How to eat healthy on a budget

Shape magazine ran a story on how to eat healthy on a budget for the family! It has some pretty good advice and includes things that I already do with my family.  

Trade meat for beans

One can of beans, which contains 3.5 servings costs about $1.00 compared to $2.00 per pound for chicken on the bone (which is less expensive than chicken breast). Swapping black, pinto, kidney or white beans for meat in tacos, burritos, salads and whole grain pasta meals not only saves money it ups your antioxidant intake, slashes calories, wipes out saturated fat and cholesterol, and just a half cup provides a quarter of the fiber you need daily. That may be one reason why regular bean eaters have a lower risk of obesity and smaller waistlines. 

We do eat alot of beans in my family. I usually try to incorporate them 1-2 a week at night-whether it is in chili or the layered ground turkey crockpot that is a family favorite. I can get a can of beans for  $0.50 when it is on SALE.  I also will add chickpeas to my salad at lunch which keeps keep me full. 

Buy in-season, local produce

From either your farmer’s market or local grocery store, in-season fruits and veggies are chock-full of flavor but can cost pennies per pound. Right now, at my local market, cantaloupes and bell peppers are 99 cents each. Load up when you see a great deal (like the buy one get one free blueberries I spotted today) and freeze the extras.  

I always buy apples and bananas they are fairly cheap year round. However the berries get quite pricey.  I tend to only buy those fresh during the summer months and will buy unsweetened frozen during the winter months.   I attempted to grown watermelon and cantaloupe in the past but it wasn't a good success.     I also stock up on frozen vegetables each week-especially on chopped broccoli and spinach.  We do baked spinach casserole a lot with frozen spinach

Exchange packaged snacks for popcorn kernels

One bag of organic popcorn, which contains 28 servings costs around $2.50 compared to about $3.50 a bag for potato, corn, and cheese snacks with 10 servings. Pop retro style on your stovetop in oil, but hold the butter. If you need some flavor, sprinkle with fresh herbs like Italian or chipotle seasoning. 

Having individual size snacks for school lunches is SOOO easy but it very pricey.  I will sometimes buy then if they are on sale and I have a coupon-rarely though.   I stock up on large bags of pretzels and crackers.  We do pop popcorn for snacks alot at home. Sometimes those bags  in the microwave and sometimes in our air popper. 

Invest in a water filter or filtering pitcher and ditch the soda habit

Two liter soda bottles are inexpensive, about $1.00 each. If you buy one a week, that’s only $52.00 per year, but for about $25 you can buy a water filtering pitcher and get into the habit of drinking pure chilled water with every meal. 

Soda is very rare in our house and juice has been lately as well.  Water is  the drink of the day since we added in a filter a few years back.  

Overall good common sense advice and add in some meal planning you can do healthy eating on a budget. 

Your not poor if you earn $100,000 a year

There was a recent article on Yahoo finance How to Earn $100,000 and Still Feel Poor.    My husband and I have never made 100k a year we have been close-our highest before takes was 95k. Certainly we didn't feel poor then and don't feel poor now even when our annual earnings are down. .  I think they need to reevaluate what "the basics" are and what "poor" means.  I think she could have rephrased poor with the word tight...but that really would be as good as poor and not have over 10k comments. 

They really said : "Is six figures the new minimum wage?"  


No.   It is not.   Making $100,000 is nothing at all like making minimum wage in any way.  There is really absolutely  no comparison   Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour in this country with some states a bit more.   That works out to $15,080 per year if you assume 40 hours a week for 52 weeks.    Making less than $300 a week is  not the same as $1900 a week.  


Here is their monthly expense breakdown 


$ 350 a month for utilities-  Not unreasonable 
$ 300 for car insurance,  -Seems high we have  $120 a month for 2 cars 
$ 175 for Internet, cable and phone.   High-Comcast or many other places have triple play deals for $100 or are they including cell phones 
$1222 a month on our mortgage  Actually not too bad 
$ 250 a month extra on the mortgage
$ 300 on a car loan.    Hmm they claimed no  debt  highly recomnmed that they look at Dave Ramsy drive free plan. 
$ 500 a month on gasoline  higher but they maybe driving alot could look at way to save on gas 
$ 800 on retirement  way too low they should be saving double to even hit 10% of their income 
$1250 for college ($15,000 a year for tuition and books)  Kids need to pay for this and for community college it seems very high.  $4k annually for community college. 
$1000 a month on food.  way to high for a family of 4 even with growing boys- I have 3 and we spend $600 the most a month




I am seeing alot of missing categories  clothes, vacation entertainment.   I don't live in their shoes but their cost of living area is lower than mine and we are  making less than they.   I don't feel poor.    

So what are you thoughts.... 

Milk to hit $5.00 a gallon by summer's end

This is what Fox news is reporting. I try to buy my milk at the gas convenience store since it is about $1.00 cheaper a gallon there. We go through about 3-4 gallons of milk here.

Here are some tips on how to stretch your milk budget:

1. Freeze milk you can freeze milk up to 3 months. Open the container and empty out a bit into anther milk jug. If you catch a good sale, this maybe helpful.


2. Powdered milk I know you are thinking yucky, but actually powdered milk isn't too bad for cooking. I haven't really had it by the glass. I have in the past given it to the kids when I couldn't make it to the store for fresh milk. The Hillbilly Housewife has great section on how to save money with Powdered milk.

Healthy eating on a budget- Part 3

Sometimes you see stories "Mom pays $29.46 for over $300 in groceries" who knows if that is true or not. However using coupons wisely can help decrease your food bill.

1. Matching coupons to weekly sales.
Every week the web site www.thegrocerygame.com tips you off to the best sales at your local grocery store and how to maximize those sales with coupons you get from the paper. The site organizes grocery stores' best sales in a spreadsheet and tells you how much you'll save by using your coupons on top of that. A double whammy that can cut your bill in half or better. There is a $5.00 per month cost.

Another resource that is free is http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com. While not as great; it does highlight the "Screaming Deals" state by state.

2. Coupon Trains
Coupon trains are simply a way of exchanging coupons by snail mail. It all starts out with a group of people. Members clip coupons, even ones they might not need. They pack them up and mail them to the next person on the list. That person takes the coupons they need and replaces them with new ones. They ship the stack off to the next person in the group and the cycle repeats.
Looking for coupon train
There are yahoo groups with coupons trains as well as several frugal and saving money message boards have active trains. Check out Coupon train FAQS

Bottom Line: The key to saving with coupons is to only purchase the items you would normally use anyway. You will also find that the store brand may still be the better bargain.