (can also get cheap fruit and veg this way). My local fishmonger does a fish medley for pies / gumbo etc which is cheap as its the scraps.

Mickery

Dunnes do a lump of raw turkey breast. 1 kg for €7.

ferike1

Eggs and oats are incredibly healthy and also really cheap, should be staples of any diet!

Gummy Panda

ferike1 wrote: »

Eggs and oats are incredibly healthy and also really cheap, should be staples of any diet!

I was in FX Buckleys the other day and they were doing 20 x large eggs for €3.80ish. Good price I think.

arse..biscuits

Nuts are cheap in Aldi.

I keep hens for eggs. Works out really cheap.

TPR86

Check out the offers section in the market look for meat that only has a couple of days left its a normally half price . Also when you buy fruit like berries etc stick it in the freezer . This way it wont go off and you want waste any . I normally split my strawberries sin half . Half in the fridge and half in the freezer.

If you want greens then you could invest in growing your own :-) Try and get your parents to buy good foods if you still live at home .