Expensive eating

this is a global crisis and from the looks of it prices are only gonna continue increasing.well at least in my country anyhow,things are really bad economically.and as you say,the fruits and vegetables are very expensive.at home we plant a couple fruit and vegetable trees in a little garden area we have,but we still gotta buy a lot of other stuff.especially if we wanta continue eating healthy!and at present there is this rice shortage,fuel going up...it only makes everything worse.i tell my family soon we wont be able to eat...we wont be able to afford it!!

I see all kinds of people buying organic food for health reasons. The facts are their is no proof organic foods work any better plus the price. Oh no please no more extra costs for me at least.

We have our garden during summer and that helps us to budget and to have a healthy lifestyle in spite of the crisis!LOL! We also try to look for sale and use some coupons during shopping!

I find that we buy a mixture of canned, frozen and fresh vegetables to be healthy and still save money. I would love to grow my own garden- my plan for next year. I keep an eye on what food is on offer, sometimes going shopping near to closing time can be a great way of getting some bargains. I prefer dried fruit as it keeps for longer and they often are very high in nutrient (like apricots, figs and raisons).

It would be nice to have some fruit trees, but most likely by the time they were grown and offering fruit, my hubby and I would be retired and living somewhere else. :-) When I was a kid, we had 2 cherry trees in our backyard - one sweet, the other tart. We had a peach tree. And we had grape vines. In the woods, we could find wild raspberries growing and pick them. Now, we get those things from the grocery store. Last night, my son bought a very small package of cherries. There was no price on them that he could find, but nearby there were grapes for $3.99 a pound, so he thought they would be similar. He figured his package was about a half pound. Are you ready for this? The package of cherries cost....$9.75!!!!!

Each year my veggie garden grows bigger and bigger. I try to play around with the different things I plant - each year I either eliminate one that we either didn't like or didn't grow well. Then I try to add something to replace it. I started canning leftover veggies a few years ago. This is an excellent way to utilize your harvest into winter instead of throwing it out or giving it away. And canning is easy. Also, I will blanch and then freeze some things for use in stews or chilis and other dishes. And in the fall I'm planting some berry shrubs for next spring. We mostly eat berries. We have an apple tree, but it's really old and even though we've pruned it, the apples are always rotten. I'd like to replace it. We also have a very short summer and growing season, so I am not so confident about planting other fruit trees. I would love to have peaches and pears. I guess I have to do some research. I have to say that I don't buy much canned or boxed foods and when I do, the store brand is still usually less expensive than the name brand with a coupon. So, I don't usually use coupons much. Also, no matter how small, I save and freeze all leftovers. All of them. Even stale or leftover bread. You can make breadcrumbs or use them in a nice french onion soup. Let's say I sautee some peppers and onions for a BBQ. I will freeze the leftovers because one day we may have hot dogs and with a little bit of condiments, I can mash it up and make it into a relish. Or, if I make a chicken and no one eats the dark meat, I will freeze it so I can use it to make a pot pie later or chicken chili. There are many ways in which you can save money on food, it just seems that with the spike in costs for fresh fruits and veggies, you really have to be inventive. It can be tiring.

I do the coupon thing. I'm really lucky to have such a great market by my house. The fruit and veggies are good and cheap, at least for now. I also buy more when stuff is on sale to stock up.

It is true that it is expensive to eat healthy. But were I live shopping coupons are no longer using. Well everybody cannot plant and that is what the Prime Minister is pushing the slogan is 'Eat What You Grow and Grow what You Eat'. With me, I eat alot of vegetable and with the fruits now a days I do not enjoy them so much again because of the fertiliser that they use to force ripe the fruits. So I do not fool around then that much. If I know that you are a farmer then I will come and buy from you. Planting your food is good because it take a ease on the money food bill. If you were living near me I would send you some fruits so you wouldn't have to worry.

Eating healthy on a budget isn't as hard as it might seem. Flash frozen veggies are a godsend for things like stirfries and curries, and the good ones are even 'fresh' enough to eat lightly steamed in salads or as dipping sticks. Even better, they're cheap! I buy 5lb bags of a lot of veggies at Sam's, and they're very inexpensive. We eat a lot of chicken and ground turkey (which is like 97/3 protein to fat) which we often get on sale for only $1/lb. We don't eat a ton of fruits because they are expensive and you can't really grow a lot of them economically. We buy grapes when they're on sale and freeze them, so they're like little popsicles. We also go to fruit packing plants in the area and pick up the 'seconds' -- fruit that's too ripe to be shipped or that's oddly shaped -- and freeze it, can it, or otherwise preserve it. That's probably not an option in more urban areas, but we usually drive to visit my mom who lives right near a bunch of those places. Coupons are also great, but they, sadly, often don't cover anything fresh. It's usually for the processed stuff that's not good for you. I could go on and on, because this is one of my favorite subjects. I'll save you the novel!