Eat Healthy But Don't Bust Your Budget (Re-post/Edit)

Eating healthy can be a challenge all by itself.  Now couple that with limited funds and one can become discouraged fairly quicklly.  It is so easy to get that dollar burger, or low quality frozen heat and eat item.  Many people think that you can't buy healthy food with coupons.  While that may be  true for most coupons, it is not true for all of them.  I have had several coupons that were for vegetables, wheat breads, frozen fruit, low fat items, and so on.  While you may not be able to purchase everything in your basket with a "healthy" coupon, you can most certainly get healthy items for great prices.

For example, stores have fresh produce on sale all the time.  I personally don't buy a fresh veggie or fruit unless they are on sale for $0.99/lb or less.  Bananas are a staple in my house, and they are always cheap!  I use the stores sales that week as shopping list (see my "shopping the sales" post) and just buy whatever fruits and veggies are on sale.

Frozen veggies are another inexpensive option.  I normally spend $0.99 per bag on frozen veggies.  You could also buy frozen veggies in bulk (or larger bags) and double up on your veggies for meals.  If you have cooked a not so healthy side dish that your family loves (this happens often in my house), you can have double veggies on your plate.  Just grab a single serving out of the bag and heat it up.  Simple.

I hardly ever buy canned veggies for a couple of reasons.  The sodium content is usually unfavorable, and they just don't taste fresh at all to me.  However, if that's your thing, you can also find them on sale for $0.50 per can!  Pretty cheap too.

You can get a couple of healthy things from the Dollar Tree.  I recently started to purchase my brown rice from there.  Uncle Ben's would cost me $3.50ish per bag.  I love Uncle Ben's but I need to make cuts wherever possible.  They also sell a variety of dried beans.  My Dollar Tree also has a refrigerated section with frozen fruits and veggies.

For those cereal eaters out there, you are not forced to buy super sweet cereals with coupons.  You have a choice with most coupons.  Several will say $1.00 off any "General Mills" cereal.  I can almost always get Cheerios for $2 or less per box.  Also, I  often times receive coupons for Fiber One, Special K, and Kashi cereals as well.  As far as milk is concerned, well thats just an expensive necessary evil.  However, low fat and skim milks tend to cost less than whole milks these days.  And for you lactose intolerants, there are plenty of coupons for almond and soy milks all the time.

So these are just a few ideas to get you going on your healthy eating journey (on the cheap).  How do you save money on the healthy things you buy?