Penny Pinching Tips: Eat Healthy and at Home

I hear all the time that poor people can't afford to eat healthy.

I'm wondering who is doing the accounting here and how they define healthy.

Anything that's pre-packaged is gonna cost more and be less healthy by my understanding of "cost" and "healthy". The same number of peaches as you get in a can, purchased fresh ON SALE is cheaper. Fruits and veggies are cheaper fresh and in season (because they go on sale in season).

If you "shop the verges"--the edges of the store--you get healthier food and it goes on sale more often. And it really is cheaper to make your own--be it hamburger helper or french toast--than to buy those things pre-made and heat them. Making your own orange chicken, hamburgers, pizza, hamburger helper noodly stuff, scalloped potatoes, etc, is more healthy and cheaper than buying frozen or boxes or restaurant varieties.

No you can't eat gourmet. No you don't get the most expensive steaks or leanest cuts of meat. But if you're serious about pinching pennies, you're probably also avoiding fruit snacks, boxed meals, storebought cookies and cakes, canned raviolis, and various other time-saving but unhealthy foods.

And it's really not that hard to drain your hamburger after you brown it, trim the fat off the chicken, and slice your own apples. Healthy and cheap, too.

Poor people may not eat healthy, but I doubt it's because they can't afford to.