I have seen people claim they keep their food bills crazy low, and I just can’t figure out how to do that with our living situation.
We live in a pretty remote area so we don’t have a Costco, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, etc. (but we do have Walmart, thankfully!)
We try to eat very clean. No processed junk, no pesticide-grown fruits and veggies, hardly any gluten or bread (I make a little sourdough maybe twice a month). We get grass fed/pasture raised organic dairy and eggs whenever we can. We also keep kosher, and there is no kosher meat available locally: it all has to be mail ordered or I have to drive 3 hours to the closest Trader Joe’s to stock up on beef. (Can’t even get the poultry there because we really try to only eat organic poultry… beef were more lenient on when need be. Also ground beef doesn’t ship so well, especially in the summer heat, so it’s hard to rely on it as a staple. So I stock up in the big city with the ice chest and once it’s in my house it seems to disappears so fast.) We can eat some rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth here and there but too much of that stuff and our stomachs get upset. We buy dried beans in bulk on Amazon, but I’m terrible at remembering to soak them ahead of time to make meals for later 🫣
It seems legitimately impossible to me to keep a low food budget (for three people) while eating this healthy and not living near a lot of the budget options that other people have.
I’ve seen Instagram influencers claim they’ve got tricks that work even for families like mine. What are the tricks? Does anyone have a resource to share that could help me? I’ve always resisted meal planning because I’m just already so darn busy, it feels like an extra chore I don’t have time for. But we’re buying our first house so I need to buckle down and be as much of a tight wad as possible for a while here! And I need to start remembering to soak the damn beans! 🫠
Any help, resources, or insight appreciated.
Healthy meal planning for a tight budget
byu/Epic-Lake-Bat inFrugal
Posted by Epic-Lake-Bat
6 Comments
Lentils cook much more quickly than beans (without need for soaking) and offer the same benefits
You’ve got some extra hurdles to clear (organic, kosher, food intolerances) that someone truly trying to maximizing cheapness doesn’t. It’s not a fair comparison.
That said, the focus on meat can kneecap your budget. We would use different kinds of beans, lentils, quinoa, cabbage, farro, barley, black rice, etc instead of meat in recipes. Or just a tiny bit of meat for the sake of having meat in a meal (husband doesn’t really like vegetarian meals on principle). I made a lot of bone broth and kept the fat and drippings and made tallow and lard to get the meat flavor with very little actual meat. Turkey and chicken freeze so well and make the most delicious and easily frozen broth. I think we got to a point it tasted better than if I had taken that extra flavoring out and just expected a cut of beef to carry the meal.
There are so many things that can be made out of potatoes and rice and they are really cheap. A crock pot and meal planning really are key though.
There’s no such thing as pesticide-free produce at grocery stores. Let that go and just buy what’s affordable, wash it, and move on. Stop focusing on “organic” anything. It’s a marketing label, not a health indicator. Let go of the meat, mostly. I’m not kosher, vegan, vegetarian, or anything, but I only eat meat maybe once a month, and it’s often just the cheap frozen chicken parts you can get for like 79¢/lb.
You’re making your food bill way higher than necessary, is what I’m saying. Yes, prices are insane right now, but adding all this extra crap doesn’t help. Stop believing health marketing and just eat regular food you can afford (and fits your religious and health requirements).
As far as the beans go, you really don’t have to soak them! Just toss them in the pot and cook them. I often cook a whole bag, and freeze in 1 can portions. Works great. Also I have an Instant-pot which cooks beans so quickly, highly recommend.
I think in your situation not wasting anything would also go a long way. Nicole Svenson on tiktok has great tips for this, but it comes down to designing your meal around your next most perishable foods. If your zucchini are starting to get soft, pick a meat or bean, and make a meal with it. 98% of foods can be frozen, so put them in the freezer before they go bad.
Gardening could also be a good fit for you. It’s amazing you much you can produce without much effort. I turned a 3 lb bag of sprouted organic potatoes into 60 lb of homegrown organic potatoes by just sticking them in the ground and waiting. I do not have a green thumb at all but I have found success with quite a few minimal effort vegetables (and some failures too).
If you can’t manage to soak beans, but them canned.
Make more bread. You can make whole meal bread yourself slowly and it will be fibrous and have properly developed gluten.
Grow herbs and salad leaves and make tangy dressings. Mix with rice and chick peas.
>We can eat some rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth here and there but too much of that stuff and our stomachs get upset.
This part just makes no sense to me.