Eating a healthy diet affordably

If you're able to prepare your own veggies & salads. Buy the whole veg rather than pre-prepared to save money. Some of my more hardy favourites:

Carrots 60p/kg
Red cabbage (can last weeks in the fridge, just slice off chunks as you need it)
Celery
Kale / Greens (cheap, healthy & lasts way longer than lettuce)
Sweet potato
Onion
Cauliflower and broccoli seem to be a bit more expensive, but hardy.
Squash
Apples
Pears
Satsumas / easy peelers
Dates (last weeks in the fridge and a little goes a long way)

Keep cooked veggies in the fridge as soon as they cool down and they are normally good to eat for another 5 days.

Try prepping a few days worth of salads at a time.

Use your own judgement on 'best before'. Not the dates on the package

If you find veg spoiling quickly in the fridge. Try taking it out of the plastic bags/packaging before you put it in the fridge.

Frozen veg can be as cheap, healthy and lasts forever. Great for peas, sweetcorn, veg mixes etc.

For shopping on a budget keep an eye on price per kg to compare between foods of the same type. Loose is often cheaper than packaged. Organic / premium is three times more expensive on average.

Oh, pickled onion and pickled beetroot. Again, a little goes a long way.

And prices do change between seasons. Keep an eye on price per kg. And special offers.

As a Type 2 not on insulin I unfortunately cannot tolerate or compensate for any type of fruit (except 2 x strawberries or 6 x blueberries) or below-ground root or starchy veg such as carrots, squash, potatoes sweet or normal etc so I don’t buy them.

I do buy frozen veg a lot because it lasts literally months in the freezer and is usually already prepared and sliced/diced for cooking. Broccoli, cauliflower (for cauliflower cheese), Brussels sprouts, onions, mushrooms, leeks, spinach, courgettes, bell peppers for cooking, herbs such as coriander and basil (yes, frozen).
Fresh veg: cauliflower (for mash or rice), lettuce, cabbage (buy a half), tomatoes (3 or 4 depending on the size and how often you use them), Spring onions, celery, bell peppers for salads.

I find fresh courgette, cucumber and tomatoes are the ones that I tend to end up chucking out because they haven’t been used fast enough.

I did invest in a Keep Fresh mat for my fridge veg drawer, which helps.

I buy Specials when available and if they are fresh and too much to use within 3 to 4 days, I freeze most of it.

Sorry you're housebound @Woolfold, that can't be easy for you. I'm practically housebound as I'm a carer for by husband, so I rely a lot on Tesco, Asda, and Ocado deliveries. I have a delivery from one of them once a week, ringing the changes for variety and because prices do vary. I know delivery costs of foods come into play, but I balance that out as I save on transport costs. As I tend to buy most of my groceries from Tesco I've joined their 'Delivery Saver' for £5 a month for off-peak deliveries.

It's pretty easy to read the nutrition labels of foods while sitting in your favourite chair at home perusing carb content, and scouring for bargains, stocking up when products are on offer.

I store quite a bit of winter veg in the frost free garden shed such as carrots, onions, cabbage, cauli, leaks, celeriac, swede, it's surprising how long they can be stored during the cold winter months. The freezer stores meat I bought on offer, normally it's bacon, sausages, cuts of chicken, fish, mince and stewing steak. Obviously there's the tinned stuff (tuna, tomatoes... ) that's pretty easy to store. Cheeses are nearly always on offer and they easily store in the fridge for quite a while. Eggs can sit at the back of a kitchen cupboard for well over a week. Milk, butter and cream manages to last over a week in the fridge.

From my POV, seeing that I don't buy cakes, confectionary (except Lindt 90% chocolate bars), biscuits or anything made with flour, the savings made make my low carb way of eating very economical.

Lots of good advice and suggestions here. I wanted to say thanks to everyone as I personally really struggle with eating enough vegs, I personally end up having to roast most of mine or I just dont enjoy them at all. I just wondered what spices etc most people use? I need to get back into them as my weight and bs are creeping up

paxs said:

Lots of good advice and suggestions here. I wanted to say thanks to everyone as I personally really struggle with eating enough vegs, I personally end up having to roast most of mine or I just dont enjoy them at all. I just wondered what spices etc most people use? I need to get back into them as my weight and bs are creeping up

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Don't know much about it, but have you thought of the Carnivore diet? I've heard people can live quite healthily on it for years, afterall it's what our ancestors did.

paxs said:

Lots of good advice and suggestions here. I wanted to say thanks to everyone as I personally really struggle with eating enough vegs, I personally end up having to roast most of mine or I just dont enjoy them at all. I just wondered what spices etc most people use? I need to get back into them as my weight and bs are creeping up

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Nothing beats a generous grind of black pepper on cooked veggies or a salad.

But I also cook a lot of mine together as a batch and then have it with my meals for the next few days. Try stir frying a selection of veggies:

* With some garlic (chilli and or ginger optional). Add a splash of soy sauce if you like.

Or stir fry your veggies (add garlic and or onion if you like). Then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and:

* Add your favourite herbs & spices (basil, oregano, chilli etc ) and some red wine vinegar (think red pasta sauce).

* Add Cumin, paprika and chilli. (Think chilli)

* Add curry powder, garam masala (if you have it to hand), chilli, coriander (think curry).

Get creative with whatever spices you have to hand. Or get ideas of what works well by looking up recipes for curries, stews, tomato sauces etc.

You can throw a can of beans or chickpeas into any of the above to bulk out into a meal.