Healthy Eating on a budget.

On a typical week where I eat all my meals on plan with no cheat meals I take in 42 meals!!!  Six meals a day.  Now I bet your thinking how can I afford that.  It really is rather easy.  I do the BULK of my shopping from Peapod online.   I buy more of my everyday items when they are on sale (i.e. chicken breast, ground turkey, frozen veggies.)

• 42 oz of grilled chicken breast.  (currently on sale for 23 cents an oz.)   $9.66 for the week
• 42 liquid egg whites  ( currently whole eggs are on sale for .14 cents each, so I can hard boil them and only have the egg white. )  $5.88 for the week
• 224 almonds (I purchase in bulk from Costco 1 container lasts about a month for me and is roughly $12.00      $3.00 for the week 
• 42 oz cooked tilapia (currently on sale for 50 cents per oz)   $21.00 for the week
• 42 oz cooked flank steak (currently on sale for 50 cents per oz)  $21.00 for the week
• 21 c spinach leaves (Frozen currently on sale for 10 cents per oz) $14.01 for the week
• 7 cups green beans (frozen currently on sale for $1.00 a bag )  $2.50 for the week 
• 7 c cooked brown rice ( 16 oz bag currently on sale for $1.09) $2.18 for the week
• 3.5 c dry oats   ( container lasts approximately an entire month @ $3.49) $1.25 for the week
• 3.5 grapefruit ( A five pound bag will usually last me a week and a half @$4.49) $2.50

• 7 rice cake ($3.39 for a bag of 13)   $1.70 

The above are my essentials and the largest part of my monthly shopping bill.  $84.68 gets me my essentials to get me through 42 meals.    Thats $2.02 a meal!!!!!  Tell me a meal plan cheaper then that.

The below are items that I also use on a daily basis.   I buy my flax oil once every couple of months for less then $10.00 a bottle.   Olive oil I buy from Coscto and lasts me FOREVER.  My protein powder I buy from GNC or Bodybuilding.com and is a monthly/bi-monthly purchase.   Almond butter, I can buy once a month for less then $10.00.  Green/Red Peppers are bought only when they are on sale for CHEAP and are frozen.  If I don't have them I add spinach or green beans as a substitute.  Mushrooms are also only bought if on sale, if they are not cheap I do not include them in my plan. 

7 tbs flax oil

1 tbs olive oil
10.5 scoop protein

7 tbs almond butter

2 1/3 c red / green pepper
2 1/3 c mushroom
1.75 avocado

1 gallon Water jug (Bought for $1.00 twice a month, refill daily at home)

Adding in my extras I suppose you can say I average about $100.00 a week in food purchase. 

So even at that number   $100.00 for 6 meals a day, 7 days a week is $2.38 a meal.   Insanely cheap and insanely healthy.   

This is proof that you can not use "too expensive" as a reason to not eat healthy.  If you sit down and write it out, prep once or twice a week you can accomplish it.